KDE neon Users Can Now Upgrade to Ubuntu 24.04

KDE neon users can now upgrade to rebase their systems on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.

For those unfamiliar with it, KDE neon is an Ubuntu-based Linux distribution that is something of a reference platform for KDE Plasma. It’s available in User, Testing, Unstable, and Developer editions.

KDE neon (User Edition) is the ‘stable’ version but still described as suiting ‘adventurous KDE enthusiasts’ rather than those seeking a rock-solid, totally-reliable distro. KDE neon isn’t tested as a distro as throughly as, say, Kubuntu.

But if you want the benefits of the Ubuntu 24.04 package set with the latest KDE Plasma 6.2 release on top (plus guaranteed upgrades to KDE Plasma 6.3, 6.4, etc as they’re release) then KDE neon is where you can go to get it.

Sharing news of the uplift on the KDE discuss forum, KDE developer Jonathan Esk-Riddell said:

“We have just switched on the upgrade for KDE neon to rebase on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. We do this every two years and the 22.04 LTS base was getting increasingly crusty with old Pipewire causing problems and packages like Krita not compiling at all.”

Upgrade KDE neon to Ubuntu 24.04

Upgrading an existing KDE neon edition based on Ubuntu 22.04 LTS to one based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS is easy enough.

A little notification will appear in the corner from today, informing you that the update is available. When this appears just click the action button in the notification, and follow the on-screen steps.

Backup important files, settings, configurations, etc before upgrading. The KDE neon sub-forum has threads from users hitting issues during/after upgrade.

During the upgrade process you may be be shown a dialog asking what to do about a “Configuration File Change”. Click “Keep” and the upgrade will continue. Once done, it’ll prompt you to cleanup (remove obsolete packages), after which you can reboot.

Use the Firefox DEB? You may find the Firefox snap is reinstalled. Upgrading disables 3rd-party repos are disabled so pinned package settings are ignored.

For more details see the KDE neon wiki.

Don’t use KDE neon yet?

Don’t currently use KDE neon but want to install it with the Ubuntu 24.04 base in-place, ready to go, no upgrades hassles required?

As of writing, the KDE neon downloads linked from the official website are based on Ubuntu 22.04 ‘jammy’. New Ubuntu 24.04 ‘Noble’ ISOs are in testing (should you fancy trying one early) and should make their way to default download shortly.