A lot of people have asked us why Ubuntu Studio comes with a panel on top as the default. For that, it’s a simple answer: Legacy.

When Ubuntu Studio 12.04 LTS (Precise Pangolin) released over 13 years ago, it was released with a top panel by default as that was the default for our desktop envirionment: Xfce.

Fast-forward eight years to 20.10 and Xfce was no longer our default desktop environment: we had switched to KDE’s Plasma Desktop. Plasma has a bottom panel by default, similar to Windows. However, to ease the transition for our long-time users, we kept the panel on top by default, resizing it to be similar to the default top panel of Xfce.

A macOS-Like Layout

With 25.10’s release, we included an additional layout: two panels. One panel is on top with a global menu, and the bottom contains some default applications, a trash can, and a full-screen application launcher. This is a way to feel familiar to those with a similar layout from where they may be coming from, being an operating system for creativity: macOS.

Familiarity and Traditionalism: Windows-like Layout

Starting with 26.04 LTS, we’ll also include one more layout: a bottom, Windows 10-like layout. This is to ease the transition for those coming from Windows, and due to popular request and reports.

Should We Change The Default?

It has been 13 years since we defaulted to a top panel, but is that the right idea anymore?

Right now, on the Ubuntu Discourse, we have a poll to decide if we should change the default layout starting with 26.04 LTS. This will not affect layouts for anyone upgrading from a prior release, but only new installations or new users going forward.

If you would like to participate in the poll, head on over to the Ubuntu Discourse and cast a vote!

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 25.10, codenamed “Questing Quokka”.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you will find some bugs within. This image is, however, mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 25.10 is released on October 9, 2025.

We encourage everyone to try this image and report bugs to improve our final release. Pay specific attention to apps that might need to be forced to run inside Xwayland so we can patch their launchers.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 25.10 beta image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.

Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/25.10/beta/

Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.

New Features This Release

This release is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary. While we work hard to bring new features, this one was not one where we had anything major to report. Here are a few highlights:

• Plasma 6.4 is now the default desktop environment, an upgrade from Plasma 6.1.
• PipeWire continues to improve with every release.. Version 1.4.7
• We now include an optional “macOS-like” layout for our users migrating from macOS, which features a dock at the bottom and a global menu. Do note that the global menu doesn’t work with all applications.
• More fine-tuning of options available in Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuraiton
• Many options in Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration are now at the user level as opposed to the system level.
• JackTrip has been added for those needing a GUI way to network audio between computers or collaborate remotely. version 2.7.1

Major Package Upgrades

• Qtractor version 1.5.8
• Audacity version 3.7.5
• digiKam version 8.7.0
• Kdenlive version 25.08.1
• Krita version 5.2.11
• GIMP version 3.0.4

There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.

Known Issues

• You will be prompted, upon first login of any new user, to reboot to apply proper audio configurations for audio production. This is intentional and is a workaround for the installer’s inability to configure the first user as part of the “audio” group or for new users to be added to the audio group automatically.
  
• Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-studio-25-10-release-notes/

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QuestingQuokka/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/questing-quokka-release-notes/

How You Can Help

Please test using the test cases on https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started.

Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. Go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also here in the sidebar).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.

Thunderbird is also a snap in order for the maintainers to get security patches delivered faster. This is done by the Thunderbird team in cooperation with Canonical.

Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.

Also, to keep theming consistent, all included themes are snapped in addition to the included .deb versions so that snaps stay consistent with out themes.

We are working with Canonical to make sure that the quality of snaps goes up with each release, so we please ask that you give snaps a chance instead of writing them off completely.

Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release.

Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio – which does *not* convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits.

Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: We now include a minimal install option. Install using the minimal install option, then use Ubuntu Studio Installer to install what you need for your very own content creation studio.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 25.04, codenamed “Plucky Puffin”.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you will find some bugs within. This image is, however, mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 25.04 is released on April 17, 2025.

We encourage everyone to try this image and report bugs to improve our final release.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 25.04 image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.

Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/25.04/beta/

Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.

New Features This Release

This release is more evolutionary rather than revolutionary. While we work hard to bring new features, this one was not one where we had anything major to report. Here are a few highlights:

• Plasma 6.3 is now the default desktop environment, an upgrade from Plasma 6.1.
• PipeWire continues to improve with every release.. Version 1.2.7
• The Default Panel Icons are now back. The default panel now populates depending on which applications are available, so that there are never empty icons if you choose the minimal install, and then install one or more of our featured applications. This refresh to the default is done every reboot, so it’s not a live update. Additionally, it must be refreshed manually from the User side either by selecting the Global Theme or removing the panel and adding “Ubuntu Studio Default Panel”.
• While not included in this Beta, Darktable will be upgraded to 5.0.0 before final release.

Major Package Upgrades

• Ardour version 8.12.0
• Qtractor version 1.5.3
• Audacity version 3.7.3
• digiKam version 8.5.0
• Kdenlive version 24.12.3
• Krita version 5.2.9
• GIMP version 3.0.0

There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.

Known Issues

• The installer was supposed to be able to keep the screen from locking, but this will still happen after 15 minutes. Please keep the screen active during installation. As a workaround if you know you will be keeping your machine unattended during installation, press Alt-Space to invoke Krunner (this even works from the Install Ubuntu Studio versus the Try Ubuntu Studio live environment) and type “System Settings”. From there, search for “Screen Locking” and deactivate “Lock automatically after…”.
  
  Another possible workaround is to click on “Switch User” and then re-login as “Live User” without a password if this happens.
  
• You will be prompted, upon first login of any new user, to reboot to apply proper audio configurations for audio production. This is intentional and is a workaround for the installer’s inability to configure the first user as part of the “audio” group or for new users to be added to the audio group automatically.
  
• The Installer background and slideshow still show the Oracular Oriole mascot. This is work in progress, to be fixed in a daily release sometime between now and final release.

Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-studio-25-04-release-notes/

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/PluckyPuffin/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/plucky-puffin-release-notes/

How You Can Help

Please test using the test cases on https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started.

Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. Go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also in the sidebar).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.

Thunderbird is also a snap this cycle in order for the maintainers to get security patches delivered faster.

Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.

Also, to keep theming consistent, all included themes are snapped in addition to the included .deb versions so that snaps stay consistent with out themes.

We are working with Canonical to make sure that the quality of snaps goes up with each release, so we please ask that you give snaps a chance instead of writing them off completely.

Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release. However, if Audacity returns to the Ubuntu repositories before final release, then you might end-up with a double-installation of Audacity. Removal instructions of one or the other will be made available in a future post.

Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio – which does *not* convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits.

Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: We now include a minimal install option. Install using the minimal install option, then use Ubuntu Studio Installer to install what you need for your very own content creation studio.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 24.10, codenamed “Oracular Oriole”.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you will find some bugs within. This image is, however, mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 24.10 is released on October 10, 2024.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 24.10 image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.

Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/24.10/beta/

Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.

New Features This Release

• Plasma 6.1 is now the default desktop environment, an upgrade from Plasma 5.27. This may have some unknown bugs that we’re ironing out as we go along, along with theming.
• Ubuntu’s Generic Kernel is now capable of the same low latency processing as Ubuntu’s lowlatency kernel when certain boot parameters are used. Additionally, the lowlatency kernel is eventually going to be deprecated. With this in mind, we have switched to the generic kernel with the low latency boot parameters enabled by default. These boot parameters can be tweaked in Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuation.
• Minimal Install Option for new installations. This allows users to install Ubuntu Studio and customize what they need later with Ubuntu Studio Installer.
• Orchis is now our default theme, which replaces Materia, our default theme since 19.04. Materia has stopped development, so we decided to
• PipeWire continues to improve with every release and now includes FFADO support. Version 1.2.3
• Ubuntu Studio Installer‘s included Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration utility for fine-tuning the PipeWire setup now includes the ability to create or remove a dummy audio input device. Version 1.30
• The legacy PulseAudio/JACK has been deprecated and discontinued, is no longer supported, and is no longer an option to use. Going forward, PipeWire or JACK are the only options. PipeWire’s JACK integration can be disabled from Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration to use JACK by itself with QJackCtl, or via other means.

Major Package Upgrades

• Ardour version 8.6.0
• Qtractor version 1.1
• OBS Studio version 30.2.3
• Audacity version 3.6.1
• digiKam version 8.4.0
• Kdenlive version 24.08.1
• Krita version 5.2.3

There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.

Known Issues

• Due to the transition to Plasma 6 and Qt6, there may be some theming inconsistencies, especially for those upgrading. To work around these issues, reapply the default theme using System Settings and select “Orchis-dark” from Kvantum Manager.
• Some graphics cards might find the transparency in the Orchis theme difficult to work with. For that reason, you can switch to “Orchis-dark-solid” in the Kvantum Manager. Feedback is welcome, and if the transparency becomes too burdensome, we can switch to the solid theme by default.
• The new minimal install mode will not load the desktop properly with the extra icons (gimp, krita, patchance, etc.) in the top bar, so those had to be removed by default. If you find them useful, you can add them by right-clicking in the menu and clicking “Pin to Task Manager”. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://ubuntustudio.org/ubuntu-studio-24-10-release-notes/

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/OracularOriole/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/oracular-oriole-release-notes/44878

How You Can Help

Please test using the test cases on https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started.

Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. Go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also in the sidebar).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.

Thunderbird is also a snap this cycle in order for the maintainers to get security patches delivered faster.

Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.

Also, to keep theming consistent, all included themes are snapped in addition to the included .deb versions so that snaps stay consistent with out themes.

We are working with Canonical to make sure that the quality of snaps goes up with each release, so we please ask that you give snaps a chance instead of writing them off completely.

Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release. However, if Audacity returns to the Ubuntu repositories before final release, then you might end-up with a double-installation of Audacity. Removal instructions of one or the other will be made available in a future post.

Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio – which does *not* convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits.

Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: We now include a minimal install option. Install using the minimal install option, then use Ubuntu Studio Installer to install what you need for your very own content creation studio.

We have quite a few exciting changes going on for Ubuntu Studio 24.10, including one that some might find controversial. However, this is not without a lot of thought and foresight, and even research, testing, and coordination.

With that, let’s just dive right into the controversial change.

Switching to Ubuntu’s Generic Kernel

This is the one that’s going to come as a shock. However, with the release of 24.04 LTS, the generic kernel is now fully capable of preemptable low latency workloads. Because of this, the lowlatency kernel in Ubuntu will eventually be depricated.

Rather than take a reactive approach to this, we at Ubuntu Studio decided to be proactive and switch to the generic kernel starting with 24.10. To facilitate this, we will be enabling not only threadirqs like we had done before, but also preempt=full by default.

If you had read the first link above, you’ll also notice that nohz_full=all was also recommended, but we noticed that created performance degradation in high video workloads, so we decided to leave that off by default but give users a GUI option in Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration to enable and disable these three kernel parameters as they need.

This has been tested on 24.04 LTS with results equivalent to or better than with the lowlatency kernel. The Ubuntu Kernel Team also has mentioned even more improvements coming to the kernel in 24.10, including the potential of ability to change these settings and more on-the-fly without reboot.

There have also been numerous improvements for gaming with these settings, for those of you that like to game. You can explore more of that on the Ubuntu Discourse.

Plasma 6

We are in cooperation with the Kubuntu team doing what we can to help with the transition to KDE Plasma Desktop 6. The work is going along slowly but surely, and we hope to have more information on this in the future. For right now, most testing on new stuff is being done on Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS for this reason since desktop environment breakages can be catastrophic for application testing. Hence, any screenshots will be on Plasma 5.

New Theming for Ubuntu Studio

We’ve been using the Materia theme for the past five years, since 19.04, with a brief break for 22.04 LTS. Unfortunately, that is coming to an end as the Materia theme is no longer maintained. Its successor has been found in Orchis, which was forked from Materia. Here’s a general screenshot our Project Leader, Erich Eickmeyer, made from his personal desktop using Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS and the Orchis theme:

Contributions Needed, and Help a Family in Need!

Ubuntu Studio is a community-run project, and donations are always welcome. If you find Ubuntu Studio useful and want to support its ongoing development, please contribute!

Erich’s wife, Edubuntu Project Leader Amy Eickmeyer, lost her full-time job two weeks ago and the family is in desperate need of help in this time of hardship. If you could find it in your heart to donate extra to Ubuntu Studio, those funds will help the Eickmeyer family at this time.

Contribution options are on the sidebar to the right or at ubuntustudio.org/contribute.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, codenamed “Noble Numbat”.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you will find some bugs within. This image is, however, mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 24.04 is released on April 25, 2024.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.

Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/24.04/beta/

Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.

Please note that upgrading before the release of 24.04.1, due August 2024, is unsupported.

New Features This Release

• PipeWire continues to improve with every release and is so robust it can be used for professional and prosumer use. Version 1.0.4
• Ubuntu Studio Installer‘s included Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration utility for fine-tuning the PipeWire setup or changing the configuration altogether now includes the ability to create or remove a dummy audio device. Version 1.9

Major Package Upgrades

• Ardour version 8.4.0
• Qtractor version 0.9.39
• OBS Studio version 30.0.2
• Audacity version 3.4.2
• digiKam version 8.2.0
• Kdenlive version 23.08.5
• Krita version 5.2.2

There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.

Known Issues

• Ubuntu Studio’s classic PulseAudio-JACK configuration cannot be used on Ubuntu Desktop (GNOME) due to a known issue with the ubuntu-desktop metapackage. (LP: #2033440)
• We now discourage the use of the aforementioned classic PulseAudio-JACK configuration as PulseAudio is becoming deprecated with time in favor of PipeWire. PipeWire’s JACK configuration can be disabled to use JACK2 via QJackCTL for advanced users.
• Due to the Ubuntu repositories being in-flux following the time_t transition and xz-utils security issue resolution, some items in the repository are uninstallable or causing other packaging conflicts. The Ubuntu Release Team is working around the clock to help resolve these issues, so patience is required.

Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://ubuntustudio.org/ubuntu-studio-24-04-LTS-release-notes/

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/NobleNumbat/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/noble-numbat-release-notes/39890

How You Can Help

Please test using the test cases on https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started.

Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. See this post as to the reasons why and go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also in the sidebar).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.

Thunderbird has become a snap this cycle in order for the maintainers to get security patches delivered faster.

Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.

Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release. However, if Audacity returns to the Ubuntu repositories before final release, then you might end-up with a double-installation of Audacity. Removal instructions of one or the other will be made available in a future post.

Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio – which does *not* convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits.

Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: Simply use the Ubuntu Studio Installer to remove the features of Ubuntu Studio you don’t want or need!

Before we get to that, however, we do want to let everyone know that community donations are down. We understand these are trying times for us all, and we just want to remind everyone that the creation and maintenance of Ubuntu Studio does come at some expense, such as electricity, internet, and equipment costs. All of that is in addition to the tireless hours our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, is putting into this project daily.

Additionally, some recurring donations are failing. We’re not sure if they’re due to expired payment methods or inadequate funds, but we have no way to reach the people whose recurring donations have failed other than this method. So, if you have received any kind of notice, we kindly ask that you would check to see why those donations are failing. If you’d like to cancel, then that’s not a problem either.

If you find Ubuntu Studio useful or agree with its mission, we would ask that you would ask that you would contribute a donation or subscribe using one of the methods below.

Ubuntu Studio Will Always Remain a Free Download. That Will Not Change. The work that goes into producing it, however, is not free, and for that reason, we ask for voluntary donations.

Donate using PayPal Donations are Monthly or One-Time

Donate using Liberapay Donations are Weekly, Monthly, or Annually

Donate using Patreon Become a Patron!Donations are Monthly

The New Installer

Progress has been made on the new installer, and for a while, it was working. However, at this time, the code is entirely in the hands of the Ubuntu Desktop Team at Canonical and we at Ubuntu Studio have no control over it.

Additionally, while we do appreciate testing, no amount of testing or bug reporting will fix this, so we ask that you be patient.

Wallpaper Competition

Our Wallpaper Competition for Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS is underway! We’ve received a handful of submissions but would love to see more!

Moving from IRC back to Matrix

Our support chat is moving back from IRC to Matrix! As you may recall, we had a Matrix room as our support chat until recently. However, the entire Ubuntu community has now begun a migration to Matrix for our communication needs, and Ubuntu Studio will be following. Stay tuned for more information to that, but also our links will be changing on the website, and the menu links will default to Matrix in Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS’s release.

PulseAudio-Jack/Studio Controls Deprecation

Beginning in Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, the old PulseAudio-JACK bridging/configuration, while still installable and usable with Studio Controls, will no longer be supported and will not be recommended for use. For most people, the default configuration using PipeWire with the PipeWire-JACK configuration enabled, which can be disabled on-the-fly if one wishes to use JACKd2 with QJackCtl.

While Studio Controls started out as our in-house-built Ubuntu Studio Controls, it is no longer useful as its functionality has largely been replaced by the full low-latency audio integration and bridging PipeWire has provided.

With that, we hope our next update will provide you with better news regarding the installer, so keep your eyes on this space!

The GREAT news is that the installer is now working! You can see from the screenshots below that, when you boot, you will be presented with a brand new installer that should be functional.

Unfortunately, when you get to this screen, the branding is a little “off”:

That said, for testing purposes, it should still function, but it does have some rough edges, so we do not recommend installing on a production machine.

Here’s another screenshot:

That said, per this discourse discussion, there will be more iterations coming on this installer. So stay tuned.

We’ve got a nice little feature coming to Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration that will help people with their audio routing needs. Currently, in Ubuntu Studio 23.10, your audio will automatically route to the first two channels on your default audio device, which might not be desired.

In Ubuntu Studio 24.04, We’re including the ability to create a Dummy Audio Device that can be started upon login depending upon your needs. When assigned as the default, this will free-up channels that would normally be assigned to your system audio to be assigned to a null device.

You’ll also notice a brand new interface for Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration due to GNOME’s new libadwaita engine. This was unintentional, but since it’s very dialog-driven, the change is very intuitive.

We have been working with the Edubuntu Team on providing a new metapackage for Music Education. This is going to be ubuntu-edu-music and includes quite a few educational music packages:

• FMIT: Free Musical Instrument Tuner, a tool for tuning musical Instruments (will be included in ubuntustudio-audio as well!)
• GNOME Metronome: Exactly what it sounds like (pun unintended): a metronome.
• Minuet: Ear training for intervals, chords, scales, and more.
• MuseScore: Create, playback, and print sheet music for free (this one is no stranger to the Ubuntu Studio community)
• Piano Booster: MIDI player/game that displays musical notes and teaches you how to play piano, optionally using a MIDI keyboard.
• Solfege: Ear training program for harmonic and melodic intervals, chords, scales, and rhythms.

We do want to note how closely tied we are to the Edubuntu project: Our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, and Edubuntu’s project leader, Amy Eickmeyer, are a married couple. In addition to being our project leader, Erich does a lot of the day-to-day operations as the Technical Lead for Edubuntu.

That’s what we have for now. We are getting closer to release and 24.04 LTS is turning out to be an amazing release. With the improvements coming, we hope everything you could possibly need for content creation will be configured for you to use out of the box.

None of these improvements could be done without your financial support. If you could, we ask that you please consider giving a donation, joining our Patreon, or consider donating monthly here or at the links on the sidebar.

sudo snap install subiquity --classic
sudo subiquity

However, the live .iso image is now functioning.

Greetings to our community!

We’re working diligently on getting ready for the next Long-Term Support release of Ubuntu Studio, right now codenamed Noble Numbat, which will become 24.04 LTS in April.

One of the things we are putting our energy into is moving away from the Ubiquity Installer, due to be sunset, and to the modern Subiquity installer, which has a technical caveat: it’s text-only. However, the Ubuntu Desktop team came up with a wonderful solution: Ubuntu Desktop Installer. It’s a flutter-based frontend to Subiquity which was released as the default installer experience for Ubuntu Desktop 23.04. Along with that, Ubuntu Budgie also released their own version, the Ubuntu Budgie Installer, which is done as an add-on to the Ubuntu Desktop Installer, and released that as their default installation experience for Ubuntu Budgie 23.10.

In following that lead, we have decided to change our installation experience to the Ubuntu Studio System Installer, which is built upon the work that Ubuntu Budgie and Ubuntu Desktop teams have already done. This will make us the first non-GNOME-based flavor to use this installation. However, in doing the switchover on our daily builds, we have run into some breakage.

Right now, our daily .iso images boot to a black screen with a mouse cursor. In other words, they do not work. Additionally, you cannot login to a virtual terminal to diagnose the issue via logs. This is because, upon extracting the .iso image and included squashfs file, we found out that the default live user (normally named “ubuntu-studio”) is not being created upon image build.

We do not expect this issue to be resolved until January. This is because the people that we need help to resolve this issue (Ubuntu Desktop team and Ubuntu Foundations team) are employees at Canonical. Canonical’s developers are mandated to take the final two weeks of every year off, which is why the yy.04 cycles are slightly longer than the yy.10 cycles.

If, for whatever reason, we cannot get this resolved, we will find another path. That said, we request that since this is a known bug and that a bug report exists, please do not file any further bug reports, and please do not attempt any further testing on our .iso images for Noble Numbat (future 24.04) as the .iso images are failing until further notice.

Please watch our accounts on x (formerly known as twitter) or mastodon.art for further updates.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 23.10, codenamed “Mantic Minotaur”.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you may find some bugs within. This image is, however, mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 23.10 is released on October 12, 2023.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 23.10 disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32, and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image, or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.

Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/23.10/beta/

Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.

New Features This Release

• PipeWire‘s JACK support is now drastically improved and includes a real-time bridge between the JACK and ALSA components of PipeWire, and continues to improve with every release. Version 0.3.79
• Ubuntu Studio Installer now includes an Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration utility for fine-tuning the PipeWire setup or changing the configuration altogether. Version 1.9
• QPrompt is now, while not included in the Ubuntu Studio .iso image, available in the repositories. QPrompt is free teleprompter software for video recording and television studios. Version 1.1.6

Major Package Upgrades

• Ardour version 7.5.0
• Qtractor version 0.9.35
• OBS Studio version 29.1.3
• Audacity version 3.3.3
• digiKam version 8.1.0
• Kdenlive version 23.08.1
• Krita version 5.1.5

There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.

Known Issues

• Ubuntu Studio’s classic PulseAudio-JACK configuration cannot be used on Ubuntu Desktop (GNOME) due to a known issue with the ubuntu-desktop metapackage. (LP: #2033440)

Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://ubuntustudio.org/ubuntu-studio-23-10-release-notes/

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ManticMinotaur/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/mantic-minotaur-release-notes/35534

How You Can Help

Please test using the test cases on https://iso.qa.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started.

Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. See this post as to the reasons why and go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also in the sidebar).

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.

Additionally, Freeshow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for Freeshow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.

Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release. However, if Audacity returns to the Ubuntu repositories before final release, then you might end-up with a double-installation of Audacity. Removal instructions of one or the other will be made available in a future post.

Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio.

Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: Simply use the Ubuntu Studio Installer to remove the features of Ubuntu Studio you don’t want or need!