Introduction

We are preparing Kubuntu Noble Numbat (24.04 LTS) for release in April, 2024. With this Beta pre-release, you can see what we are testing in preparation for our next version.

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 installation results on the Release tracker.

General bug reporting guidelines can be found here: ReportingBugs and KubuntuBugTriage.

Getting Kubuntu 24.04 LTS Beta

Upgrading from 23.10

To upgrade to a Kubuntu 24.04 LTS pre-release version, 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 24.04 LTS Beta

Calamares Installer New Kubuntu Branding! ( Didn't make beta )

Core desktop and applications

Plasma 5.27: simple by default, powerful when needed

Plasma 5.27 has been developed to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup. Plasma 5.27 is intended to be an LTS, to be supported for a few more bugfix releases. 24.04 Beta ships with the 11th bugfix release (5.27.11)

KDE Applications updates, including KDE Gear 23.08.5 and other updated apps

Web browser and office suite

• Firefox 117 snap is the default browser from the Snap Store.

• LibreOffice 24.2 is provided by default in the full installation.

Qt and KDE Frameworks

Kubuntu 24.04 LTS Beta ships with Qt 5.15.12 and KDE Frameworks Version: 5.115.

Pipewire

Pipewire has been the default audio backend since 22.10, replacing pulseaudio.

Other highlights/notes

Plasma Wayland session

• A Plasma Wayland session is available for testing, but is not currently supported. A Wayland session can be started by installing the plasma-workspace-wayland package, log out, select it at the login screen.

Known issues

Installer and live session

• (Bug 2054246) Cannot unlock screen on NN live ISO
• (Bug 2060845) New branding Kubuntu
• (Bug 2060970) Kubuntu: Firefox does not launch.. not connected to the gnome-42-2204 content interface

Other issues

• All bugs tagged with Kubuntu

Feedback

Development of Kubuntu 24.04 LTS, Noble Numbat, 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.