As there is currently no Kubuntu Image available for the Pi it is necessary to install Kubuntu from the Ubuntu Server image.
Here is how to install it:
Install Ubuntu Server 25.04 via Pi Imager
- maintain user data, wifi, etc. in advanced options
Now it also makes sense to increase the partition size of the data partition to make use of the full size of the sd card just in case it is not automatically assigned completely.
Start Pi and Log In
Update System:
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
Disable Cloud Init:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure cloud-init
Disable all services (uncheck everything except “None”)
Install Kubuntu
sudo apt install kubuntu-desktop
sudo reboot
Boot seems to be stuck, display manager is not starting
Switch to console 2
ALT-F2
login
Enable the display manager:
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target
Activate SDDM in Kubuntu:
sudo dpkg-reconfigure sddm
X11 not running, there must have been graphics compatibility issues
sudo apt install xserver-xorg-video-fbdev
create the following file (or dir if needed), and add the following lines
sudo nano /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/99-fbdev.conf
Section “Device”
Identifier “Raspberry Pi FBDEV”
Driver “fbdev”
Option “fbdev” “/dev/fb0”
EndSection
Restart SDDM:
sudo systemctl restart sddm
I just noticed that the Network time server is not working:
sudo apt install chrony
NetworkManager also needs attention. Ubuntu Server uses systemd-networkd to manage the network.
To switch to NetworkManager it is required to add a netplan config file:
sudo nano /etc/netplan/01-netcfg.yaml
Add this content to the file:
# Set and change netplan renderer to NetworkManager GUI tool
network:
version: 2
renderer: NetworkManager
sudo netplan apply
This was tested with Kubuntu 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) on RPI5 with 8MB but should also work for other models. Performance is really good and smooth even when you run it on micro SD card.
P.S.: the X11 config file seems to be necessary to get into SDDM at all. Please log in into the plasma wayland session. X11 is not working sufficiently. I assume that the fbdev driver is not optimized for the RPi5