An issue has been identified

The Ubuntu Release team has now enabled upgrades from 25.04 to 25.10! This is great news! In fact, you may have noticed this icon on your toolbar and a notification to upgrade.

However, upon doing so, you may have noticed something a little more unfortunate:

Yep, we know. This tells you nothing about what is wrong. What is wrong is slightly more technical. As it turns out, the backend application that actually performs the upgrade removed an argument from its command line unannounced during the Plucky Puffin release cycle, approximately a year ago.

As our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, maintains the upgrade notifier widget for both Ubuntu Studio and Kubuntu, he woke up and immediately got to work identifying what’s wrong and how to patch the Plasma widget in question to correctly execute the upgrade process. He has uploaded the fix, and it was accepted by a member of the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates team.

At the moment, the fix needs to be tested and verified. In order to test it, one must install the fix from the plucky-proposed repository. In order for it to be available, it must build for all architectures and, as of this writing, is awaiting building on riscv64 which has a 40-hour backlog.

The Workaround

If you wish to begin the upgrade process manually rather than waiting on the upgrade notifier fix to be implemented, feel free to make sure you are fully updated, type alt-space to execute Krunner, and paste this:

do-release-upgrade -f DistUpgradeViewKDE

This is the exact command that will be executed by the notifier widget as soon as it is updated.

Of course, if you’re in no hurry, feel free to wait until the notifier is updated and use that method. Do bear in mind, though, that as of this writing, you have exactly 90 days to perform the upgrade to 25.10 before your system will no longer be supported. At that time, you’ll risk being unable to upgrade at all unless certain procedures for End-Of-Life Upgrades are done, which can be tedious for those uncomfortable in a command line as it will require modifying system files.

Mea Culpa

We do apologize for the inconvenience. Testing upgrade paths like this are hard to do and things go missed, especially when teams don’t communicate with each other. We’re try to identify things before they happen but, unfortunately, certain items cannot be foreseen.

This issue has now been added to the Ubuntu Studio 25.10 Release Notes.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu Studio 25.10 code-named “Questing Quokka”. This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 37th release. This release is a Regular release and as such, it is supported for 9 months, until July 2026.

Since it’s just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Please see the release notes for a more complete list of changes and known issues. Listed here are some of the major highlights.

You can download Ubuntu Studio 25.10 from our download page.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 25.10 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 standard 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.

Minimum installation media requirements: Dual-Layer DVD or 8GB USB drive.

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

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

Upgrades from 25.04 should be enabled within a month after release, so we appreciate your patience. Upgrades from 24.04 LTS will be enabled after 25.04 reaches End-Of-Life in January 2026.

New This Release

The Return of Internet DJ Console (IDJC)!

After a long hiatus, Internet DJ Console (IDJC) has returned. This package for creating and running Internet-based radio stations had been removed from Debian, but has returned, and therefore, returned to Ubuntu Studio!

JackTrip

Ubuntu Studio now includes JackTrip! JackTrip serves two purposes: low-latency networked JACK audio within your network, and low-latency Internet audio collaboration. Bands are even known to jam remotely using JackTrip’s services!

It supports any number of channels (as many as the computer/network can handle) of bidirectional, high quality, uncompressed audio signal streaming.

More Musical Plugins

We came to the realization that we needed to support musicians a little better, so we added a few instrument and musical plugins to assist with that:

• din
• drumkv1
• freewheeling
• gxtuner
• Hydrogen Drumkit Effects
• kmetronome
• padthv1
• polyphone
• samplv1
• synthv1

More Photography Tools

• PhotoCollage – allows you to create photo collage phosters
• PicPlanner – Calculates and displays the positions of the Sun, Moon, and Milky Way for any time and location on earth, to help you get those perfect astronomical photos or for taking pictures during the Golden or Blue hours.

PipeWire 1.4.7

This release contains PipeWire 1.4.7.

PipeWire’s JACK compatibility is configured to use out-of-the-box and is zero-latency internally. System latency is configurable via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration and can now be configured on a per-user basis instead of globally.

Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration

Speaking of Audio Configuration, we have added a number of options for configuring the PipeWire JACK compatibility, as can be seen in the image below. Additionally, buffer size can now be configured from within any JACK application that supports it, such as Patchance, Carla, Ardour, and more!

Ardour 8.12

This is, as of this writing, the latest release of Ardour, packed with the latest bugfixes.

To help support Ardour’s funding, you may obtain later versions directly from ardour.org. To do so, please one-time purchase or subscribe to Ardour from their website. If you wish to get later versions of Ardour from us, you will have to wait until the next release of Ubuntu Studio, due in April 2026.

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 also became a snap so that the maintainers can 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.

We have additional snaps that are Ubuntu-specific, such as the Firmware Updater and the Security Center. Contrary to popular myth, Ubuntu does not have any plans to switch all packages to snaps, nor do we.

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! Additionally, we include a Minimal Install option that, when used with Ubuntu Studio Installer, will give you the Ubuntu Studio experience for whatever your desktop studio needs!

Get Involved!

A wonderful way to contribute is to get involved with the project directly! We’re always looking for new volunteers to help with packaging, documentation, tutorials, user support, and MORE! Check out all the ways you can contribute!

Our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, is now working on Ubuntu Studio at least part-time, and is hoping that the users of Ubuntu Studio can give enough to generate a monthly part-time income. We’re not there, but if every Ubuntu Studio user donated monthly, we’d be there! Your donations are appreciated! If other distributions can do it, surely we can! See the sidebar for ways to give!

Contact the Team

The best way to contact the Ubuntu Studio team is via the Ubuntu Discourse.

Special Thanks

Huge special thanks for this release go to:

• Eylul Dogruel: Artwork, Graphics Design
• Ross Gammon: Upstream Debian Developer, Testing
• Sebastien Ramacher: Upstream Debian Developer
• Dennis Braun: Upstream Debian Developer
• Rik Mills: Kubuntu Council Member, help with Plasma desktop
• Scarlett Moore: Kubuntu Project Lead, help with Plasma desktop
• Len Ovens: Testing, insight
• Mauro Gaspari: Tutorials, Promotion, and Documentation, Testing, keeping Erich sane
• Erich Eickmeyer: Project Leader, Packaging, Development, Direction, Treasurer
• Steve Langasek: You are missed.

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.

Following a bug in ubuntu-release-upgrader which was causing Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS to fail to upgrade to 24.04 LTS, we are pleased to announce that this bug has been fixed, and upgrades now work.

As of this writing, this update is being propagated to the various Ubuntu mirrors throughout the world. The version of ubuntu-release-upgrader needed is 24.04.26 or higher, and is automatically pulled from the 24.04 repositories upon upgrade.

Unfortunately, while testing this fix, we noticed that, due to the time_t64 transition which prevents the 2038 problem, some packages get removed. We have noticed that, if upgrading from 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS, the following applications get removed (this list is not exhaustive):

• Blender
• Kdenlive
• digiKam
• GIMP
• Krita (doesn’t get upgraded)

To fix this, immediately after upgrade, open a Konsole terminal (ctrl-alt-t) and enter the following:

sudo apt -y remove ubuntstudio-graphics ubuntustudio-video ubuntustudio-photography && sudo apt -y install ubuntustudio-graphics ubuntustudio-video ubuntustudio-photography && sudo apt upgrade

If you do intend to upgrade, remember to purge any PPAs you may have enabled via ppa-purge so that your upgrade will go as smooth as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience that may have been caused by this bug, and we hope your upgrade process goes as smooth as possible. There may be edge cases where this goes badly as we cannot account for every installation and whatever third-party repositories may be enabled, in which case the best method is to back-up your /home directory and do a clean installation.

Remember to upgrade soon, as Ubuntu Studio 22.04 goes End Of Life (EOL) in April!

We have always strived to give our users the best support options. After asking the community via a thread on Ubuntu Discourse and being given positive feedback, we have decided to move our primary support channel from Ask Ubuntu to Ubuntu Discourse.

Ask Ubuntu, which was run outside of the Ubuntu Governance, was a great idea in its time, but as time has gone on, it has become difficult for the moderators to moderate as its host, StackExchange, has made questionable decisions, including shutting-down OpenSSO, which effectively disabled many accounts which were exclusively linked to Launchpad without recovery. StackExchange has been uncooperative with re-enabling this link to Launchpad, leaving many users, who had higher privileges due to their participation, having to start over.

Additionally, as stated long before, the Ubuntu Forums section for Ubuntu Studio has long been dead. Additionally, the Ubuntu Forums, which is officially under the Ubuntu Governance, have found themselves in a position where the software Ubuntu Forum is unable to upgrade any further. As a result, on Thursday, January 9, 2025, they have officially shut-down. Over the two months prior, support has transitioned to Ubuntu Discourse with much success.

As such, with the community feedback, Ubuntu Studio’s primary support will be changing to Ubuntu Discourse. The support links will be changing over in the menu for all supported versions of Ubuntu Studio (as of this writing, 22.04 LTS, 24.04 LTS, and 24.10), and the Ask Ubuntu section on the website will change to Ubuntu Discourse.

Special Non-Support/Help Community Section

A new icon appearing in the Ubuntu Studio Information menu is “Connect with Community”. This will take you to the special Ubuntu Studio section of the Ubuntu Discourse where, while support and help questions aren’t allowed, other discussions are. This is also where you will find future release notes along with the newest LTS Backports Megathread for any application backport requests you may have.

Overall, this will be a great place to connect with other members of the community and interact with developers.

Small update on 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS upgrades

It has been confirmed that a “quirk” needs to be added to ubuntu-release-upgrader that forces an installation of pipewire-audio during the upgrade calculation. A member of the team that works on this has taken this on and is working on a fix. Please stay tuned for further updates.

The Ubuntu Studio team has investigated a conflict involving upgrades from Ubuntu 22.04 to 24.04 failing. This has been confirmed to be reproducible.

We are currently following multiple bug reports (Launchpad bugs 2078639, 2078608, and 2079817) with most of them being duplicates of the first in that list.

If you have attempted to upgrade and ran into this problem, feel free to click on the first link in that list and click on “Does this bug affect you?”. Filing additional bug reports is unnecessary.

In most flavors of Ubuntu in 24.04 LTS, the idea was to have PipeWire completely replace PulseAudio as the primary sound server and would force the installation of PipeWire. However, with Ubuntu Studio, we went with a different approach of having PipeWire be the default, but be replaced by PulseAudio if the user wished to switch back to the classic, albiet unsupported, setup. This meant PipeWire had to be a “soft” dependency rather than a “hard” one so that it could be uninstalled by our metapackages without breaking the entire desktop metapackage.

However, this also made it so that the upgrade resolver (ubuntu-release-upgrader) would get confused when calculating how to perform the upgrade. This is where we are hitting the problem.

Currently, we are working with the Ubuntu Foundations Team at Canonical on how to have ubuntu-release-upgrader force an installation of PipeWire for Ubuntu Studio without Ubuntu Studio requiring a hard dependency on PipeWire.

Unfortunately, if we cannot resolve this issue, we may have to do one of two things:

• Not support direct, in-place upgrades of Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS and remove the upgrade notifier.
• Create a hard dependency on PipeWire, effectively removing the ability to switch back to the classic PulseAudio/JACK bridged setup with Studio Controls.

We don’t want either of these solutions, which is why we are hoping we can find a solution with ubuntu-release-upgrader soon.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu Studio 24.10 code-named “Oracular Oriole”. This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 35th release. This release is a Regular release and as such, it is supported for 9 months, until July 2025.

Since it’s just out, you may experience some issues, so you might want to wait a bit before upgrading. Please see the release notes for a more complete list of changes and known issues. Listed here are some of the major highlights.

You can download Ubuntu Studio 24.10 from our download page.

Special Notes

The Ubuntu Studio 24.10 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 standard 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.

Minimum installation media requirements: Dual-Layer DVD or 8GB USB drive.

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

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

Upgrades from 24.04 LTS should be enabled within a month after release, so we appreciate your patience.

New This Release

Minimal Installation

We have now implemented minimal installations in the system installer. This will let you install a minimal desktop to get going and then install what you need via Ubuntu Studio Installer. This will make a faster installation process and lets you customize what you need for your personal Studio.

Unfortunately, at least for the time being, we also had to get rid of the default shortcuts in the panel since it would cause an error when loading without the applications being installed. A solution for this is coming in 25.04.

Generic Kernel

The Generic Ubuntu Kernel is now fully capable of low-latency workloads. As such, with this release, we have switched from the LowLatency Kernel to the Generic Kernel with the boot options to enable the low-latency configuration enabled by default.

These options can be changed via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration and customized depending on your use-case and your workload. If you don’t need the low-latency and wish to have a computer that is more energy-efficient, you may wish to turn off all three options. The choice is yours.

Plasma 6

Ubuntu Studio, in cooperation with Kubuntu, switched to Plasma 6 this cycle. This switch was not without issues, so we expect many of the issues to be Plasma 6 related, especially when it comes to the default configuration and theming.

New Look

Ubuntu Studio had been using the same theming, “Materia” (except for the 22.04 LTS release which was a re-colored Breeze theme) since 19.04. However, Materia has gone dead upstream. To stay consistent, we found a fork called “Orchis” which seems to match closely and have switched to that.

As you can see from the screenshot, it has more vivid colors, round corners, and a more modern look. We hope you enjoy it. We are aware of a bug involving a dark bar under windows which may be an issue, but sometimes switching the window decorations to another variation of the theme is a solution.

PipeWire 1.2.4

This release contains PipeWire 1.2. With PipeWire 1.2, FireWire devices requiring FFADO are supported. Do note that the Ubuntu Studio team does not have any FireWire devices and could not test this.

PipeWire’s JACK compatibility is configured to use out-of-the-box and is zero-latency internally. System latency is configurable via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration.

However, if you would rather use straight JACK 2 instead, that’s also possible. Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration can disable and enable PipeWire’s JACK compatibility on-the-fly. From there, you can simply use JACK via QJackCtl.

Complete Deprecation of PulseAudio/JACK setup/Studio Controls

Due to the maturity of PipeWire, the traditional PulseAudio/JACK setup, where JACK would be started/stopped by Studio Controls and bridged to PulseAudio, is now fully deprecated and the option is not offered anymore. This configuration is no longer installable via Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration. Studio Controls may return someday as a PipeWire fine-tuning solution, but for now it is unsupported by the developer.

Ardour 8.6

While this does not represent the latest release of Ardour, Ardour 8.6 is a great release. If you would like the latest release, we highly recommend purchasing one-time or subscribing to Ardour directly from the developers to help support this wonderful application.

To help support Ardour’s funding, you may obtain later versions directly from ardour.org. To do so, please one-time purchase or subscribe to Ardour from their website. If you wish to get later versions of Ardour from us, you will have to wait until the next regular release of Ubuntu Studio, due in April 2025.

Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration

Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration’s Dummy Audio Device now also has a much-requested Dummy Audio Input.

Additionally as described above, Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration has an option to configure the default boot parameters that are commonly used to enable the low-latency capabilities of the Linux kernel used in Ubuntu. For more information about that, see the Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration page.

We’re back on Matrix

You’ll notice that the menu links to our support chat and on our website will now take you to a Matrix chat. This is due to the Ubuntu community carving its own space within the Matrix federation.

However, this is not only a support chat. This is also a creativity discussion chat. You can pass ideas to each other and you’re welcome to it if the topic remains within those confines. However, if a moderator or admin warns you that you’re getting off-topic (or the intention for the chat room), please heed the warning.

This is a persistent connection, meaning if you close the window (or chat), it won’t lose your place as you may only need to sign back in to resume the chat.

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 also became a snap so that the maintainers can 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.

We have additional snaps that are Ubuntu-specific, such as the Firmware Updater and the Security Center. Contrary to popular myth, Ubuntu does not have any plans to switch all packages to snaps, nor do we.

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!

Get Involved!

A wonderful way to contribute is to get involved with the project directly! We’re always looking for new volunteers to help with packaging, documentation, tutorials, user support, and MORE! Check out all the ways you can contribute!

Our project leader, Erich Eickmeyer, is now working on Ubuntu Studio at least part-time, and is hoping that the users of Ubuntu Studio can give enough to generate a monthly part-time income. We’re not there, but if every Ubuntu Studio user donated monthly, we’d be there! Your donations are appreciated! If other distributions can do it, surely we can! See the sidebar for ways to give!

Special Thanks

Huge special thanks for this release go to:

• Eylul Dogruel: Artwork, Graphics Design
• Ross Gammon: Upstream Debian Developer, Testing, Email Support
• Sebastien Ramacher: Upstream Debian Developer
• Dennis Braun: Upstream Debian Developer
• Rik Mills: Kubuntu Council Member, help with Plasma desktop
• Scarlett Moore: Kubuntu Project Lead, help with Plasma desktop
• Cristian Delgado: Translations for Ubuntu Studio Menu
• Dan Bungert: Subiquity, seed fixes
• Len Ovens: Testing, insight
• Wim Taymans: Creator of PipeWire
• Mauro Gaspari: Tutorials, Promotion, and Documentation, Testing, keeping Erich sane
• Krytarik Raido: IRC Moderator, Mailing List Moderator
• Erich Eickmeyer: Project Leader, Packaging, Development, Direction, Treasurer

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.

The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the first service release of Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, 24.04.1. This also marks the opening of upgrades from Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS to 24.04 LTS.

If you are running Ubuntu Studio 22.04, you should be receiving an upgrade notification in a matter of days upon login.

Notable Bugs Fixed Specific to Ubuntu Studio:

• Fixed an issue where PipeWire could not send long SysEx messages bridging to some MIDI controllers .
• DisplayCal would not launch as it required an older version of Python than Python 3.12 that was released with Ubuntu 24.04. This was fixed.
• The new installer doesn’t configure users to be part of the audio group by default. However, upon first login, the user that just logged-in is automatically configured, but this requires the system to be completely restarted to take effect. The fix to make this seamless is in progress.

Other bugfixes are in progress and/or fixed and can be found in the Ubuntu release notes or the Kubuntu release notes for the desktop environment.

How to get Ubuntu Studio 24.04.1 LTS

Ubuntu Studio 24.04.1 LTS can be found on our download page.

Upgrading to Ubuntu Studio 24.04.1 LTS

If you are running Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS, you arleady have it.

If you are running Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS, wait for a notification in your system tray. Otherwise, see the instructions in the release notes.

Contributing and Donating

Right now we mostly need financial contributions and donations. As stated before, our project leader’s family is in a time of lead with his wife losing her job unexpectedly. We would like to keep the project running and be able to give above and beyond to help them.

Therefore, if you find Ubuntu Studio useful and can find it in your heart to give what you think it’s worth and then some, please do give.

Ways to donate can be found in the sidebar as well as at ubuntustudio.org/contribute.