



Introduction

We are preparing Kubuntu Bionic Beaver (18.04 LTS) for release in April, 2018. With this Beta 2 pre-release, you can see what we are testing in preparation for our next version.

The Kubuntu team will be releasing 18.04 LTS in April.

NOTE:

This is Beta 2 Release. Kubuntu Beta Releases are NOT recommended for:

Regular users who are not aware of pre-release issues

Anyone who needs a stable system

Anyone uncomfortable running a possibly frequently broken system

Anyone in a production environment with data or workflows that need to be reliable

Kubuntu Beta Releases are recommended for:

Regular users who want to help us test by finding, reporting, and/or fixing bugs

Kubuntu, KDE, and Qt developers

Please report your results on the Release tracker.

Getting Kubuntu 18.04 Beta 2

Upgrading from 17.10 Download a Disk Image To upgrade to Kubuntu 18.04 LTS pre-releases from 17.10, run do-release-upgrade -d from a command line.



Download a Bootable image and put it onto a DVD or USB Drive

Embrace the dark side with Plasma 5.12 LTS : simple by default, powerful when needed

Plasma 5, the new generation of KDE's desktop has been developed to make it smoother to use while retaining the familiar setup. The Plasma 5.12 LTS series is the default in this version of Kubuntu.

KDE Applications 17.12.3

Kubuntu comes with KDE Applications 17.12 containing all your favourite apps from KDE. Provided is the 17.12.3 update with bugfixes and translation updates. Most applications have been ported to KDE Frameworks 5 but those which aren't should fit in seamlessly.



Non-KDE applications include LibreOffice 6.0 and Firefox 59.1.

Notable changes since 16.04 LTS

VLC now replaces Dragonplayer as our default media player.

Muon package manager is now shipped by default once again, as an alternative to Plasma Discover.

KTorrent has been updated to the Qt5/KF5 version 5.1.

Cantata Qt5 music player replaces the unmaintained KDE4 based Amarok as our default for this beta. Please test this change. This is a Music Player Daemon frontend, so configuration & usage may be unfamiliar. Most users will want to select the 'basic single user setup' in the first run wizard.

Telepathy instant messaging client has been dropped from our defaults as it is no longer maintained upstream, and it has numerous issues. This is still available in the archive to install.

Many other updated applications, such as new versions of Krita, Kdevelop.....

Kubuntu switches to a dark Breeze Plasma theme by default from 18.04

Other highlights/notes

Minimal install option

This is now available in the installer for Kubuntu.

For Kubuntu this removes KDE PIM applications, Libreoffice, Cantata and mpd, and some additional internet and media applications. At present a full Plasma Desktop is left in place, plus basic applications and utilities. Firefox as a browser, and VLC as a media player, are also retained.

The removal list will be reviewed and possibly amended for final release. Feedback to that end is welcome.

Plasma Wayland session - Available for testing, but not supported

A Plasma Wayland session is included for testing, but is not supported. Users needing a stable desktop experience should select the normal 'Plasma' (without Wayland) option at login.

New applications

latte-dock 0.7.4 is now in the ubuntu archive

Falkon 3.0.0 (was qupzilla) is available in the archive

kio-gdrive enables KIO-aware applications (such as Dolphin, Kate or Gwenview) to access and edit Google Drive files on the cloud.

Known Problems

(1759328) & (KDE Bug: 391642) plasmashell crash when changing deskop containment from 'folder view' to 'desktop'

(1761396) Ubiquity offers the choice to encrypt home, but choosing it gives an error

Bugs tagged Kubuntu 17.10

Older bugs:

(1442512) Apport-kde crash when reporting bugs

(1706859) Auto-selected keyboard layout no longer matches chosen region on "Where are you" page

Feedback

Development of Kubuntu 18.04 LTS, Bionic Beaver, is ongoing and bugs are fixed every day. Before reporting bugs, please ensure your system is up to date. For verifying installation related bugs, updated disk images are available from Daily bootable images for standard PCs and laptops.

You can give us feedback on Google + or Facebook or Twitter .