The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 19.04, codenamed Disco Dingo.

While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper CD build or installer bugs, you may find some bugs within. This image is, however, reasonably representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 19.04 is released on April 18, 2019.

New Features

In terms of new features, Ubuntu Studio 19.04 will include a new version of the Ubuntu Studio Metapackage Installer, renamed to Ubuntu Studio Installer. This package is used to add features you may have opted-out of during installation. With this release, Ubuntu Studio can now be installed on top of a default Ubuntu installation or any flavor thereof such as Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Lubuntu, Ubuntu MATE, Ubuntu Budgie, or Ubuntu Kylin. Documentation on this feature is coming soon.

Another major new feature is the addition of the upcoming Carla 2.0, originally from the KXStudio project. Carla is an audio plugin host and graphical patchbay which can be used as an audio plugin itself, and also can be used as a bridge to use VST plugins compiled for Windows using WINE. Please note that this WINE bridge is not installed by default, but is available in the Ubuntu repositories.

With the addition of Carla, jack-rack has been removed from the default installation for obsolescence reasons, and because Carla duplicates its functionality.

Also included are new GTK and icon themes which modernize the look and feel of Ubuntu Studio.

Known Issues

There is a known bug with the installer. Due to the new theme, there are occurrences of black text on a dark gray background. We intend to fix this before 19.04 is released. (Bug #1822134)

Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiscoDingo/ReleaseNotes/UbuntuStudio

Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found at https://wiki.xubuntu.org/releases/19.04/release-notes

Additionally, the main Ubuntu release notes contain more generic issues: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/DiscoDingo/ReleaseNotes

Installing Ubuntu Studio 19.04 Beta

To upgrade to Ubuntu Studio 19.04 Beta, follow these instructions:

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

The Ubuntu Studio 19.04 Beta images can be downloaded at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/disco/beta/