We are preparing Ubuntu MATE Xenial Xerus (16.04) for distribution on April 21st, 2016 With this Final Beta pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

What works?

People tell us that Ubuntu MATE is stable. You may, or may not, agree.

Ubuntu MATE Beta Releases are NOT recommended for:

• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone who needs a stable system
• Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Ubuntu MATE Beta Releases are recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
• Ubuntu MATE, MATE, and GTK+ developers

What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Beta 1 release?

First of all, I’d like to extend my thanks to:

• Luke Horwell and Robin Thompson for for their work on Ubuntu MATE Welcome and Software Boutique.
• Gunnar Hjalmarsson for his help making im-config and gnome-language-selector compatible with Ubuntu MATE.
• Rico Tzschichholz for his help completing MATE integration for Synapse.
• Alexei Sorokin and Alberts Muktupāvels for their help improving MATE integration in Compiz.
• Timo Jyrinki, Daniel Holbach and Artur Rona for sponsoring package updates for Ubuntu MATE.

Also, thank you to everyone who has been testing Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Beta 1 and filing bug reports. It has really helped identify lots of little issues that we’ve worked hard to fix.

Here is what changed Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Beta 2 since Beta 1.

• Added Synapse 0.2.99.2-1
  • Synapse now features complete MATE integration. Synapse is installed but not active by default. It can be enabled using MATE Tweak.
• Updated to MATE Tweak 3.5.8
  • Adds Enable Launcher to the Interface section which activates/deactives Synapse.
  • Displays a confirmation after changing Window Manager to Compton or Compiz.
  • Also fixed #1548011, #1549081, #1557203, #1558013, #1549076
• Updated to Compiz 0.9.12.2+16.04.20160318-0ubuntu1
  • Improved MATE Compiz integration, gtk-window-decorator will now use settings from Marco when Compiz detects it is running in a MATE session.
  • Google Chrome and Chromium windows are now considered Compiz windows in fullscreen to avoid tearing.
  • Refined the Compiz profile for MATE to correct some minor issues.
  • Update mate-settings-daemon to use xsettings for improved xcursor theme support.
• Updated to Plank 0.11
  • Adds Docklets and also includes a new theme for Ubuntu MATE contributed by Holger Rueckershaeuser.
• Updated to MATE Menu 5.6.9
  • While searching for an application, the top match will be launched when Enter is pressed. #1552363
• Updated to Ubuntu MATE Welcome 16.04.6
  • Fix splash screen flicker. #1549072
  • Fix Codec installation. #1558986
  • Fix system information.
  • Fix subscription updates.
  • Fix Abobe Flash, Dropbox and RednoteBook installs.
  • Fix Google Chrome repsoitory, i386 is no longer available.
  • Fix LibreOffice upgrades.
  • Add Ardour, ConvertAll, Corebird, FreeCiv, Gajim, GNOME Software, Gpick, Kodi, MuseScore, Nuvola Player, OBS Studio, Pinta, Simple Screen Recorder, Subsurface, SparkleShare, Time Tracker, Vivaldi, Wireshark and Zenmap to Software Boutique.
  • Add English, Chinese, French, Spanish and German translations.
• Updated to Ubuntu MATE Artwork 16.04.5
  • Icon rendering in menus is faster and icon inheritance is fixed.
  • Corrected rendering of Mozo (menu editor).
  • Update buttons and scrollbars so GTK2 and GTK3 themes are more closely aligned.
  • Add resize area and shadows for CSD windows.
  • Add minimal style for CSD windows running without a compositor.
  • Add community contributed wallpaper Blissful Sky by Jordyn.
  • Fixes #1552363, #1556618, #1549079, #1541929, #1551029, #1499521, #1442738, #1364073
• Updated to Ubuntu MATE Settings 16.04.4
  • Auto-corrects pre-existing MATE incompatible input methods.
  • Add modified mate-panel.desktop, specific to Ubuntu MATE, to cater for the all supported compositors and disk encryption strategies. #1553070
  • Add all optical video mime types and enable autoplay.
  • Updated default settings for new version of Plank.
  • Correct the GNOME Main Menu entry for network-config-tool.
• Updated to mate-dock-applet 0.70.
  • Several bug fixes #1557180, #1555324, #1550392, #1554128,
• Updated Ubuntu MATE Ubiquity Slideshow artwork.
• Fixed Python plug-ins for Caja
  • Folder Color, Deja Dup Caja, Insync Caja and others now work again.
• Fixed im-config and gnome-language-selector.
  • Ensures a MATE compatible input method is selected by default. #1550325
• Replaced guvcview with Cheese.

Known Issues

Here are the known issues.

Ubuntu family issues

This is our known list of bugs that affect all flavours.

• Shutdown/Restart of the live session does not work in Virtualbox and VMWare guests.
  • #1447038
• Swap partition may fail to be created when installing on a disk with existing partitions.
  • #990744

This is our known list of bugs that affect just Ubuntu MATE and Xubuntu.

• The Blueman applet may crash on login on computer without Bluetooth or has Bluetooth disabled.
  • #1533206

The issues outlined above will be resolved via updates.

PowerPC

• Running Linux on PowerPC can require some tinkering and the following are useful references.
  • PowerPC Known Issues
  • PowerPC FAQ

You’ll also want to check the Ubuntu MATE bug tracker to see what has already been reported. These issues will be addressed in due course.

• Ubuntu MATE Bug Tracker

Feedback

Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please come and talk to us.

Many thanks to everyone who donated to the Ubuntu MATE project this month. You have been generous as always and ensured that we can meet all the costs associated with running the Ubuntu MATE project and the community site. In fact, this month we are able to reward some developers for working on Ubuntu MATE projects.

How will these donations be spent?

These donations will be used to pay for:

• All Ubuntu MATE hosting and development server costs for February 2016.
• All the Ubuntu MATE CDN, bandwidth and email charges for February 2016.
• Donated €1535 (taking into account currency variations) to 8 Open Source developers working on Ubuntu MATE and MATE Desktop projects.

Although Ubuntu MATE 15.04 onward is an official member of the Ubuntu family, and new Ubuntu MATE releases are now distributed via the Canonical mirror network, we are serving ~500 downloads per day for Ubuntu MATE 14.04 and another ~1400 downloads per day for Ubuntu MATE for the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3.

Thank you!

Supporting Open Source

Ubuntu MATE is comprised of many Open Source projects, we recognise that. Each month that Ubuntu MATE has a surplus of funds we will make a contribution to an Open Source project or developer that Ubuntu MATE directly benefits from.

For February 2016 Ubuntu MATE have donated to several Open Source developers who’ve worked on Ubuntu MATE or MATE Desktop projects.

• Developer for (Ubuntu MATE) - £150 for working on Ubuntu MATE Welcome.
• Developer for (Fedora) - €100 for porting MATE Desktop to GTK3.
• Developer for (Linux Mint) - €100 for porting MATE Desktop to GTK3.
• Developer for (Debian) €50 for packaging MATE Desktop in Debian.
• Developer for (Debian) - €650 for packaging and taking on maintainership of topmenu-gtk, mate-dock-applet and libwnck in Debian.
• Developer for (openSUSE) - €100 for improving MATE integration with Compiz 0.9.x.
• Developer for (Ubuntu GNOME) - €150 for completing MATE integration in Synapse and getting the new packages into Debain and Ubuntu.
• Developer for (Ubuntu MATE) - £150 for adding a translation framework to Ubuntu MATE Welcome.

Thank you to everyone who has donated, you are really making a difference to the development of Ubuntu MATE and the MATE Desktop.

Please Donate

We have setup a number of payment options that should hopefully suit everyone. If you haven’t already, be brilliant, help grow our community.

Patrons

Many thanks to the Ubuntu MATE patrons who collectively donated $616.5 this month.

PayPal

• A total of $1400.81 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to $1276.86, of which $885.59 was received as Download Tips.
• A total of €207.5 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to €194.14.
• A total of £35.0 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to £33.16.
• A total of 0.14827669 BTC was donated.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is here and we are delighted to announce the immediate availability of Ubuntu MATE 15.10 for the Raspberry Pi 3 Model B!

Many thanks to Ben Nuttall, Simon West, Liz Upton and Phil Elwell from the Raspberry Pi Foundation for providing Martin Wimpress with a Raspberry Pi 3 and engineering assistance over the weekend.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is the same form factor as the Raspberry Pi B+ and Raspberry Pi 2 Model B, the RAM remains 1GB and the USB and wired Ethernet port arrangement and configuration are unchanged.

Here is what is new to the Raspberry Pi 3:

• Improved performance thanks to a Broadcom BCM2837 64-bit Quad Core ARM Cortex-A53 CPU running at 1.2GHz.
• Integrated 802.11 b/g/n Wireless LAN (BCM43438) accessed via SDIO using the Arasan MMC controller.
  • This requires that the Broadcom MMC controller is used for the SD card using the relatively new and recently revamped bcm2835-sdhost driver.
• Integrated Bluetooth 4.1 (Classic & Low Energy) (BCM43438 again) is presented as a modem via a serial UART (two-wire - no hardware flow control) with the BlueZ software stack running in H4 mode.
• Improved power management with a 2.5 Amp power supply.
• A new chip antenna is where status LEDs were previously located. The status LEDs are still on the board, right next to the microSD card slot.

The Ubuntu MATE image we’ve prepared supports the integrated Wifi on the Raspberry Pi 3 but support for the integrated Raspberry Pi 3 Bluetooth is still in progress and we hope to enable full support via an update very soon.

The image will fit on a 4GB (or larger) microSHDC card, is pre-configured to enable access to Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 hardware devices such as GPIO, SPI, I2C etc and include replacement memcpy and memset functionality for the Raspberry Pi to optimise performance. We have done what we can to optimise the builds for the Raspberry Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 but microSDHC I/O throughput can be a bottleneck so we recommend that you use a Class 6 or Class 10 microSDHC card.

The image is built from the regular Ubuntu armhf base, not the new Snappy Ubuntu, which means that the installation procedure for applications is the same as that for the regular desktop versions ie using apt-get. The images will only work in a Raspberry Pi 2 Model B and Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

The first time you boot one of the desktop images it will run through a setup wizard where you can create your own user account and configure your regional settings. The first boot is quite slow but, once the first boot configuration is complete, subsequent boots are much quicker.

Changes

These are the changes that we’ve made since the 15.10.1 release:

2016-02-27 - 15.10.3 for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3

• Added support for Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Wifi.
• Updated BlueZ 5.35 with patch to support the Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Bluetooth.
  • Support for the integrated Raspberry Pi 3 Bluetooth is not working but we hope to have an update that addresses this soon.

2016-02-26 - 15.10.2 for Raspbery Pi 2 and Raspberry Pi 3 (internal testing build)

• Added support for Raspberry Pi 3 Model B.
  • No Raspberry Pi 3 integrated Wifi or Bluetooth support.
• Updated to Linux 4.1.18.
• Updated all packages to the current version in the Ubuntu 15.10 archive.
• Fixed an issue where the SSH host keys were not correctly regenerated on first boot.

We are preparing Ubuntu MATE Xenial Xerus (16.04) for distribution on April 21st, 2016 With this Beta 1 pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

What works?

People tell us that Ubuntu MATE is stable. You may, or may not, agree.

Ubuntu MATE Beta Releases are NOT recommended for:

• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone who needs a stable system
• Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Ubuntu MATE Beta Releases are recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
• Ubuntu MATE, MATE, and GTK+ developers

What changed since the Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Alpha 2 release?

First of all, I’d like to extend my thanks to:

• Luke Horwell for introducing dynamic generation of the Software Boutique in Ubuntu MATE Welcome and generally improving the design and function of Ubuntu MATE Welcome.
• Robin Thompson for adding a translation framework to Ubuntu MATE Welcome. We are finalsing the translation tooling and will be asking for translators to help us from next week.
• Mike Gabriel for packaging mate-dock-applet, topmenu-gtk and re-instating gir1.2-wnck-1.0 (required by mate-dock-applet) into the libwnck packages for Debian.
• Iain Lane for mentoring Martin Wimpress so the libwnck package updates in Debian could be synced to Ubuntu.
• Timo Jyrinki and Daniel Holbach for sponsoring critical package updates for Ubuntu MATE.
• Ghost Sixtyseven for creating a fantastic new Ubuntu MATE desktop wallpaper called “A Dawn Gift”.

Thanks to everyone else from the Ubuntu MATE community who contributed to this release!

Here is what changed in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 Beta 1 since Alpha 2.

• Ubuntu MATE Welcome 16.04.3
  • Added the Software Boutique which now contains ~120 applications.
  • Added the ability to launch applications from the Software Boutique.
  • Added category filtering to the Software Boutique.
  • Added expandable/collapsible More Details for each application listed in the Software Boutqiue.
  • Added screenshots for applications listed in the Software Boutique.
  • Added subscribe to updates for Ubuntu MATE Welcome to ensure you always have the latest version of Ubuntu MATE Welcome and Software Boutique, including new application listings and translations.
  • Added highlighting of installed applications listed in the Software Boutique.
  • Added a spinner while applications are being installed using the Software Boutique.
  • Added Raspberry Pi 2 specific features and documentation, including automatic partition resizing.
  • Fixed the toggling of Proprietary software in the Software Boutique.
  • Improved the Software Boutique by always showing software categories at the top of the window.
  • Assorted bug fixes and improvements.
• Updated MATE Desktop 1.12.1
  • MATE Desktop CPU resource requirements have been reduced across the board.
  • Updated Caja to 1.12.4
  • Fixes a segfault on start-up.
  • Fixes a segfault when the python-caja extension is enabled.
  • Fixes a segfault when restoring files that have special characters in their name from the Trash.
  • Fixes a some memory leaks.
  • Updated Pluma to 1.12.2
  • Fix missing icon in the Python console plugin list.
  • Fix possible use-after-free in incremental searches.
  • Updated Eye of MATE to 1.12.2
  • Fixes a integer overflow when allocating a large block of memory during a Print Preview.
  • Assorted minor fixes and optimisations.
• Added MATE Dock Applet 0.67 developed by Robin Thompson.
  • A configurable dock applet that can be placed on any panel, in any orientation.
• Added Topmenu Applet 0.2.1 developed by Javier S. Pedro
  • A Gtk+ module that allows placing a global menu in MATE panel applets.
  • The Ubuntu MATE team also added lxpanel-plugin-topmenu and xfce4-topmenu-plugin to the Debian and Ubuntu archives so those desktops can benefit too.
• Ubuntu MATE Settings 16.04.2
  • Added Mutiny panel layout which showcases mate-dock-applet and topmenu-gtk.
  • The traditional GNOME2 style two panel layout is, and will continue to be, the default.
• Updated Ubuntu MATE Artwork to 16.04.2
  • Added community contributed wallpaper from Ghost Sixtyseven

Known Issues

Here are the known issues.

Ubuntu family issues

This is our known list of bugs that affect all flavours.

• Cryptsetup password prompt is not shown.
  • LP: #1359689
  • LP: #1530548
• Plymouth does not display the graphical boot splash.
  • LP: #1370707.
• Shutdown/Restart of the live session does not work in Virtualbox and VMWare guests.
  • LP: #1447038
• The input box for editing a Wired connection static IP address doesn’t appear correctly.
  • LP: #1530323
• Swap partition may fail to be created when installing on a disk with existing partitions.
  • LP: #990744

Ubuntu MATE issues

This is our known list of bugs that jut affect Ubuntu MATE.

• System Information in Ubuntu MATE Welcome displays “No Information Available”.
• Activating a Compton composited Window Manager in Virtualbox, without installing Guest Additions drivers, will lock up the desktop.
  • VirtualBox drivers can be installed via Ubuntu MATE Welcome in the Getting Started section.

The issues outlined above will be resolved via updates.

PowerPC

• Running Linux on PowerPC can require some tinkering and the following are useful references.
  • PowerPC Known Issues
  • PowerPC FAQ

You’ll also want to check the Ubuntu MATE bug tracker to see what has already been reported. These issues will be addressed in due course.

• Ubuntu MATE Bug Tracker

Feedback

Is there anything you can help with or want to be involved in? Maybe you just want to discuss your experiences or ask the maintainers some questions. Please come and talk to us.

Many thanks to everyone who donated to the Ubuntu MATE community this month. You have been generous as always and ensured that we can meet all the costs associated with running the Ubuntu MATE project and the community site. In fact, this month we are able to reward some other projects that Ubuntu MATE benefits from.

How will these donations be spent?

These donations will be used to pay for:

• All Ubuntu MATE hosting and development server costs for January 2016.
• All the Ubuntu MATE CDN, bandwidth and email charges for January 2016.
• £79.99 for Pioneer BDR-XD05TS 6x USB3.0 External Slim Portable Blu-ray Burner.
  • This was purchased because the burner in my old desktop workstation died.
  • I needed something to burn DVDs to test the PowerPC port of Ubuntu MATE.
  • I wanted to get Blu-ray playback working in Ubuntu MATE, which is now done.
• £158.40 to setup and provision two new dedicated servers.
• £100 donated to MATE Dock Applet.

Although Ubuntu MATE 15.04 onward is an official member of the Ubuntu family, and new Ubuntu MATE releases are now distributed via the Canonical mirror network, we are serving ~500 downloads per day for Ubuntu MATE 14.04 and another ~1200 downloads per day for Ubuntu MATE for the Raspberry Pi 2.

Thank you!

Supporting Open Source Projects

Ubuntu MATE is comprised of many Open Source projects, we recognise that. Each month that Ubuntu MATE has a surplus of funds we will make a contribution to an Open Source project or developer that Ubuntu MATE directly benefits from.

For January 2016 Ubuntu MATE have donated £100 to MATE Dock Applet as it is really gaining popularity within the Ubuntu MATE community. We are activaly working towards adding MATE Dock Applet to the Debian and Ubuntu archives and hope to include it in Ubuntu MATE 16.04 with a special panel layout to show off its full potential.

Please Donate

We have setup a number of payment options that should hopefully suit everyone. If you haven’t already, be brilliant, help grow our community.

Patrons

Many thanks to the Ubuntu MATE patrons who collectively donated $602.0 this month.

• A total of $1360.0 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to $1228.57, of which $1046.5 was received as Download Tips.
• A total of €199.0 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to €186.63.
• A total of £65.0 was donated via PayPal, which after processing fees amounted to £61.04.
• A total of 0.021 BTC was donated.