ReleaseNotes
Table of Contents |
Introduction
These release notes for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS (Xenial Xerus) provide an overview of the release and document the known issues with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS and its flavors.
Support lifespan
Official flavour release notes
Find the links to release notes for official flavors here.
Get Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Download Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
Images can be downloaded from a location near you.
You can download ISOs from:
http://releases.ubuntu.com/16.04/ (Ubuntu Desktop, Server, and Snappy Core)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/releases/16.04/release/ (Less Popular Ubuntu Images)
http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/releases/16.04/release/ (Ubuntu Cloud Server)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/16.04/ (Ubuntu Netboot)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/16.04/release/ (Kubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/16.04/release/ (Lubuntu)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/16.04/release/ (Ubuntu Studio)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-gnome/releases/16.04/release/ (Ubuntu GNOME)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/16.04/release/ (Ubuntu Kylin)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/16.04/release/ (Ubuntu MATE)
http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/16.04/release/ (Xubuntu)
Upgrading from Ubuntu 14.04 LTS or 15.10
To upgrade on a desktop system:
Open the "Software & Updates" Setting in System Settings.
- Select the 3rd Tab called "Updates".
- Set the "Notify me of a new Ubuntu version" dropdown menu to "For any new version".
- Press Alt+F2 and type in "update-manager" (without the quotes) into the command box.
- Update Manager should open up and tell you: New distribution release '16.04 LTS' is available.
- Click Upgrade and follow the on-screen instructions.
To upgrade on a server system:
Install the update-manager-core package if it is not already installed.
- Make sure the /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades is set to normal.
Launch the upgrade tool with the command sudo do-release-upgrade.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
Note that the server upgrade will use GNU screen and automatically re-attach in case of dropped connection problems.
There are no offline upgrade options for Ubuntu Desktop and Ubuntu Server. Please ensure you have network connectivity to one of the official mirrors or to a locally accessible mirror and follow the instructions above.
New features in 16.04 LTS
Updated Packages
As with every new release, packages--applications and software of all kinds--are being updated at a rapid pace. Many of these packages came from an automatic sync from Debian's unstable branch; others have been explicitly pulled in for Ubuntu 16.04.
For a list of all packages being accepted for Ubuntu 16.04, please subscribe to xenial-changes.
Linux kernel 4.4
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is based on the long-term supported Linux release series 4.4.
Python 3.5
Python has been upgraded to the 3.5 series.
If you have your own programs based on Python 2, fear not! Python 2 will continue to be available (as the python package) for the foreseeable future. However, to best support future versions of Ubuntu you should consider porting your code to Python 3. Python/3 has some advice and resources on this.
=== Golang 1.6 == golang toolchain was upgraded to the 1.6 series, and gcc-go was upgraded to the GCC6 branch. Thus the same level of standard library and compiler features are provided by both compilers on all fully supported architectures.
Ubuntu Desktop
The general theme for 16.04 on the desktop is one of bug fixes and incremental quality improvements ...
Unity
Compiz
General
LibreOffice
Ubuntu Server
Known issues
As is to be expected, with any release, there are some significant known bugs that users may run into with this release of Ubuntu 16.04. The ones we know about at this point (and some of the workarounds), are documented here so you don't need to spend time reporting these bugs again:
Boot, installation and post-install
Upgrade
Graphics and Display
fglrx
The fglrx driver is now deprecated in 16.04, and we recommend its open source alternatives (radeon and amdgpu). AMD put a lot of work into the drivers, and we backported kernel code from Linux 4.5 to provide a better experience.
When upgrading to Ubuntu 16.04 from a previous release, both the fglrx driver and the xorg.conf will be removed, so that the system is set to use either the amdgpu driver or the radeon driver (depending on the available hardware).
Official flavours
The release notes for the official flavours can be found at the following links:
Edubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/Edubuntu
Kubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/Kubuntu
Lubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/Lubuntu
Mythbuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/Mythbuntu
Ubuntu GNOME https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuGNOME
Ubuntu Kylin https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuKylin
Ubuntu MATE https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuMATE
Ubuntu Studio https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuStudio
Xubuntu https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/FinalRelease/Xubuntu
More information
Reporting bugs
Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions will help fix bugs and improve the quality of future releases. Please report bugs using the tools provided.
If you want to help out with bugs, the Bug Squad is always looking for help.
Participate in Ubuntu
If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of ways you can participate at
More about Ubuntu
You can find out more about Ubuntu on the Ubuntu website and Ubuntu wiki.
To sign up for future Ubuntu development announcements, please subscribe to Ubuntu's development announcement list at: