We’re preparing Lubuntu 16.04, Xenial Xerus, for distribution in April 2016. 16.04 will be an LTS. As 16.04 is an LTS, the focus is on looking out for and fixing bugs.

NOTE: This is the Beta1 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 Beta 1 pre-releases ARE recommended for:

• Users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs. You can find more about helping to test and bug hunt at lubuntu testing.

• Lubuntu developers.
• People wanting to see and test how the final lubuntu 16.04 will look and behave.

Getting Lubuntu 16.04 Beta 1

The full listing of available images is here. You must check both the download and then the check install media on 1st boot before attempting an install. Instructions for burning the image to a CD / DVD or copying to a USB flash drive can be found on the Burning ISO Howto.

Upgrading from Previous Versions

To upgrade to Lubuntu 16.04 from previous 14.04 or 15.10 releases, follow the Upgrade Instructions.

16.04 Highlights

• LXQt is still in development, as such Xenial Xerus is GTK based.
• This Xenial Xerus snapshot includes the v4.4 kernel. 16.04 will ship with this kernel.
• As this is an LTS, there will be a new PPC version released.

Known Problems

Common Infrastructure

This is a list of bugs affecting all flavors.

• Shutdown/Restart of live session guest does not work in Virtualbox and VMWare (1447038).

• Prompt for entering password for encrypted system not displayed at boot time (1530548 Workaround Exists).

• Plymouth does not display the graphical boot splash (1370707).

• "Check disc for defects" boot option displays no text some flavors (1547302).

• cryptsetup password prompt not shown (1359689).

• The prompt asking for media removal is not shown at the end of the installation (966480).

• The input box for editing a Wired connection static IP address doesn't appear correctly (1530323).

• Ubuntu installer says: The creation of swap space in partition failed (990744 Workaround Exists).

Lubuntu Applications

This is our list of known bugs affecting applications that Lubuntu uses but relies on others to maintain.

• Abiword language selector text cut off in abiword (1484785).

• gnumeric menu ->help ->about gnumeric -> license button, does not work. (1516454).

• Software properties gtk implies my cpu is unknown and not working. (1444682).

Lubuntu-specific Bugs

These are maintained by the Lubuntu team.

LXDE

• lxpanel volume applet settings opens empty terminal window (1434774 Workaround Exists).

• run dialog called from one desktop opens on the desktop with preferences dialog, regardless of which desktop is current (1445818).

• changing multiple desktop names only results in the first being changed. (1522625).

Graphics and Display

Lubuntu Desktop Installer

All Desktop images now require a DVD or USB.

Lubuntu Alternate Installer

Lubuntu Alternate remains a CD sized image.

• Lubuntu Software Centre only lists installed applications when lubuntu installed via alternate image (1467517 Workaround Exists).

PowerPC

PowerPC is only supported on Lubuntu LTS releases.

At this time there are no reported bugs that exclusively affect the PPC release.

Do check with the PowerPCFAQ for known issues that are PPC specific.

Feedback

Development of Lubuntu 16.04, the Xenial Xerus, 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 created images for standard PCs, laptops and netbooks.

Please feel free to contact us with feedback.