Introduction

We are preparing Kubuntu Hirsute Hippo (21.04) for release in April, 2021. With this Beta pre-release, you can see what we are testing in preparation for our next version.

The Kubuntu team will be releasing 21.04 in April.

NOTE:

This is Beta Release. Kubuntu Beta Releases are NOT recommended for:

• Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues
• Anyone who needs a stable system
• Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system
• Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Kubuntu Beta Releases are recommended for:

• Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs
• Kubuntu, KDE, and Qt developers

Please report your results on the Release tracker.

Getting Kubuntu 21.04 Beta

Upgrading from 20.10

To upgrade to a Kubuntu 21.04 pre-release, run sudo do-release-upgrade -d from a command line.

Download a Disk Image

Download a Bootable image. Direct downloads, torrents, and zysnc are available as options.

New features and changes in 21.04 Beta

Core desktop and applications

Plasma 5.21: simple by default, powerful when needed

Plasma 5, the latest generation of KDE's desktop has been developed to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup. The Plasma 5.21 series is the default in this version of Kubuntu.

Plasma 5.21 has been developed to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup. Kubuntu beta ships the 3rd scheduled bugfix release of 5.21 (5.21.3).

KDE Apps updates, including 20.12.3 release service and other updated apps

Web browser and office suite

• Firefox 87 is the default browser

• LibreOffice 7.2 is provided by default in the full installation.

Qt

Kubuntu 21.04 Beta ships with Qt 5.15.2

Other new and updated applications

• Elisa 20.12.3 music player is now the default.
• Krita is updated to 4.4.3
• Kdevelop is updated to 5.6.2

Other highlights/notes

Plasma Wayland session

• A Plasma Wayland session is installed, but is not the default. A Wayland session can be started by selecting it at the login screen.

Known issues

Installer and live session

• (1920665) The ubiquity installer may fail to start in a virtual machine, or on hardware where the ISO is booted in safe graphics mode.

• (1912327) Ubiquity crashed when selecting WiFi network - This can be worked around by booting to the full live session, and connecting to wifi via the sytem tray applet before launching the installer.

• (1916331) Cannot Select TimeZone at Install

• (1681144) Clicking on URLs in Kubuntu Installer Slideshow does nothing

• (1681830) Ubiquity installer - No Label shown for where to enter LVM Encryption Passwords fields

• (1706859) Auto-selected keyboard layout no longer matches chosen region on "Where are you" page

ZFS on root installer support

This was not implemented for the KDE front-end to the Ubiquity installer.

Other issues

All bugs tagged with Kubuntu

Older bugs:

• (1442512) Apport-kde crash when reporting bugs

Feedback

Development of Kubuntu 21.04, Hirsute Hippo, is ongoing and bugs are fixed every day. Before reporting bugs, please ensure your system is up to date. For verifying installation related bugs, updated disk images are available from Daily bootable images for standard PCs and laptops.

You can give us feedback on Facebook or Twitter.