Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 LTS Release Notes

Welcome to Ubuntu Budgie 26.04

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Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 Release Notes

Introduction

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon) is a Long Term Support release, supported for three years by the Ubuntu Budgie team.

This release ships with Budgie Desktop 10.10.2 and marks a full transition to Wayland. Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 is Wayland‑only and uses labwc as the default compositor. No Xorg session is provided.

Note - we will be shipping a wayfire supported session through our backports PPA - more info on that in due course.

These release notes highlight the key user‑visible changes since Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS, and document important behaviour changes introduced as part of the Wayland transition.

What’s New in 26.04

Wayland‑Only Desktop

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 is a Wayland‑only release using Budgie Desktop 10.10.2.

What this means for users:

• Screen sharing, screenshots, and related integration use modern Wayland portals
• Display configuration follows wlroots tooling
• Some X11‑era workflows behave differently or are no longer available

For managing displays, wdisplays is the recommended configuration tool.

Budgie Desktop on labwc

Budgie now runs on labwc, a wlroots‑based compositor focused on correctness and stability.

User‑visible improvements include:

• Multiple window focus modes (including sloppy focus)
• Improved handling of monitor hot‑plugging and output loss
• Improved resilience during suspend, resume, and output re‑appearance

Desktop Layout and Experience Updates

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 ships with a refined and settled default layout:

• Crystal Dock enabled and configured out‑of‑the‑box
• Top Bar reworked for the 26.04 layout
• Menu favourites integrated directly into the Applications Menu
• Showtime delivered as a Raven widget
• Power options available directly from the menu

Crystal Dock includes Wayland‑specific fixes and improved startup sequencing.

Login Manager and Greeter (SDDM)

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 uses SDDM with a custom Ubuntu Budgie greeter theme.

Enhancements include:

• Translation support
• Per‑user wallpapers
• Password field auto‑focus
• Improved session selection behaviour
• Customisation via the slickSDDM‑customize tool

Daily Usability Improvements

Budgie Desktop 10.10.2 includes several refinements affecting daily use:

• Improved application matching in Icon Tasklist
  • Better grouping and pinning for Java apps, snaps, and similar edge cases
• Improved Budgie Menu sizing across resolutions and scaling factors
• Correct restore behaviour when toggling Show Desktop
• Screenshot tool remembers the chosen save path
• Panel and applet popovers now close correctly when focus changes
• Improved Qt6 application theming when apps support kcolorscheme

Accessibility and Input

• Built‑in screen magnification (no external tools required)
• Adaptive mouse acceleration enabled by default
• Improved brightness handling using the standard backlight interface
• Wallpaper scaling respects the selected background style

Default Applications (Changes Since 24.04)

• VLC is now the default media player
  (Parole is not included in 26.04)
• Nemo default icon size increased slightly
• Font Viewer now follows the system theme by default

Applets and Mini‑Apps

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 supports a broad range of Wayland‑ready Budgie applets. Applets reliant on X11‑specific functionality are not included in this release.

Supported Budgie Extras Applets (Wayland‑ready)

• Applications Menu
• Clockworks
• Fuzzy Clock
• Kangaroo (popover behaviour tracked)
• Network Manager
• Quicknote
• Recently Used
• VisualSpace
• DropBy
• Workspace Switcher (wswitcher)
• WeatherShow
• Wallstreet (lock‑screen behaviour depends on upstream)
• Showtime (delivered as a Raven widget)

Additional supported applet:

• budgie‑indicator‑applet

New in 26.04

Screencast Applet

• Full screen or area recording
• Optional audio capture
• Start / stop controls
• Recording duration display

Supported Third‑Party Applets (Packaged by Ubuntu Budgie)

• budgie‑analogue‑clock‑applet
• budgie‑calendar‑applet
• Budgie‑clipboard‑applet
• budgie‑cpufreq‑applet
• budgie‑cputemp‑applet
• budgie‑lightpad‑applet
• budgie‑media‑player‑applet
• budgie‑performance‑gauge‑applet
• budgie‑sys‑monitor‑applet
• budgie‑user‑indicator‑redux‑applet

(Some may have minor Wayland‑specific behavioural differences.)

Applets Not Included (Wayland‑Only Limitations)

The following applets are not supported in Ubuntu Budgie 26.04:

• budgie‑carbon‑tray‑applet
  (depends on XEmbed / X11)
• budgie‑pixel‑saver‑applet
• Legacy X11 global shortcut daemons

Desktop Icons

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 uses budgie‑desktop‑view instead of nemo‑desktop.

Desktop icons support:

• Selection and context menus
• Drag‑and‑drop reordering (icon swapping)
• Auto‑arranged or manual layouts

Creating new folders or files directly from the desktop is intentionally limited. This change is required for Wayland compatibility.

Wayland‑Specific Considerations

Privileged (Administrative) Applications

Some graphical administrative tools behave differently under Wayland:

• Applications not using pkexec may fail to launch graphically.  Use xhost based workarounds.
• Behaviour varies by compositor; labwc is intentionally strict

Virtual Machines

Graphics behaviour in virtual machines depends on the hypervisor and acceleration settings:

• Cursor orientation, scaling, and redraw issues may occur
• QEMU/KVM is recommended
• Virtualbox can be used - graphics will not be accelerated and thus will be sluggish for video and other graphics intensive operations.
• GNOME Boxes should be avoided due to the limited configuration options available to make a great experience

Upgrading from Ubuntu Budgie 24.04 LTS

Before upgrading:

1. Ensure the desktop meta‑package is installed
2. sudo apt install ubuntu-budgie-desktop
3. Apply all updates and reboot
4. Back up important data
5. Disable third‑party PPAs prior to upgrading

Upgrade prompts follow standard Ubuntu LTS scheduling.

Fixed Issues and Stability Improvements

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 includes numerous fixes, including:

• Improved stability during monitor and output changes
• Improved focus behaviour in non‑click focus modes
• Improved Icon Tasklist application matching
• Screenshot accuracy improvements
• Popover close behaviour aligned with pre‑10.10 Budgie releases
• Improved handling of pkexec‑launched applications under Wayland

Known Issues

Known issues are primarily related to Wayland transition areas described above, including:

• Legacy tray behaviour
• Some privileged GUI tools
• Applets still undergoing Wayland adaptation

Current advisories are tracked on Ubuntu Budgie Discourse.

Support

Ubuntu Budgie 26.04 LTS is supported for three years.

Community support is available via:

• Ubuntu Budgie Discourse
• Ubuntu community support channels

Downloads

Installation images and documentation are available from the Ubuntu Budgie Downloads page.