Ubuntu Studio 12.10 Released

The Ubuntu Studio development team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu Studio 12.10.

General

Ubuntu Studio is the Ubuntu flavour designed for content creation.

It’s produced as a DVD image that can also be converted to an USB stick and includes support for most languages by default.

UI and Applications

Improved Interface:

 * A new web page is out. The help button on the main menu points there.
 * Task Manager has been switched to System Monitor for better memory use display.
 * A main menu tool has been added to setting to allow the user to change their menu.
 * Add/fix text plymouth theme for those video cards that won’t see graphics so it says Ubuntu studio.
 * Set up Software Center menu items for our workflows.
 * Fixed submenu icons for accessories, education and network.

New Software:

 * Xfce updated to version 4.10 (based off of Xubuntu)
 * Kernel (lowlatency) is now of version 3.5

Ubuntu Studio Applications:

 * The menu has been fixed moving audio production tools out of Media Playback.
 *  A MIDI router and MIDI tools menu have been added.
 * Add qmidiroute to audio workflow to cover missing functionality
 * Added open-clip-art package to graphics seed
 * Move mixer applications from media playback menu to audio menu.
 * Nautilus is default file manager for everything now

Installation Notes

Installation:

Preparing your computer for Ubuntu Studio is now simpler, with a wider range of disk setup options. Each of these are detailed at length to provide you with a clear understanding of the actions that will take place with your selection.

You can reinstall or upgrade an existing copy of Ubuntu Studio with the Ubuntu Studio DVD installer, provided that your computer is connected to the Internet.

Download:

Ubuntu Studio 12.10 images are available for download from:
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/12.10/release/

System Requirements:

The minimum memory requirement for Ubuntu Studio 12.10 is 768 MB of memory. It is highly recommended that you have 2GB or more memory though so that the system will perform much better. More information about other recommended hardware on the new Ubuntu Studio website when it is released.

Upgrading:

To upgrade from Ubuntu Studio 12.04, press Alt+F2 and type in "upgrade-manager"(without the quotes) into the command box. Update Manager should open up and display following message: "New distribution release ’12.10′ is available. Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions".

Since the upgrade does not include the new “photography” and “publishing” metas, so if you want the photography and publishing packages in your upgrade, please install them manually after upgrade by typing "sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-meta-photography ubuntustudio-meta-publishing" in your terminal.

Known Issues

Drivers:

Proprietary drivers are now installed using software-properties-gtk (Software Sources), under the tab “Additional Drivers”.

We have received reports that booting the Ubuntu installer in UEFI mode from a USB disk on certain Samsung laptops (530U3C, NP700Z5C) may trigger a firmware bug that renders the machine unbootable. While this bug has not been confirmed to affect Ubuntu 12.10, users are advised to use caution when installing on Samsung laptops and ensure that they are configured for legacy BIOS mode, not UEFI mode. (1040557)

Kernel:

Haswell processor graphics is not fully supported. (1066975)
On some systems, when opening lid, there is a kerneloops with a suspend/resume failure message seen. (1054732)
On certain ASUS machines with AMD graphic chips, a WMI event and ACPI interrupt are sent at the same time when hitting the hotkey to change display mode, resulting in the display mode being changed twice in succession. Users can work around this using the Displays panel in System Settings for changing display modes. (1052278)
On ASUS N53SN laptops, the kernel does not boot without noefi on commandline. (1053897)

Networking:

In order to improve compatibility with other local nameserver packages, NetworkManager now assigns IP address 127.0.1.1 to the local nameserver process that it controls instead of 127.0.0.1. If the system’s /etc/resolv.conf is absent or is a static file instead of the symbolic link to ../run/resolvconf/resolv.conf installed by default then this static file will have to be updated by the administrator in order to continue using the NetworkManager-controlled nameserver.

Video Drivers:

Several video drivers are not functioning with some legacy chip-sets.

xserver-xorg-video-trident with some Trident Cyberblade chip-sets. Black screen and lock-up. Bugs
xserver-xorg-video-intel with i810 chip-sets. Segfault. 1060492
xserver-xorg-video-sis with 315 series (SiS 315/E/PRO, 550, [M]650, 651, 740, [M]661[FMG]X,[M]741[GX]) chip-sets. Black screen or loops around login screen. 1034812

Workarounds:

Test with a Live CD to see if your hardware is effected.
Trident Cyberblade – As the vesa driver doesn’t work with this chip-set the only solution is to remain with 12.04.
Intel i810 – A new install can only be accomplished from the Alternate ISO. On reboot go to Recovery Mode and delete/blacklist video driver. On reboot create suitable xorg.conf or use RandR to get correct resolution if necessary.
SiS 315 Series – As Intel i810

Support

Ubuntu Studio 12.10 is supported for 18 months.
Security and bugfix updates for Ubuntu Studio are provided by the Ubuntu Studio Team and Community
Support via email can be found at the Ubuntu Studio Users Mailing List.
Support via IRC can be found in the #ubuntustudio channel on the freenode network


Please download the release and try it out and we thank you for your support on Ubuntu Studio!


Regards,
Ubuntu Studio Team