After first bringing Ubu4Cut to an overseas event at UbuCon Asia 2025, I got to bring it back this year and run it at the Ubuntu community booth at COSCUP x UbuCon Asia 2026. Ubu4Cut is a Ubuntu ecosystem photo booth application built with Flutter.
This time I didn’t simply carry the same project over. I rebuilt it to run on top of a Raspberry Pi 5 with Ubuntu Core and Ubuntu Frame, and packaged the entire project as a Snap. It was a real step up from the year before.
The booth had a simple goal: to take photos for attendees and give them a small souvenir to remember UbuCon by. At the same time, I wanted to show that a photo booth like this could be built entirely with the Ubuntu ecosystem, using Flutter for the application and Snap for deployment.
Preparation
This year’s Ubu4Cut was built on a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) with Ubuntu Core and Ubuntu Frame, and the Flutter application was packaged as a Snap. That gave me a safety net: if something went wrong on-site, I could change the system and redeploy quickly.
I prepared photo paper and ink for roughly 450 prints back in Korea.
I also built the booth’s frame myself this time. I printed it on a 3D printer and designed it around magnets, so it could be taken apart and reassembled easily at the venue.
With everything ready, I set off for Taiwan.
Day 1: An Unexpected Crisis
The moment I arrived at the venue, I hit a problem I hadn’t planned for. The monitor I’d packed in my suitcase was completely broken.
So on Day 1, I simply couldn’t run Ubu4Cut. It was disappointing, but I spent the first day focusing on introducing the Ubuntu community and UbuCon to attendees and talking with them.
Day 2: Restarting Ubu4Cut
On the second day I arrived at the venue at 8:30 a.m. and got to work right away, because there wasn’t much time left.
I borrowed a display from @paperbox(Jungmin) to replace the broken monitor, broken monitor, but unfortunately, the borrowed display didn’t support the touch input Ubu4Cut relied on.
With only a couple of hours left, there wasn’t enough time to rework the booth around a completely different setup. So I quickly switched to an Ubuntu Desktop environment and got the Raspberry Pi 5 running again.
Fortunately, I had already packaged Ubu4Cut as a Snap , so I could install and get it running in the new environment with just a few commands.
The Snap-based setup I’d prepared for the event ended up being incredibly useful when things didn’t go according to plan.
And at around 10:30 a.m. , I was finally able to open the Ubu4Cut booth!
I ran the booth for about four and a half hours, until 3 p.m. Losing all of Day 1 meant I got through only about half of the photo paper I’d prepared, but I still handed out more than 200 photos to attendees.
Plenty of people stopped by to take pictures, and the booth I’d built myself let me introduce Ubuntu and UbuCon in a more fun, hands-on way.
Running It Together
Last year, I ran the booth alone, and it was harder than I had expected.
Taking photos, printing them, and chatting with attendees all fell on one person.
This year, though, @Silica(Gyuseok) ran the booth with me, and it went far more smoothly. Some people who had experienced the booth last year even pitched in to help run it this time.
After we wrapped up, Gyuseok even asked me how on earth I had managed to run the whole thing by myself last year.
Running the booth at a real event reminded me, once again, that it really takes the help and cooperation of several people to do it well.
A Day Trip
A quick aside from the event itself: I also joined a day trip to experience Taiwan’s traditional tea culture. I got to pick green tea leaves myself and watch tea being made the traditional Taiwanese way.
Picking the leaves with my own hands made me feel, just for a moment, like a kid again.
It’s not something you get to do every day, and being able to see for myself how the tea we drink actually comes to be was genuinely delightful.
Wrapping Up
My biggest regret this year was not getting the booth open on Day 1. Still, I was glad that we were able to get it back up and running the next morning.
Mauro and Gyuseok also shared a few ideas for improvement while we were there.
Building on this experience and their suggestions, I want to take Ubu4Cut a step further and make it more stable, more flexible, and more fun next time.
Most of all, this experience reminded me that we are stronger together . From helping run the booth to solving unexpected problems on-site, I was once again reminded of what makes the Ubuntu community special.
My heartfelt thanks go to the wonderful organizers, speakers, and attendees who made COSCUP x UbuCon Asia 2026 such a memorable event.
And, above all, thank you to everyone in the Ubuntu community .
I truly hope to see all of you again at the next UbuCon Asia!
See you at the next UbuCon Asia!
