Stonking Stingray Has Surfaced! Kubuntu 26.10 Is Out, Plus Podcast Episode 25

Key points

Kubuntu 26.10 "Stonking Stingray" was released on Thursday 15 October 2026, the same day as its Ubuntu 26.10 base. It is an interim release with nine months of security updates and critical fixes, until July 2027. The project also published episode 25 of the Kubuntu Podcast, which covers what ships on the ISO.

Versions

• Plasma 6.7.5, with Wayland as the default session
• Qt 6.11.2 and KDE Frameworks 6.29
• KDE Gear 26.08.1, including Dolphin, Konsole, Okular and Kdenlive
• Firefox 157 as a Snap, and LibreOffice 26.8.1
• Linux kernel 7.3 (7.3.0-9.9)

Support

• 26.10 receives updates until July 2027.
• Users who need long-term support can stay on Kubuntu 26.04 LTS, which is supported until April 2029.

X11 session

• The Plasma X11 session is not installed by default, and the Kubuntu team does not support it.
• 26.10 is the last release that will offer the plasma-session-x11 package.
• Anyone still using X11 is asked to test Wayland on their hardware now and report what fails.

What's new in Plasma 6.7

• Virtual desktops can now be set per screen, so each monitor keeps its own set.
• Discover has a more visible Install button and redesigned app cards.
• A quick toggle switches between light and dark themes.
• The new Union theming system is available as a tech preview.

Installing

• The ISO is on the Kubuntu downloads page and on cdimage. Write it to a USB stick and boot from it.
• To verify the download, compare it with SHA256SUMS. The checksum for kubuntu-26.10-desktop-amd64.iso is 8160b1d6266dfe1998d183b19713680263c09669f101e0e41cbcf11f50b6f785.
• The project advises testing before installing to a disk that holds important data.

Upgrading from 26.04 LTS

• Back up first.
• Open the software sources tool and set "Release Upgrade" to "Normal releases". As an alternative, set Prompt=normal in /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades. Then run the release upgrader.

sudo software-properties-qt

• Systems that use TPM-backed full-disk encryption cannot upgrade from 26.04 LTS to 26.10 at release. Ubuntu expects to enable these upgrades later in the 26.10 cycle.

Reporting bugs

• File one bug per report.
• Include exact steps to reproduce, a Spectacle screenshot, and the version string from About this System.

Tip and app pick

• Meta+Ctrl+Left or Right switches between virtual desktops.
• In Overview (Meta+W), scrolling or Page Up / Page Down changes desktop without leaving Overview.
• This issue's Discover pick is Krita, KDE's free painting application, which has about 500 reviews in Discover. Search "Krita" in Discover to install it.

Summary by DistroNews, based on the original post.