Lubuntu 23.04 (Lunar Lobster) Released

Announcements
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An up-to-date and official copy of the release notes can be found here

Lubuntu 23.04 Released!

After months of clawing our way through development, testing, and bug fixing, the Lubuntu team is thrilled to shell-ebrate another successful release cycle! We’ve finally pinched a working copy of the Lubuntu operating system, and it’s our biggest catch yet: Lubuntu 23.04 Lunar Lobster, the 24th release of Lubuntu and the tenth to feature LXQt as its default desktop environment. So let’s all shell-ebrate with some Lunar Lobster puns!

Support lifespan

With 23.04 being an interim release, it will follow the standard non-LTS support period of nine months; this means that 23.04 will be supported until January 2024. Our development focus going forward will be on 23.10 and future releases, so only critical bugfixes and security updates will be provided. If you choose to use 23.04, we STRONGLY recommend upgrading to 23.10 once it is released, before 23.04 hits end of life. If this is not suitable for you, but you still enjoy new features on a regular basis, we would recommend staying on 22.04 LTS with Lubuntu’s Backports enabled.

You can download 23.04 here. If you would like to upgrade your existing 22.10 installation, please visit our manual page describing the process. Common Ubuntu instructions can be found here.

Known Issues and Notable Changes

LXQt

A bug in LXQt results in duplicate menu entries for the Calamares installer, showing the following:

huMXREM

While either of these options work, we recommend using the desktop icon.

While LXQt 1.3.0 has already been released at this time, it was released after Lubuntu 23.04’s Feature Freeze. As a result, Lubuntu 23.04 ships with LXQt 1.2.0 with 1.2.1 point releases updates for a few components. We intend to ship LXQt 1.3.0 or later with Lubuntu 23.10. LXQt 1.3.0 will also be backported to Lubuntu 22.04 LTS if possible.

System Installer

In Lubuntu 22.10, we chose to ship an (at the time) very recent alpha testing version of the Calamares installer, Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2. This worked quite well, and over the past several months Calamares 3.3 has been battle-tested by our developers, our testing team, and our users of Lubuntu 22.10, with no high-impact bugs discovered in Calamares itself. We have therefore chosen to continue shipping Calamares 3.3 Alpha 2 in Lubuntu 23.04.

During testing, we did note that if you attempt to create an encrypted installation without a passphrase, Lubuntu will be installed unencrypted. This is unlikely to be a problem for most users as disk encryption requires a passphrase for it to be effective. More information can be found here.

User password requirements

During testing, we discovered that it was possible to instruct Calamares to create the initial user account with a blank password. This was not the result of a bug in Calamares, but was rather due to incorrect configuration in Lubuntu. Due to the security implications of this, and because of a bug in XScreenSaver that could result in the user being locked out if the password is blank, we have chosen to require that some password be provided during the installation process, even if that password is only one character long. More details can be found in the official bug report.

If you fully understand what you are doing and do not want a password, there are several ways of disabling most or all password-based authentication in Lubuntu. These methods are documented on our Discourse forum here. We highly recommend that most users do not remove or otherwise disable their system’s password for security reasons.

PipeWire

Lubuntu previously used the PulseAudio audio system to provide rich audio functionality to our users. However, recently Ubuntu and its flavors have been gradually shifting to using the PipeWire audio server in place of PulseAudio. PipeWire offers several advantages over PulseAudio, including improved Bluetooth support, and more powerful management features for complex audio-related workloads. In order to offer these improved features to our users, Lubuntu has replaced the PulseAudio audio system with PipeWire in Lubuntu 23.04.

Screensaver

Since Lubuntu 20.04, the default screensaver has been “Flurry”. Due to reports of screensaver glitches on certain hardware, we have switched the default screensaver in Lubuntu to GL Matrix. This screensaver features a 3D “digital rain” effect that we have found to be aesthetically pleasing. If you have changed the screensaver yourself, you will probably not notice this change. If you find the new screensaver unappealing, you can change it back to the original “Flurry” screensaver (or to any of the other pre-installed screensavers) using the Screensaver application.

Picom

Lubuntu 22.10 and earlier run with no X compositor by default. (An X compositor is an application that can help provide various graphical effects and possibly smooth out screen tearing.) For those who benefited from X compositing, the Compton compositor was provided. We began also providing the Picom compositor (which is based on Compton but is more well-maintained) in Lubuntu 21.04. Starting with Lubuntu 23.04, we have switched entirely to Picom, and have enabled X compositing by default. This will allow effects like panel transparency to work out of the box rather than requiring that the compositor be manually enabled.

If you discover that X compositing is causing problems for you, or if you are experiencing significantly more screen tearing than in previous versions of Lubuntu, you can turn X compositing off by going to the Application Menu → Preferences → LXQt Settings → Session Settings. You can then find and uncheck the “Picom (X compositor)” entry under “LXQt Modules”, and then click “Close”. X compositing should be disabled the next time you log in.

Artwork

We have refreshed the wallpaper, the default background for the login screen, the installer welcome image, and the installer slideshow for Lubuntu 23.04. This updated artwork was provided by one of our Lubuntu Members, Aaron Rainbolt.

Bk6ewz2_sddm
Bk6ewz2_sddm3840×2160 155 KB

LDUlkVk_wallpaper
LDUlkVk_wallpaper2800×1600 179 KB

Common Release Notes

Please also check the Ubuntu Release Notes for more common issues and bugs affecting all Ubuntu flavors.

What is Lubuntu?

Lubuntu is an official Ubuntu flavor which uses the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment (LXQt). The project’s goal is to provide a lightweight yet functional Linux distribution based on a rock-solid Ubuntu base. Lubuntu provides a simple but modern and powerful graphical user interface, and comes with a wide variety of applications so you can browse, email, chat, play, and be productive. You can find the following major applications and toolkits installed by default in this release:

You can find a variety of other applications installed which aim to enhance your experience while staying out of the way of your normal workflow. New features and bugfixes in core Ubuntu components can be found here.

Lubuntu Manual

The Lubuntu Team has been hard at work in polishing the Lubuntu Manual to make it easy for new and experienced users alike to use their system more productively. The manual can be found at manual.lubuntu.me. We want to thank Lyn Perrine for all the hard work she has put into the Lubuntu Manual. Thank you!

Versions of the Lubuntu Manual:

While the documentation for previous releases will be kept in the Git repository, they will not be published anywhere.

Need help quickly? The Lubuntu Manual can be accessed via the “Lubuntu Manul” desktop icon.

Lubuntu Project

How can I help?

We can always use more help! No matter your skill level or your technical experience, there’s something you can help with that can make a huge difference in Lubuntu. Join us on our chat (which is bridged three ways to Matrix, Telegram, and IRC) and talk to us there. Whether you know another language, have some spare time to help us test Lubuntu, are good at writing documentation, or just want to stay “in the know,” that is the place to be. More information about contributing can be found here. If you want to contribute to Lubuntu but do not feel you have the time or skills, consider buying a t-shirt or donating to Lubuntu. Another great method to get involved is bug reporting. If you notice an issue, please file a bug using the instructions on the Lubuntu Wiki. Don’t want to file a bug? Let us know what the problem is (in detail, enough that we can reproduce it) and we can assist you in filing one or do it ourselves.

Contributors

We would like to thank the following contributors for dedicating their time to Lubuntu this cycle. Thank you!

We would also like to thank the following past members for their dedication to the project. Without you, Lubuntu would not be what it is today. Thank you!

Global Team

The Lubuntu Global Team has been created to foster communities in non-English languages and locales. An up-to-date list of our communities can be found on our Links page, but the existing groups include: Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Italian, Chinese, German, Japanese, Arabic, and French. If you would like to start a language group, join our development channel and talk with the Global Team. At minimum, you should have a few interested drivers of the community, and at least one administrator that speaks English. We now have multiple languages available in the support section of our Discourse forum.

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Congrats to all those who are involved! It’s a pretty solid release with some changes. That’s pretty much the norm for us!

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Many thanks for all the hard work gone into this release :slight_smile:

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I’ll quickly add for anyone who loves the images, but doesn’t want to upgrade to 23.04 & is thinking of just downloading the images from the above announcement…

I didn’t upload the full images; but a scaled down version to get the sizes down to something I considered reasonable for readers of this site. If you want the full effect, you’ll have to download & try Lubuntu 23.04 :slight_smile:

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Although I am currently not using Lubuntu as my main desktop system right now, I took the liberty to install 23.04 as a virtual machine. I have been using it for some development work, and It works as a charm. I will skip this distro for my desktops, but might come back when the next LTS has been released.

Guys, keep up the good work. All your hard effort is very much appreciated!

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Since I am running the final 23.04 as a VM, I did not notice it at first (because I provision all of my VMs with some external tooling):

  • the hostname has lost its hyphens (if one uses them)
  • the name of the principal user (as entered in Calamares) is not propagated. Instead the given hostname is used for the user account (but ‘compacted’ without dashes)
  • it seems the quick-launch is static, and dragging an application from one of the menus (available through the main menu) is not possible. Maybe it’s a setting, but I could not find it.

Not really important to me, but for others maybe it will be. It all worked differently (and IMHO as it should) in pre-release versions (from February or so).

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I can’t recall using dashes/hyphens in my hostname or username in QA-testing; I don’t in real life.

But I’ve had no issues with populating my quick-launch bars (multiple as I have multiple panels as shown here); the box I’m using was only purchased this year & thus installed whilst lunar was still in development, and did do that many times in QA.

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I see, I will check quick-launch again on a new VM. Not now, a bit later :slight_smile: Maybe tomorrow.

Sideline. About the use of hyphens. When you have tonnes of VMs on several physical hosts, hyphens add readabilty. It is easier to determine under stress if a machine is production (or production like) if its name is ps-de-11-a4-purpose, and not ts-de-11-a9-purpose, or even ursus-maior, stradivarius, paris or durban (I’ve encountered production machines with those names in real life). If you wonder, in my nomenclatura, if the first letter is other than p(roduction), such a machine can be considered “not important”.

Below the principal user’s line from /etc/passwd which explains the improved read efficiency with the use of hyphens:

tdlu2304nginxrproxyapache2test:x:1000:1000:td-lu-23-04--nginx-rproxy-apache2-test:/home/tdlu2304nginxrproxyapache2test:/bin/bash

As you see, the display name (put in by Calamares as well), maintains the hyphens. Sddm uses the display name, not the actual name of the account. That’s why I did not notice it at first login - “sudo su; passwd; apt install openssh-server” - to enable Ansible to do its thing).

Update
I forgot to mention that Calamares on 23.04 adds -virtualbox to the end of the (generated) host name, I edited it a bit, for privacy reason. But, in my case it was, say: tdlu2304nginxrproxyapache2test-virtualbox, which, interestingly, has a hyphen. Not really necessary though, that part.

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I discovered a system which had a non-updated kinetic system on it (kinetic development it reported, so was >6 months behind on updates) so I performed a non-destructive re-install of Lubuntu 23.04 on it as a means of updating the system. When it came to $HOSTNAME I remembered this thread because the hostname it suggested included hyphens, so I left only slightly modified the default which included two hyphens.

The resulting installed system (this is on real hardware) included the $HOSTNAME “hpenvy-15-nbc” I used during install with calamares.

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The hypenation-issue seems to be working now, on a today-download of the 23.04-ISO. Probably my fault (mistyped, or error from my ad-hoc provisioning tool), of just confusion on my side.

However, the ‘drag-n-drop’ functionality of adding applications that are already available through the menu onto the quicklaunch panel does not work. See the Lubuntu manual at http://manual.lubuntu.me/stable/5/5.1/lxqt-panel.html. It just does not work for me. Pre-release versions of 23.04 (February) did not have this issue.

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I find the drag and drop function to be very fussy with location. I usually hunt around until I see the green + symbol. If it lands in the wrong spot I just right click and move it left or right. Other than that, it works well for me.

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I agree with you, the exact placement onto the right spot on the quicklaunch panel can be a bit tricky. Besides that, normally (other LQXt boxes, as yet not on the current 23.04 VM under scrutiny) it is really the killer-thing for me. A very good USP. Can not live without it, if it works.

I just tried adding the VirtualBox Guest Additions CD to the system for tuning the kernel for extra graphical capabilities (resizing, cut and paste). It did not improve. When I try to drag, the “ghostbuster” icon does not appear at all. Something must be wrong.

Am I the only one experiencing this?