Category Archives: final

25 Apr

Lubuntu 24.04 LTS Released!

Thanks to the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 24.04 LTS has been released. With the codename Noble Numbat, Lubuntu 24.04 is the 26th release of Lubuntu, the 12th release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Download and Support Lifespan

With Lubuntu 24.04 being a long-term support interim release, it will follow the standard LTS support period of three years, and will be supported until April 2027.

You can download Lubuntu 24.04 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 23.10 installation, please visit our manual page describing the process. Common Ubuntu instructions can be found here.

New in 24.04

Try or Install Screen

Try or Install Screen

Lubuntu now ships an attractive "installer prompt", which provides a simple, intuitive, and beautiful environment from which to connect to the Internet, set your desired language, and choose to Try or Install Lubuntu. If you select a different language and choose to Try Lubuntu, the live session will automatically be updated for that language.

System Installer

Customize Menu

Customize Menu

Traditionally, installing Lubuntu only provides a regular installation mode (a single option for installs). This changes with Lubuntu 24.04, where you can now pick between Normal, Full, and Minimal. A Normal installation gives you a traditional Lubuntu experience. The Minimal mode ships with just the desktop environment and essential components (no web browser or snapd). A Full installation is the same as Normal, but comes with several recommended third-party apps:

  • Virtual Machine Manager
  • Element
  • Thunderbird
  • Krita

In addition, you can choose to download and install updates during the installation procedure rather than having to install them afterwards. This can help speed up the installation process and get you up-and-running quicker.

OEM Installation Mode

OEM Installation Mode

Since our transition to LXQt over five years ago, we've been notably missing one very useful feature – an OEM installation mode. In the past, it was possible to install and configure Lubuntu on a system, then prepare it for shipping to an end-user. This is useful for hardware manufacturers or people giving a computer to someone else, but is not functionality we retained.

We are pleased to report that the OEM installer has made a comeback in Lubuntu 24.04.

If you're looking to sell, provision, or donate hardware with Lubuntu preinstalled, the OEM installation mode is meant for you. OEM installation is exactly the same as normal installation, except for the user account created at install time is a temporary OEM user rather than a permanent user. After installation, you can:

  • log in
  • install or remove software
  • run tests
  • configure settings
  • etc.

Once the system is configured properly, you can activate the "Prepare for shipping to end user" icon on the desktop, confirm that you are finished configuring the system, shut the computer down, and then send it to its intended destination. When the user receives it and powers it on, they will be shown a first-boot setup screen allowing them to configure their own user account.

You can activate OEM installation mode by selecting "OEM install (for manufacturers)" in the ISO boot menu. Alternatively, you can boot the ISO normally, click Try Lubuntu, and then launch the OEM installer from the Application Menu > System > Install Lubuntu 24.04 LTS (OEM mode).

Applications and Utilities

It's not often that we add new utilities to Lubuntu, but this cycle we added several new applications to our default install, providing several new and powerful features we think you'll enjoy using.

Bluetooth Management

We now ship Blueman as our Bluetooth manager. This provides a convenient system tray icon for managing bluetooth devices. If your system is Bluetooth-enabled, a status icon will automatically appear in the toolbar.

SDDM Configuration Editor

Have you always wanted to configure the login screen? Good news, you now can! The SDDM configuration editor allows you to modify the login screen settings, changing the theme used, adjusting the reboot and shutdown commands used, and much more.

Software Updater

Our previous software update installer has been replaced by a new-and-improved utility, "Lubuntu Update". The UI has been substantially revamped, update notifications have been integrated into the system better, and you can now manually check for updates and install them whenever you want.

Redshift

If you are one of the many users that benefit from having a night color mode on your system, you'll be happy to hear that Lubuntu now ships a night color feature via Redshift-Qt. You can enable it by running Redshift from the application menu.

Picom Configuration Utility

Lubuntu is the lightest official Ubuntu flavor. That is by design – we try to keep things small, sleek, and clean, rather than big, heavy, and fancy. This commitment to a lightweight experience is most evident in our lack of fancy desktop effects.

What if you actually want some fancy desktop effects?

With the Picom Configuration utility, you can now easily enable window transparency, titlebar transparency, shadows, and fade-in/fade-out effects on your desktop, and more. Note that changes made in this utility will require you to log out and log back in before they take effect.

Artwork

SDDM greeter background

Thanks to the efforts of our team and the work of other open-source artists and designers, we have significantly refreshed the artwork in Lubuntu 24.04:

  • The wallpaper and login screen have been refreshed with images designed specifically for Lubuntu 24.04.
  • The Lubuntu Manual icon has been refreshed.
  • For those who like to customize their desktop, you can install the lxqt-themes-extra package to get two new LXQt themes (win-eleven-dark and sombre-et-rond).

Known Bugs

Installer

  • Calamares installer lacks a way to install proprietary drivers: Bug #1825286
  • lubuntu/xubuntu reinstall (& install) on dual boot system, grub does appear & offer OS choice: Bug #2060624
  • Calamares automatically creates swapfile with manual partitioning without any warning: Bug #2062060
  • missing option to erase and use the whole drive: Bug #2059907
  • Calamares fails to install on logical volume on several conditions when using Manual Partitioning: Bug #2061123

LXQt

  • changing monitor configuration & on next login, only one monitor is fully usable to LXQt: Bug #2013074
  • Keyboard layout is ignored: Bug #2047295
  • The network manager tray application silently fails on incorrect passwords: Bug #1865949

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you! Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

Need help quickly? The Lubuntu Manual can be accessed via the “Lubuntu Manual” desktop icon.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our chat (which is bridged three ways to Matrix, Telegram, and IRC) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here. If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English. We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

22 Feb

Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 22.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years until April 2025. Our main focus will be on this and future releases.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 22.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 22.04.4 is a set of images produced for convenience so that a fresh install of the latest Lubuntu LTS does not require as many updates after install. If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 22.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS.

This Lubuntu 22.04.4 media also contains the updated HWE 6.5 kernel stack (from Lubuntu 23.10). This enables newer hardware to function more smoothly. Prior 22.04 22.04 media contained only the 5.15 GA kernel stack or now-outdated HWE kernel stacks.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the LXQt desktop environment. The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple, modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive.

You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

  • LXQt 0.17.0 – more information here.
  • Qt 5.15.3
  • Mozilla Firefox will be shipped as a Snap package with version 122 and will receive updates throughout the support cycle of the release.
  • The LibreOffice 7.3.7 suite.
  • VLC 3.0.16, for viewing media and listening to music.
  • Featherpad 1.0.1, for notes and code editing.
  • Discover Software Center 5.24.7, for an easy, graphical way to install and update software.

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow.

Please note: The change of firefox to snap package, results in the browser being slower to start. It does not impact execution or subsequent runs during that session. The reason for this is because setting up the confined environment in which snaps run takes time. This is noticeable on first run especially with live media having improved significantly when compared to prior Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media. The confined environment provides significant security and privacy benefits.

If you’d like to use LXQt 1.4 on your existing, or new Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS install, then please see how to upgrade it with the use of the Lubuntu Backports PPA.

Upgrading Lubuntu to 22.04 LTS

Notice about upgrading from Lubuntu 20.04 LTS with LXQt

If you are upgrading from Lubuntu 20.04 LTS that has LXQt, this new version uses a different Openbox settings configuration file. If you have customized ~/.config/openbox/lxqt-rc.xml you will want to copy that file to ~/.config/openbox/rc.xml. New installations are not impacted by this change.

New installs of Lubuntu 22.04 LTS no longer include the programs trojita, fcitx and k3b, which will cause those applications to be removed from your existing system on upgrade, unless you mark them as manually installed using the procedure we’ve documented here. You should do this for each of the programs you use, before you perform the upgrade.

For more information about upgrading please visit our manual page that describes the process. In addition, more information about upgrading releases in Ubuntu and all the flavors for the 22.04 release, can be found here.

Where can I download it?

You can download Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS on our downloads page.

Installer

Lubuntu uses the Calamares system installer in place of the Ubiquity installer that most other flavors use. 22.04 ships with Calamares 3.2.61. For a full/erase disk install, we have added the option of a swapfile by default. The swapfile size is initially set to 512 MB. The option for no swap is still available as a dropdown selection.

For a full description of the new features and fixes, see the upstream announcements for 3.2.61.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The book can be found at manual.lubuntu.me.

We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

All existing URLs now redirect to https://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/. Going forward, the tip of the master branch (WIP documentation for the next release) can be found at https://manual.lubuntu.me/master/, and documentation for Lubuntu 22.04 LTS can be found at https://manual.lubuntu.me/lts/. While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on any of our chat platforms (preferably Matrix) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here.

If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu.

Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki.

Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

In addition, we would also like to recognize some very active contributors on our Discourse forum.

Thank you for contributing to the Lubuntu community!

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales, and includes Hans Möller, Noumeno, and Jyoti Gomes as the initial drivers of the project. An up-to-date list can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English.

We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

Resolved Bugs

The original Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media when used to install with a btrfs file-system usually resulted in an unbootable system due to this bug. This did not affect upgraded systems, impacting only new installs using BTRFS file-systems and 22.04 media; this issue will not impact new installs of Lubuntu 22.04.4 LTS.

The lubuntu-update-notifier did not prompt users when configuration files conflicted with installed versions. In addition, if lubuntu-update-notifier was interrupted during an upgrade there was no mechanism to handle that. Further information can be found on our Discourse post.

Libreoffice online help was previously not usable due to a confinement issue with the firefox snap, snapd, and this issue. This has now been resolved.

Known Bugs

Please check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

22 Sep

Lubuntu 23.10 Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 23.10 has been released. With the codename Mantic Minotaur, Lubuntu 23.10 is the 25th release of Lubuntu, the 11th release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

With Lubuntu 23.10 being an interim release, it will follow the standard non-LTS support period of nine months; this means that Lubuntu 23.10 will be supported until July 2024. Our development focus going forward will be on Lubuntu 24.04 LTS and future releases, so only critical bugfixes and security updates will be provided.

If you choose to use Lubuntu 23.10, we STRONGLY recommend upgrading to 24.04 LTS soon after it is released, but before Lubuntu 23.10 hits end of life. If this is not suitable for you, but you still enjoy new features on a regular basis, we would recommend staying on Lubuntu 22.04 LTS with Lubuntu’s Backports enabled.

We are in the process of landing updates to Lubuntu Update Notifier for all currently-supported stable releases to add a graphical path to version upgrades.

Installation

You can download Lubuntu 23.10 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 23.04 installation, please visit our manual page describing the process. Common Ubuntu instructions can be found here.

Known Issues and Notable Changes

System Installer

We are once again utilizing Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2 in Lubuntu 23.10, as it has proven to be highly reliable since its initial use in Lubuntu 22.10.

During testing, we did note that if you attempt to create an encrypted installation without a passphrase, Lubuntu will be installed unencrypted. This is unlikely to be a problem for most users as disk encryption requires a passphrase for it to be effective. More information can be found here.

Artwork

We have a new wallpaper (which is also used as at the login screen), created one of our Lubuntu Members; Walter Lapchynski, with a bit of assistance from Ubuntu Studio’s Erich Eickmeyer. Thanks to both Walter and Erich.

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Need help quickly? The Lubuntu Manual can be accessed via the “Lubuntu Manual” desktop icon.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our chat (which is bridged three ways to Matrix, Telegram, and IRC) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here.

If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

We would also like to thank the following past members for their dedication to the project. Without you, Lubuntu would not be what it is today. Thank you!

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English. We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

10 Aug

Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 22.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years until April 2025. Our main focus will be on this and future releases.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 22.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 22.04.3 is a set of images produced for convenience so that a fresh install of the latest Lubuntu LTS does not require as many updates after install (as Lubuntu continues to release Stable Release Updates and security fixes to make your experience as smooth as possible and to fix any bugs, if you want to help us out with this, see below, we always need more help). If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 22.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 22.04.3 LTS.

This Lubuntu 22.04.3 media also contains the updated HWE 6.2 kernel stack (from Lubuntu 23.04) where prior 22.04 media contained only the 5.15 GA kernel stack or 5.19 HWE kernel stack.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive.

You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

  • LXQt 0.17.0 – more information here.
  • Qt 5.15.3
  • Mozilla Firefox will be shipped as a Snap package with version 116 and will receive updates throughout the support cycle of the release.
  • The LibreOffice 7.3.7 suite.
  • VLC 3.0.16, for viewing media and listening to music.
  • Featherpad 1.0.1, for notes and code editing.
  • Discover Software Center 5.24.7, for an easy, graphical way to install and update software.

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow.

Please note: The change of firefox to snap package, results in the browser being slower to start. It does not impact execution or subsequent runs during that session. The reason for this is the setting up of the confined environment in which snaps run, and decompress the squashfs, with privacy and security benefits. This is noticeable on first run especially with live media having improved significantly when compared to prior Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media.

If you’d like to use LXQt 1.2 on your existing, or new Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS install, then please see how to upgrade it with the use of the Lubuntu Backports PPA link here.

Read More →

01 May

Lubuntu 20.04 LTS End of Life and Current Support Statuses

Lubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa) was released April 23, 2020 and will reach End of Life on Friday, April 28, 2023. This means that after that date there will be no further security updates or bugfixes released for your Lubuntu packages. We highly recommend that you upgrade to Lubuntu 22.04 LTS as soon as possible if you are still running Lubuntu 20.04.

After April 28th, 2023, the only supported releases of Lubuntu will be 22.04 (until April 2025), 22.10 (until July 2023), and 23.04 (until Jan. 2024). All other releases of Lubuntu will be considered unsupported, and will no longer receive any further updates (or support) from the Lubuntu team.

You can find instructions on how to install or upgrade Lubuntu in our manual.

For further details please refer to our forum post.

20 Apr

Lubuntu 23.04 Released!

After months of clawing our way through development, testing, and bug fixing, the Lubuntu team is thrilled to shell-ebrate another successful release cycle! We’ve finally pinched a working copy of the Lubuntu operating system, and it’s our biggest catch yet: Lubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster, the 24th release of Lubuntu and the tenth to feature LXQt as its default desktop environment. So let’s all shell-ebrate with some Lunar Lobster puns!

Support lifespan

With 23.04 being an interim release, it will follow the standard non-LTS support period of nine months; this means that 23.04 will be supported until January 2024. Our development focus going forward will be on 23.10 and future releases, so only critical bugfixes and security updates will be provided. If you choose to use 23.04, we STRONGLY recommend upgrading to 23.10 once it is released, before 23.04 hits end of life. If this is not suitable for you, but you still enjoy new features on a regular basis, we would recommend staying on 22.04 LTS with Lubuntu’s Backports enabled.

You can download 23.04 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 22.10 installation, please visit our manual page describing the process. Common Ubuntu instructions can be found here.

Known Issues and Notable Changes

LXQt

A bug in LXQt results in duplicate menu entries for the Calamares installer, showing the following:

While either of these options work, we recommend using the desktop icon.

While LXQt 1.3.0 has already been released at this time, it was released after Lubuntu 23.04’s Feature Freeze. As a result, Lubuntu 23.04 ships with LXQt 1.2.0 with 1.2.1 point releases updates for a few components. We intend to ship LXQt 1.3.0 or later with Lubuntu 23.10. LXQt 1.3.0 will also be backported to Lubuntu 22.04 LTS if possible.

System Installer

In Lubuntu 22.10, we chose to ship an (at the time) very recent alpha testing version of the Calamares installer, Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2. This worked quite well, and over the past several months Calamares 3.3 has been battle-tested by our developers, our testing team, and our users of Lubuntu 22.10, with no high-impact bugs discovered in Calamares itself. We have therefore chosen to continue shipping Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2 in Lubuntu 23.04.

During testing, we did note that if you attempt to create an encrypted installation without a passphrase, Lubuntu will be installed unencrypted. This is unlikely to be a problem for most users as disk encryption requires a passphrase for it to be effective. More information can be found here.

User password requirements

During testing, we discovered that it was possible to instruct Calamares to create the initial user account with a blank password. This was not the result of a bug in Calamares, but was rather due to incorrect configuration in Lubuntu. Due to the security implications of this, and because of a bug in XScreenSaver that could result in the user being locked out if the password is blank, we have chosen to require that some password be provided during the installation process, even if that password is only one character long. More details can be found in the official bug report.

If you fully understand what you are doing and do not want a password, there are several ways of disabling most or all password-based authentication in Lubuntu. These methods are documented on our Discourse forum here. We highly recommend that most users do not remove or otherwise disable their system’s password for security reasons.

PipeWire

Lubuntu previously used the PulseAudio audio system to provide rich audio functionality to our users. However, recently Ubuntu and its flavors have been gradually shifting to using the PipeWire audio server in place of PulseAudio. PipeWire offers several advantages over PulseAudio, including improved Bluetooth support, and more powerful management features for complex audio-related workloads. In order to offer these improved features to our users, Lubuntu has replaced the PulseAudio audio system with PipeWire in Lubuntu 23.04.

Screensaver

Since Lubuntu 20.04, the default screensaver has been “Flurry”. Due to reports of screensaver glitches on certain hardware, we have switched the default screensaver in Lubuntu to GL Matrix. This screensaver features a 3D “digital rain” effect that we have found to be aesthetically pleasing. If you have changed the screensaver yourself, you will probably not notice this change. If you find the new screensaver unappealing, you can change it back to the original “Flurry” screensaver (or to any of the other pre-installed screensavers) using the Screensaver application.

Picom

Lubuntu 22.10 and earlier run with no X compositor by default. (An X compositor is an application that can help provide various graphical effects and possibly smooth out screen tearing.) For those who benefited from X compositing, the Compton compositor was provided. We began also providing the Picom compositor (which is based on Compton but is more well-maintained) in Lubuntu 21.04. Starting with Lubuntu 23.04, we have switched entirely to Picom, and have enabled X compositing by default. This will allow effects like panel transparency to work out of the box rather than requiring that the compositor be manually enabled.

If you discover that X compositing is causing problems for you, or if you are experiencing significantly more screen tearing than in previous versions of Lubuntu, you can turn X compositing off by going to the Application Menu -> Preferences -> LXQt Settings -> Session Settings. You can then find and uncheck the “Picom (X compositor)” entry under “LXQt Modules”, and then click “Close”. X compositing should be disabled the next time you log in.

Artwork

We have refreshed the wallpaper, the default background for the login screen, the installer welcome image, and the installer slideshow for Lubuntu 23.04. This updated artwork was provided by one of our Lubuntu Members, Aaron Rainbolt.

Default wallpaper
Default login screen background

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Need help quickly? The Lubuntu Manual can be accessed via the “Lubuntu Manul” desktop icon.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our chat (which is bridged three ways to Matrix, Telegram, and IRC) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here. If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

We would also like to thank the following past members for their dedication to the project. Without you, Lubuntu would not be what it is today. Thank you!

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English. We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

23 Feb

Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 22.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years until April 2025. Our main focus will be on this and future releases.

Lubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2023, and we are limiting changes to critical fixes and underlying system changes shipped with all other Ubuntu flavors. Lubuntu 22.10 is likewise limited to critical fixes and underlying system changes being supported until July 2023.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 22.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 22.04.2 is a set of images produced for convenience so that a fresh install of the latest Lubuntu LTS does not require as many updates after install (as Lubuntu continues to release Stable Release Updates and security fixes to make your experience as smooth as possible and to fix any bugs, if you want to help us out with this, see below, we always need more help). If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 22.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS.

This Lubuntu 22.04.2 media also contains the updated HWE 5.19 kernel stack (from Lubuntu 22.10) where prior 22.04 media contained only the 5.15 GA kernel stack.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive.

You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

  • LXQt 0.17.0 – more information here.
  • Qt 5.15.3
  • Mozilla Firefox will be shipped as a Snap package with version 110 and will receive updates throughout the support cycle of the release.
  • The LibreOffice 7.3.2 suite.
  • VLC 3.0.16, for viewing media and listening to music.
  • Featherpad 1.0.1, for notes and code editing.
  • Discover Software Center 5.24.6, for an easy, graphical way to install and update software.

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow.

Please note: The change of firefox to snap package, results in the browser being slower to start. It does not impact execution or subsequent runs during that session. The reason for this is the setting up of the confined environment in which snaps run, and decompress the squashfs, with privacy and security benefits. This is noticeable on first run especially with live media having improved significantly when compared to prior Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media.

If you’d like to use LXQt 1.2 on your existing, or new Lubuntu 22.04.2 LTS install, then please see how to upgrade it with the use of the Lubuntu Backports PPA link here.

Read More →

20 Oct

Lubuntu 22.10 Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.10 has been released. With the codename Kinetic Kudu, Lubuntu 22.10 is the 23rd release of Lubuntu, the ninth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

With 22.10 being an interim release, it will follow the standard non-LTS support period of nine months, which means 22.10 will be supported until July 2023. Our development focus going forward will be on 23.04 and future releases, so only critical bugfixes and security updates will be provided. We STRONGLY recommend upgrading to 23.04 once it is released, before 22.10 hits end of life. If this is not suitable for you, but you still enjoy new features on a regular basis, we would recommend staying on 22.04 LTS with Lubuntu’s Backports enabled.

You can download 22.10 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 22.04 LTS installation, please visit our manual page describing the process. Common Ubuntu instructions can be found here.

Known Issues and Notable Changes

LXQt

A bug in LXQt results in duplicate menu entries for the Calamares installer, showing the following:

While either of these options work, we recommend using the desktop icon.

System Installer and Potential Instability

Lubuntu uses the Calamares system installer in place of the Ubiquity installer that most other flavors use. While we are ensuring 22.04 LTS’ Calamares follows the upstream LTS cycle, we decided to get ahead of the curve by shipping Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2 in 22.10.

Here are the factors that went into this decision:

Firefox, and the move to snap

An ongoing concern within the Ubuntu and Lubuntu communities has been the increased startup times for the Firefox web browser due to using the Snap package format instead of the traditional Debian-based package format used for the rest of the system. After careful consideration, taking into account the fast-paced technical improvements in modern web technology, the work required to keep Lubuntu users secure after the release, and Canonical’s commitment to Firefox as the default web browser for Ubuntu, we made the decision to keep this as-is.

That being said, the existing issues to watch out for include:

  • On a fresh boot of a Lubuntu system, the snap needs to decompress into memory the first time you run it. This will result in the browser launching noticeably slower.
  • Snaps ship with confinement enabled by default, in order to properly isolate the application from the rest of the system. While this eases the update process, if you need to pass through a device to Firefox (such as a smartcard), some manual work will be required.

We recommend consulting the Snapcraft Forums with any issues related to Snaps in general. More information on the Firefox snap specifically can be found here.

Artwork

The default wallpaper for 22.10 is from one of our Lubuntu Members, Aaron Rainbolt:

Our greeter background also received an update this time and is from another Lubuntu member, sudodus:

Both artists entered our artwork contest and were selected for this release. We appreciate the exceptional art submissions from the community.

Ubuntu Pro Advertisement

It has come to our attention that Ubuntu Pro integration in apt is a bit too aggressive. We understand (and agree with some of) the concerns; at this current point in time, apt does not silence that message when using -qq either. We also understand that, with Canonical being the corporate sponsor of Ubuntu, they are entitled to put product advertisement in Ubuntu. The most reasonable compromise in our opinion is to allow the user to turn it off if they so desire, and Canonical (as noted in the bug report) is working on a better long-term solution for this.

We appreciate your patience while a reasonable solution is being worked out. If this message is preventing you from being productive, a temporary workaround is available here.

DKMS issues and workaround

Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS) is a core package which handles the (low-level) loading of kernel modules once installed. An example of this would be installing Broadcom drivers, for specific network adapters. The DKMS version shipped by default in 22.10 has a bug causing third-party kernel modules to not be properly built or signed on Secure Boot systems, breaking support for hardware that requires those drivers if Secure Boot is enabled. If you are planning on installing Lubuntu offline, note that you will need to manually download and update to the fixed version.

The easiest way to work around this issue on Lubuntu Kinetic is to simply run sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade before attempting to install third-party drivers on your system. If that’s not an option, and if you have familiarity with the command line, you can find a workaround in this bug report. Thank you to Aaron Rainbolt, one of our project members, for assisting with this.

We agree this bug is far from ideal. Had this issue been addressed a day or two sooner, 22.10 users would likely not come across this in the first place. That being said, the Ubuntu Release Team and Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team made the informed decision to accept this immediately following 22.10’s finalization. If they did make the decision to accept it earlier, that would require last-minute re-verification of all ISOs, delaying 22.10’s release until tomorrow or later.

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Want an easy way to access the manual? Don’t worry, it’s now an (opt-out) desktop icon.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our chat (which is bridged three ways to Matrix, Telegram, and IRC) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here. If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

In addition, we would also like to recognize some very active contributors on our Discourse forum.

We also wanted to give a special mention to Julien Lavergne, our Project Lead Emeritus and Founder. Without you, the Lubuntu project would not exist today. Thank you.

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English. We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

01 Sep

Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, we are pleased to announce that Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS has been released!

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2023.

Where can I download it?

You can download Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS on our downloads page.

This announcement on our official website (Lubuntu.me, NOT Lubuntu dot net, which is not run by Lubuntu contributors) replaces the traditional release notes we have provided in the past on the wiki. We have left out some notes that are common to all flavors, so we recommend that you read the Ubuntu release notes.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 20.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 20.04.5 is an image produced for convenience so that a fresh install of Lubuntu LTS does not require as many updates after install (as Lubuntu continues to release Stable Release Updates and security fixes to make your experience as smooth as possible and to fix any bugs, if you want to help us out with this, see below, we always need more help). If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 20.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 20.04.5 LTS. A brief list of the bugs fixed between 20.04 and 20.04.5 can be found here

Read More →

11 Aug

Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS has been released. With the codename Jammy Jellyfish, Lubuntu 22.04 is the 22nd release of Lubuntu, the eighth release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 22.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years until April 2025. Our main focus will be on this and future releases.

Lubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2023, and we are limiting changes to critical fixes and underlying system changes shipped with all other Ubuntu flavors.

Where can I download it?

You can download Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS on our downloads page.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 22.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 22.04.1 is a set of images produced for convenience so that a fresh install of the latest Lubuntu LTS does not require as many updates after install (as Lubuntu continues to release Stable Release Updates and security fixes to make your experience as smooth as possible and to fix any bugs, if you want to help us out with this, see below, we always need more help). If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 22.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS.

Installer

Lubuntu uses the Calamares system installer in place of the Ubiquity installer that most other flavors use. 22.04 ships with Calamares 3.2.60. For a full/erase disk install, we have added the option of a swapfile by default. The swapfile size is initially set to 512 MB. The option for no swap is still available as a dropdown selection.

For a full description of the new features and fixes, see the upstream announcements for 3.2.60. You’ll note this is a later calamares than prior Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media provided.

Please note: The change of firefox to snap package, results in the browser being slower to start. It does not impact execution or subsequent runs during that session. The reason for this is the setting up of the confined environment in which snaps run, and decompress the squashfs, with privacy and security benefits. This is very noticeable on first run especially with live media having improved significantly when compared to prior Lubuntu 22.04 LTS media.

Lubuntu Backports

If you’d like to use LXQt 1.1 on your existing, or new Lubuntu 22.04.1 LTS install, then please see how to upgrade it with the use of the Lubuntu Backports PPA link here.

Read More →