Ubuntu Studio’s web presence has been spread across several Canonical-hosted systems for a long time: the main website on an old Canonical web server, the Ubuntu Community Help Wiki at help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio, and the Ubuntu Developer Wiki at wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio. Those platforms served their purpose, but each had become a poor fit for how the project actually works today.
What’s Moving
The main Ubuntu Studio website has already moved away from Canonical hosting and onto its current home. That move was driven by necessity: Canonical shut down the old web server that had hosted the site, so Ubuntu Studio needed a new home for its primary web presence. This has been a mostly transparent process and most users would never have noticed a difference.
The Community Help Wiki — the place where users have always gone to find answers about audio configuration, hardware support, the Audio Handbook, and getting started with Ubuntu Studio — is being mirrored and maintained directly on ubuntustudio.org at /help/. Every page you’re used to is coming with us: the Pro Audio Intro, the Ubuntu Studio Audio Handbook and all its chapters, the FAQ, hardware support information, terminal basics, troubleshooting guides, and community information. Most of this is outdated now, and we need help to bring it up to modernization.
The Developer Wiki — home to the team’s internal processes, release planning, testing documentation, artwork resources, and packaging and development notes — is moving to ubuntustudio.org at /wiki/. The full section structure is preserved: Testing, PR & Support, Artwork, Packaging/Development, Documentation, and Organization are all there. This information is also outdated.
Why Now
The website move and the wiki move do not have exactly the same origin.
For the main website, the trigger was straightforward: Canonical shut down the old web server that hosted it. Ubuntu Studio had to move the site in order to keep a public home on the web.
For the help and developer wikis, the issue was the editing experience and maintenance burden. The old MoinMoin-based wiki workflow is cumbersome, slow, and awkward to work with. Its markup is not standard Markdown, which makes editing, reviewing, and migrating content more difficult than it should be. Over time, that friction made it harder to keep pages current, fix outdated instructions, and encourage casual contributors to improve documentation.
Meanwhile, ubuntustudio.org has been running on WordPress for some time, and the team has been using GitHub for development work. By routing our documentation through a GitHub repository — using the Git it Write plugin to publish markdown directly to WordPress — we get something we’ve never really had before: a documentation workflow that fits naturally alongside our other development work. Pull requests, issue tracking, version history, and a low barrier to entry for new contributors all come with it.
What This Means for Contributors
If you’ve ever wanted to fix something on the old wiki and been put off by the process, this is your opening. The content lives in a public GitHub repository. Find the file, fix the text, open a pull request. That’s it.
The content is organized into buckets that map to the old wiki structure:
help/content/support/ — support pages (FAQ, hardware, audio configuration, etc.)
help/content/handbook/ — the Audio Handbook and Pro Audio Intro
help/content/community/ — IRC, mailing lists, joining the team
help/content/reference/ — resources, links, wiki guide
wiki/content/ubuntu-studio/ — developer wiki pages
If you’re editing a page that has outdated information, and there’s plenty of it, particularly around the old PulseAudio/JACK workflow that predates PipeWire — this is the place to update it.
What Isn’t Changing
The old wiki pages at help.ubuntu.com and wiki.ubuntu.com aren’t going anywhere immediately. Canonical maintains those as part of Ubuntu infrastructure, and they’ll continue to exist. Our goal isn’t to break any existing bookmarks or search results, it’s to have a home where we can keep things current.
We’re also not rewriting the documentation wholesale. The content of the mirrored pages is as faithful to the originals as it can be, with updates where the old guidance referred to software or workflows that no longer apply to current Ubuntu Studio releases.
The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS, code-named “Resolute Raccoon.” This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 38th release.
This Long-Term Support (LTS) release is supported for 3 years, through April 2029. An Ubuntu Studio LTS arrives once every two years. This is more than a routine update: it is a long-horizon milestone for creators, educators, studios, and production systems that prioritize dependability.
This release reflects months of development, packaging, design, testing, and community feedback, all focused on making Ubuntu Studio production-ready from first boot. Whether you record music, edit video, design graphics, or publish layouts, the goal is simple: stay out of your way and let your creativity lead. That shows up in practical improvements across this release, from desktop layout choice and modernized setup tools to updated defaults and day-to-day polish.
You can download Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS from the download page.
Why This LTS Is Special
You can trace a clear through-line across recent LTS cycles: 20.04 LTS was the last Xfce-based LTS and set up the desktop transition, 22.04 LTS stabilized the Plasma era, and 24.04 LTS introduced the new Subiquity/Flutter installer generation and PipeWire 1.0 maturity.
Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS builds on that foundation with practical workflow improvements instead of a single marquee feature: three selectable desktop layouts, fully rewritten Installer and Audio Configuration tools (Python with GTK4 and Qt6 frontends), and broader translation coverage.
It also brings forward ideas that were future-looking in earlier cycles, especially minimal-install flexibility and easier post-install workflow selection, while adding production-focused updates like FFADO support, easier PipeWire tuning, and new default additions such as Loopino and Plasma PipeWire Settings.
As with prior Ubuntu Studio LTS releases, this cycle carries a three-year support window, through April 2029.
Major Highlights
Three desktop layouts, one familiar home
This release includes three selectable desktop layouts:
The classic Ubuntu Studio top-panel layout
A macOS-like layout with global menu and dock
A Windows-like bottom-panel layout
Creators coming from different platforms get a familiar starting point and a faster path to feeling at home.
The default layout for new installs was selected by community vote. For background on the design direction, see Coming to 26.04 LTS: Three Layouts.
This is more than a visual refresh. Both tools were rebuilt from the ground up in Python with dual GTK4 and Qt6 frontends, and automatically select the interface that best matches your desktop environment.
Internationalization also took a major leap forward: both tools now include translations across 21 languages, helping more creators configure their systems comfortably in their preferred language.
Audio production gets more powerful
Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration now includes built-in support for FFADO FireWire devices and simpler PipeWire tuning through menus instead of manual entry.
For musicians and engineers using professional FireWire interfaces, FFADO support improves compatibility with legacy-but-still-essential studio hardware without extra manual setup.
PipeWire sample-rate and buffer controls are now easier to access and adjust quickly, making low-latency tuning far more approachable for both new and experienced users.
Better defaults for creators
VLC is now the default media player, offering broad format compatibility and a familiar, dependable playback experience for day-to-day media review.
vmpk now replaces jack-keyboard, giving MIDI-focused users a more modern and flexible virtual keyboard workflow.
More quality-of-life improvements across the release
Beyond the headline features, this release includes several practical improvements that make daily use smoother:
Live sessions now inhibit lock screen/screensaver to prevent interruptions during testing or demos
SDDM and splash visuals were refined for a cleaner login and boot experience
Desktop menus include translation coverage improvements
Theme metadata updates improve Plasma 6 compatibility and consistency
Key workflow tools were substantially updated, including QPrompt, RaySession, and Patchance
New in 26.04 LTS
Three selectable desktop layouts with community-voted default
Rewritten Installer and Audio Configuration tools with expanded language support.
Improved audio workflow controls, including FFADO support and easier PipeWire tuning
New packages:
Loopino — A lightweight creative audio sampler with drag-and-drop sample loading, on-the-fly recording, a full ADSR envelope, filters, and effects. Available as a standalone application, CLAP plugin, and VST2 plugin, making it a flexible addition to any audio production workflow.
DistroAV — Formerly known as obs-ndi, DistroAV brings NDI (Network Audio/Video) support to OBS Studio, enabling high-quality, low-latency multi-track audio and video streaming over a local network. A natural fit for live streaming and networked A/V production setups. Not installed by default; install it by running sudo apt install distroav in a terminal.
snd-hdspe — An updated ALSA kernel driver for RME HDSPe PCIe sound cards (MADI, AES, RayDAT, AIO, and AIO Pro). This maintained fork of the original driver brings compatibility with newer kernels and expands hardware control through standard ALSA interfaces, giving professional RME users a reliable path forward. Not installed by default; if you have supported RME hardware, install it by running sudo apt install alsa-hdspe-dkms in a terminal.
Plasma PipeWire Settings — A KDE Plasma 6 panel widget for adjusting PipeWire quantum and sample rate on the fly, without touching configuration files. It is included by default and shown in the system tray by default, pairing with Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration so the most common adjustments are always within reach.
Plasma Window Title Applet — A Plasma 6 panel applet that displays the active window title. Used in the macOS-like desktop layout to complete the global-menu experience.
Notable package changes:
Skanpage replaces Skanlite for scanning, offering multi-page document scanning and straightforward saving to common formats.
rubberband-lv2 replaces rubberband-ladspa, providing high-quality time-stretching and pitch-shifting as an LV2 plugin aligned with the broader move away from LADSPA.
Minimal installation workflow with modular post-install creative tool selection
Quality-of-life polish across live session behavior, translations, and desktop consistency
Minimal Install: Your Studio, Your Way
One topic we often see in community discussions is package “bloat”: some users want everything preinstalled, while others prefer to start lean and add tools only as needed.
Both approaches are fully supported.
If you want a lightweight starting point, choose the minimal install option during installation. This option has been available since 24.10. You will get the Ubuntu Studio desktop experience, theming, and core configuration, then add only the workflows you want using Ubuntu Studio Installer (audio, video, graphics, photography, and publishing).
If you want a complete creative workstation out of the box, the full install remains available.
You can also start from any official Ubuntu flavor and add Ubuntu Studio workflows without reinstalling.
Special Notes
The Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be reliably written to some file systems such as FAT32, and may not be readable when burned to a standard DVD.
Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS ships with a strong cross-discipline toolkit for creators working in audio, video, graphics, and publishing.
Highlights include:
Blender 5.0.1
Kdenlive 25.12.3
Krita 6.0.1
GIMP 3.2.2
Ardour 9.0.0
OBS Studio 32.1.0
For the complete software version list and source package references, see the release notes.
Whether your work is audio engineering, filmmaking, digital painting, motion graphics, podcasting, or publishing, the full Ubuntu Studio stack is ready to support it.
Upgrade Notes
Upgrades from Ubuntu Studio 25.10 are expected to be enabled shortly after release. Upgrades from Ubuntu Studio 24.04 LTS are expected to be enabled with the release of 26.04.1 LTS in August 2026.
Detailed upgrade instructions are available in the release notes.
Known Issues
Ubuntu Studio shares KDE Plasma and core Ubuntu components with other Ubuntu flavors. Some known issues overlap with Kubuntu and Ubuntu:
Additionally, on first login for a newly created user, a reboot prompt for applying audio-production group configuration is expected behavior (tracked at Launchpad bug #2063899).
Thank You
Ubuntu Studio is built by a volunteer community of developers, testers, artists, translators, documenters, and users. Thank you to everyone who tested pre-releases, reported bugs, submitted improvements, and helped shape this LTS.
In Memory of Steve Langasek
We want to give special recognition to Steve Langasek, who passed away in January 2025.
Known to many as vorlon, Steve’s impact on Ubuntu, Debian, Ubuntu Studio, and the wider Linux community is difficult to overstate. His work, guidance, and support helped countless contributors and projects over many years.
In Ubuntu community tributes, he has been remembered as “a great mind, mentor and conscience.” If you have not read it yet, Remembering and thanking Steve Langasek is a powerful reflection on his legacy.
For this cycle in particular, Steve was responsible for the codename “Resolute Raccoon,” as noted during the community codename activity at Guess the release 26.04 – R. We are honored to carry that name in this release and dedicate this moment of thanks to his memory.
Contributors
Special thanks this cycle go to many familiar contributors from prior releases, including:
Eylul Dogruel: artwork and visual design
Ross Gammon: upstream Debian development and testing
Sebastien Ramacher: upstream Debian development
Dennis Braun: upstream Debian development
Rik Mills: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Scarlett Moore: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Aaron Rainbolt: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Michael Mikowski: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Len Ovens: testing and workflow insight, support and help
Mauro Gaspari: tutorials, promotion, and documentation
Utkarsh Gupta: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Florent “Skia” Jacquet: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Michael Hudson-Doyle: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Erich Eickmeyer: project leadership, packaging, and direction
And to everyone in the Ubuntu Studio community: thank you for your trust, your feedback, your patience, and your passion.
Support Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu Studio is built by volunteers, but volunteer work still comes with real costs.
As outlined in Ubuntu Studio Needs Donations, the project is now covering additional monthly expenses due to a web hosting provider change. This release cycle also included a large amount of development work, including fixing long-standing bugs and rewriting both Ubuntu Studio Installer and Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration from the ground up.
If Ubuntu Studio helps your creative work, your teaching, your studio, or your community, please consider supporting the project financially. Donations help keep the infrastructure running and make it easier to keep improving the tools, packaging, and user experience that go into each release.
Ubuntu Studio is a community project driven by volunteers. If you would like to contribute your time through packaging, documentation, testing, user support, or promotion, we would love your help:
The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS, codenamed “Resolute Raccoon”.
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 26.04 LTS is released on April 17, 2026.
As an LTS release, Ubuntu Studio 26.04 will be supported for 3 years until April 2029. We encourage everyone to try this image and report bugs to improve our final release.
Special Notes
The Ubuntu Studio 26.04 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.
Full updated information, including Upgrade Instructions, are available in the Release Notes.
Please note that upgrading from 24.04 LTS before the release of 26.04.1, due August 2026, is unsupported.
Only Install What You Need
A common piece of feedback we hear is that people prefer to start with a lean base and install only the tools they actually use, rather than getting an overwhelming number of pre-installed packages. We hear you.
Ubuntu Studio includes a minimal install option in the installer, and has since 24.10! This gives you the Ubuntu Studio desktop experience: the theme, the audio configuration and the optimized settings without the full suite of creative applications. From there, you can use Ubuntu Studio Installer to add exactly the workflows you want: audio, graphics, video, photography, or publishing; à la carte.
Alternatively, if you’re already running Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, or any other official Ubuntu flavor, you don’t have to reinstall at all. Just install the Ubuntu Studio Installer package and pick the components you need. This has always been an option, but we want to make sure everyone knows about it.
The full install remains available for those who want a complete creative workstation out of the box, and that’s a perfectly valid choice too.
New Features This Release
This is an LTS release, which means stability and polish have been the primary focus. That said, there’s a lot that’s new and improved since 24.04 LTS.
Three Desktop Layouts: As previously announced, Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS now ships with three selectable desktop layouts: the classic Ubuntu Studio top panel, a macOS-like layout with a global menu and bottom dock, and a new Windows 10-like bottom panel layout. This gives users coming from any platform a familiar starting point.
By Popular Vote: Our community decided in a vote on Ubuntu Discourse to make the bottom panel (traditional) layout the default. The classic top panel remains as an alternate look-and-feel theme.
Ubuntu Studio Installer and Audio Configuration completely rewritten: Both tools have been rewritten from scratch in Python with dual GTK4 and Qt6 UI backends. The application automatically detects your desktop environment and launches the appropriate interface. Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration now includes FFADO support for FireWire audio devices and PipeWire buffer/sample-rate configuration via dropdown menus instead of text entry. Both tools include translations for 21 languages.
New Borealis sound theme replaces the Ocean sound theme. This is the sound theme Ubuntu Studio used clear back in the early (7.10 Gutsy Gibbon) days, and now it’s back!
Live session improvements: The screensaver and lock screen are now inhibited during the entire live session, fixing a long-standing annoyance where the screen would lock and prompt for a non-existent password.
Loopino is a new lightweight audio sampler plugin (LV2/CLAP/VST2) for loading, trimming, and looping audio files with drag-and-drop support and on-the-fly recording.
Plasma PipeWire Settings is a new Plasma applet for managing PipeWire configuration directly from the system tray.
snd-hdspe is a new DKMS kernel driver for RME HDSPe MADI, AES, RayDAT, AIO, and AIO Pro PCIe sound cards, available in the repositories for those who need it.
DistroAV (formerly OBS-NDI) is now available in the repositories for network audio/video in OBS Studio using NDI technology.
PipeWire continues to improve with every release and remains the default audio server.
Major Package Upgrades
OBS Studio version 32.1.0
FreeShow version 1.5.9 (snap)
QPrompt version 2.0.1
RaySession version 0.17.4
Patchance version 1.3.2
Geonkick version 3.7.0
BChoppr version 1.12.8
harpwise version 6.34.4
blender version 5.0.1
There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.
Known Issues
There is a minor cosmetic issue in the splash screen when transitioning from the install session to the live desktop session when running the .iso image in that it shows the default KDE Plasma splash as opposed to the Ubuntu Studio splash. This does not occur after installation, and is corrected in later builds.
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 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 our 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: See the “Only Install What You Need” section above. Use the minimal install option and then add only the workflows you want with Ubuntu Studio Installer.
As of January 15, 2025, all flavors of Ubuntu 25.04, including Ubuntu Studio 25.04, codenamed “Plucky Puffin”, have reached end-of-life (EOL). There will be no more updates of any kind, including security updates, for this release of Ubuntu.
If you have not already done so, please upgrade to Ubuntu Studio 25.10 via the instructions provided here. If you do not do so as soon as possible, you will lose the ability without additional advanced configuration.
No single release of any operating system can be supported indefinitely, and Ubuntu Studio has no exception to this rule.
Interim Ubuntu releases, meaning those that are between the Long-Term Support releases, are supported for 9 months and users are expected to upgrade after every release with a 3-month buffer following each release.
Long-Term Support releases are identified by an even numbered year-of-release and a month-of-release of April (04). Hence, the most recent Long-Term Support release is 24.04 (YY.MM = 2024.April), and the next Long-Term Support release will be 26.04 (2026.April). LTS releases for official Ubuntu flavors (not Desktop or Server which are supported for five years) are three years, meaning LTS users are expected to upgrade after every LTS release with a one-year buffer.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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 release of Ubuntu Studio 24.04.3 LTS. This is a minor release which wraps-up the security and bug fixes into one .iso image, available for download now.
The biggest change is the lowlatency kernel has been officially retired, replaced by the generic Ubuntu kernel. Those that have been using Ubuntu Studio 24.04 and upgraded may have already noticed this change.
With that said, much like Ubuntu Studio 24.10 and higher, the generic kernel includes kernel parameters added upon boot that allow the kernel to act in a lowlatency mode, so you now can enjoy the benefits of the lowlatency kernel while using the generic kernel.
We realize this may come as a shock, but when 24.04 was released, we knew this day would eventually come. However, there is no difference between the lowlatency kernel and the generic kernel with these boot parameters. They are:
preempt=full: Makes the kernel fully preemptible
rcu_nocbs=all Offloads Read-Copy Update (RCU) callbacks from all CPUs dedicated to kernel threads, improves real-time performance
threadirqs Forces interrupt handlers to run in a threaded context, reducing buffer xruns
These kernel parameters can be found in the files in /etc/defaults/grub.d
Please give financially to Ubuntu Studio!
Giving is down. We understand that some people may no longer be able to give financially to this project, and that’s OK. However, if you have never given to Ubuntu Studio for the hard work and dedication we put into this project, please consider a monetary contribution.
Additionally, we would love to see more monthly contributions to this project. You can do so via PayPal, Liberapay, or Patreon. We would love to see more contributions!
So don’t wait, and don’t wait for someone else to do it! Thank you in advance!
Donate using PayPal Donations are Monthly or One-Time
Donate using Liberapay Donations are Weekly, Monthly, or Annually
As of July 10, 2025, all flavors of Ubuntu 24.10, including Ubuntu Studio 24.10, codenamed “Oracular Oriole”, have reached end-of-life (EOL). There will be no more updates of any kind, including security updates, for this release of Ubuntu.
If you have not already done so, please upgrade to Ubuntu Studio 25.10 via the instructions provided here. If you do not do so as soon as possible, you will lose the ability without additional advanced configuration.
No single release of any operating system can be supported indefinitely, and Ubuntu Studio has no exception to this rule.
Regular Ubuntu releases, meaning those that are between the Long-Term Support releases, are supported for 9 months and users are expected to upgrade after every release with a 3-month buffer following each release.
Long-Term Support releases are identified by an even numbered year-of-release and a month-of-release of April (04). Hence, the most recent Long-Term Support release is 24.04 (YY.MM = 2024.April), and the next Long-Term Support release will be 26.04 (2026.April). LTS releases for official Ubuntu flavors (not Desktop or Server which are supported for five years) are three years, meaning LTS users are expected to upgrade after every LTS release with a one-year buffer.
