We’re delighted to announce that we’re participating in another ‘Ubuntu Testing Week’ from April 1st to April 7th with other flavours in the Ubuntu family. On April 1st, the beta version of Kubuntu 21.04 ‘Hirsute Hippo’ will be released after freezing all new changes to its features, user interface, and documentation. Between April 1st and the final release on April 22nd, all efforts by the Kubuntu team and community should be focused on ISO testing, reporting bugs, fixing bugs, and translations right up to final release.

On social media, please use the #UbuntuTestingWeek hashtag if you write about your testing or want to spread the word about the event to your followers. Testers can visit the ISO tracker and read bug reporting tutorials.

You can test without changing your system by running it in a VM (Virtual Machine) with software like VMWare Player, VirtualBox (apt install). Or run Hirsute from USB, SD Card, or DVD to test on your hardware.

There are a variety of ways that you can help test the release, including trying out the various live session and installation test cases from the ISO tracker. If you find a bug, you’ll need a Launchpad account to file it against the package the app is bundled in, which you can find by asking around on the IRC/Telegram/Matrix Kubuntu channels or the user mail list.

Chat live in IRC (Freenode) #ubuntu-quality (or #kubuntu-devel if it cannot be reproduced on other flavours) or Telegram: Ubuntu Testers.

The easiest and fastest way to file a bug is in the command line (Konsole): ubuntu-bug $packagename, such as ubiquity – `ubuntu-bug ubiquity`

It is important to file the bug within the testing environment so that the necessary results are properly provided to the bug-tracker. All you need to provide to the ISO tracker is the bug number.

If the bug is found in the installer, file it against `ubiquity`, or file it against the `linux` if your hardware isn’t working. We encourage those that are willing, to install it either in a VM or on physical hardware. It requires at least 15GB of hard drive space. If you can use it for a few days, more bugs can be discovered and reported.

Please test apps that you regularly use, so you can identify bugs and regressions that should be reported, especially as the recently released Plasma 5.21.3 is bundled in this release. New ISO files are built every day, and you should always test with the most up-to-date ISO. It is easier and faster to update an existing daily ISO file on Linux with the command below. Run in the terminal or konsole from within the folder with the ISO file:

$ zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/hirsute-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

We look forward to you joining us to make Kubuntu 21.04 an even bigger success, and hope that you will also test out the other Ubuntu flavours.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to be downloaded after installation. These include security updates and corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining stability and compatibility with Kubuntu 20.04 LTS.

More details can be found in the release notes: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

In order to download Kubuntu 20.04.1 LTS, visit:

Download Kubuntu

Users of Kbuntu 18.04 LTS will soon be offered an automatic upgrade to 20.04.1 LTS via Update Manager/Discover. For further information about upgrading, see:

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/FocalUpgrades

As always, upgrades to the latest version of Kubuntu are entirely free of charge.

We recommend that all users read the 20.04.1 LTS release notes, which document caveats and workarounds for known issues, as well as more in-depth notes on the release itself. They are available at:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/FocalFossa/ReleaseNotes

If you have a question, or if you think you may have found a bug but aren’t sure, you can try asking in any of the following places:

#kubuntu on irc.freenode.net
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-users
https://www.kubuntuforums.net/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Kubuntu/

The Kubuntu team is delighted to announce an ‘Ubuntu Testing Week’ from April 2nd to April 8th with other flavors in the Ubuntu family. April 2nd is the beta release of what will become Kubuntu 20.04 and during this week, there will be a freeze on changes to features, the user interface and documentation. Between April 2nd and final release on April 23rd, the Kubuntu team and community will focus on ISO testing, bug reporting, and fixing bugs. Please join the community by downloading the daily ISO image and trying it out, even beginning today.

QA tracker: http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/408/builds

From this main page, click on the ‘Kubuntu Desktop amd64’ link to arrive at the testcases page. On the testcases page, you can download the ISO by clicking the ‘Link to the download information’ and report test results to the various test cases for Kubuntu. If you see other flavors needing testing on the main page, please test for them as well.

Chat live on IRC (#ubuntu-quality) or Telegram (UbuntuTesters: https://t.me/UbuntuTesters) if you like, during this time of pandemic social distancing.

If you have no spare computer to use for testing, no problem! You can test without changing your system by running it in a VM (Virtual Machine) with software like Virtualbox, or running it in the live session from a USB or DVD, so you can also test if your hardware works correctly. We encourage those that are willing, to install it either in a VM or on physical hardware–requires at least 6GB of harddisk space–and use it continuously for a few days, as more bugs can be exposed and reported this way.

The easy way to report a bug is to open up Konsole by pressing alt+space and typing konsole or Menu > Konsole and then typing `ubuntu-bug packagename`, where packagename is the program or application where you experience the bug.

If you prefer working in the terminal, open the virtual console (terminal) by pressing control + alt + F2, 3, 4 etc. and typing `ubuntu-bug packagename`, where packagename is the program or application where you experience the bug. Control + Alt + F1 to return to your desktop. If a crash has landed you in the terminal, login with your usual user name and password, and report the bug as above.

Here is a nice youtube video showing the entire process, including one way to figure out what packagename is appropriate in GNOME: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjTyzyY9RHw

Using ‘ubuntu-bug’ will automatically upload error logs and/or other files to Launchpad that developers need to fix the bug. By the way, the installer’s packagename is ubiquity. Experience tells us that is the most useful packagename to know for ISO testing when things go wrong with the installation. The live session software package is casper, should you encounter bugs affecting the live session itself, not programs. Other programs with bugs should be filed against their packages, for instance firefox, dolphin, vlc, etc. Only the bug *number* is needed when reporting the results of a test on the QA tracker.

Please test programs / applications that you regularly use, so you can identify bugs and regressions that should be reported. New ISO files are built every day; always test with the most up-to-date ISO. It is easier and faster to update an existing daily ISO with the command below (first right-click on the ISO’s folder in Dolphin and select ‘Open in Terminal’) or just open konsole or yakuake and `cd path-to-ISO-folder`. Zsync downloads only changes, so it’s very quick.
$ zsync http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/daily-live/current/focal-desktop-amd64.iso.zsync

Codenamed “Eoan Ermine”, Kubuntu 19.10 integrates the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 5.3-based kernel, Qt 5.12.4, KDE Frameworks 5.62.0, Plasma 5.16.5 and KDE Applications 19.04.3. Firefox 69 is the default browser and LibreOffice 6.3 is provided by default in the full installation, along with updates and bugfixes to latte-dock, Elisa 0.4.2, Kdenlive, Yakuake, Krita, Kdevelop and Ktorrent.

Getting Kubuntu 19.10

Upgrading from 19.04
Detailed upgrade instructions can be found here: Kubuntu 19.04 to 19.10 Upgrade

Download a Disk Image
Download a Bootable image. Direct downloads, torrents, and zysnc are available as options.

For more about the changes in the Ubuntu base, see the Ubuntu Release Notes

Since Plasma 5.17 has been released too late in our release cycle to make it into 19.10 as default, users can install these via our backports PPA.

A Plasma Wayland session can be added by installing the package plasma-workspace-wayland, but is not officially supported. This will add a Plasma (wayland) session option at the login screen. Users needing a stable desktop experience should select the normal ‘Plasma’ (without Wayland) option at login.

NVIDIA drivers are now included with the ISO, which allows the installer to select and install these when the 3rd party and restricted drivers and codecs option is chosen, even if you are installing offline.

ZFS on root installer support landed too late in the Eoan cycle to implement and test for the Ubiquity KDE front end. This option is therefore targeted for the 20.04 LTS release.

See our Release Notes for more information: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/EoanErmine/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

We also discussed snaps and when Ubuntu possibly moves to “all snaps all the time” for applications at least. This may be in our future, so it is worth thinking and discussing.

Tobias Fischbach came by the BOF and told us about Limux which is based on Kubuntu. This has been the official computer distribution of Munich for the past few years. Now however, unless the Mayor changes (or changes his mind) the city is moving to Windows again, which will be unfortunate for the City.

Slightly off-topic but relevent is that KDE neon will be moving to 20.04 base soon after release, but they will not stay on the Plasma LTS or Qt LTS. So users who want the very latest in KDE Plasma and applications will continue to have the option of using Neon, while our users, who expect more testing and stability can choose between the LTS for the ultimate in stability and our interim releases for newer Plasma and applications.

Of course we continue to ask for those of our users who want to help the Kubuntu project to volunteer, especially to test. We’ll soon need testers for the upcoming Eoan, which will become 19.10. Drop into the development IRC channel: #kubuntu-devel on freenode, or subscribe to the Kubuntu Development list: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/kubuntu-devel

Kubuntu 14.04 LTS was released in April 2014, and reaches ‘End of Life’ for support on 25th April 2019. All Kubuntu users should therefore switch to a newer supported release. Upgrades from 14.04 to a newer release are not advised, so please install a fresh copy of 18.04 or newer after running a backup of all your data.

Kubuntu 16.04 LTS was released on 21st April 2016, and was supported for Kubuntu for a period of year 3 years.* Kubuntu 16.04 LTS support therefore ends 21st April 2019, and users are invited to upgrade to 18.04 LTS, or perform a fresh install of that or newer release.

The Kubuntu team would thank users of both releases, especially for the amazing additional community support on IRC, forums, mailing lists, and elsewhere.

* https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2016-April/003704.html

The beta of Disco Dingo (to become 19.04) has now been released, and is available for download at http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/19.04/beta/

This milestone features images for Kubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours.

Pre-releases of the Disco Dingo are not encouraged for:

* Anyone needing a stable system
* Anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage.

They are, however, recommended for:

* Ubuntu flavor developers
* Those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.
* the Beta includes some software updates that are ready for broader testing. However, it is an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

You can:

Read more information about the Kubuntu 19.04 Beta: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiscoDingo/Beta/Kubuntu

Download the Kubuntu 19.04 Beta images

Read the full text of the main Ubuntu Cosmic Beta announcement:

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2019-March/004743.html

The Ubuntu Cosmic Release notes will give more details of changes to the Ubuntu base: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiscoDingo/ReleaseNotes

Codenamed “Cosmic Cuttlefish”, Kubuntu 18.10 continues our proud tradition of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 4.18-based kernel, Qt 5.11, KDE Frameworks 5.50, Plasma 5.13.5 and KDE Applications 18.04.3

Kubuntu has seen some exciting improvements, with newer versions of Qt, updates to major packages like Krita, Kdeconnect, Kstars, Peruse, Latte-dock, Firefox and LibreOffice, and stability improvements to KDE Plasma. In addition, Snap integration in Plasma Discover software center is now enabled by default, while Flatpak integration is also available to add on the settings page.

For a list of other application updates, upgrading notes and known bugs be sure to read our release notes:

https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Download 18.10 or read about how to upgrade from 18.04.

Additionally, users who wish to test the latest Plasma 5.14.1 and Frameworks 5.51, which came too late in our release cycle to make it into 18.10 as default, can install these via our backports PPA. This represents only the 1st initial bugfix release of Plasma 5.14, with 4 more to be released in the coming months, so early adopters should be aware that there may more bugs to be found (and reported).

This milestone features images for Kubuntu and other Ubuntu flavours.

Pre-releases of the Cosmic Cuttlefish are not encouraged for:

* Anyone needing a stable system
* Anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional, even frequent breakage.

They are, however, recommended for:

* Ubuntu flavour developers
* Those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.
* the Beta includes some software updates that are ready for broader testing. However, it is an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

You can:

Read more information about the Kubuntu 18.10 Beta: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu

Download the Kubuntu 18.10 Beta images

Read the full text of the main Ubuntu Cosmic Beta announcement https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2018-September/004601.html

Read the main Ubuntu Cosmic Release notes, that may give more details of changes to the Ubuntu base: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/CosmicCuttlefish/ReleaseNotes

Codenamed “Bionic Beaver”, Kubuntu 18.04 continues our tradition of giving you Friendly Computing by integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.

The team has been hard at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

Under the hood, there have been updates to many core packages, including a new 4.15-based kernel, KDE Frameworks 5.44, Plasma 5.12 LTS and KDE Applications 17.12.3

Kubuntu has seen some exciting improvements, with newer versions of Qt, updates to major packages like Krita, Kstars, KDE-Connect, Firefox and LibreOffice, and stability improvements to KDE Plasma. And we have new applications that we’re so proud of: latte-dock, Falkon, kio-gdrive and Peruse, a KDE comic reader. Kio-gdrive enables KIO-aware applications (such as Dolphin, Kate or Gwenview) to access and edit Google Drive files on the cloud.

We’ve made some notable changes since 16.04 LTS. VLC is the default media player, and Cantata Qt5 the default music player. Muon is now shipped by default for those who prefer a package manager as an alternative to the Plasma Discover software store, both of which have seen major improvements.

We’ve made some important but smaller changes since 16.04 LTS and 17.10. Kubuntu switches to a dark Breeze Plasma theme by default from 18.04, made some changes in default settings and now offer a minimal install option on the ISO. This removes KDE PIM applications, Libreoffice, Cantata and mpd, and some additional internet and media applications. At present a full Plasma Desktop is left in place, plus basic applications and utilities. Firefox as a browser, and VLC as a media player, are also retained.

Double-click is now default to open files. To change back to single-click – System Settings: Mouse Controls

For a list of other application updates, upgrading notes and known bugs be sure to read our release notes.

Download 18.04 or read about how to upgrade from 17.10.

Note: Upgrades from 16.04 LTS may not be enabled until a few days after the 18.04.1 release expected in late July.