Lubuntu 26.04 LTS Released!

Thanks to the hard work from our contributors, Lubuntu 26.04 LTS has been released. With the codename Resolute Raccoon, Lubuntu 26.04 is the 30th release of Lubuntu, the 16th release of Lubuntu with LXQt as the default desktop environment.

Download and Support Lifespan

With Lubuntu 26.04 being a long-term support interim release, it will follow the standard LTS support period of three years, and will be supported until April 2029.

You can download Lubuntu 26.04 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 25.10 installation, please visit our manual page describing the process.

What's new since 24.04 LTS?

LXQt

LXQt 2.3 is now shipped by default. More information on its release can be found here: 2.3.0

2048-qt

2048-qt is somewhat broken in Ubuntu 26.04 and therefore was removed from Lubuntu. See the Resolute Beta release notes for details.

rust-coreutils and sudo-rs

Many of the GNU coreutils were replaced by Rust equivalents in Ubuntu 25.10. The traditional sudo system was similarly replaced with a Rust rewrite. Ubuntu 26.04 is the first LTS release to ship with Rust-based coreutils and sudo. See the 25.10 release notes for details.

LXQt 2.0 and Qt 6, Kvantum theming

Lubuntu 26.04 is the first LTS release of Lubuntu to ship with a primarily Qt 6-based environment. Qt 6 applications should now be themed nicely, instead of looking somewhat drab like they once did. Recent versions of LXQt also come with a much improved application menu, "Fancy Menu", which we have switched to. We also use Kvantum as our theming engine instead of Breeze. See the 25.04 release notes and 24.10 release notes and for details.

Artwork

As usual, new releases come with new artwork, and this time around our artwork contributors provided a combination of hand-drawn and fractal artwork for our wallpaper and login screen.

A raccoon climbing a tree looks out at the starry night sky and galaxy above

Blue waves flow in turbulent but delicate patterns over a dark background

Known Issues

  • KWallet and KWalletManager are being installed by default instead of gnome-keyring: Bug link
  • Alacritty is being installed alongside QTerminal: Bug link

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release: You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Want an easy way to access the manual? Just double-click the “Lubuntu Manual” icon on the desktop.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our Matrix chat and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here. If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you! We’d also like to thank previous (and hopefully future!) contributors to the Lubuntu project. We wouldn’t be where we are today without you! We also wanted to give a special mention to Julien Lavergne, our Project Lead Emeritus and Founder. Without you, the Lubuntu project would not exist. Thank you.

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English.

Copy of Original posted at https://lubuntu.me/lubuntu-26-04-lts-released/

6 Likes

The stable manual link will give you the new Lubuntu 26.04 LTS Manual.

The LTS manual link will give the older Lubuntu 24.04 LTS Manual.

The development manual link will show work on the upcoming stonking release (26.10), but don’t look for changes there yet.

( Lubuntu 25.10 manual has been replaced with 26.04 manual; so 25.10 manual can no longer be viewed online )

5 Likes

Thanks a lot. It works like a charm.:+1:

1 Like

Is this a live iso to try before install?

All Lubuntu ISOs have been live since Lubuntu 18.04.1, thus offering a TRY and/or INSTALL.

The alternate ISO we provided with the initial Lubuntu 18.04 LTS release was the last non-live ISO we provided; and that reached EOL years ago.

1 Like

great thanks for the quick response , I’ll give it a spin. Have a low end Acer that about to rescue

I seem to be having an issue upgrading from 24.04.

I followed the manual page instructions from above and managed to upgrade from 24.04 to 25.10.

Now when I try to upgrade to 26.04, I get the following:

sudo do-release-upgrade
[sudo: authenticate] Password:
Checking for a new Ubuntu release
No new release found.

I have tried both setting in the Software Sources setting, but it makes no difference. Is there something else I am missing?

Thanks.

That is currently expected.

Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, which includes all flavors like Lubuntu too, is only released and stable for new installs, as only the ISO release has occurred.

I’ll refer you to an answer I wrote somewhat recently.

(my reply is 2nd post on that thread but the question related to a Ubuntu 25.10 upgrade to Ubuntu 26.04.

If you check the meta-release file you’ll see a “Supported: 0” against resolute or 26.04, as upgrade is not currently supported.

Ian’s response too (@g-schick posted) is also good advice; ie. reference to Best practice for a successful release-upgrade to 26.04

Ubuntu 25.10 to 26.04 will upgrade soon, be it days or a week or two, but we’re not at that stage yet.

I think what you are missing is six months of waiting. The upgrade path to any flavour of 26.04 LTS will not be open for another six months. As I understand things.

If you had stayed on 24.04 LTS you would have got an invitation to directly upgrade to 26.04 LTS in six months time. You would have by-passed the interim releases in between the two LTS releases.

Regards

Upgrades from Ubuntu 24.04 LTS to Ubuntu 26.04 LTS are offered after the release of Ubuntu 26.04.1; that’s scheduled for [late] August, so it’s not quite six months (six months away is Ubuntu 26.10).

Ubuntu 25.10 reaches EOL in three months; so the upgrade from it has to open before that date, it’s expected, as I stated in days or weeks, or as Ian suggested a couple of weeks. It’ll happen before it reaches EOL at minimum.

The upgrade from 24.04 to 26.04 is a large step; upgrading through four releases, or a full two year development cycle; where the upgrade from 25.10 (to 26.04) is a somewhat tiny step (in comparison) that’s why it’s always much much sooner; after all many of the upgrades happened in prior cycles (24.10, 25.04 & 25.10 - so its only the last portion).

1 Like

Thanks @guiverc @graymech - appreciate the quick responses.

I guess when the release notes specifically mentioned the upgrade path from 25.10 to 26.04, I assumed it was in place.
Happy to wait for a bit longer :slight_smile:

1 Like

Good point

Our wording could have been more specific with mention maybe of it opening soon after ISO release; sorry.

2 Likes