First set of Bionic (sort-of) RC images for 18.04.

By guiverc | Published: 2018-04-22

Adam Conrad of the Ubuntu Release Team is pleased to announce the first
set of Bionic RC images for Ubuntu 18.04 LTS.

Over the next couple of hours, builds for Bionic Final should be added
to the tracker[1] for all flavours. The builds have some intentional
omissions, but please do test them anyway.

Known issues that will be addressed Sunday/Monday:
– Volume label still set to Beta
– base-files still not the final version
– kernel will have (at least) one more revision

Despite the above, please, please, please test your images. Do not
wait for a “final” build to test, as that guarantees your final build
will be broken. We need you testing now, iterating uploads to get
your bugs fixed, filing bugs and escalating where you need help.

Again: DO NOT DELAY, TEST NOW, FIX BUGS, FILE BUGS, ESCALATE FOR HELP.

Happy testing everyone, and here’s hoping we push out another smooth
and stress-free release on Thursday.

… Adam Conrad

[1] http://iso.qa.ubuntu.com/qatracker/milestones/389/builds

Originally posted to the Ubuntu Release mailing list on Sat Apr 21 23:22:56 UTC 2018
by Adam Conrad, on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-release/2018-April/004438.html

Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter Issue 523

By tsimonq2 | Published: 2018-04-17

Welcome to the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter, Issue 523 for the week of April 8 – 14, 2018 – the full version is available here.

In this issue we cover:

The Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is brought to you by:

  • Simon Quigley
  • Rozz Welford
  • Elizabeth K. Joseph
  • Bashing-om
  • wildmanne39
  • Krytarik Raido
  • And many others

If you have a story idea for the Weekly Newsletter, join the Ubuntu News Team mailing list and submit it. Ideas can also be added to the wiki!

Except where otherwise noted, this issue of the Ubuntu Weekly Newsletter is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 3.0 License

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS (Bionic Beaver) Final Beta released

By guiverc | Published: 2018-04-06 
The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the final beta release of the
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS Desktop, Server, and Cloud products.

Codenamed "Bionic Beaver", 18.04 LTS continues Ubuntu's proud tradition
of integrating the latest and greatest open source technologies into a
high-quality, easy-to-use Linux distribution.  The team has been hard
at work through this cycle, introducing new features and fixing bugs.

This beta release includes images from not only the Ubuntu Desktop,
Server, and Cloud products, but also the Kubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu
Budgie, UbuntuKylin, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Studio, and Xubuntu flavours.

The beta images are known to be reasonably free of showstopper CD
build or installer bugs, while representing a very recent snapshot of
18.04 that should be representative of the features intended to ship
with the final release expected on April 26th, 2018.

Ubuntu, Ubuntu Server, Cloud Images:
  Bionic Final Beta includes updated versions of most of our core set
  of packages, including a current 4.15 kernel, and much more.

  To upgrade to Ubuntu 18.04 Final Beta from Ubuntu 17.10, follow these
  instructions:

  https://help.ubuntu.com/community/BionicUpgrades

  The Ubuntu 18.04 Final Beta images can be downloaded at:

  http://releases.ubuntu.com/18.04/ (Ubuntu and Ubuntu Server on x86)

  This Ubuntu Server image features the next generation Subiquity server
  installer, bringing the comfortable live session and speedy install of the
  Ubuntu Desktop to server users at last.

  This new installer does not support the same set of installation options
  as the previous server installer, so the "debian-installer" image
  continues to be made available in parallel.  For more information about
  the installation options, please see:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes#Ubuntu_Server

  Additional images can be found at the following links:

  http://cloud-images.ubuntu.com/daily/server/bionic/current/ (Cloud Images)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/18.04/beta-2/ (Non-x86, and d-i Server)
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/netboot/18.04/ (Netboot)

  As fixes will be included in new images between now and release, any
  daily cloud image from today or later (i.e. a serial of 20180404 or
  higher) should be considered a beta image.  Bugs found should be filed
  against the appropriate packages or, failing that, the cloud-images
  project in Launchpad.

  The full release notes for Ubuntu 18.04 Final Beta can be found at:

  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/ReleaseNotes

Kubuntu:
  Kubuntu is the KDE based flavour of Ubuntu. It uses the Plasma desktop
  and includes a wide selection of tools from the KDE project.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/18.04/beta-2/

  More information on Kubuntu Final Beta can be found here:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/Beta2/Kubuntu

Lubuntu:
  Lubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu that targets to be lighter, less
  resource hungry and more energy-efficient by using lightweight
  applications and LXDE, The Lightweight X11 Desktop Environment,
  as its default GUI.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/lubuntu/releases/18.04/beta-2/

Ubuntu Budgie:
  Ubuntu Budgie is community developed desktop, integrating Budgie
  Desktop Environment with Ubuntu at its core.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/18.04/beta-2/

  More information on Ubuntu Budgie Final Beta can be found here:
  https://ubuntubudgie.org/blog/2018/04/03/18-04-beta-2

UbuntuKylin:
  UbuntuKylin is a flavor of Ubuntu that is more suitable for Chinese
  users.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/18.04/beta-2/

  More information on UbuntuKylin Final Beta can be found here:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/Beta2/UbuntuKylin

Ubuntu MATE:
  Ubuntu MATE is a flavor of Ubuntu featuring the MATE desktop
  environment.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/18.04/beta-2/

Ubuntu Studio:
  Ubuntu Studio is a flavor of Ubuntu that provides a full range of
  multimedia content creation applications for each key workflows:
  audio, graphics, video, photography and publishing.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/18.04/beta-2/

  More information about Ubuntu Studio Final Beta can be found here:
  https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/Beta2/UbuntuStudio

Xubuntu:
  Xubuntu is a flavor of Ubuntu that comes with Xfce, which is a stable,
  light and configurable desktop environment.

  The Final Beta images can be downloaded at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/18.04/beta-2/

  More information about Xubuntu Final Beta can be found here:
  http://wiki.xubuntu.org/releases/18.04/release-notes

Regular daily images for Ubuntu, and all flavours, can be found at:
  http://cdimage.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu is a full-featured Linux distribution for clients, servers and
clouds, with a fast and easy installation and regular releases.  A
tightly-integrated selection of excellent applications is included,
and an incredible variety of add-on software is just a few clicks
away.

Professional technical support is available from Canonical Limited and
hundreds of other companies around the world.  For more information
about support, visit http://www.ubuntu.com/support

If you would like to help shape Ubuntu, take a look at the list of
ways you can participate at:
http://www.ubuntu.com/community


Your comments, bug reports, patches and suggestions really help us to
improve this and future releases of Ubuntu.   Instructions can be
found at: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

You can find out more about Ubuntu and about this beta release on our
website, IRC channel and wiki.

To sign up for future Ubuntu announcements, please subscribe to
Ubuntu's very low volume announcement list at:

  http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-announce


https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2018-April/000230.html

Originally posted to the Ubuntu Release mailing list on Fri Apr 6 06:02:21 UTC 2018 
by Steve Langasek, on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team

Bionic Beaver 18.04 Beta 1 Released!

By guiverc | Published: 2018-03-10 
"The beaver told the rabbit as they stared at the Hoover Dam: No, I didn't
build it myself, but it's based on an idea of mine".
-- Charles Hard Townes

The first beta of the Bionic Beaver (to become 18.04) has now been
released, and is available for download!

This milestone features images for Kubuntu, Ubuntu Budgie, Ubuntu Kylin,
Ubuntu MATE, and Xubuntu.

Pre-releases of the Bionic Beaver are *not* encouraged for anyone needing a
stable system or anyone who is not comfortable running into occasional,
even frequent breakage. They are, however, recommended for Ubuntu flavour
developers and those who want to help in testing, reporting, and fixing
bugs as we work towards getting this release ready.

Beta 1 includes some software updates that are ready for broader testing.
However, it is quite an early set of images, so you should expect some bugs.

While these Beta 1 images have been tested and do work, except as noted in
the release notes, Ubuntu developers are continuing to improve the Bionic
Beaver. In particular, once newer daily images are available, system
installation bugs identified in the Beta 1 installer should be verified
against the current daily image before being reported in Launchpad. Using
an obsolete image to re-report bugs that have already been fixed wastes
your time and the time of developers who are busy trying to make 18.04 the
best Ubuntu release yet. Always ensure your system is up to date before
reporting bugs.

[Kubuntu]
Kubuntu is the KDE-based flavour of Ubuntu. It uses the KDE Plasma desktop
and includes a wide selection of tools from the KDE project.

The Kubuntu 18.04 Beta 1 images can be downloaded from:
* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/18.04/beta-1/

More information about Kubuntu 18.04 Beta 1 can be found here:
* https://wiki.ubuntu.com/BionicBeaver/Beta1/Kubuntu

[Ubuntu Budgie]
Ubuntu Budgie is the Budgie Desktop based flavour of Ubuntu. Combines the
simplicity and elegance of the Budgie interface to produce a traditional
desktop orientated distro with a modern paradigm.

The Ubuntu Budgie 18.04 Beta 1 images can be downloaded from:
* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-budgie/releases/18.04/beta-1/

More information about Ubuntu Budgie 18.04 Beta 1 can be found here:
* https://ubuntubudgie.org/blog/2018/03/08/18-04-release-notes

[Ubuntu Kylin]
Ubuntu Kylin is a flavour of Ubuntu that is more suitable for Chinese users.

The Ubuntu Kylin 18.04 Beta 1 images can be downloaded from:
* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntukylin/releases/18.04/beta-1/

More information about Ubuntu Kylin 18.04 Beta 1 can be found here:
* http://www.ubuntukylin.com/index.php

[Ubuntu MATE]
Ubuntu MATE is the MATE Desktop based flavour of Ubuntu.  It is ideal for
those who want the most out of their computers and prefer​_ a traditional
desktop metaphor.

The Ubuntu MATE 18.04 Beta 1 images can be downloaded from:
* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntu-mate/releases/18.04/beta-1/

More information about Ubuntu MATE 18.04 Beta 1 can be found here:
* https://ubuntu-mate.org/blog/ubuntu-mate-bionic-beta1/

[Xubuntu]
Xubuntu is the Xfce Desktop based flavour of Ubuntu.  It is perfect for
those who want the most out of their desktops, laptops and netbooks with a
modern look. It works well on older hardware too.

The Xubuntu 18.04 Beta 1images can be downloaded from:
* http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/18.04/beta-1/

More information about Xubuntu 18.04 Beta 1 can be found here:
* https://wiki.xubuntu.org/releases/18.04/release-notes

If you're interested in following the changes as we further develop the
Bionic Beaver, we suggest that you subscribe to the ubuntu-devel-announce
list. This is a low-traffic list (a few posts a week) carrying
announcements of approved specifications, policy changes, beta releases and
other exciting events.

* http://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel-announce

A big thank you to the developers and testers for their efforts to pull
together this Beta release!

On behalf of Ubuntu Release Team,

Dustin Krysak

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-devel-announce/2018-March/001238.html
Originally posted to the Ubuntu Release mailing list on Fri Mar 9 19:51:58 UTC 2018 
by Dustin Krysak, on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team

Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS released

By guiverc | Published: 2018-03-03 
The Ubuntu team is pleased to announce the release of Ubuntu 16.04.4 LTS
(Long-Term Support) for its Desktop, Server, and Cloud products, as well
as other flavours of Ubuntu with long-term support.

Like previous LTS series', 16.04.4 includes hardware enablement stacks
for use on newer hardware.  This support is offered on all architectures
except for 32-bit powerpc, and is installed by default when using one of
the desktop images.  Ubuntu Server defaults to installing the GA kernel,
however you may select the HWE kernel from the installer bootloader.

As usual, this point release includes many updates, and updated
installation media has been provided so that fewer updates will need to
be downloaded after installation.  These include security updates and
corrections for other high-impact bugs, with a focus on maintaining
stability and compatibility with Ubuntu 16.04 LTS.

Kubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, Xubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, Mythbuntu 16.04.4 LTS,
Ubuntu GNOME 16.04.4 LTS, Lubuntu 16.04.4 LTS, Ubuntu Kylin 16.04.4 LTS,
Ubuntu MATE 16.04.4 LTS and Ubuntu Studio 16.04.4 LTS are also now
available. More details can be found in their individual release notes:

    https://wiki.ubuntu.com/XenialXerus/ReleaseNotes#Official_flavours

Maintenance updates will be provided for 5 years for Ubuntu Desktop,
Ubuntu Server, Ubuntu Cloud, Ubuntu Base, and Ubuntu Kylin.  All the
remaining flavours will be supported for 3 years.

To get Ubuntu 16.04.4
---------------------

In order to download Ubuntu 16.04.4, visit:

    http://www.ubuntu.com/download

Users of Ubuntu 14.04 will be offered an automatic upgrade to
16.04.4 via Update Manager.  For further information about upgrading,
see:

    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/XenialUpgrades

 

https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-announce/2018-March/000229.html

Originally posted to the Ubuntu Release mailing list on Thu Mar 1 21:09:03 UTC 2018 
by Lukasz Zemczak, on behalf of the Ubuntu Release Team