Introduction

These release notes for Kubuntu 21.04 (Hirsute Hippo) provide an overview of the release and document the known issues.

Details of the changes in the Ubuntu base, including kernel, toolchain and build options can be found in the main Ubuntu Release Notes.

Support lifespan

Kubuntu 21.04 will be supported for 9 Months.

Getting Kubuntu 21.04

Upgrading from 20.10

Detailed upgrade instructions can be found here: Upgrade Kubuntu 20.10 to 21.04

Download a Disk Image

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

New features and changes in 21.04

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 4th scheduled bugfix release of 5.21 (5.21.4).

The new plasma-system monitor is pre-installed, however the more familiar ksysguard is also available.

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 7.1 is provided by default in the full installation.

Qt

Kubuntu 21.04 ships with Qt 5.15.2

Other new and updated applications

• Krita is updated to 4.4.3
• Kdevelop is updated to 5.6.2

• kio-fuse is installable from the repositories, but cannot yet be included on the ISO due to Bug: 1916390

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. The Wayland session is provided for testing and evaluation only, and is not supported.

Known issues

Installer and live session

• (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

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