Ubuntu News Archives


1,623 Ubuntu open-source and Linux related news articles on Phoronix since 2006.

Ubuntu 23.10 Is Maxing Out Zstd Compression For Its Kernel Build
Ubuntu 23.10 Is Maxing Out Zstd Compression For Its Kernel Build

Dimitri John Ledkov of the Ubuntu kernel team has written about some of the improvements made for the default kernel build on Ubuntu 23.10. Ubuntu's Linux kernel build is now using much less disk space, lower RAM use, and much faster initrd generation.

16 November 2023 - Ubuntu 23.10 Kernel Optimizations - 22 Comments
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Committing Fully To Netplan For Network Configuration
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS Committing Fully To Netplan For Network Configuration

The Canonical-developed Netplan has served for Linux network configuration on Ubuntu Server and Cloud versions for years. With the recent Ubuntu 23.10 release, Netplan is now being used by default on the desktop. Canonical is committing to fully leveraging Netplan for network configuration with the upcoming Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release and in turn also marking the Netplan 1.0 release.

14 November 2023 - Ubuntu + Netplan - 37 Comments
One Of Ubuntu's Great Features Has Been Broken For One Month
One Of Ubuntu's Great Features Has Been Broken For One Month

One of the great niche features of Ubuntu Linux has been the Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA that's been maintained by Canonical for providing daily kernel builds of the Linux Git kernel state as well as of all point releases and release candidates. Sadly it's now been broken for one month for this very convenient feature.

13 November 2023 - Ubuntu Mainline Kernel PPA - 26 Comments
Ubuntu's Mir Working On Hybrid Graphics / Multi-GPU Support
Ubuntu's Mir Working On Hybrid Graphics / Multi-GPU Support

Canonical continues investing in Mir as their Wayland compositor and set of platform abstraction interfaces to make it easier for IoT and other "smart" devices to run atop Ubuntu Core. Most recently the Mir developers have been working to partially re-architect their graphics platform handling to better handle multiple GPU/display devices.

23 October 2023 - Mir Hybrid Graphics - 30 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Desktop ISOs Re-Released Following Translation Snafu
Ubuntu 23.10 Desktop ISOs Re-Released Following Translation Snafu

Hours after Ubuntu 23.10 was released last Thursday it was discovered Ubuntu 23.10 ISOs contained malicious user translations for those using the Ukrainian translations within the Ubuntu Linux desktop installer. Canonical suspended the desktop ISOs until the translations could be fixed and ISOs re-spun. That's now happened and this afternoon Ubuntu 23.10 images are back online.

16 October 2023 - Ubuntu 23.10 - 27 Comments
Canonical's Snap Store Hit By Malicious Apps
Canonical's Snap Store Hit By Malicious Apps

Stemming from reports of several fake crypto apps appearing in Canonical's Snap Store that aimed to steal user funds, temporary restrictions have been put in place while Canonical investigates the security matter.

30 September 2023 - Bad Apps - 62 Comments
Linux 6.5 Now Powering Ubuntu 23.10
Linux 6.5 Now Powering Ubuntu 23.10

Just as anticipated, the Linux 6.5 kernel has landed in the Ubuntu 23.10 Mantic archive as the default kernel powering this next Ubuntu distribution release due out in October.

16 September 2023 - Ubuntu 23.10 + Linux 6.5 - 4 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10's Firefox Snap Enabling Wayland By Default
Ubuntu 23.10's Firefox Snap Enabling Wayland By Default

While the Ubuntu desktop has been using the GNOME Wayland session by default, Ubuntu's default Firefox browser build within its Snap confinements has continued relying upon XWayland. But the Firefox Snap beginning with Ubuntu 23.10 is now enabling the native Wayland support by default.

16 September 2023 - Firefox Snap + Native Wayland - 30 Comments
Ubuntu 23.04 & 22.04.3 Installs Haven't Been Following Their Own Security Best Practices
Ubuntu 23.04 & 22.04.3 Installs Haven't Been Following Their Own Security Best Practices

It turns out that Ubuntu Linux installations of Ubuntu 23.04, 22.04.3 LTS, and installs done since April 2023 that accepted the Snap version update haven't been following Ubuntu's own recommended security best practices for their security pocket configuration for packages. A new Subiquity release was issued today to fix this problem while those on affected Ubuntu installs are recommended to manually edit their /etc/apt/sources.list file.

15 September 2023 - Security Pocket Issue - 9 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Restores ZFS File-System Support In Its Installer
Ubuntu 23.10 Restores ZFS File-System Support In Its Installer

When Canonical rolled out their new Flutter-based Ubuntu Linux desktop installer it lacked support for ZFS root file-system installations. Canonical has been quiet about their (Open)ZFS intentions after years of offering it as an Ubuntu install option with their prior installer, but for Ubuntu 23.10 this support is being restored.

13 September 2023 - Ubuntu 23.10 + ZFS - 32 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Adding Experimental TPM-Backed Full Disk Encryption
Ubuntu 23.10 Adding Experimental TPM-Backed Full Disk Encryption

As an experimental feature for next month's Ubuntu 23.10 release, Canonical is introducing initial support for TPM-based full disk encryption to make use of your system's Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The downside though is this extra security relies on Snaps, including for the kernel and GRUB bootloader.

7 September 2023 - TPM-Backed FDE - 49 Comments
Canonical Releases LXD 5.17 With OpenZFS 2.2 Delegation Support
Canonical Releases LXD 5.17 With OpenZFS 2.2 Delegation Support

LXD 5.17 is now available as the system container and virtual machine manager, which since last month has been reigned into control by Canonical and maintainership being limited to Canonical engineers. With this new LXD release there is ZFS delegation support as found with the upcoming OpenZFS 2.2.

26 August 2023 - LXD 5.17 - 21 Comments
Ubuntu Delays Transition To Snap'ed CUPS Print Server
Ubuntu Delays Transition To Snap'ed CUPS Print Server

Since 2021 among other Snap'ing efforts for converting formerly Ubuntu DEB packages to Canonical's Snap sandboxed app packaging format has been the CUPS print server. The plan was to replace the Debian-packaged CUPS with the Snap-based CUPS for Ubuntu 23.10 but now that is being pushed back to next year.

25 August 2023 - Debian Packaging Wins - 53 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Won't Be Shipping A GIMP 3.0 Snapshot
Ubuntu 23.10 Won't Be Shipping A GIMP 3.0 Snapshot

With Ubuntu 23.10 shipping next month one of the changes expected on the desktop side was using a GIMP 3.0 snapshot for this open-source Adobe Photoshop alternative rather than sticking to the aging GIMP 2.10 series. But now it's been determined that this will not happen and GIMP 2.10 will continue to be used.

23 August 2023 - No GIMP 2.99 - 31 Comments
Ubuntu Shifting To A "4/2" Week Cycle For Shipping Stable Kernel Updates
Ubuntu Shifting To A "4/2" Week Cycle For Shipping Stable Kernel Updates

Canonical has aimed to ship Linux kernel stable release updates (SRU) for Ubuntu releases on a three week cycle. That has worked out well overall but has led to delays at times in getting down CVE security fixes and other urgent customer requests. Moving forward Canonical is aiming for a new "4/2" week cycle for kernel SRUs.

1 August 2023 - No More 3 Week Cycle - 1 Comment
Ubuntu Touch OTA-2 Focal Expands Support For Additional Smartphones
Ubuntu Touch OTA-2 Focal Expands Support For Additional Smartphones

Back in March Ubuntu Touch OTA-1 Focal finally released for this community-developed smartphone/tablet OS that finally migrated from an Ubuntu 16.04 LTS base to Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. This past weekend Ubuntu Touch OTA-2 Focal was released as the first update this lineage of being based off the newer Ubuntu Long-Term Support state.

1 August 2023 - Ubuntu Touch OTA-2 Focal - 5 Comments
LXD Maintainership Being Limited To Canonical Employees
LXD Maintainership Being Limited To Canonical Employees

Earlier this month Canonical asserted control over the LXD project. As another step in tightening up control over this container management extension for Linux Containers (LXC) is now apparently limiting LXD maintainership rights to only Canonical employees.

27 July 2023 - Tightening The Rope - 41 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Aiming To Ship A GIMP 3.0 Snapshot
Ubuntu 23.10 Aiming To Ship A GIMP 3.0 Snapshot

While GIMP 3.0 stable likely not set to debut in 2023 but rather at least release candidates are expected, Canonical is looking at shipping a GIMP 3.0 snapshot in Ubuntu 23.10 in hopes of GIMP 3.0 stable by the time of Ubuntu 24.04 LTS or at least a near final v3.0 state.

11 July 2023 - GIMP 3.0 Snapshot For Ubuntu - 15 Comments
Ubuntu Revisiting Its Initramfs Compression Approach
Ubuntu Revisiting Its Initramfs Compression Approach

About a year ago Ubuntu changed its default compression level for its initramfs handling down to Zstd level one to deal with slow initramfs creation times on low-end systems / development boards. But since then that has resulted in larger initramfs sizes and yielding other bugs like more quickly filling up the /boot partition on Ubuntu systems. Thus the developers have gone back to the drawing board and are trying to figure out a path forward for better initramfs handling that works well for low-end single board computers while also maximizing space savings and working out well for all Ubuntu use-cases.

10 July 2023 - Zstd Compression Levels - 29 Comments
Ubuntu's NVIDIA "Enterprise Ready" Driver Package Now Enables Open GPU Kernel Driver
Ubuntu's NVIDIA "Enterprise Ready" Driver Package Now Enables Open GPU Kernel Driver

Ubuntu's NVIDIA Unified Device Architecture (UDA) driver package intended for GPU compute acceleration has enabled the NVIDIA Open GPU Kernel driver support in their packages since the end of last year. Now with the new NVIDIA Enterprise Ready Driver "ERD" Ubuntu package hitting Ubuntu LTS users, they are also supporting the NVIDIA open GPU kernel driver option there.

7 July 2023 - Ubuntu NVIDIA ERD 535 - 9 Comments
Ubuntu Maker Canonical Pulls In Control Of LXD
Ubuntu Maker Canonical Pulls In Control Of LXD

LXD as the open-source container management extension for Linux Containers (LXC) has long been closely associated with Canonical due to its founding and pushed along by the Ubuntu maker as one of their software offerings. However, it has to this point been part of the Linux Containers project except moving forward Canonical has decided to pull it more into their direct control.

4 July 2023 - No Longer Under Linux Containers - 35 Comments
Ubuntu Knocks On Docker In Latest Snaps Promotion
Ubuntu Knocks On Docker In Latest Snaps Promotion

While for an Ubuntu desktop user that is used to running Snap versions of Firefox and other desktop application sandboxing it may seem strange for Canonical to be comparing Snaps to Docker containers, the emphasis of their comparison is on the IoT/edge computing side where they are trying to better position Snaps as a superior alternative to using Docker containers.

17 May 2023 - Snaps vs. Docker - 32 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Improving PPA Management For Enhanced Security & Reliability
Ubuntu 23.10 Improving PPA Management For Enhanced Security & Reliability

One of the great longtime features of Ubuntu Linux has been Launchpad's Personal Package Archives (PPAs) for easily augmenting the official Ubuntu repositories with additional packages either to supply updated versions of select software or for software not yet found in the official Ubuntu archives. With Ubuntu 23.10 a change is being made in how PPAs are managed to enhance the security and reliability.

16 May 2023 - Ubuntu 23.10 PPAs - 5 Comments
Ubuntu 23.10 Looks Like It Will Switch To Using Dbus-Broker
Ubuntu 23.10 Looks Like It Will Switch To Using Dbus-Broker

While distributions like Fedora Linux have been using Dbus-Broker for years already as their high performance D-Bus compatible implementation to, for Ubuntu 23.10 later this year is finally where it looks like Ubuntu will be transitioning to this better alternative to dbus-daemon.

2 May 2023 - Ubuntu + Dbus-Broker - 23 Comments
Ubuntu 23.04 Desktop's New Installer Set To Ship Without OpenZFS Install Support
Ubuntu 23.04 Desktop's New Installer Set To Ship Without OpenZFS Install Support

It was just four years ago in Ubuntu 19.10 that Ubuntu's desktop installer added OpenZFS support for carrying out root file-system installations atop this ZFS file-system. Since then the Canonical/Ubuntu interest has waned. Ahead of the Ubuntu 23.04 release this week, I tried out the Ubuntu Lunar Lobster daily snapshot this weekend to find the OpenZFS install support with Ubuntu's new desktop installer to still be missing.

17 April 2023 - No OpenZFS Install - 45 Comments
Ubuntu Talks Up Rust Kernel Programming Potential With Ubuntu 23.04
Ubuntu Talks Up Rust Kernel Programming Potential With Ubuntu 23.04

Ubuntu 23.04 is being talked up for how it can aide developers that want to begin programming with Rust code for Linux kernel modules. It's possible to get started with Rust kernel development on Ubuntu 23.04 thanks to its generic kernel having the necessary kernel configuration, but ultimately it's still in an early state and there isn't much to do with the stock kernel.

5 April 2023 - Ubuntu 23.04 + Rust-Supported Kernel - 25 Comments
Ubuntu Cinnamon Becomes An Official Flavor For Ubuntu 23.04
Ubuntu Cinnamon Becomes An Official Flavor For Ubuntu 23.04

Since 2019 there has been Ubuntu Cinnamon as an unofficial remix of Ubuntu paired with Linux Mint's Cinnamon desktop environment. After the three years of progress, Ubuntu Cinnamon has now been granted an official status with next month's Ubuntu 23.04 "Lunar Lobster" release.

28 March 2023 - Ubuntu Cinnamon 23.04 - 30 Comments

1623 Ubuntu news articles published on Phoronix.