We’re preparing Lubuntu 15.04, Vivid Vervet, for distribution in April 2015. With this Beta pre-release, we are now at the stage of being semi stable. However pre-releases are not suitable for a production environment.

NOTE: This is an beta 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 Beta 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.

Beta 1 Highlights

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

Software Updates

Infrastructure

Linux Kernel

The Beta 1 Vivid Vervet snapshot includes the 3.16.0-28.38 Ubuntu Linux kernel which is based on the the upstream v3.16 Linux kernel. The 3.16 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

• File-roller help is missing: 1409185

• Abiword opens multiple windows when spacebar is pressed, until a new file is opened: 1395323

• Lubuntu Software Centre has an issue where it cannot update, the use of apt-get or synaptic package manager is the current work around. LSC / UC Bug

• autoresizing ubiquity claims xfs partions are smaller when they are larger

• 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

• A long missed issue with using LVM with alternate image has been discovered and is being further investigated.Grub will not install on LVM encrypted

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.