Xubuntu 24.04 Release Notes

Welcome to the Xubuntu 24.04 “Noble Numbat” release notes!

Xubuntu 24.04 was released on Thursday, April 25, 2024, and will be supported for three years until April 2027. For general information and the latest updates for Xubuntu 24.04, check out the release page on xubuntu.org.

• Known Issues
• Ubuntu Common Release Notes
• Major Updates
• Updates
• Changelogs

• GRUB menu not displayed for dual-boot system installation (2060624)
• Installer may select two root (/) partitions (2060896)
• No shutdown prompt after installation (1944519)
  • However, you should be able to press the Enter key to continue with the reboot.
• OEM installation is not available.
  • It is under active development and will be ready in time for 24.04.1

• Xfce Pulseaudio Plugin:
  • Multiple notifications displayed if multiple Pulseaudio plugins added to panel (1769775)
• Virtual Machines:
  • Xorg crashes after logging in or switching users on some virtual machines, including QEMU/GNOME Boxes and Virtualbox (1861609)
    • You may be able to resolve this issue by removing the apt:libva-wayland2 package.
  • Poor performance and audio stuttering in some virtual machines, including VMware and VirtualBox
    • In these instances, you will need to either adjust your configuration (recommended) or replace PipeWire with PulseAudio

The main Ubuntu Release Notes covers both many of the other packages we carry and more issues common to every Ubuntu flavor.

Xfce 4.18, the latest stable release, is included in Xubuntu 24.04. Notable app updates include:

• Catfish has a refreshed appearance with tweaks to each component. It also features a new “Open with” context menu and the Ctrl+A select-all accelerator.
• Mousepad has added search history and the ability to reload files if they've been modified automatically. It also includes a handful of UX improvements, and a new “match whole word” toggle added to the search toolbar.
• Ristretto adds printing support to Xubuntu's default image viewer.
• Thunar File Manager now has built-in, recursive file search. It also includes a graphical shortcuts editor and per-directory zoom levels. The latest release adds support for IPv6 remote URLs.
• Thunar Archive Plugin now allows zip files (including odt, docx, and others) to be compressed and improves support for bz2 and bz3 files.
• Application Finder now supports the PrefersNonDefaultGPU property, correctly launching games and other apps on multi-GPU systems.
• Desktop will now ask for confirmation before desktop icons are rearranged. A new option has been added to disable the “Delete” context menu item.
• Dictionary has added support for IPv6 DICT servers.
• Notification Daemon features improved application icon and name matching and fixes notification position during the slideout animation.
• Panel has added a new binary time mode and new middle-click options for the tasklist plugin. It also improves the handling and display of systray and status notifier applets.
• PulseAudio Plugin features a new indicator for when any app is recording audio. Notifications are now displayed when the microphone volume level is changed. Media players can now be marked as persistent or ignored via the settings dialog.
• Screenshooter fixes window capture for HiDPI, enables viewing your screenshot in the file manager, and adds a back button to take a new screenshot. It also features newly-added support for AVIF and JPEG XL file formats.
• Power Manager and Screensaver received several updates to eliminate screensaver issues.
• Settings includes improved support for dark themes and will now sync dark theme settings to apps that support it.
• Task Manager adds a right-click option to copy the full process command line to the clipboard and improves support for dark themes.
• Terminal improves scrolling, adds a new “Fill” background image style, and fixes the “unsafe paste” dialog (allowing it to actually paste).

Finally, Xfce libraries, including garcon, libxfce4ui, tumbler, and xfconf have received several bug fixes for race conditions and memory leaks. Overall, the desktop should be more responsive and less prone to crash.

• GNOME Software has been replaced by Snap Store (snap:snap-store) and GDebi (apt:gdebi). Synaptic is still included for researching and installing Debian packages from the repositories.
• Snap Desktop Integration (snap:snapd-desktop-integration) is now included for improved snap package support
• Firmware Updater (snap:firmware-updater) has been added to enable firmware updates in Xubuntu is included to support firmware updates from the Linux Vendor Firmware Service (LVFS)
• Thunderbird is now distributed as a Snap package. Users upgrading from a previous release will be automatically transitioned to the new Snap package with no loss of data or functionality.
• Ubiquity has been replaced by the Flutter-based Ubuntu Installer (ubuntu-desktop-provision) to provide fast and user-friendly installation

• Xubuntu Minimal is now available, featuring a slimmed down version of Xubuntu with only the bare essentials.
• Pipewire (and wireplumber) are now included in Xubuntu.
• Mosaic, the grid-filling puzzle, has been added to SGT Puzzles.
• MenuLibre, the Xfce-friendly menu editor, has been updated with several quality-of-life improvements. The new command editor takes the guesswork out of generating complex application launchers. Help dialogs make it easier to learn about each supported feature. Separators are displayed in the application list to make them easier to see and reorder.

• The Greybird GTK theme features improved GTK 3 and GTK 4 support with minor visual improvements for Xfce and GNOME applications.
• The elementary-xfce icon theme updates the visual language for Xfce and other applications for a brighter, rounder, more colorful, and more consistent experience. Enjoy new icons for the Settings Manager, Xubuntu Installer, Xfburn, Mousepad, Calculator, Bluetooth, and many more!
• The Systray panel plugin now uses “automatic” icon sizes, making indicators and tray icons more consistent.
• The Terminal font size was increased from 9 to 10.
• Some GNOME components, including Disk Usage Analyzer (apt:baobab), Fonts (apt:gnome-font-viewer), and Document Scanner (apt:simple-scan) have a refreshed interface using libadwaita and newer design conventions.
• Several Xfce components have been updated to better support UI scaling. 2x scaling can be enabled from the Appearance dialog.
• Color emoji are now included and used in Firefox, Thunderbird, and GTK 3 and newer applications. To enter emoji on GTK applications (such as Mousepad), use the Ctrl + . keyboard shortcut to show the emoji picker.
• When changing your GTK (interface) theme, a matching Xfwm (window manager) theme is now automatically selected. This setting can be changed in the Appearance dialog.
• Past Xubuntu wallpapers can now be easily installed from the repositories! They're grouped by LTS release:
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-jammy: Hirsute, Impish, and Jammy
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-focal: Cosmic, Disco, Eoan, and Focal
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-bionic: Yakkety, Zesty, Artful, and Bionic
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-xenial: Utopic, Vivid, Wily, and Xenial
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-trusty: Quantal, Raring, Saucy, and Trusty
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-precise: Maverick, Natty, and Precise
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-lucid: Intrepid, Jaunty, Karmic, and Lucid
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-hardy: Edgy, Feisty, Gutsy, and Hardy
  • xubuntu-wallpapers-dapper: Dapper

• Bluetooth headphones are now better supported under PipeWire with the addition of apt:libspa-0.2-bluetooth
• Recent touch input devices, including the second-generation Apple Magic Trackpad, are now supported with the removal of apt:xserver-xorg-input-synaptics

Significant package and version updates. For full package changelogs, see the Changelogs section below.

• GNOME 46
• GTK 2.24.33 / 3.24.41 / 4.14.1
• MATE 1.26
• Xfce 4.18

• BlueZ 5.72
• CUPS 2.4.7
• Mesa 24.0.3
• Poppler 24.02.0
• PulseAudio 16.1
• xdg-desktop-portal 1.18.2

• elementary-xfce 0.19
• Greybird 3.23.3

• Catfish 4.16.4
• Exo 4.18.0
• Gigolo 0.5.3
• Mousepad 0.6.1
• Ristretto 0.13.1
• Thunar File Manager 4.18.8
• Xfce Application Finder 4.18.0
• Xfce Clipman Plugin 1.6.5
• Xfce Netload Plugin 1.4.1
• Xfce Panel 4.18.4
• Xfce PulseAudio Plugin 0.4.8
• Xfce Screenshooter 1.10.5
• Xfce Settings 4.18.4
• Xfce Systemload Plugin 1.3.2
• Xfce Task Manager 1.5.7
• Xfce Whisker Menu Plugin 2.8.3

• Atril 1.26.2
• Engrampa 1.26.2
• MATE Calculator 1.26.0

• GNOME Disk Usage Analyzer 46.0
• GNOME Disk Utility 46.0
• GNOME Mines 40.1
• GNOME Sudoku 46.0
• Rhythmbox 3.4.7
• Simple Scan 46.0

• Blueman 2.3.5
• Firefox 124.0.2 (snap)
• GIMP 2.10.36
• LibreOffice 24.2.2
• Pipewire 1.0.4
• Snapd 2.62
• SGT Launcher 0.2.8
• Thunderbird 115.9.0 (snap)

• apturl (changelog)
• atril (changelog)
• baobab (changelog)
• blueman (changelog)
• elementary-xfce (changelog)
• engrampa (changelog)
• gimp (changelog)
• gnome-disk-utility (changelog)
• gtk2-engines-xfce (changelog)
• hexchat (changelog)
• lightdm-gtk-greeter (changelog)
• lightdm-gtk-greeter-settings (changelog)
• mate-calc (changelog)
• menulibre (changelog)
• mugshot (changelog)
• pavucontrol (changelog)
• rhythmbox (changelog)
• pipewire (changelog)
• sgt-launcher (changelog)
• shimmer-themes (changelog)
• syncaptic (changelog)
• xcape (changelog)
• xubuntu-artwork (changelog)
• xubuntu-core (changelog)
• xubuntu-default-settings (changelog)
• xubuntu-desktop (changelog)
• xubuntu-docs (changelog)
• xubuntu-meta (changelog)
• xubuntu-wallpapers (changelog)

• exo (changelog)
• libxfce4ui (changelog)
• libxfce4util (changelog)
• thunar (changelog)
• thunar-volman (changelog)
• tumbler (changelog)
• xfce4-appfinder (changelog)
• xfce4-panel (changelog)
• xfce4-panel-profiles (changelog)
• xfce4-power-manager (changelog)
• xfce4-session (changelog)
• xfce4-settings (changelog)
• xfconf (changelog)
• xfdesktop4 (changelog)
• xfwm4 (changelog)

• catfish (changelog)
• gigolo (changelog)
• mousepad (changelog)
• parole (changelog)
• ristretto (changelog)
• xfburn (changelog)
• xfce4-notifyd (changelog)
• xfce4-screensaver (changelog)
• xfce4-screenshooter (changelog)
• xfce4-taskmanager (changelog)
• xfce4-terminal (changelog)

• xfce4-clipman-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-cpugraph-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-dict (changelog)
• xfce4-indicator-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-mailwatch-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-netload-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-notes-plugin (changelog
• xfce4-places-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-quicklauncher-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-statusnotifier-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-systemload-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-verve-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-weather-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin (changelog)
• xfce4-xkb-plugin (changelog)

• thunar-archive-plugin (changelog)
• thunar-media-tags-plugin (changelog)