Software Update: Ubuntu 21.10

Version 21.10 of Ubuntu Linux has been released, a version that will receive support for nine months. A new version is published twice a year and the year and month of publication form the version number. Once every two years a version is released that will be provided with updates for five years instead of nine months. Version 21.10 is codenamed Impish Indri, runs on Linux Kernel 5.13 and uses Gnome 40 as the desktop environment by default. More information about this release is at omg! Ubuntu and on our own front page. The complete release notes for this release can be found on this page be seen, these are the main changes in version 21.10:

Linux kernel

Linux 5.13 82 introduces support for new hardware and some less new:

• Future Intel and AMD chips, such as Intel Alderlake S or AMD Adebaran.
• Microsoft Surface Laptops and tablets 77†
• Rudimentary Apple M1 support.
• See also Linux 5.12 changes 79 for new features since 21.04.

As well as the usual plethora of bug fixes across the map.

Toolchain Upgrades

GCC was updated to the 11.2.0 release, binutils to 2.37, and glibc to 2.34. LLVM now defaults to version 13. golang defaults to version 1.17.x. rustc defaults to version 1.51.

OpenJDK 18 is now available (but not used for package builds).

Security Improvements

nftables is now the default backend for the firewall.

Base System

• systemd is being switched to the “unified” cgroup hierarchy (cgroup v2) by default. If for some reason you need to keep the legacy cgroup v1 hierarchy, you can select it via a kernel parameter at boot time: systemd.unified_cgroup_hierarchy=0 (bug 1850667 9†

Ubuntu Desktop

• Wayland sessions are now available while using the Nvidia proprietary driver.
• PulseAudio 15 73 introduces support for Bluetooth LDAC and AptX codecs, as well as HFP Bluetooth profiles providing better audio quality.
  • The recovery key feature at installation time has been improved. The recovery key is now optional, stronger and editable.

GNOME

Ubuntu 21.10 includes GNOME version 40 18, including a new and improved Activities Overview design. Workspaces are now arranged horizontally, and the overview and app grid are accessed vertically. Each direction has accompanying keyboard shortcuts, touchpad gestures and mouse actions.

Updated Applications

• Firefox version 93 is now seeded as a snap by default 82, instead of a deb package. The snap is jointly maintained by Mozilla (its publisher) and Canonical. The deb package remains available in the archive and will continue receiving updates for the lifetime of Ubuntu 21.10.
• LibreOffice version 7.2.1
• Thunderbird version 91.1.2

Updated Subsystems

• PulseAudio version 15.0 73
• BlueZ version 5.60 20
• NetworkManager version 1.32.12 22