The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce Ubuntu Studio 26.10, code-named “Stonking Stingray.” This marks Ubuntu Studio’s 39th release.
Ubuntu Studio 26.10 is a standard release and will be supported for 9 months, until July 2027.
Building on the 26.04 LTS release, this cycle focuses on making Ubuntu Studio easier to tailor to your workflow: a more flexible installer, a rebuilt Audio Configuration layout, and a new set of tools for making music with code.
For full technical details, known issues, and upgrade instructions, please see the Ubuntu Studio 26.10 Stonking Stingray Release Notes.
You can download Ubuntu Studio 26.10 from the download page.
Major Highlights
Make music with code: Sonic Pi and SuperCollider
Ubuntu Studio’s audio package selections now include Sonic Pi, SuperCollider, and the SuperCollider 3 plugin suite, giving you a complete live-coding and algorithmic-composition toolkit alongside Ardour, Carla, and the rest of the audio stack. Also new is JNoise, a simple white/pink noise generator included purely for its utility, handy for testing audio setups and room or speaker checks.
DJ_Dave
The inclusion of Sonic Pi was inspired by DJ_Dave, a musician who builds and performs entire tracks as live code. While she currently uses Strudel, a browser-based live-coding environment, similar results can be obtained with Sonic Pi: write a few lines, hear them loop instantly, and keep reshaping the music as it plays. Sonic Pi runs natively on your desktop and is built on top of SuperCollider’s synthesis engine, so you can start with simple loops and samples and grow into deeper sound design.
If you have ever wanted to try live coding, there has never been an easier way to get started on Ubuntu Studio.
Choose exactly the packages you want
Ubuntu Studio Installer now lets you expand a metapackage’s Depends and Recommends lists and select individual packages, so you are no longer limited to all-or-nothing workflow bundles.
A cleaner Audio Configuration
Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration now uses a single-window, tabbed control-panel layout, with PipeWire quantum settings organized on the Audio tab and clearer controls overall.
The installer also now offers the PipeWire settings widget or extension appropriate to your detected desktop environment.
New in 26.10
Individual package selection from metapackages in Ubuntu Studio Installer
Single-window, tabbed Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration with clearer PipeWire quantum controls
New audio applications, available through Ubuntu Studio’s audio package selections:
Sonic Pi — A live-coding environment for creating music with code.
SuperCollider — An environment for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition.
SuperCollider 3 plugins — The SC3 plugin suite, extending SuperCollider’s available unit generators.
JNoise — A command-line white/pink noise generator, included for its utility.
Updated audio tools, including RaySession, Patchance, Geonkick, BChoppr, Loopino, and harpwise
Major Package Upgrades
OBS Studio 32.2.2
FreeShow 1.6.6 (snap)
QPrompt 2.0.2
RaySession 0.18.0
Patchance 1.4.0
DistroAV 6.2.1 for NDI support in OBS Studio
Kdenlive 26.08.1
Krita 6.0.3
GIMP 3.2.6
Ardour 9.8.0
Scribus 1.6.6
Audacity 3.7.8
For the complete software version list, see the release notes. There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here.
Only Install What You Need
Some users want everything preinstalled, while others prefer to start lean and add tools only as needed. Both approaches are fully supported.
If you want a lightweight starting point, choose the minimal install option in the installer. You will get the Ubuntu Studio desktop experience, theming, and core configuration, then add only the workflows you want with Ubuntu Studio Installer: audio, graphics, video, photography, and publishing. With this release, you can go one step further and pick individual packages within each workflow.
If you want a complete creative workstation out of the box, the full install remains available.
You can also start from any official Ubuntu flavor and add Ubuntu Studio workflows without reinstalling.
Special Notes
The Ubuntu Studio 26.10 disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be reliably written to some file systems such as FAT32, and may not be readable when burned to a standard DVD.
We recommend using a compatible file system for downloads and creating a bootable USB stick.
Minimum installation media requirements:
Dual-Layer DVD or 8 GB USB drive
Release images are available here.
Upgrade Notes
If you are running Ubuntu Studio 26.04 LTS, you can upgrade to 26.10.
Because 26.10 is a standard release, systems running an LTS are by default only prompted for new LTS releases. To be prompted for 26.10, open Software Sources, go to the Updates tab, and set Notify me of a new Ubuntu version to For any new version. Ubuntu Studio 25.10 users are normally prompted already, but should verify this setting. If you do not receive a notification, make sure plasma-distro-release-notifier is installed.
Detailed upgrade instructions are available in the release notes.
If you installed the 26.10 beta, you do not need to reinstall: keep your system updated and it will automatically become the final release.
Known Issues
The Time Zone tab in System Settings > Date & Time may appear blank because of a missing Qt6 Location dependency in plasma-workspace. As a workaround, run sudo apt install qml6-module-qtlocation in a terminal.
On first login for a newly created user, you will be prompted to reboot to apply the audio-production group configuration. This is intentional and works around the installer’s inability to configure the first user as part of the “audio” group or to add new users to it automatically.
Ubuntu Studio shares KDE Plasma and core Ubuntu components with other Ubuntu flavors, so some known issues overlap with Kubuntu and Ubuntu:
Kubuntu release notes
Ubuntu release notes
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps? A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox as a native .deb package. After numerous improvements, Firefox performs just as well as the native .deb did. Thunderbird is also a snap so that its maintainers can deliver security patches faster, in cooperation with Canonical.
FreeShow is an Electron-based application. Electron applications cannot be packaged as traditional Debian source packages, which Launchpad requires for the Ubuntu archive, but they can be built as snaps, so FreeShow is included as a snap. To keep theming consistent, all included themes are also snapped alongside the .deb versions.
We are working with Canonical to raise the quality of snaps with each release, and we ask that you give them a chance instead of writing them off completely.
Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}? A: That would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which means going through the official flavor application process. As a volunteer-run project, we do not have the time or resources to do so. Instead, download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to add Ubuntu Studio’s benefits without converting that flavor to Ubuntu Studio.
Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine? A: See “Only Install What You Need” above. Use the minimal install option, then add only the metapackages, configurations, or individual packages you want with Ubuntu Studio Installer.
Contributors & Thank You
Special thanks this cycle go to many familiar contributors from prior releases, including:
Eylul Dogruel: artwork and visual design
Ross Gammon: upstream Debian development and testing
Sebastien Ramacher: upstream Debian development
Dennis Braun: upstream Debian development
Rik Mills: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Scarlett Moore: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Aaron Rainbolt: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Michael Mikowski: Plasma and Kubuntu collaboration
Len Ovens: testing and workflow insight, support and help
Mauro Gaspari: tutorials, promotion, and documentation
Utkarsh Gupta: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Florent “Skia” Jacquet: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Michael Hudson-Doyle: Ubuntu Release Team support and collaboration
Erich Eickmeyer: project leadership, packaging, and direction
Ubuntu Studio is built by a volunteer community of developers, testers, artists, translators, documenters, and users. Thank you to everyone who tested the beta, reported bugs, submitted improvements, and helped shape this release.
Thank you also to DJ_Dave for the inspiration behind Sonic Pi’s inclusion.
Support Ubuntu Studio
Ubuntu Studio is built by volunteers, but volunteer work still comes with real costs. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, works long hours on this project while trying to generate a part-time income.
If Ubuntu Studio helps your creative work, your teaching, your studio, or your community, please consider supporting the project financially. Donations help keep the infrastructure running and make it easier to keep improving the tools, packaging, and user experience that go into each release.
You can support Ubuntu Studio here:
Contribute
Get Involved
Ubuntu Studio is a community project driven by volunteers. If you would like to contribute your time through packaging, documentation, testing, user support, or promotion, we would love your help:
Contribute
What do you do when software is feeling a little, well, disposable? Hardware, for one. Universal Audio has updated its Volt line of USB audio interfaces with built-in processing for preamp tone and dynamics, and on the higher-end models, "smart" displays and extras like ADAT input. (Hint: that can solve some of your connection problems to outboard mixer/Eurorack modules/whatever.) And these interfaces are really not expensive, starting at $149.
The post UA Volt Gen 2, Max: built-in dynamics and preamp tone, displays, more appeared first on CDM Create Digital Music.
As a portable media player, Microsoft’s Zune simply couldn’t compete with Apple’s juggernaut iPod — the latter essentially becoming the de facto personal media player until smartphones took over. But in 2026 it might be Microsoft that gets the last laugh, as thanks to [rsheldiii] the Zune can now play Super Mario 64.
The software is based on sm64ex, and notably doesn’t include the ROM file necessary to actually run the game. But presuming a legal dump of a cartridge has been done, building and loading it onto a Zune HD is straightforward enough. From there the player is presented with a controller interface on the device’s touchscreen overlaid with the video output from the game. Some interesting things are happening in the background here as well, like using NVIDIA’s Tegra tools to pre-compile shaders so the 2009-era processor can handle the rest of the gameplay.
Although it didn’t enjoy the mainstream success of the iPod, the Zune was actually a pretty solid device, and even though the last of them rolled off the assembly line back in 2012, there’s still a fairly active userbase for it. Modern improvements have added Bluetooth and solid-state drive upgrades for them have been available almost since they were first released.
The GStreamer team is pleased to announce another bug fix release
in the new stable 1.28 release series of your favourite cross-platform
multimedia framework!
This release only contains bug fixes as well as a number of
security fixes. It should be safe to update
from 1.28.x, and we recommend you do so at your earliest convenience.
Highlighted bugfixes:
Various security fixes and playback fixes
Fix adaptivedemux2 HLS and DASH playback regression
Fix FLAC audio seeking regression
Various RTP depayloader and RTSP client SDP handling fixes
MXF demuxer: Added support for reading AAF AIFF-AIFC audio
VA-API compositor: Fix alpha blending with Intel driver
Windows media audio/video seeking improvements
AMD AMF AV1 video encoder force-keyframe fixes
Fix endless drain in some FFmpeg wrapper audio encoders and support dual mono
hlssink3 improvements
ISOBMFF dash/iso/fmp4 muxer fixes for timestamp rollover in 2036
cerbero: Rework checksum verification to allow mirror retries
Various bug fixes, build fixes, memory leak fixes, and other stability and reliability improvements
See the GStreamer 1.28.8 release notes
for more details.
Binaries for Android, iOS, Mac OS X and Windows will be available shortly and
will be published on the Downloads page.
Although the feature has been deleted from newer models, there was a time when Amazon’s Echo devices included a 3.5 mm “aux” input jack that let you connect other audio sources to the smart speaker. Alexa would even let you switch over to an external source with a voice command — or at least, it used to.
As first reported by Reddit user [n8-sd], Amazon has started informing users that voice control over the 3.5 mm jack is no longer supported. While the physical input will still function on models equipped with it, if you want to mute the audio coming from an external device you’ll have to wade through the Alexa smartphone application to do it.
In a statement to Ars Technica, an Amazon rep confirmed that voice control over the auxiliary input has been removed as of the latest software version, and that their analytics showed not many people were using the feature in the first place. They also pointed out that no changes have been made to voice control of Bluetooth devices. While we don’t doubt that the total number of users that were physically plugging an audio source into their Echos was probably low in the grand scheme of things, that doesn’t really explain why such a simple feature needed to be actively removed.
Some commenters have theorized that the real reason behind the change is the fact that Amazon has no way of monitoring what users are playing over the auxiliary input. Since cataloging and selling the media consumption habits of users is big business these days, that’s a problem. While they might prefer to disable the feature entirely, they know that would stir up some bad press, so they’re opting to simply make it more annoying to use. We’re not saying we entirely buy this explanation, but it’s not the craziest thing we’ve ever heard either.
Although the Echo devices have never been particularly hackable, they have enjoyed a certain amount of success with tech-savvy users, making it all the more disappointing to see the ecosystem seemingly becoming less capable over time.
Madrona Labs' patchable West Coast synth is one of the most playable, exploration-friendly, unique instruments around -- a piece of software to last. And it comes with a reverb companion, now on Linux, too as a free demo you can beta-test. The big news: Aalto 2 is coming this fall for macOS, Windows -- and Linux, too.
The post West Coast, with penguins: Aaltoverb on Linux; Aalto 2 coming soon appeared first on CDM Create Digital Music.
Believe it or not, I do still exist. And I do some projects still.Sometimes.Anyway, I've been starting to play more with hardware synths because I don't have a dedicated studio space right now to set up softsynths and I just want to play around without messing with computers and wiring everything up. Regardless of the reason I wanted to be able to connect my KMI kboard up to my Korg Volca FM or my just arrived AMYboard but to do so requires a USB Midi Host. There are devices for sale that do this, but I realized that I have a device in a box that will do this already. So I dug out my raspberry pi zero W and a new project was born.First a little background. I looked for similar projects but most were allowing arbitrary connections and had UIs. I just want to plug in and play like it's a traditional hardware midi cable connection. I decided to use alsa just to keep it simple and minimize the setup on the pi (e.g. no jack midi).I just used the pi foundation's imager with the lite pi OS and set up so I could ssh into it for the rest of the configuration. That actually was the hardest part: getting ssh to work. For some reason the imager didn't create my user profile I tried to set up so I spent a while troubleshooting. Once that was going the rest was fairly straight ahead.First thing I set up on the pi was a bash script that will parse the output of aconnect (an alsa utility that can list all midi devices/ports). It looks like this:#!/bin/bashLOGFILE="/var/log/midi-connector.log"echo "$(date) - MIDI event triggered" >> $LOGFILE# Function to connect available MIDI portsconnect_midi(){ # Find the client IDs of all connected mid devices # This grabs any non-system MIDI ports available PORTS=($(aconnect -l | awk '/^client/ { if (/card=/) { c=$2; sub(/:/,"",c); v=1 } else { v=0 } } v && /^ +[0-9]+/ { print c":"$1 }')) # Then loop through them: for port in "${PORTS[@]}"; do echo "Found hardware port: $port" >> $LOGFILE done listsize=${#PORTS[@]} for (( i=0; i < listsize; i++ )); do for (( j=i+1; j < listsize; j++ )); do port_a="${PORTS[i]}" port_b="${PORTS[j]}" # Extract just the client number (everything before the colon) client_a="${port_a%:*}" client_b="${port_b%:*}" # Only connect if they belong to different hardware clients if [ "$client_a" != "$client_b" ]; then # Connect Port A to Port B aconnect "$port_a" "$port_b" # Connect Port B to Port A aconnect "$port_b" "$port_a" echo "connecting $port_a $port_b" >> $LOGFILE fi done done }connect_midiI saved that as /usr/local/bin/midi-connector.sh then did a chmod to make it executable.sudo chmod 700 /usr/local/bin/midi-connector.shNext you need a udev rule that will run whenever a USB device is connected. Paste this one line into /etc/udev/rules.d/99-usb-midi.rules:ACTION=="add",
SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ENV{ID_USB_INTERFACES}=="*:0103*", TAG+="systemd",
ENV{SYSTEMD_WANTS}+="midi-connect@$env{NAME}.service"That line tells the USB manager that when a newly connected USB device is a midi device then run a systemd service. So we have to make that systemd service next.In a new file called /etc/systemd/system/midi-connect.service put the following:[Unit]Description=Auto-connect USB MIDI for %IAfter=sound.target alsa-restore.service local-fs.target[Service]Type=oneshot# Give ALSA 2 seconds to fully spawn the client nodes in the background safelyExecStartPre=/bin/sleep 2ExecStart=/usr/local/bin/midi-connector.sh[Install]WantedBy=multi-user.targetAlsa takes a second after the udev rule fires to get the midi port ready so we have a little delay before we run the connector script, then the script goes and takes care of it. We also have this set up to run once at boot in addition to when udev launches it in case I power it on with everything connected (or in case the system browns out which happened a couple times).That's all it takes. If you don't want to reboot just run:sudo udevadm control --reload-rulessudo systemctl daemon-reload to reload the pieces then you should be able to plug in any usb midi devices and they'll all start sending messages to each other.So overall how well does it achieve the goal? I don't love how long it takes to boot (a couple minutes). And it seems like the system is fickle. Not sure I'm ready to rely on it if I were doing real gigs or something. The USB hat POGO pins aren't a supre great connection so I found better luck powering through the Pi USB port directly rather than through the USB hat power input. If I were to do this properly I'd use a rp2040 based chip and make a custom firmware which should boot much faster than a full OS on a single core that I have now. But this was quicker. Anyway. I did a thing. You can now too. Enjoy!
In 2024 we opened the MOD OS images, so anyone could change the software and share the result. One Dwarf owner did exactly that. Seventeen releases later, Starless has its own community, and it changed how we develop MOD OS. Here is his story, in his own words, and what it led to.
Andrea Del Signore, creator of Starless
Why I started Starless
By Andrea Del Signore
I first heard about MOD in its early days through the open source world, which I’ve always been passionate about. Then I lost track of it, until I came across an ad for a used Dwarf and bought it.
At the time my main unit was a Line 6 Helix LT, and I immediately saw the Dwarf’s potential: a compact device with creative routing options, a perfect fit for my acoustic and classical guitar rig. But a few software limitations made me doubt it could work live for me. They were small details, but vital ones. I couldn’t change a pedalboard’s parameters on the fly without a computer, not even to turn down a reverb or adjust an EQ. The plugins and the creative possibilities were there, but those few gaps kept me dragging the big, heavy Helix to every gig.
I noticed that almost all the sources were available on GitHub and that, in theory, I could modify the software and patch the official images.Andrea Del Signore
Then I noticed that almost all the sources were available on GitHub and that, in theory, I could modify the software and patch the official images. I spent the next three or four evenings on the couch reading code and setting my first goals. The plan was simple. First, a minimal change to get familiar with the codebase. Then, the few features I needed to play live without worrying, so I could finally replace the Helix.
After a few weeks of trial and error I built my first image. It introduced port groups in the UI and two complementary ways to edit pedalboard parameters: new firmware and a new mobile-friendly page, now known as the Performance View.
From there, the community stepped in. Abotte, Rom, Fer and others adopted the image, tested it and gave me feedback, and that is how Starless was born. The name comes from what I was working on at the time: a classical guitar arrangement of King Crimson’s song of the same name.
A few months later I sold my Helix and kept adding features that help both while editing and during performances. Today other talented developers, such as Stefan and Andy, are helping me refine Starless for use cases beyond my own.
I want to thank Abotte, Toferyu, Remy, Rom, Fer, Zwabo, UnvisualStudio and many others, along with the MOD team for the help in the very first days. And finally, Gianfranco and MOD Audio, for so warmly welcoming the development of this project.
What Starless is today
Starless is an alternative OS for the MOD Dwarf, made possible by the open images we published with MOD OS 1.13.5 in October 2024. It is now on version 17, and its latest release added, among other things:
Complete pedalboard editing from the Dwarf itself, no computer needed
Tone3000 support in the NAM, cabinet and IR loaders
Stereo cables and cable teleporting, for tidier pedalboards
A per-plugin CPU monitor, mouse-wheel zoom and a canvas that resizes itself as you add plugins
AndyCap has also been working on mapping the same control to the Dwarf’s own controls, MIDI, CC and CV at the same time, now in beta. See it in action on the forum.
Try Starless
Starless is Andrea’s project, with its own name, schedule and decisions. It is an unofficial image, so MOD does not provide support for it. The community does, on the forum.
Back up first. Use the Backup & Restore function in the web interface (see the MOD wiki).
Install the latest Starless image as a manual upgrade. Your pedalboards and downloaded plugins stay where they are.
Ask on the forum if anything is unclear. Here is one Dwarf owner’s first install, step by step.
Download Starless
Starless on the forum
What Starless changed: the new MOD OS release flow
Starless showed us something important. When the software is open, the people who use it every day will improve it, and their work deserves a real way into the product. So we changed how official MOD OS releases are made.
MOD OS is now released through three channels, a model inspired by how long-running open source projects like Debian work:
STABLE
Official production releases, after testing. What most users run.
TESTING
Official release candidates, built from MOD’s work and community contributions, and offered in the web interface. A new one every two to four weeks.
COMMUNITY
Independent images, built and distributed by their authors. Starless is the first.
The first release candidate under this flow is MOD OS 1.14, and it is already built from community work. It brings Tone3000 into the web interface, so you can browse and load captures directly on your device, and a “Report an Issue” button, so testing is one click away. The announcement of the new flow publicly thanked five community contributors: Andrea Del Signore, Andy Cap, Remy D, Stefan D and Mark Melvin.
In other words: what happened with Starless is now how MOD OS moves forward. Community work flows in, gets tested in the open, and ships.
Read about the new release flow
Try the 1.14 release candidate
Join in
All of this happens on the forum, through people testing, reporting problems and asking for features. Try a release candidate and tell us what breaks. Try Starless and tell Andrea what you would like next. And if you have your own idea for MOD, the forum is where it starts.
Go to the MOD forum
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The post Starless, a community-built OS for the MOD Dwarf. appeared first on MOD Audio website.
The Ubuntu Studio team is pleased to announce the beta release of Ubuntu Studio 26.10, codenamed “Stonking Stingray”.
While this beta is reasonably free of any showstopper installer bugs, you will find some bugs within. This image is mostly representative of what you will find when Ubuntu Studio 26.10 is released on October 15, 2026.
Ubuntu Studio 26.10 is a standard release and will be supported for 9 months, until July 2027. We encourage everyone to try this image and report bugs to improve our final release.
Special Notes
The Ubuntu Studio 26.10 disk image (ISO) exceeds 4 GB and cannot be downloaded to some file systems such as FAT32 and may not be readable when burned to a DVD. For this reason, we recommend downloading to a compatible file system. When creating a boot medium, we recommend creating a bootable USB stick with the ISO image or burning to a Dual-Layer DVD.
Images can be obtained from this link: https://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/26.10/beta/
Full updated information, including upgrade instructions, is available in the Release Notes.
Only Install What You Need
A common piece of feedback we hear is that people prefer to start with a lean base and install only the tools they actually use, rather than getting an overwhelming number of pre-installed packages. We hear you.
Ubuntu Studio includes a minimal install option in the installer. This gives you the Ubuntu Studio desktop experience — the theme, the audio configuration, the optimized settings — without the full suite of creative applications. From there, you can use Ubuntu Studio Installer to add exactly the workflows you want: audio, graphics, video, photography, or publishing: à la carte.
Alternatively, if you’re already running Kubuntu, Ubuntu, Lubuntu, Xubuntu, or any other official Ubuntu flavor, you don’t have to reinstall at all. Just install the Ubuntu Studio Installer package and pick the components you need. This has always been an option, but we want to make sure everyone knows about it.
The full install remains available for those who want a complete creative workstation out of the box, and that’s a perfectly valid choice too.
New and Improved This Release
Ubuntu Studio 26.10 builds on the 26.04 LTS release with improvements to Ubuntu Studio Installer, Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration, and included creative tools.
Ubuntu Studio Installer package selection: You can now expand a metapackage’s Depends and Recommends and select individual packages.
Ubuntu Studio Audio Configuration: The app now uses a single-window, tabbed control-panel layout, with PipeWire quantum settings organized on the Audio tab.
PipeWire settings: The installer offers the PipeWire settings app appropriate to the detected desktop environment.
Newly-included Audio Applications: Sonic Pi, SuperCollider, JNoise, and the SuperCollider 3 plugin suite are available through Ubuntu Studio’s audio package selections.
Major Package Upgrades
OBS Studio 32.2.2
FreeShow 1.6.5 (snap)
QPrompt 2.0.2
RaySession 0.18.0
Patchance 1.4.0
DistroAV 6.2.1 for NDI support in OBS Studio
Kdenlive 26.08.1
Krita 6.0.3
GIMP 3.2.6
Ardour 9.8.0
Scribus 1.6.6
Audacity 3.7.8
There are many other improvements, too numerous to list here. We encourage you to look around the freely-downloadable ISO image.
Known Issues
You will be prompted, upon first login of any new user, to reboot to apply proper audio configurations for audio production. This is intentional and is a workaround for the installer’s inability to configure the first user as part of the “audio” group or for new users to be added to the audio group automatically.
Official Ubuntu Studio release notes can be found at https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-studio-26-10-release-notes/
Further known issues, mostly pertaining to the desktop environment, can be found in the Kubuntu release notes.
Additionally, the Ubuntu 26.10 release notes contain more generic issues.
How You Can Help
Please test using the test cases on https://tests.ubuntu.com. All you need is a Launchpad account to get started, and to join the Ubuntu QA Team.
Additionally, we need financial contributions. Our project lead, Erich Eickmeyer, is working long hours on this project and trying to generate a part-time income. Go here to see how you can contribute financially (options are also in the sidebar).
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does Ubuntu Studio contain snaps?
A: Yes. Mozilla’s distribution agreement with Canonical changed, and Ubuntu was forced to no longer distribute Firefox in a native .deb package. We have found that, after numerous improvements, Firefox now performs just as well as the native .deb package did.
Thunderbird is also a snap in order for the maintainers to get security patches delivered faster. This is done by the Thunderbird team in cooperation with Canonical.
Additionally, FreeShow is an Electron-based application. Electron-based applications cannot be packaged in the Ubuntu repositories in that they cannot be packaged in a traditional Debian source package. While such apps do have a build system to create a .deb binary package, it circumvents the source package build system in Launchpad, which is required when packaging for Ubuntu. However, Electron apps also have a facility for creating snaps, which can be uploaded and included. Therefore, for FreeShow to be included in Ubuntu Studio, it had to be packaged as a snap.
Also, to keep theming consistent, all included themes are snapped in addition to the included .deb versions so that snaps stay consistent with our themes.
We are working with Canonical to make sure that the quality of snaps goes up with each release, so we please ask that you give snaps a chance instead of writing them off completely.
Q: If I install this Beta release, will I have to reinstall when the final release comes out?
A: No. If you keep it updated, your installation will automatically become the final release.
Q: Will you make an ISO with {my favorite desktop environment}?
A: To do so would require creating an entirely new flavor of Ubuntu, which would require going through the Official Ubuntu Flavor application process. Since we’re completely volunteer-run, we don’t have the time or resources to do this. Instead, we recommend you download the official flavor for the desktop environment of your choice and use Ubuntu Studio Installer to get Ubuntu Studio — which does not convert that flavor to Ubuntu Studio but adds its benefits.
Q: What if I don’t want all these packages installed on my machine?
A: See the “Only Install What You Need” section above. Use the minimal install option and then add only the metapackages, configurations, or individual packages you want with Ubuntu Studio Installer.
Artists Tina Mariane Krogh Madsen and Malte Steiner have been artists in residency in the Life on a Leaf house for the month of September. On Sunday 27.9, they will host an event at the Leaf house presenting some of the artistic processes they have worked with, as solo concerts, scores and software art. The event will start at 16.00 until 19.00, and there will be time to hang out and have conversations with the artists.https://www.lifeonaleaf.fi/en/events
The GStreamer Conference team is pleased to announce that the preliminary list
of talks, abstracts, and speaker biographies is now available for
this year's lineup of talks and speakers, covering again an exciting range of
topics!
The GStreamer Conference 2026 will take place on 10-11 October 2026
in Prague, Czech Republic, followed by a hackfest.
Details about the conference, hackfest and how to register can be found on the
conference website.
This year's topics and speakers:
GStreamer State of the Union
Tim-Philipp Müller, Centricular
Fulfilling a Childhood Dream: Video Streaming for Remotely Controlling a Train
Rainhard Driessler & Simon Himmelbauer, A&R Tech
A new MPEG-TS demuxer in Rust
Edward Hervey, Centricular
That F#$%ing AI Talk - Debugging GStreamer With AI Tools
Ray Tiley, Tightrope Media Systems
GstVA and GstVulkan updates
Victor Manuel Jáquez Leal, Igalia
Building a Ringbuffer - Going in circles with V4L2 and PipeWire
Simon Himmelbauer, A&R Tech
GStreamer 20 years of fun
Stéphane Cerveau, Igalia
Permissions, Isolation and Streams: Redesigning WirePlumber's Core
Julian Bouzas, Collabora
GStreamer highlights in Servo
Xabier Rodríguez Calvar, Igalia
Write once, run anywhere inference with GStreamer
Sebastian Dröge, Centricular
Every Camera Is a Snowflake: Building a VMS That Works With Thousands of Device Models
James Nickerson, IP Configure
The Quest for Python Analytics
Aaron Boxer, Collabora
WebRTC in the Wild: It Works on My Network
Jake Foytik, IP Configure
Rock, paper, scissors
Xabier Rodríguez Calvar, Igalia
Exploring GStreamer as a media backend for game engines
Dominique Leroux
Embedded Reality: GStreamer Versioning strategy on SoC Products
Kye Yeon Ko, LGE
WebRTC take 2, a decade later
Matthew Waters, Centricular
Gst-Audit: A graphical way to instrument your pipeline
Jorge Zapata, Fluendo
A GStreamer-Based Performance Evaluation Tool for End-to-End Visual AI Pipelines
Jan Gorecki, Intel
A new Media Source Extensions implementation in GStreamer for cross-platform apps
Sebastian Dröge, Centricular
GStreamer as a Foundation for Vision AI Edge Solutions
Tomasz Janczak, Intel
Local transcription and translation with GStreamer: whisper.cpp + llama.cpp
Sebastian Dröge, Centricular
How GStreamer is used in WebKit
Enrique Ocaña González, Igalia
librice: challenges with sans-io
Matthew Waters, Centricular
Ingesting thousands of streams over SRT on the same endpoint
Jonas Danielsson, Spiideo
Multithreading in GStreamer: how do flushes work
Alicia Boya García, Igalia
GStreamer 2.x without breaking API ?
Edward Hervey, Centricular
Outsourcing the boring work: setting up LLM agents for fixing bugs in legacy software
Kim Schmider, A&R Tech
Real-time offshore crane teleoperations powered by GStreamer
Adam Blonsky, Palfinger
Dolby/AC-4: The plan to support the Dolby ecosystem in GStreamer
Pablo García & Maciej Sabiniok, Fluendo
Color, tracing and WebAssembly: a year of GStreamer for video editing
Thibault Saunier, Igalia
Fluster over the course of 2026
Rubén Gonzalez, Fluendo
SIL 2 Video Streaming - Functional Safety from Lens to Glass
Rainhard Driessler, A&R Tech
Secure Video Path Done the Right Way
Nicolas Dufresne, Collabora
Making GStreamer Feel Native in Zig
Per Andersen, TV2
Restream and GStreamer, a success story.
Loïc Le Page, Igalia
When the robots came for our parsers: GStreamer security in the age of LLMs
Sebastian Dröge, Centricular
Digitally Signed Content & C2PA
Diego Nieto Munoz, Fluendo
Unifying GstAnalytics Metadata: Achieving Cross-Vendor Interoperability in Video Analytics
Oskar Fiedot, Intel; Pep Cots, Milestone Systems; Daniel Morin, Collabora
Whither GStreamer 2.0 ? - Overview, Presentations and Panel Discussion
Various speakers, tbd
Whisper transcriber
Mathieu Duponchelle, Centricular
GstVulkan in Production: Lessons from the Real World
Anders Hellerup Madsen, Veo Technologies
Per pipeline logs tracer
Mathieu Duponchelle, Centricular
Why is MPEG-TS so hard?
Jan Schmidt, Centricular
Let's solve our long standing issues: time for GStreamer 2.0 ?
Thibault Saunier, Igalia
Latency is bad, isn't it?
Jan Schmidt, Centricular
Let's renegotiate!
Mathieu Duponchelle, Centricular
GStreamer in and out of the box
Jan Schmidt, Centricular
...and more to come
Submit your talk or lightning talk now!
Many thanks to our amazing sponsors ‒ Platinum sponsors
Centricular,
Pexip, and
Igalia,
Gold sponsors
Axis Communications and
Collabora,
Fluendo,
and Silver sponsor
Tightrope Media Systems, and
our Media Partner
UbiCast
without whom the conference would not be possible in this form.
We hope to see you all in Prague soon!
Don't forget to register as soon as possible if you're planning on joining us, so we can order enough food and drinks!
There's also a hackfest after the conference.
Vee One Suite 1.5.0 - An End-of-Summer'26 Release
Greetings y'all,
The Vee One Suite, the gang-of-four old-school software instruments,
synthv1 as a polyphonic subtractive synthesizer;
samplv1 a polyphonic sampler synthesizer;
drumkv1 as yet another drum-kit sampler;
padthv1 a polyphonic additive synthesizer.
Are here upgraded to the (northern) End-of-Summer'26 season...
Still delivered in dual form:
a pure stand-alone JACK client with JACK-session, NSM (Non/New Session Management) and both JACK MIDI and ALSA MIDI input support;
a LV2 instrument plug-in.
Change-log:
MIDI-in element selection on note-on events option added as a toggle to elements list and sample waveform widget's context-menu as "Auto select elements". (drumkv1 only)
Introducing factory/community presets install package.
Color theme (with palette editor) and (widget) Style theme options moved to Help/Configure.../Custom tab (with preview).
Detached DCA Volume from main output processing. (samplv1 and drumkv1 only)
Fix to a terribly old multiple LV2 plug-in instance mess up, revisited again. (padthv1 only)
The Vee One Suite are free, open-source Linux Audio software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.
synthv1 - an old-school polyphonic synthesizer
synthv1 1.5.0 (end-of-summer'26) released!
synthv1 is an old-school all-digital 4-oscillator subtractive polyphonic synthesizer with stereo fx.
LV2 URI: http://synthv1.sourceforge.net/lv2
website:
https://synthv1.sourceforge.io
http://synthv1.sourceforge.net
project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/synthv1
downloads:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/synthv1/files
source tarball:
synthv1-1.5.0.tar.gz
source package:
synthv1-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
binary packages (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
synthv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
synthv1-lv2-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
factory/community presets (NEW) (thanks to G3N-es aka. Miguel Lacha):
synthv1-preset-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.noarch.rpm
https://github.com/rncbc/synthv1-preset
AppImage package (JACK stand-alone only):
synthv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.x86_64.AppImage
git repos:
https://git.code.sf.net/p/synthv1/code
https://github.com/rncbc/synthv1.git
https://gitlab.com/rncbc/synthv1.git
https://codeberg.org/rncbc/synthv1.git
samplv1 - an old-school polyphonic sampler
samplv1 1.5.0 (end-of-summer'26) released!
samplv1 is an old-school polyphonic sampler synthesizer with stereo fx.
LV2 URI: http://samplv1.sourceforge.net/lv2
website:
https://samplv1.sourceforge.io
http://samplv1.sourceforge.net
project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/samplv1
downloads:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/samplv1/files
source tarball:
samplv1-1.5.0.tar.gz
source package:
samplv1-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
binary packages (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
samplv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_4.rpm
samplv1-lv2-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_4.rpm
factory/community presets (NEW) (thanks to G3N-es aka. Miguel Lacha):
samplv1-preset-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.noarch.rpm
https://github.com/rncbc/samplv1-preset
AppImage package (JACK stand-alone only):
samplv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.x86_64.AppImage
git repos:
https://git.code.sf.net/p/samplv1/code
https://github.com/rncbc/samplv1.git
https://gitlab.com/rncbc/samplv1.git
https://codeberg.org/rncbc/samplv1.git
drumkv1 - an old-school drum-kit sampler
drumkv1 1.5.0 (end-of-summer'26) released!
drumkv1 is an old-school drum-kit sampler synthesizer with stereo fx.
LV2 URI: http://drumkv1.sourceforge.net/lv2
website:
https://drumkv1.sourceforge.io
http://drumkv1.sourceforge.net
project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/drumkv1
downloads:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/drumkv1/files
source tarball:
drumkv1-1.5.0.tar.gz
source package:
drumkv1-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
binary packages (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
drumkv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
drumkv1-lv2-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
factory/community presets (NEW) (thanks to G3N-es aka. Miguel Lacha):
drumkv1-preset-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.noarch.rpm
https://github.com/rncbc/drumkv1-preset
AppImage package (JACK stand-alone only):
drumkv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.x86_64.AppImage
git repos:
https://git.code.sf.net/p/drumkv1/code
https://github.com/rncbc/drumkv1.git
https://gitlab.com/rncbc/drumkv1.git
https://codeberg.org/rncbc/drumkv1.git
padthv1 - an old-school polyphonic additive synthesizer
padthv1 1.5.0 (end-of-summer'26) released!
padthv1 is an old-school polyphonic additive synthesizer with stereo fx
padthv1 is based on the PADsynth algorithm by Paul Nasca, as a special variant of additive synthesis.
LV2 URI: http://padthv1.sourceforge.net/lv2
website:
https://padthv1.sourceforge.io
http://padthv1.sourceforge.net
project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/padthv1
downloads:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/padthv1/files
source tarball:
padthv1-1.5.0.tar.gz
source package:
padthv1-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
binary packages (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
padthv1-jack-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
padthv1-lv2-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
factory/community presets (NEW) (thanks to G3N-es aka. Miguel Lacha):
https://github.com/rncbc/padthv1-preset
AppImage package (JACK stand-alone only):
padthv1-preset-1.5.0-15.1.rncbc.suse.noarch.rpm
padthv1-jack-1.5.0-15.2.x86_64.AppImage
git repos:
https://git.code.sf.net/p/padthv1/code
https://github.com/rncbc/padthv1.git
https://gitlab.com/rncbc/padthv1.git
https://codeberg.org/rncbc/padthv1.git
Enjoy && Keep having (lots of) fun.
rncbc
Tue, 15 Sep 2026 - 17:00
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David García Goñi released a new version of Elektroid, a sample and MIDI device manager for Elektron, Arturia, Eventide, Moog, Novation, and now Korg devices.
Device support
Elektroid 3.4 introduced support for several devices:
KORG prologue, minilogue xd and NTS-1 (units only);
Elektron Monomachine SFX-60 + MKII.
Additionally, there is now support for uploading Elektron Syntakt samples.
The next version will be coming with MFB Tanzmaus support, the code is already in the development tree.
Fixes
David also added a Preferences option to disable safety questions and fixed model cycles renaming and preset uploading to Microfreak units and.
Elektroid is available in source code and as a flatpak build. The program also builds on macOS, but there is no DMG yet.
Malte Steiner's generative projection piece ‘retexturizing: recontextualizing‘ for the open house Konstrundan event at Life on a Leaf 6. September in Turku (FI). A computer generates and animates randomly collages out of 1892 image fragments of processed real estate ads from Steiner's project The Big Crash, Art for the pending burst of the real estate bubble . Programmed in Pure Data / Gem, running on a Linux computer.
Qtractor 1.6.4 - A Late-Summer'26 Hotfix Release
Hi, twice again!
Qtractor 1.6.4 (late-summer'26 hotfix) is released!
Qtractor is an audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application written in C++ with the Qt framework. Target platform is Linux, where the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) for audio and the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) for MIDI are the main infrastructures to evolve as a fairly-featured Linux desktop audio workstation GUI, specially dedicated to the personal home-studio.
Change-log:
Fixed a relatively recent crash-bug introduced to Clip/Merge... as a undesired side-effect from fixing that older bug on Clip/Normalize (as of late v1.6.1)
See also:
Qtractor 1.6.3 - A Late-Summer'26 Release
Website:
https://qtractor.org
Project page:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor
Downloads:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/qtractor/files
source tarball:
qtractor-1.6.4.tar.gz
source package (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
qtractor-1.6.4-24.1.rncbc.suse.src.rpm
binary package (openSUSE Tumbleweed):
qtractor-1.6.4-24.1.rncbc.suse.x86_64.rpm
AppImage packages:
qtractor-1.6.4-24.1.x86_64.AppImage
Flatpak package:
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.rncbc.qtractor
OBS packages (repos):
Git repos:
https://git.code.sf.net/p/qtractor/code
https://github.com/rncbc/qtractor.git
https://gitlab.com/rncbc/qtractor.git
https://codeberg.org/rncbc/qtractor.git
Wiki:
https://sourceforge.net/p/qtractor/wiki/
static rendering:
https://qtractor.org/doc
user manual & how-to's:
qtractor-manual-and-howtos.epub
qtractor-manual-and-howtos.pdf
License:
Qtractor is free, open-source Linux Audio software, distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License (GPL) version 2 or later.
Enjoy && Keep having fun!
rncbc
Sun, 6 Sep 2026 - 11:00
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After a somewhat unusual release process, we are pleased to announce Ardour 9.8. Notable features in this release include some initial steps in musical scale support, the return (after perhaps a decade) of robust data recovery after crashes/power outages while recording, and some improvements to clip recording. As usual, there’s a host of bug fixes and quality of life improvements.
As usual, download from Download Ardour | Ardour Community and full release notes over [here(Ardour 9.8 — What's new | Ardour DAW)
56 posts - 24 participants
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A new release of gst123, my commandline media player based on GStreamer is available. The main new “feature” is probably that it now can play videos without crashing on Wayland, although it still relies on Xwayland to do so. See release link for full list of changes.
A while ago I've written a patch to qjackctl which adds DBUS support to start and stop the JACK audio server. It's available and enabled by default in qjackctl from version 0.3.4.11 upwards.
The main use-case for it is to bring up the JACK server after a suspend/resume cycle on laptops. More information about this is available on a Wiki Page. This blog will just give minimal usage information to tease you :)
An example script to re-launch JACK with the last chosen preset looks like this:
/etc/pm/sleep.d/90qjackctl.sh
#!/bin/bash
case $1 in
thaw|resume)
(sleep 4 ; dbus-send --system /org/rncbc/qjackctl org.rncbc.qjackctl.start)&
;;
*)
;;
esac
audio, floss, jack
Read or add comments to this article
Work in progress.. feel free to edit this wiki-page if you can improve it.
About
a3vtl.img is a live-system to evaluate the Ardour3 video-timeline. Live-system - you run it from a USB flash drive. It won't touch your hard-disk and does not require installation.
It comes with a whole bunch of audio-software and can be used as studio to go, but you're better off to rely on a dedicated distribution for the latter (e.g. AVLinux, kxStudio, Ubuntu-Studio,…).
Prerequisites
x86 compatible PC
≥ 1GB RAM
USB-flash-drive ≥ 2GB
Installation
You need to write the disk-image to a raw-device (USB-stick, CF-CARD,..) that your computer can boot from.
Doing that destroys all data that is on the USB-drive!
Download the disk-image http://rg42.org/d/a3vtl_20120805-1.img mirrored at linuxaudio.org (preferably download from the linuxaudio.org mirror - it offers better bandwidth and more simultaneous downloads).
and write it to a USB-drive – _not_ save it as file _on_ the USB-stick, but write it as disk-image
boot from the USB-device
Regarding (2.):
on GNU/Linux this can be accomplished by various ways. The easiest is probably to use usb-creator (usb-creator-gtk on Ubuntu or Arch-Linux).
The canonical way is to use dd on the commandline e.g. if your USB-device is /dev/sdb
dd if=/path/to/downloads/a3vtl_VERSION.img of=/dev/sdb
This also works on OSX, disk-devices are called /dev/disk1, /dev/disk2, etc instead of /dev/sdb, /dev/sdc,.. although you may prefer to use the Disk Utility GUI.
On windows: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/ is the probably the easiest way to write a disk-image onto a USB-key.
Persistence
The disk-image is a read-only live-system. Every time you boot you will have a pristine system. None of your modifications are saved.
In order to retain customizations, you can create a partition with the label 'live-rw' which will automatically be overlaid. The 'live-rw' partition can be on any medium, although it is convenient to keep it on the same disk as the OS. Say, if your USB-drive is 8 GB, you can use the remaining space of 6.5 GB (the live-system is ~1.5 GB) for storage and customizations.
Note: the live-rw partition only saves modifications done to the pristine system. It uses a rather smart technique called AUFS to do so. It is not a data-partition per se and can only be used with a live-system of the same version. If you plan to do serious A/V work, store it on an external hard-disk.
Getting Started
Ardour3 is not [yet] documented. There are bits and pieces of floating around. If in doubt, ask for help via IRC chat.
In the $HOME folder, resides an example video for testing <tt>timecode25-test.mov</tt>, that can be loaded as video into Ardour3:
Launch Ardour3, create a new session and choose <em>File → Open Video</em> from Ardour's menu…
The video-timeline should be pretty much self-explanatory:
Menu→Session→Open Video
Menu→Session→Export→Video
Menu→View→Rulers→Video (or right-click the ruler/marker bar → Video)
Menu→View→Video Monitor (xjadeo)
Menu→Edit→Preferences→Video
Menu→Session→Video maintenance→ … (manual video server interaction)
Advanced -- Shell script to create USB drive
#!/bin/bash
# the disk-device to use:
DEVICE=/dev/sdb # or /dev/mmcblk0 or /dev/hdb ,...
URL=http://robin.linuxaudio.org/a3vtl_latest.img
URL=http://rg42.org/d/a3vtl_latest.img
# Download the image and write it to the disk:
curl http://rg42.org/d/a3vtl_latest.img | dd of=$DEVICE bs=64k
### OPTIONAL: ###
# re-read the partition-table after the image has been written
partprobe $DEVICE
# create a 2nd partition using the rest of the space on the device..
echo -e "n\np\n2\n\n\np\nw\n" | fdisk $DEVICE
# ..and create an ext4 filesystem on it, labeled live-rw'
mkfs.ext4 -L live-rw ${DEVICE}2
Now boot from the prepared device..
floss, audio, video
MDA.lv2 1.2.12 has been released. This is a port of the MDA VST plugins to LV2.
Changes:
Avoid over-use of yielding meson options
Fix build with MSVC 2022
Fix strict aliasing violation
Fix use of uninitialized values in TalkBox
Improve const-correctness
Remove development symbols from modules by default
Use a deterministic and more uniform RNG