Ubuntu Studio shares some of the same desktop features as Kubuntu. Please see Kubuntu release notes for additional information.
Getting Ubuntu Studio 25.10
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 25.10
Upgrades to 25.10 from 25.04 are usually enabled within two weeks after release and you should receive a notification if you are running Ubuntu Studio 25.04 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 25.10, make sure you have plasma-distro-release-notifier installed.
NOTE: upgrade notifier is failing at the moment to perform the upgrade.
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 -f DistUpgradeViewKDE
Alternatively, you can do this from the Konsole terminal:
do-release-upgrade
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 25.04 Plucky Puffin)
- Additional optional layout for our macOS refugees who wish to have a familiar layout consisting of a lower dock and global menu.
- New configuration options in Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration
- JackTrip has been added for those needing a GUI way to network audio between computers or collaborate remotely.
- IDJC (Internet DJ Console) has returned after a long absence.
- Added a bunch of miscellaneous audio plugins and synthesizers
- Added photocollage and picplanner
Audio
- PipeWire upgraded to 1.4.7
- lsp-plugins upgraded to 1.2.23
- Audacity upgraded to 3.7.5
- Carla upgraded to 2.5.10
Graphics
- gimp upgraded to 3.0.4
- krita upgraded to 5.2.11
- inkscape upgraded to 1.4.2
Photography
- digiKam upgraded to 8.7.0
Video
- KDEnlive upgraded to 25.08.1
- Freeshow upgraded to 1.4.9
Default Desktop Environment
- KDE Plasma Desktop upgraded to 6.4.5
- KDE Frameworks upgraded to 6.17
- Qt upgraded to 6.8.3
- KDE Gear upgraded to 25.08.1
Current Version of Main Multimedia Packages
- Blender v4.3.2
- KDEnlive v25.08.1
- Krita v5.2.11
- Gimp v3.0.4
- Ardour v8.12.0
- Scribus v1.6.3
- Darktable v5.0.1
- Inkscape v1.4.2
- Carla v2.5.10
- OBS Studio v30.2.3
- MyPaint v2.0.1
- Audacity v3.7.5
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
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An issue with the upgrade notifier has been identified where the upgrader fails with a blank error window.
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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.FIXED as long as the installer is running. If you open the live session without the installer running and leave it alone, the screen will eventually time-out and ask for a password (which doesn’t exist but it wants it anyway).
A workaround includes clicking the “Manually Block” button in the Power & Battery widget as shown below:
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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.
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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 (All of Ubuntu).
Support
Ubuntu Studio 25.10 (Questing Quokka) will be supported for 9 months until July 2026.