Noble Numbat Release Notes (WIP)

[Joshua-Riek]

Noble Numbat Release Notes

Introduction

These release notes for Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble Numbat) provide an overview of the release and document the known issues.

Linux Kernel

Ubuntu 24.04 is shipped with the new Rockchip 6.1 Linux kernel that brings many new features.

Notable changes:

• Re-worked kernel packaging to follow upstream Ubuntu
• Dynamic Kernel Module Support (DKMS)
• The ZFS filesystem and utilities can now be installed
• V4L2 loopback can now be installed
• Backported mainline RTW89 and RTW88 drivers
• Dropped the Realtek r8125 network driver in favor of r8169
• Dropped multiple MIPI / DSI display panels
• Updated the Rockchip NPU driver to version 0.9.5
• AppArmor is now the default security profile

Issues:

• MIPI / DSI display panels have been reportedly broken

Updated Packages

Multiple packages have been ported to Ubuntu 24.04 with working hardware acceleration.

Packages:

• Chromium
• Clapper
• FFmpeg
• GStreamer
• Kodi
• MPV
• OBS Studio
• Panfork Mesa

General Changes

• Ubuntu Server now uses a small 4MB partition named CIDATA for cloud-init configuration and the root partition has been renamed to cloudimg-rootfs and marked as a bootable EFI partition
• Ubuntu Desktop now uses a singular partition named desktop-rootfs and marked as a bootable EFI partition
• The root filesystem is now built with livecd-rootfs and live-build to follow upstream Ubuntu
• Now using extlinux to handle the kernel cmdline, device trees, and overlays
• The serial terminal login prompt on Ubuntu Server will now wait for could-init to finish setup
• Updating the SPI Flash with the command u-boot-install-mtd will now use flashcp and no longer use a parameter
• Neofetch now has multiple CPU model detection for ARM
• Mali G610 firmware and multimedia config are now pre-installed on Ubuntu Server
• The snaps lxd, core, and snapd now come pre-installed
• Consolidated primary documentation onto a single web page

Missing Features

• Firefox, Thunderbird, and the Snap Store are not included in the Desktop image due to file size limitations related to GitHub's 2GB artifact limit
• The ubuntu-rockchip-install script has not been ported over to Ubuntu 24.04 Beta
• Widevine has not been ported for DRM playback