Ubuntu Studio shares some of the same desktop features as Kubuntu. Please see Kubuntu release notes for additional information.
Getting Ubuntu Studio 25.04
Download a Disk Image
Bootable images for standard PCs/laptops
Instructions for burning the image to a USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto. NOTE: This ISO image exceeds 4.0GB and will not write correctly to a DVD. We recommend USB flash drives be used as installation media of 8GB or greater.
Check SHA256SUM for the downloaded ISO
It is recommended to check your image file so your installation goes smoothly. Compare your SHA256 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.
Upgrading to Ubuntu Studio 25.04
Upgrades to 25.04 from 24.10 are usually enabled within two weeks after release and you should receive a notification if you are running Ubuntu Studio 24.10 that an upgrade is available when they are ready. If you do not receive a notification about a month after the release of Ubuntu Studio 25.04, make sure you have plasma-distro-release-notifier installed.
To upgrade automatically, click on the notification icon in your system tray.
To manually upgrade, ensure the package press Alt+Space to invoke Krunner, and type the following:
do-release-upgrade -m desktop -f DistUpgradeViewKDE
Alternatively, you can do this from the Konsole terminal:
do-release-upgrade -m desktop
If you wish to upgrade early, simply add a -d after do-release-upgrade. Note that this is not supported and could break your system.
Changes for this release
(compared to 24.10 Oracular Oriole)
This release is mostly evoluntionary rather than revolutionary. It does include a newer version of most applications and a newer version of KDE Plasma 6, but not a whole lot of changes.
The most noticeable change is that the default panel icons are back and that default is dynamic based on which one of those applications is installed.
Audio
- PipeWire upgraded to 1.2.7
- lsp-plugins upgraded to 1.2.21
- Audacity upgraded to 3.7.3
- Ardour upgraded to 812.0
- RaySession upgraded to 0.14.4
Graphics
- digiKam upgraded to 8.5.0
- gimp upgraded to 3.0.0
- krita upgraded to 5.2.9
Photography
- Darktable upgraded to 5.0.1
Video
- Blender upgraded to 4.3.2
- KDEnlive upgraded to 24.12.3
- Freeshow upgraded to 1.3.9
Default Desktop Environment
- KDE Plasma Desktop upgraded to 6.3.3
- KDE Frameworks upgraded to 6.12.0
- Qt upgraded to 6.8.2
- KDE Gear upgraded to 24.12.3
Current Version of Main Multimedia Packages
- Blender v4.3.2
- KDEnlive v24.12.3
- Krita v5.2.9
- Gimp v3.0.0
- Ardour v8.12.0
- Scribus v1.6.3
- Darktable v5.0.1
- Inkscape v1.2.2
- Carla v2.5.9
- OBS Studio v30.2.3
- MyPaint v2.0.1
- Audacity v3.7.3
A note about TLP (Tuned for Linux Power)
Many people prefer using tlp for power management on Linux-based laptops, usually after following many guides online. However, installing tlp will result in a conflict against power-profiles-daemon, which is installed in Ubuntu Studio.
power-profiles-daemon is required by the KDE Plasma desktop environment and is the preferred choice for power management on Ubuntu Studio. Uninstalling it will result in uninstallation of ubuntustudio-desktop-core which may result in the auto-removal of the entire desktop environment.
For power management in Ubuntu Studio, please do not attempt to install tlp as we cannot support it. Instead, use the built-in Power Profiles, which are in the Power Management menu in the system tray.
For fine-tuning of CPU power usage, cpupowergui is also installed by default.
Known Problems
The installer screen and slideshow still show the logo from last release. This is work-in-progress.FIXED- The installer was supposed to be able to keep the screen from locking, but this will still happen after 15 minutes. Please keep the screen active during installation. As a workaround if you know you will be keeping your machine unattended during installation, click on the system tray’s down-pointing triangle, click on the “Power Management” Icon, and click on “Manually Block” under “Sleep and Screen Locking after Inactivity”. This works in the live session as well as in the installer-only session.
Another possible workaround is to click on “Switch User” and then re-login as “Live User” without a password if this happens. - You will be prompted, upon first login of any new user, to reboot to apply proper audio configurations for audio production. This is intentional and is a workaround for the installer’s inability to configure the first user as part of the “audio” group or for new users to be added to the audio group automatically.
- Ubuntu Studio uses the same KDE Plasma desktop environment as the official Kubuntu release, and thus, may be affected by some of the same issues. This is also true of the core packages of Ubuntu. You can see their release notes here (Kubuntu) and here (Ubuntu).
Support
Ubuntu Studio 25.04 (Plucky Puffin) will be supported for 9 months until January 2026.