Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 878

Ubuntu Weekly News
1

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 878 for the week of February 2 - 8, 2025.

In this Issue

  • Spec: Switch to Dracut
  • Ubuntu Studio: LTS Upgrades (22.04 to 24.04) ARE BACK!
  • Welcome New Members and Developers
  • Ubuntu Stats
  • Hot in Support
  • Rocks Public Journal; 2025-02-07
  • LXD: Weekly news #381
  • Other Meeting Reports
  • Upcoming Meetings and Events
  • Ubuntu Nepal’s First Training Session Completed Successfully
  • Linux Fest by FOSS IIIT Kalyani, first event sponsored by Ubuntu India
  • LoCo Events
  • Lubuntu: Fancy Menu as default?
  • UbuCon @ SCaLE 22x
  • UbuCon Asia 2025 Happening This August ! Look At The Dates
  • Support and Help Update in Edubuntu
  • Call for testing: mesa-core22, mesa-2404 (Nvidia support), ubuntu-frame-vnc (authentication), ubuntu-frame-osk (themes)
  • Canonical brings GenAI to GIMP 3.0 with Intel® OpenVINO AI Plugins
  • Other Community News
  • Ubuntu Cloud News
  • Canonical News
  • In the Blogosphere
  • Featured Audio and Video
  • Updates and Security for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, and 24.10
  • And much more!

General Community News

Spec: Switch to Dracut

Benjamin Drung has provided a specification document that will “Switch the default initrd infrastructure from initramfs-tools to Dracut”. The rationale for change is provided, along with detailed specifications, considered alternatives, and more.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/spec-switch-to-dracut/54776

Ubuntu Studio: LTS Upgrades (22.04 to 24.04) ARE BACK!

The Ubuntu Studio team make it known that the release-upgrade issue for users of 22.04 preventing them from upgrading to 24.04 has now been fixed. The fix is discussed, and potential problems in the upgrade & a mitigation is provided. An apology is given for the ‘inconvenience’ the bug caused, with a reminder that Ubuntu Studio 22.04 LTS reaches End of Life in April 2025.

https://ubuntustudio.org/2025/02/lts-upgrades-22-04-to-24-04-are-back/

Welcome New Members and Developers

Congratulations, Carlos! Thank you for your contributions to Ubuntu, and welcome to the family!

Ubuntu Stats

Bug Stats

  • Open: 144044 (+47)
  • Critical: 308 (+3)
  • Unconfirmed: 73782 (+52)

As always, the Bug Squad needs more help. If you want to get started, please see: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BugSquad

Translations

  • German: 86.90% (45978/175)
  • Ukrainian: 86.24% (48298/1393)
  • French: 84.88% (53091/6322)
  • Swedish: 80.34% (69028/791)
  • Spanish: 77.26% (79824/4601)

Hot in Support

Ubuntu Community Discourse Trending Top 5 Threads

Find more support at: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/c/support-and-help/306

Ask Ubuntu Top 5 Questions

Ask (and answer!) questions at: https://askubuntu.com/

Meeting Reports

Rocks Public Journal; 2025-02-07

Rockcraft 1.8.0 is out, as well as Chisel v1.1.0! Chisel now has its own documentation pages. We’ve also re-licensed Chisel’s jsonwall and manifest packages such that these can be used from other 3rd party tools. Finally, our chiseled .NET 9 container images are out!

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rocks-public-journal-2025-02-07/54782
https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/rocks-public-journal-2025-02-03/54506

LXD: Weekly news #381

This past week, LXD received several new features, including improved profile listing with customizable columns and support for fetching profiles across all projects. Additionally, the maximum number of uplink IPs consumed by OVN networks can now be limited on a per-uplink network basis within a project.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/weekly-news-381/54569

Other Meeting Reports

Upcoming Meetings and Events

Times shown are UTC unless otherwise specified. For more details and farther dates please visit: https://fridge.ubuntu.com/calendars/ | https://discourse.ubuntu.com/upcoming-events

LoCo News

Ubuntu Nepal’s First Training Session Completed Successfully

Aaditya Singh gives a report on Ubuntu Nepal’s ‘first instruction and training session’ which was successful. We’re given details, told the speakers, the topics covered, provided photos, and told the session lasted over three hours. Thanks is given to all participants, and to GNOME Nepal for their support and collaboration.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-nepals-first-training-session-completed-successfully/54517

Linux Fest by FOSS IIIT Kalyani, first event sponsored by Ubuntu India

Soumyadeep Ghosh reports of this first hosting by Ubuntu India sponsored Linux Fest, FOSS IIIT Kalyani. Soumyadeep tells of the talks he presented and the eager responses of the attendees. He shares some snaps from the day’s event and extends his thanks to those who made the “collaboration happen”.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/linux-fest-by-foss-iiit-kalyani-first-event-sponsored-by-ubuntu-india/54826

LoCo Events

The following LoCo team events are currently scheduled in the next two weeks:

Looking beyond the next two weeks? Visit the respective LoCo Team calendar to browse upcoming events.

Please see:

The Hub

Lubuntu: Fancy Menu as default?

Walter Lapchynski writes about the lxqt-plugin-wingmenu and Fancy Menu, and shows us how it looks with some ‘rough’ theming. This thread opens some discussion about what to include with Lubuntu 25.04.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/devel-fancy-menu-as-default/54456

UbuCon @ SCaLE 22x

Jason C. Nucciarone posts that he, Aaron J. Prisk, Nathan Haines, and Richard Gaskin are announcing that UbuCon is returning to SCaLE on March 7, 2025, and we’re invited. We’re given some details of SCaLE 22x, including links for more or to register, as well as to the UbuCon @ SCaLE 22x page.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubucon-scale-22x/54604

UbuCon Asia 2025 Happening This August ! Look At The Dates

Aaditya Singh gives us details of UbuCon Asia 2025, along with the dates (August 30-31 2025). We’re told it’ll happen at Kathmandu Nepal. This is a collaboration between the UbunCon Asia Committee, Ubuntu Nepal and GNOME Nepal.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubucon-asia-2025-happening-this-august-look-at-the-dates/54632

Support and Help Update in Edubuntu

Erich Eickmeyer writes that Edubuntu users’ access means have been updated and the Ask Ubuntu icon has been removed; being replaced by support options at Ubuntu Discourse. Details of a new “Connect with Community” option is also covered. If you’re not seeing these icons, what you can do is covered.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/support-and-help-update-in-edubuntu/54731

Call for testing: mesa-core22, mesa-2404 (Nvidia support), ubuntu-frame-vnc (authentication), ubuntu-frame-osk (themes)

Michał Sawicz reports the availability for testing of mesa-core22, mesa-2404, ubuntu-frame-osk & ubuntu-frame-vnc. We’re given details of the notable changes with links for more if required, and told how we can update to these test candidates so as to test. We are told to use them normally, with details on testing the Nvidia support, and told these products will be promoted to stable in a week if no problems are identified.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-testing-mesa-core22-mesa-2404-nvidia-support-ubuntu-frame-vnc-authentication-ubuntu-frame-osk-themes/54754

Canonical brings GenAI to GIMP 3.0 with Intel® OpenVINO AI Plugins

Will French informs us of a “new set of plugins capable of performing AI operations” being available for the GIMP 3.0 RC2 release. We’re told these use Intel’s OpenVINO library for AI, told how this maybe beneficial for us, and how we can take advantage of this, including NPU acceleration (if using Ubuntu 22.04 or newer). Links for more details are provided along with a reminder that these plugins are still in beta. We are requested to report issues on the appropriate GitHub repository.

https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/canonical-brings-genai-to-gimp-3-0-with-intel-openvino-ai-plugins/54799

Other Community News

Lubuntu Plucky Puffin Alpha Notes

Simon Quigley provides an update for progress in the development of Lubuntu 25.04. Remarks are in respects to: two minute Minimal Install, faster Snap installation, Qt 6, moving to Dracut, Wayland, Matrix, the Discourse transition, and more. Some of these items include explaining how they worked in the past helping us understand how the improvements were achieved. We’re told there is more to come too.

https://lubuntu.me/plucky-alpha/

Free Software Awards: Choose your nominations by March 5

This post reminds us about the Free Software Awards, and allows us to nominate people that meet one of the covered awards. We’re given links for more if required.

https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/2025-awards-nominations-open

Ubuntu Cloud News

Canonical News

In the Blogosphere

GNOME 48 Lands HDR Support Bits At The Last Minute

Michael Larabel tells us that feature freeze for GNOME 48 has past and outlines here one of the late landing changes: High Dynamic Range (HDR) code for Mutter.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-48-HDR

Fwupd 2.0.5 Firmware Updater Adds Support for More ELAN Fingerprint Readers

Marius Nestor writes about Fwupd 2.0.5 which has been released, giving us details of some of the improvement/additions in it for specific hardware. A link to the GitHub page is provided if we need more.

https://9to5linux.com/fwupd-2-0-5-linux-firmware-updater-adds-support-for-more-elan-fingerprint-readers

NVIDIA 570.86.16 Beta Driver added VRR Support on Multiple Monitors

Ji M blogs about the release of the NVIDIA 570.86.16 beta driver for Linux users. Some of the improvements found in this new beta are mentioned, others listed, with details of how to download and install it provided too.

https://ubuntuhandbook.org/index.php/2025/02/nvidia-570-86-16-beta-vrr-multiple-monitors/

GNOME Mutter 48 Beta Released With HDR Bits, Gdctl Utility

Michael Larabel tells us the GNOME Mutter 48 compositor beta is available for testing, giving us some brief highlights, and he provides a link to the GNOME GitLab for the release commit.

https://www.phoronix.com/news/GNOME-Mutter-48-Beta

Featured Audio and Video

Ubuntu Portugal Podcast: Episode 335 - Campeonato do Mundo de SuperTux Kart

“Nesta semana demos uma ajuda ao PODES 2024, o primeiro festival de podcasts em Portugal, e até trouxemos um prémio de… Horticultura!? Também enfrentámos as mais turbulentas tempestades e fomos para além da Taproban…fomos…fomos a São Mamede de Infesta - no LCD Porto, para a inauguração da primeira ECTL Porto, com outras comunidades de tecnologias Livres. Falámos com vários convidados (António Aragão, Joana Simões, André Barbosa, André Alves e Benjamim) e até alguns batoteiros de Super Tux Kart.”

https://podcastubuntuportugal.org/e335/

Updates and Security for Ubuntu 20.04, 22.04, 24.04, and 24.10

Security Updates

Ubuntu 20.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2025

Ubuntu 22.04 Updates

End of Standard Support: April 2027

Ubuntu 24.04 Updates

End of standard support: April 2029

Ubuntu 24.10 Updates

End of Life: July 2025

Subscribe

Get your copy of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter delivered each week to you via email at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-news

Or follow us via our various social media presences:

Archive

You can always find older Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter issues at: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuWeeklyNewsletter/Archive

Further News

As always you can find more Ubuntu news and announcements at:

Conclusion

Thank you for reading the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter.

See you next week!

Credits

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Krytarik Raido
  • Bashing-om
  • Chris Guiver
  • Wild Man
  • Din Mušić - LXD
  • Cristovao Cordeiro (cjdc) - Rocks
  • Soumyadeep Ghosh
  • And many others

Glossary of Terms

Other acronyms can be found at: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/glossary-uwn/42405

Get Involved

The Ubuntu community consists of individuals and teams, working on different aspects of the distribution, giving advice and technical support, and helping to promote Ubuntu to a wider audience. No contribution is too small, and anyone can help. It’s your chance to get in on all the community fun associated with developing and promoting Ubuntu. More on this at: https://community.ubuntu.com/contribute/

Or get involved with the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter team! We always need summary writers and editors, if you’re interested, learn more at: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/joining-the-ubuntu-weekly-newsletter-team/40929

Feedback

This document is maintained by the Ubuntu Weekly News Team. If you have a story idea or suggestions for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/Ubuntu-news-team and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-weekly-newsletter-ideas/40053/. If you’d like to contribute to a future issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, please feel free to edit the appropriate wiki page. If you have any technical support questions, please check https://community.ubuntu.com/help-information/ for more information on where to get help.

Except where otherwise noted, this issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License.

5 Likes