Ubuntu MATE 16.10 Beta 1

We are underwhelmed to announce, quite possibly, our most uninteresting beta release E-V-E-R! ;-) This beta release is all about the plumbing that transitions Ubuntu MATE to GTK 3.20. It really isn’t very interesting from an end-users perspective.

From this point forward we’ll be focusing on fixing as many issues as we can on the lead up to Beta 2 and the final release of Ubuntu MATE 16.10. The 16.10 development cycle was all about the migration to GTK3+ and creating the new foundations upon which to build our “retrospective future”.

We are preparing Ubuntu MATE 16.10 (Yakkety Yak) for distribution on October 13th, 2016 With this Beta pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next (stable) version.

As is now customary, our release artwork was made by Ghost Sixtyseven.

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 16.10 Alpha 2 release?

This is what has been added, updated or removed.

• Migrated to GTK 3.20
  • This has been a huge undertaking and was only made possible thanks to the Ubuntu MATE crowd funding which has funded the updating of the Ubuntu MATE themes and some upstream GTK3+ porting.
• Updated to MATE Dock Applet 0.74
  • Which didn’t make the iso image, but will be immediately available as an update.
• Updated many MATE packages for improved GTK 3.20 support
  • caja 1.14.2
  • mate-settings-daemon 1.14.1
  • mate-session-manager 1.14.1
  • mate-panel 1.14.2
  • mate-control-center 1.14.1
  • mate-media 1.14.1
  • mate-system-monitor 1.14.1
  • atril 1.14.2
  • caja-extensions 1.14.1
  • eom 1.14.2
  • mate-applets 1.14.1
  • mate-terminal 1.14.1
  • mate-utils 1.14.1
  • pluma 1.14.1
• Rebuilt a few MATE package for improved GTK 3.20 support
  • mate-notification-daemon
  • mate-screen-saver
  • mate-power-manager
• Removed MATE Heads-Up Display (HUD)
  • Testing during Alpha 2 revealed some show stopping issues. We will revisit this feature in 17.04.
  • If you installed Ubuntu MATE 16.10 prior to Beta 1 then please sudo apt purge mate-hud.

Known Issues

Here are the known issues.

Ubuntu MATE issues

• MATE Tweak will segfault when switching to Compiz due to a gsettings schema change in Metacity.
  • A fix has already been commited and an updated package will land soon after Beta 1.
• Weather reports in the Clock and Weather applets are currently unavailable.
  • A fix has already been commited and an updated package will land soon after Beta 1.
• The Mutiny theme can be unstable, updates to fix this will land soon after Beta 1.
  • Updates for topmenu-gtk 0.3 package which now has GTK3+ support for MATE Desktop.
• Some GTK3+ theming is incorrect.
  • The remaining theming issues will be addressed over on the lead up to Beta 2.

Ubuntu family issues

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

• Choosing an Entire Disk install on PowerPC may result in an unbootable system.
  • The work around is to manually partition your hard disk.
  • #1606089, #1607128
• R300 GPU accelerated graphics do not work on PowerPC
  • #1432949, #1575391
• Ubiquity installer Slideshows and Ubuntu MATE Welcome display a blank window on PowerPC. This is due to a bug in WebKit 2.
  • #1561573, #1597764
• 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.