Mantic Minotaur Release Notes

Release
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Mantic Minotaur Release Notes

Introduction

These release notes for Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic Minotaur) provide an overview of the release and document the known issues with Ubuntu and its flavours.

Support lifespan

Ubuntu 23.10 will be supported for 9 months until July 2024. If you need Long Term Support, it is recommended you use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS instead.

New features in 23.10

Updated Packages

Linux kernel :penguin:

systemd

Toolchain Upgrades :hammer_and_wrench:

Security Improvements :lock:

Ubuntu Desktop

  • The configuration file /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml (which specifies Network Manager as the netplan renderer) has been moved to /lib/netplan/00-network-manager-all.yaml to reflect the fact that it should not be edited. It is also now owned by the ubuntu-settings package. For upgraders, the move will be performed automatically and the old file removed if it was unchanged. If it was changed, the move will still take place, but a copy of the old file will be left in /etc/netplan/01-network-manager-all.yaml.dpkg-backup. (LP: #2020110)

Ubuntu Server

Platforms

Raspberry Pi :strawberry:

IBM Z and LinuxONE

Known Issues

As is to be expected, with any release, there are some significant known bugs that users may run into with this release of Ubuntu. The ones we know about at this point (and some of the workarounds), are documented here so you don’t need to spend time reporting these bugs again:

General

  • The option to install using zfs as a file system and encryption has been disabled due to a bug (LP: #1993318) with all of the file system not being mounted on first boot. If you’d like to have a system using zfs and encryption please install using Ubuntu 22.04.1 and then upgrade to Ubuntu 23.04.

  • The Live Session of the new Ubuntu Desktop installer is not localized. It is still possible to perform a non-English installation using the new installer, but Internet access at install time is required to download the language packs. Should this be an issue use the legagy installer images. (LP: #2013329)

Linux kernel

  • There is a regression in support for SRIOV NVIDIA vGPU drivers compared to v5.15/v5.19 kernels. Canonical is working with NVIDIA to resolve this release regression in a future kernel SRU in Lunar. (LP: #1988806)
  • For some Broadcom devices the b43 kernel module will be loaded but unusable due to the PHY being unsupported. Steps for disabling the b43 module and using bcmwl are documented in the relevant bug report. (LP: 2013236)
  • Network deployment is failing whilst exhibiting issues with udev & kernel unable to enumerate and load drivers in the initrd. This is being investigated in (LP: #2016908)

Ubuntu Desktop

  • The Screen Reader is unable to read many parts of GTK4 apps (LP: #2015760). Please use Ubuntu 22.04 LTS if you depend on screen reader support.
  • The Try Ubuntu environment is not translated with the new Desktop Installer (LP: #2013329)
  • The broadcom-sta wireless driver, necessary for some Broadcom wireless devices, may not automatically be installed, however it is still installable via software-properties. (LP: #2013236)
  • If xdg-desktop-portal-gnome is installed on a non-GNOME system, the file chooser in confined apps like the Firefox snap takes a long time to open the first time (LP: #2013116)
  • App icons aren’t using the correct High Contrast theme when High Contrast is enabled (LP: #2013107)
  • When opening Firefox the first time after login to a Wayland session, you may be met by a black window. If so, just close Firefox and try again. This issue will be fixed as a stable release update soon after the 23.04 release.

Ubuntu Server

  • In some situations, it is acceptable to proceed with an offline install when the mirror is inaccessible. In this scenario, it is advised to use:
apt:
  fallback: offline-install

Platforms

Cloud Images

None

Raspberry Pi

  • With some monitors connected to a Raspberry Pi it is possible that a monitor will power off after a period of inactivity but then power back on and show a black screen. Investigation into the types of monitors affected is ongoing in (LP: #198716).

  • The GPIO sysfs interface is still disabled (LP: #1918583, LP: #2004108). This means that several common GPIO libraries (including RPi.GPIO) cannot operate. A shim providing compatibility with RPi.GPIO has been created and is available in Lunar in the python3-rpi-lgpio package. See this post for full details.

  • The official DSI display requires linux-modules-extra-raspi to be installed to operate correctly, including rotation and touchscreen operation. To rotate the framebuffer console (e.g. for the server release), append fbcon=rotate:2 to the kernel command line in cmdline.txt on the boot partition (LP: #1970603).

  • Various kernel modules have been moved from the linux-modules-raspi package in order to reduce the initramfs size. If you find an application failing due to missing kernel modules, please try sudo apt install linux-modules-extra-raspi.

  • The legacy camera stack (MMAL based) is not supported on arm64; libcamera is the supported method of using the Pi Camera Modules on the arm64 architecture (the boot-time configuration will automatically load overlays for official modules; unofficial camera modules need the relevant overlay added to config.txt on the boot partition).

  • After initial user setup on the desktop image, several packages can still be autoremoved LP: #1925265); run sudo apt autoremove --purge to work around this.

  • Under the desktop image, while the pipewire stack maintains the correct audio device across reboots on the Raspberry Pi (LP: #1877194), an invalid audio device is now selected by default on the Raspberry Pi 400 (LP: #1993316), and an inconvenient default is selected on the Raspberry Pi 4 (LP: #1993347).

  • With the removal of the crda package in 22.04, the method of setting the wifi regulatory domain (editing /etc/default/crda) no longer operates. On server images, use the regulatory-domain option in the netplan configuration. On desktop images, append cfg80211.ieee80211_regdom=GB (substituting “GB” for the relevant country code) to the kernel command line in cmdline.txt on the boot partition (LP: #1951586).

  • Under the desktop image, the default totem video player will not open videos by default (LP: #1998782); sudo apt install vlc to install an alternate video player which operates correctly.

s390X

Nothing yet.

Official flavours

The release notes for the official flavours can be found at the following links:

More information

Reporting bugs

Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve the quality of future releases. Please report bugs using the tools provided. If you want to help out with bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help.

What happens if there is a high or critical priority CVE during release day?

Server, Desktop and Cloud plan to release in lockstep on release day, but there are some exceptions.

In the unlikely event that a critical or high-priority CVE is announced on release day, the release team have agreed on the following plan of action:

  • For critical priority CVEs, then the release of Server, Desktop and Cloud will be blocked until new images can be built addressing the CVE.
  • For high-priority CVEs, the decision to block release will be made on a per product (Server, Desktop and Cloud) basis and will depend on the nature of the CVE, which might result in images not being released on the same day.

This was discussed in the ubuntu–release mailing list March/April 2023.

The mailing list thread also confirmed that there is no technical or policy reason why a package can not be pushed to the Updates or Security pocket to address high or critical priority CVEs prior to release.

Participate in Ubuntu

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at:

More about Ubuntu

You can find out more about Ubuntu on the Ubuntu website.

To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu’s development announcement list at:

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