Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS released

The Ubuntu team is proud to announce the release of Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, the fourth maintenance update to Ubuntu's 8.04 LTS release. This release includes updated server, desktop, and alternate installation CDs for the i386 and amd64 architectures. Ubuntu 8.04 LTS continues to be maintained through 2011 for desktops and 2013 for servers through online updates, but this is the final maintenance release of 8.04 LTS.

In all, some 70 updates have been integrated, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

To Get Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS

To download Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS, or obtain CDs, visit: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download

We recommend that all users read the release notes, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues. They are available at: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/releasenotes/804

About Ubuntu 8.04.4 LTS

This is the fourth maintenance release of Ubuntu 8.04 LTS, which continues to be supported with maintenance updates and security fixes until April 2011 on desktops and April 2013 on servers.

This is the last maintenance release for the 8.04 LTS series. Future security updates will be individually downloadable from the Ubuntu archive in the same way as before, but no further updates to installation media will be provided for 8.04 LTS. The next LTS release, 10.04 LTS, will be released in April 2010. We recommend that users installing Ubuntu after April install the latest LTS release.

Users do not need to change anything to take advantage of this maintenance release on already-installed 8.04 LTS systems; security updates and fixes for other high-impact bugs are always made available over the Internet and presented to users for installation by default. The updated installation media are provided for the benefit of users who are installing Ubuntu 8.04 LTS on new systems.

77 post-release updates have been integrated in this maintenance release, and several bugs in the installation system have been corrected. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 8.04 LTS.

See http://www.ubuntu.com/usn for a full list of Ubuntu security updates. As of 2010-01-20, all updates affecting packages on the CD have been applied.

A summary of notable updates follows. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu for specific information about a particular bug number. A complete list of post-release updates can also be found at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardyReleaseNotes/ChangeSummary/8.04.4

Installer Updates

* Add support for using the contents of the CD image on a USB device (#234185)

* Support installing grub to partitions containing JFS filesystems (#185878)

* Fix the check for the lilo-installer/skip preseed option (#466769)

Desktop Updates

* Fix handling of SMB/CIFS shares on the desktop (#207072)

* Fix firefox crash in NSSRWLock_LockRead_Util() (#236853)

* Backport pidgin support for version 16 of the Yahoo! Messenger Protocol. The old authentication mechanism was disabled, meaning that it can no longer be used for signing in to Yahoo! services (#389322)

Server updates

* Fix vblade init script failure because pid file is not created properly (#223387)

* Fix freeradius 'reload' action so that it doesn't just stop the daemon (#252686)

General Updates

* Use stack guard randomization patch from Intrepid glibc to eliminate use of a static sentinel (#275493)

* Include updated daylight savings time rules for Bangladesh, Fiji, and Argentina (#502110, #486351, #453165)