The third point release in the Ubuntu 24.04 LTS series, Ubuntu 24.04.3 rolls all the critical security, bug, and other software updates issued to the Noble Numbat since the last installation image (ISO) was generated for Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS, released earlier this year.

On board is the new hardware enablement stack (HWE) that rolled out to existing users of 24.04 last month. This enables devices to boot from newer Linux kernel and graphics drivers, Linux 6.14 and Mesa 25.0.7 respectively, both back-ported from Ubuntu 25.04.

The Mesa update also introduces the mesa-amber package to the LTS. This includes drivers for older legacy graphics cards that are no longer supported in the main mesa package.

I’ve reported on the release of several notable bug fixes to Noble in recent months, like vanishing ‘install’ button in Software Updater, missing thumbnail previews on the desktop, touchscreen input annoyances, and connection issues with Bluetooth audio.

Fixes for those come “baked” into this refresh ISO, along with power alerts to follow new EU guidelines on energy settings in consumer electronic devices, such as laptops.

If you use Ubuntu 24.04 LTS you do not need to download this ISO and reinstall to benefit as there’s nothing included you don’t already have — assuming you’ve been installing updates often, that is!

The point of Ubuntu point releases

Long-term support (LTS) versions of Ubuntu are supported for a minimum of 5 years. During the first 3 years, periodical ‘point releases’ are put out. These refresh the install image (ISO) so new users don’t have to download up to 3 years worth of updates after installing.

Plus, as point releases rebase the system on top of a newer Linux kernel and graphics driver stack, point release ISOs will boot on )and better support) newer hardware – hardware which may not have been available when the original ISO was created in April 2024.

Highlights of Linux 6.15 include Rust support for hrtimer and ARMv7, a new setcpuid= boot parameter for x86 CPUs, support for sched_ext to count and report internal events, x86 Intel and AMD PMU enhancements, nested virtualization support for VGICv3 on ARM, and support for emulating FEAT_PMUv3 on Apple Silicon.

Also new in Linux kernel 6.15 is a new API to receive information about mount and unmount events of filesystems, support for hardware-wrapped encryption keys in the block layer, support for 48-bit block addressing in the EROFS file system, and a new security hook for the io_uring subsystem giving security modules more control over what’s allowed.

The FUSE file system can now handle file names longer than 1,024 characters, the perf subsystem can now perform latency profiling using scheduler information, the BPF subsystem gained improved verification of programs with loops, and the OverlayFS file system received a new override_creds mount option that changes the credentials used for accessing the lower layers.

On top of that, Linux kernel 6.15 also brings support for new extensions for the RISC-V architecture, including the BFloat16 floating-point extension, the Zaamo and Zalrsc extensions, and the ZBKB extension, support for zoned devices for the XFS file system, and support for zero-copy reception of network data for the io_uring subsystem.

Some new networking features are available as well in Linux 6.15, including a new TCP socket option (TCP_RTO_MAX_MS) that can be used to set the maximum time between retransmit attempts on IPv4 and a new set of BPF callbacks to fetch timestamps from various places in the networking stack.

Hardware support has been enhanced as expected through new and updated drivers, which bring support for Apple Touch Bar, Google Pixel Pro 6 smartphone, MYIR Remi Pi development board, Huawei Matebook E Go embedded controller, Milk-V Jupiter RISC-V board, and HP laptops using CS35L41 HDA audio chips.

Linux 6.15 also updates the ACPI fan driver to handle fans with fine-grained state checking supported, but without fine-grained control, as well as the ACPI button driver to subscribe to system event notifications in addition to device notifications, which on some systems is required for waking up the system from sleep.

Among other noteworthy changes, Linux 6.15 removes support for 32-bit (x86) systems with more than eight CPUs and/or more than 4GB of RAM, and the Landlock security module received a new auditing mechanism designed to make it easier to understand access denials.

There’s also a new fwctl subsystem that allows user space to securely construct and execute RPCs inside device firmware, and the kernel gained a new hardening feature that allows it to seal several memory mappings against changes, but it’s disabled by default as it may break some applications.

You can download Linux kernel 6.15 right now from Linus Torvalds’ git tree or the kernel.org website if you fancy compiling it on your GNU/Linux distribution. However, I recommend waiting for the new Linux release to arrive in your distro’s stable software repositories before updating your kernel.

Now that Linux kernel 6.15 is out the door, the merge window opens for the next major kernel branch, Linux 6.16, which is expected at the end of July or early August 2025. Until then, a first Release Candidate (RC) development version will be available for public testing in two weeks, on June 8th.

Plasma 6 hits its stride with version 6.1. While Plasma 6.0 was all about getting the migration to the underlying Qt 6 frameworks correct (and what a massive job that was), 6.1 is where developers start implementing the features that will take your desktop to a new level.

In this release, you will find features that go far beyond subtle changes to themes and tweaks to animations (although there is plenty of those too), as you delve into interacting with desktops on remote machines, become more productive with usability and accessibility enhancements galore, and discover customizations that will even affect the hardware of your computer.

These features and more are being built directly into Plasma’s Wayland version natively, avoiding the need for third party software and hacky extensions required by similar solutions implemented in X.

Things will only get more interesting from here. But meanwhile enjoy what will land on your desktop with your next update.

After 6 frenzied months of development the final stable Ubuntu 24.04 LTS release has arrived and is available for download.

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (codenamed ‘Noble Numbat’) includes a rich array of new features ranging from an enhanced desktop installer and a the latest GNOME desktop to gaming improvements and a new Linux kernel.

As a long-term support release Ubuntu 24.04 LTS gets 5 years of select apps updates, security fixes, kernel upgrades, and other buffs, and a further 5 years of extended security coverage via Ubuntu Pro.

Had an Windows 11 Pro VM running in VMware Workstation Pro version 17.5.0 on Kubuntu 22.04.3 that would periodic freezes for about 20 to 120 seconds.

Power down the VM and add to the vmx:
Edit the vmx file of the guest
isolation.tools.unity.disable = “TRUE”

Thx to adamitj

Source: VMware forum on how to disable Unity feature on Fusion/Workstation

KDE screen locker is not trying to run howdy as root, so changing permission could solve the issue.
sudo chmod -R 755 /usr/lib/security/howdy

Download the driver, place it in a folder on C:\Temp, check if there are multiple *.inf files. If there are, rename them (for example, $inf to something like C:\Windows\Temp\Ricoh\RH5050nw.inf).”  Then creat a file Install_printer.ps1