17 Apr

Lubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) Released!

The Lubuntu Team is proud to announce Lubuntu 25.04, codenamed Plucky Puffin. Lubuntu 25.04 is the 28th release of Lubuntu, the 14th release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

With 25.04 being an interim release, it will be supported until January of 2026. If you're a 24.10 user, please upgrade to 25.04 as soon as possible. You can download Lubuntu on our only official downloads page here (which links to the verified cdimage.ubuntu.com).

Our focus this release can be put quite simply: stabilize, refine, and refresh.

How can we stabilize Lubuntu further, so everything is polished by the time 26.04 LTS rolls out?
How can we refine some of our existing code and processes to be more efficient?
How can we refresh Lubuntu to ensure it stays current yet extremely lightweight?

Stabilize

Our primary focus of stabilization this cycle revolved around a few specific points:

The first point that came up is: Qt. Qt is the core engine powering the vast majority of Lubuntu's user interface. We had an opportunity to make our Qt stack even more stable this cycle, and we took it. This work also benefits anything using Qt in Ubuntu, which includes Kubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, and more.

In past releases, we have simply stopped at a .2 patch version; meaning, e.g. 6.8.2. This cycle, we decided to ship .3.

What does this mean? It suggests there will be additional stability. Especially in Kubuntu, Qt issues can turn into (what seems like) Plasma issues. This was important for us all to deliver.

Additionally, we took some time to stabilize some of our existing software and take some notes for next cycle.

Refine

Much of the refinement effort this cycle has went into our custom modules for Calamares, the installer used by Kubuntu, Lubuntu, and Ubuntu Unity. We have specific modules catering to our Customize menu, which looks like this in 24.10:

Unfortunately, due to a variety of unique circumstances, we were unable to release 25.04 with many of these refinements related to the Full Install option. We needed to err on the side of stability (there's a reason that comes before refinement), and we continue to have full confidence in our Release Management team. We did what was best for users, and that resulted in functionality inconsistent with 24.10:

Our remedy to this is going to be fairly simple: over the coming weeks, we will be thoroughly testing a fix for this issue, in a way that absolutely works for all testcases, no exceptions, to the same standards we would use to release. At this point, at the discretion of the Lubuntu, Kubuntu, and Ubuntu Unity Release Management teams, respectively, we may release a respin, or 25.04.1. If we do not respin, the fix will be available in a PPA. This information is still unclear, but what is clear, is that we intentionally value stability over refinement, especially this cycle.

If you would like more technical details on what we were hoping to deliver, please see our Alpha notes. Aside from general improvements in robustness, those changes still stand.

We have also been working on refining our processes elsewhere. Instead of putting this in the main release notes, we opted to put it in the Beta notes instead. This being said, we would like to emphasize our most sincere appreciation and respect for all of the work Steve Langasek accomplished over the years, and his love and care for the open source community as a whole.

This, and a few other social elements, have resulted in a handful of social and logistical changes. The Lubuntu Council will be going up for election today, and that announcement will explain more about our plans as an organization for the next year, and the elements we are looking to consider. The best place to stay up-to-date is via our Discourse category, or our regular social media channels.

As a final note on this topic, if you'd like to help us refine Lubuntu, we would absolutely appreciate the effort. In Lubuntu, we welcome considerate individuals, no matter your background. No matter if you are 13 years old or 82, just a user or someone with great technical chops, it is a priority for Lubuntu to foster a welcoming community for everyone.

You may have thought to yourself, "that sounds great, but I'm not sure if I have the time. I'm just a casual user, and I want to stay up to date on the latest, but I'm not sure I can dedicate time to contribute." We've left the light on for you, too. You can still make a meaningful contribution-set and find a path to Lubuntu Membership just by answering support questions, or participating in e.g. Lubuntu's Global group. We would deeply encourage Lubuntu enthusiasts to actively engage in the community.

We're actively looking to expand our member base even further, so even if it's something you're only half-interested in, please, join our Matrix channels, and jump into Discourse. You are welcome, and your contributions to our community are greatly appreciated. This also goes for some of the moderators doing unseen work, including Ubuntu Discourse moderators, r/Lubuntu moderators, and mailing list administrators; we deeply thank you for your work, and understand how tough it can get sometimes.

Refresh

Our biggest point of refresh has been on two fronts, which we've previously laid out in our "24.04 LTS to 26.04 LTS" cycle plans:

  1. Port as much software as reasonable from Qt 5 to Qt 6.
  2. Get Lubuntu fully prepared for Wayland.

Of course, some other items have happened, such as our move to Fancy Menu by default:

This being said, Qt 6 porting and Wayland preparation were the primary points of focus.

Again on the point of "stability comes first," we decided to delay Wayland one last cycle. This is the last time we are delaying this.

Thanks to the warm welcome and support from the Mir team, Fedora LXQt, and a handful of other teams, we are proud to announce that Lubuntu 25.10, Questing Quokka, will indeed ship with Miriway as the default Wayland compositor, backed by a deb-based Mir 2.20. This switch will happen immediately following the opening of Questing, despite the fact that early, pre-alpha daily images may be completely unusable.

We are committed to shipping a fully-Wayland stack as default for Lubuntu 26.04 LTS, and continue to make it a priority to iron out any of the remaining issues. This being said, we would appreciate the support from upstream LXQt in ensuring any existing Mir(iway) compatibility patches are merged, and any new patches we provide in the coming months are promptly merged. We have a member of our team who is also a member of upstream LXQt, and would be more than happy to provide additional support and review hands to finally resolve this point of friction.

We remain optimistic. When we were not doing Wayland prep, we were hard at work porting most of our remaining applications to Qt 6. The vast majority of the applications in Lubuntu now use Qt 6, with one notable, glaring exception being VLC. This will be the final blocker from fully removing Qt 5 from the archive, and we would implore the VLC team in the strongest possible terms to prioritize finally providing 4.0 in the next six months. We do not want to switch off of VLC; it's a common application, and our users seem to have a great impression of it. On a project to project level, we are fully supportive. This being said, when "push comes to shove," if we have to make the difficult decision to replace VLC, we will. There may also be similar conversations about doing this in a wider Ubuntu context at that point, but there are no guarantees in either direction yet.

Aside from these points, we continue to focus on refreshing our translation support. We're working across all of Ubuntu to ensure that non-English users and distributors have a much easier experience. We're also working on accessibility: are there any other remaining elements we can add to help with the story for those users who are unable to e.g. view the screen, or hear audio? This is something we care about doing, in the most efficient, refined, and smooth possible way. If you'd like to help with translations, for the time being, we will point you towards LXQt's Weblate instance. This information will change in the coming months, in a good direction.

Our Quest

Our quest for the 25.10 cycle can be summarized as the following:

  • We will continue to stabilize, refine, and refresh Lubuntu as appropriate, in that order.
  • We will continue to value contributions to the wider Ubuntu community as our parent project, being a fully-community project ourselves. (No Lubuntu Member currently works for Canonical, purely out of coincidence.)
  • We will switch to Wayland in time for the release of 25.10.
  • We will completely remove Qt 5 from the Lubuntu ISO in time for 26.04 LTS' release.
  • We will expand our member base and continue to invigorate our community, benefitting the wider Ubuntu community and inspiring positive change in the process.

This list may change over time, but this is the list being communicated by Lubuntu's current Release Manager, subject to override by the Lubuntu Council and/or the Lubuntu Team Lead. In short, it isn't final, but should help you get an understanding of what we're looking to accomplish over the next cycle.

In particular, we would like to thank the following people for being absolutely incredible this cycle, both in their collaborative spirit and technical excellency. Without you, this release could have turned out much differently.

Our Lubuntu Members:

John Faulk, who has helped us with the switch to Fancy Menu.

Our guiding beacons of light within Canonical:

Last but not least, the Ubuntu Release Team, especially Utkarsh Gupta, for all their (seemingly) tireless efforts this cycle. Please join us in thanking them for their efforts, especially this time around; they deserve as much praise and support as our community can provide them.

If you believe we forgot your name, it was not on purpose. If we listed every single contributor to Lubuntu, that list would take up half the announcement. If you weren't mentioned and you have helped Lubuntu this cycle, even implicitly: thank you. We really appreciate you.

Onwards, it's time to go Questing!

31 Aug

Lubuntu 24.04.1 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 24.04.1 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.

Support lifespan

Lubuntu 24.04 LTS will be supported for 3 years until April 2027. Our main focus will be on this and future releases.

What’s The Difference Between Lubuntu 24.04 LTS And This Release?

Lubuntu 24.04.1 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. If you do system updates regularly, you are already running Lubuntu 24.04.1 LTS, and if you install Lubuntu on a system using a Lubuntu 24.04 LTS image and do system updates, that system will also then be running Lubuntu 24.04.1 LTS.

For more information about 24.04 LTS please see our initial release announcement

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 1.4.0
  • Qt 5.15.13
  • Mozilla Firefox as shipped in the snap package, the version present on the ISO is version 129.0.2.
  • LibreOffice 24.2.5.2
  • VLC 3.0.20
  • Featherpad 1.4.1
  • Discover Software Center 5.27.11

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.

Upgrading Lubuntu to 24.04.1 LTS

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 24.04 release, can be found here.

Where can I download it?

You can download Lubuntu 24.04.1 LTS on our downloads page.

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 Matrix chat 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!

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

Known Bugs

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

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

21 Apr

Lubuntu 22.04 LTS is Released!

Thanks to all the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 22.04 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 21.10 remains supported until July 2022 and Lubuntu 20.04 LTS will be supported until April 2023. For 21.10 and 20.04 LTS, we are limiting changes to critical fixes and underlying system changes shipped with all other 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:

  • LXQt 0.17.0 – more information here.
  • Qt 5.15.3
  • Mozilla Firefox will be shipped as a Snap package with version 98.0.2 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 5.24.4, 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 very noticeable on first run especially with live media.

Read More

16 Jan

Lubuntu 21.04 End of Life and Current Support Statuses

Lubuntu 21.04 End of Life and Current Support Statuses

Lubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) was released April 22, 2021 and will reach End of Life on Thursday, January 20, 2022. This means that after that date there will be no further security updates or bugfixes released. We highly recommend that you update to 21.10 as soon as possible if you are still running 21.04.

After January 20th, the only supported releases of Lubuntu will be 20.04 and 21.10. All other releases of Lubuntu will be considered unsupported, and will no longer receive any further updates from the Lubuntu team.

You can find instructions on how to upgrade your Lubuntu installation here at our manual page.

For more information you can visit our forum post here.

10 Jul

Lubuntu 20.10 End of Life and Current Support Statuses

Lubuntu 20.10 (Groovy Gorilla) was released October 22, 2020 and will reach End of Life on Thursday, July 22, 2021. This means that after that date there will be no further security updates or bugfixes released. We highly recommend that you update to 21.04 as soon as possible if you are still running 20.10.

After July 22nd, the only supported releases of Lubuntu will be 20.04 (until April 2023) and 21.04 (until January 2022). All other releases of Lubuntu will be considered unsupported, and will no longer receive any further updates from the Lubuntu team.

You can find instructions on how to upgrade your Lubuntu installation here at our manual page.

For more information you can visit our forum post here.