We’re preparing Lubuntu 15.04, Vivid Vervet, for distribution in April 2015. With this early Alpha pre-release, you can see what we are trying out in preparation for our next version. We have some interesting things happening, so read on for highlights and information.

NOTE: This is an alpha pre-release. Lubuntu Pre-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

Lubuntu Pre-releases ARE recommended for:

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

Getting Lubuntu 15.04 Alpha 1

Download a Disk Image

• Bootable images for standard PCs/laptops/netbooks

Instructions for burning the image to a DVD or USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto.

We recommend you learn how to check your image file so your pre-release is as it’s supposed to be. Compare your MD5 checksum with the correct ones found alongside the images.

Alpha 1 Highlights

• LXQt is still in development, so Vivid Vervet is another bug fix release.

Software Updates

Infrastructure

Linux Kernel

The Alpha 1 Vivid Unicorn snapshot includes the 3.16.0-28.38 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the the upstream v3.16 Linux kernel. The 3.15 release includes increased ARM support and improved drivers (Radeon, Intel, and Nvidia graphics), to name a few; additional highlights are described here.

Known Problems

• Notification dialogs have striped background: 1362555

• There appear to be several problems related to Intel Macs: 226894, 1245159, 1382939, 1403633

Lubuntu Desktop Installer

• No option to install alongside a btrfs partition: 1403624

• Install alongside offers to install to USB boot media instead of hard drive: 1403620

Lubuntu Alternate Installer

• Guided partitioning "max" gives minimum instead: 1163908

Feedback

Development of Lubuntu 15.04, the Vivid Vervet 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/laptops/netbooks.

Please feel free to contact us with feedback.