October is fast approaching and with it the Oracular Oriole! As with any new release of Ubuntu, our team of developers from Canonical and the community work hard to ensure it’s stable and bug free. You can join our intrepid army of testers and help them squash any sneaky bugs that remain!
This Ubuntu Testing Week kicks off on August 22nd and runs until the 29th. During that stretch, we encourage everyone to grab a copy of the latest build, run some tests and share your results.
Join in the Testing Effort
Testing is fun and easy! Start by simply downloading one of the various daily images (Found below), perform the variety of the relevant test cases found on the ISO Tracker and report your results. Tests can be performed in a virtual environment or directly on hardware. Testers can perform as few or as many test cases as they like.
Testing Focuses
GNOME 47
Oracular will ship with the latest GNOME 47 desktop and its numerous new features and fixes among them being new accent color support, better gesture support and improved remote desktop capabilities. You can find more changes and details about the latest alpha release of GNOME 47 here.
GNOME often releases new versions of the desktop around the time we release new versions of Ubuntu, so it’s essential that we quickly identify any bugs that may exist. Here are few tasks you can perform that can help:
- Log in via Wayland and Xorg session and try various applications.
- Move applications between workspaces.
- Change background, accent color and other settings from within the Settings panel.
- Test desktop using various graphics hardware, if available.
- If using a trackpad, try navigating the desktop via gestures.
- Install, test and remove GNOME extensions.
- Test out the newly updated Remote Desktop application.
If you experience any issues, please consider filling a bug report.
Wayland on NVIDIA GPU based systems
Starting with Ubuntu 24.10, devices with NVIDIA graphics hardware will automatically default to a Wayland session when logging into the desktop. Wayland has been available for NVIDIA users for some time, however it has been the alternative to the default Xorg session.
If you have a green team graphics card in your machine, help out by doing some of the following tasks:
- Prior to logging in, ensure the Wayland session is active by default. Click the gear on the login screen and look for the session titled “Ubuntu”.
- Open up various graphical applications and look for any screen anomalies or odd behavior.
- Try different versions of the NVIDIA graphics drivers from within the Additional Drivers application.
- Test out GPU accelerated software like OBS, Blender or games from Steam (see next section).
- Test session and power management functionality - Logout, suspend, reboot.
If you experience any issues, please consider filling a bug report. While doing so, please report your graphics card model, current graphics driver version and any other information that may be helpful for our team.
Steam Snap
The Steam Snap has received a number of major updates and improvements to make it a more stable and reliable gaming experience . If you’re not familiar with the Steam Snap and some of the unique features and benefits that it provides, check out this blog post.
You can help us make the gaming experience even better for Ubuntu gamers by performing some of the following tasks:
- Install and play various titles.
- Try different controllers and gaming peripherals.
- Test out social features like chat and screenshot uploading.
- Transfers games between devices.
- Stream a game to another PC or SteamDeck.
- Save and download saves via CloudSync.
- Add a non-steam game to your library.
- Add a new Steam library folder and install/run games from it.
If you experience any issues while playing, please consider creating an issue on the Steam Snap Github repository. Be sure to include the type of hardware you’re using and any additional information that could be helpful in identifying the problem.
App Center and Snap Refresh Behavior
The Ubuntu App Center has seen a number of fixes and improvements since it took over software management duties. In Oracular Oriole, Debian packages can now be installed using the App Center. When installing a Debian package, users will see a new screen informing them of its third party nature.
Over the past few releases, the desktop team has been working on improving the general UI experience around Snap management. When Snaps perform a refresh, it will now show a visual indicator under the application icon on the dash letting you see update progress.
To make sure it’s the freshest of releases, you can help by doing the following:
- Install, Remove and Update Snaps within the App Center
- Install and remove a Debian package using the App Center
- Try switching Install Channels for Snap applications
If you run into any problems while testing out these features, please consider filling an issue on the App Center Github repository.
Chat with fellow Testers
Testing is a community effort and a great opportunity to meet your fellow Ubuntu enthusiasts. Start chatting about your test findings on the Ubuntu Testing Matrix Space, on the Ubuntu Testers Telegram Group, or on the #testing-cycles channel on the Ubuntu Hideout Discord server.
Download Daily Images
Below you will find links to the daily images for Ubuntu and its various official flavours. Please take note of the architecture you’re downloading as test cases may be different for each.
Ubuntu Flavour Testing
Ubuntu Flavours are an important part of our ecosystem and also rely on community testers to ensure their releases are stable and ready for general use. While their testing process is typically very similar to Ubuntu, it’s important to follow their community’s additional testing guidance.
Edubuntu Images
Kubuntu Images
Lubuntu Images
Ubuntu Budgie Images
Ubuntu Cinnamon Images
Ubuntu Kylin Images
Ubuntu MATE Images
Ubuntu Studio Images
Ubuntu Unity Images
Xubuntu Images
Additional Learning Resources for Testers
Testing is an excellent way to contribute to the Ubuntu Community. Learn more about contributing via QA and Testing.
For new tester support and additional QA information, please check out our various learning resources:
- New Tester Guide
- The Keys to Successful Bug Reporting
- Testing Walkthrough
- QA Development Setup
- Join the Ubuntu Quality Launchpad Team
More Testing to Come
With new releases of Ubuntu, we often have multiple rounds of testing as new features are added and changed. Stay tuned to the Ubuntu Discourse for future testing opportunities.
