Ubuntu 25.10 lands: Rustier and Wayland-ier, but Flatpak is broken
- Reference: 1760429710
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/10/14/ubuntu_2510_is_here/
- Source link:
At the end of last week, Canonical [1]released Ubuntu 25.10 "Questing Quokka," along with nine of the ten [2]official flavors . The [3]release notes cover what's new.
[4]
Questing has a wallaby-themed wallpaper, and the full install has 12 snap packages
A fairly significant bug was discovered after the Quokka was released: [5]Flatpak is broken due to a bug in how Ubuntu's [6]AppArmor security module handles the [7]fusermount3 command . There is a [8]workaround and a fix is in progress. The Ubuntu desktop doesn't include Flatpak as standard and [9]neither do any of the flavors , but many users do prefer Flatpak to Canonical's own Snap format. So much so that Flatpak is the default in multiple downstream Ubuntu-based distros, notably Linux Mint but also including Elementary OS, Zorin OS, and [10]Anduin OS .
Ubuntu and its upstream Debian both use AppArmor, while most distros from the Red Hat family use [11]SELinux instead. Notably, the recently released [12]openSUSE Leap 16 switched from AppArmor to SELinux, as we reported when we [13]looked at the release candidate in August.
The missing flavor is Ubuntu Unity, of which there won't be a Questing version. On the [14]remix's Telegram channel , admin [15]Maik Adamietz said:
We want to announce that there won't be a Ubuntu Unity 25.10 ISO release. During the testing phase bugs were discovered that we just couldn't fix in time for a respin of the ISO. We had to mark the ISO as not ready.
The Register has already covered much of what's new in version 25.10. Instead of the GNU coreutils , it has [16]new implementations in Rust , including the [17]sudo utility . "Questing" includes a preview version of the [18]TPM-chip backed Full Disk Encryption system , which Canonical has been working on for a couple of years.
[19]
The Questing Budgie is a little smaller and cleaner – just nine snaps, for instance. Who's a pretty boy then?
The default graphical desktop edition uses GNOME 49 with some new apps, as we [20]described when it reached beta . As we [21]reported earlier in the development cycle , only GNOME on Wayland is included. There's no X11 session. This also applies to [22]Kubuntu 25.10 , which comes with KDE Plasma 6.4 and is equally Wayland-centric.
[23]Aurora immutable KDE Plasma workstation: Big, slow, and confusing
[24]Pop! System76's 24.04 beta is here – complete with a beta of polarizing COSMIC
[25]Bcachefs goes DKMS after Torvalds' kernel banishment
[26]Zorin OS 18 beta makes Linux look like anything but Linux
This implies a few important details that we feel we should spell out. Firstly, both Ubuntu 25.10 and Kubuntu 25.10 do install XWayland by default, so X11 apps work seamlessly. Secondly, this change doesn't apply to the other official flavors with other desktops, which still use X.org. This includes [27]Ubuntu Budgie 25.10 , or "Questing Budgie" as we like to think of it – although that flavor team is aiming to be Wayland-only for version 26.04. In turn, the fact that the other desktops still use X11 means that all the X.org packages are still in the Ubuntu repositories, so you can install GNOME-on-X11 or Plasma-on-X11 sessions if you want or need them.
On other platforms, there are deeper changes. The Raspberry Pi edition of Ubuntu has a new A/B boot mechanism, as described by Dave Jones, Canonical's boffin for all things Pi, in a [28]blog post back in July . It also defaults to doing a minimal installation. On other Arm64 hardware, the new universal ISO uses a [29]new UEFI boot stub , which is called [30]stubble and enables Secure Boot support on some hardware, such as some laptops with Qualcomm Snapdragon SoC.
[31]
The RISC-V edition [32]requires the new RVA23S64 ISA profile, which has the slight snag that means for now it only runs in emulation under QEMU. All nine of the existing supported RISC-V boards are stuck with Ubuntu 24.04.3 for the time being.
[33]
There are some less visible changes under the hood, such as new time sync tools, and the initramfs is now built with dracut instead of the old initramfs-tools package. Changes like this, and the new coreutils and sudo tools, will be invisible to most users – but they will affect some people with unusual configs. That, of course, is why they're happening in an interim release.
The current interim release, Plucky Puffin, goes end of life in January – so Plucky users should upgrade to Questing before then. We [34]called it Pudgy Puffin for its 6 GB ISO size, and Questing is barely any smaller: the GNOME variant is a 5.7 GB download. It uses 1.7 GB of RAM at idle, and takes up 7 GB of disk. The weight gain doesn't affect the other flavors, though: it's something Gnomic.
[35]
Questing Quokka will reach the end of its life in nine months, in July 2026. ®
Get our [36]Tech Resources
[1] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/ubuntu-25-10-questing-quokka-released/69067
[2] https://ubuntu.com/desktop/flavors
[3] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/questing-quokka-release-notes/59220/2
[4] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/10/13/questing-gnome.jpg
[5] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flatpak/+bug/2122161
[6] https://apparmor.net/
[7] https://man7.org/linux/man-pages/man1/fusermount3.1.html
[8] https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/flatpak/+bug/2122161/comments/5
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/02/23/ubuntu_remixes_drop_flatpak/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/23/anduinos/
[11] https://github.com/selinuxproject
[12] https://en.opensuse.org/Release_announcement_16.0
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2025/08/07/opensuse_leap_16_reaches_rc/
[14] https://t.me/ubuntuunitydiscuss
[15] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Maik
[16] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/19/ubuntu_2510_rust/
[17] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/08/ubuntu_2510_makes_rusk_sudo_default/
[18] https://www.theregister.com/2025/07/31/ubuntu_tpm_fde/
[19] https://regmedia.co.uk/2025/10/13/questing-budgie.jpg
[20] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/11/ubuntu_2510/
[21] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/12/ubuntu_2510_to_drop_x11/
[22] https://kubuntu.org/news/kubuntu-25-10-questing-quokka-released/
[23] https://www.theregister.com/2025/10/01/aurora_immutable_kde_workstation/
[24] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/30/pop_os_2404_beta_released/
[25] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/25/bcachefs_dkms_modules/
[26] https://www.theregister.com/2025/09/24/zorin_os_18_beta/
[27] https://ubuntubudgie.org/2025/10/ubuntu-budgie-25-10-release-notes/
[28] https://waldorf.waveform.org.uk/2025/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps.html
[29] https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/spec-stubble-a-secure-boot-friendly-device-tree-loading-efi-stub/66278
[30] https://github.com/ubuntu/stubble
[31] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aO4fMy_ymyvVCtfYWeTadwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[32] https://ubuntu.com/download/risc-v
[33] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aO4fMy_ymyvVCtfYWeTadwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[34] https://www.theregister.com/2025/04/04/ubuntu_2504_beta/
[35] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_software/oses&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aO4fMy_ymyvVCtfYWeTadwAAAIo&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[36] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Requires the new RVA23S64 ISA profile
The [1]Ubuntu life cycle say 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) is in standard support until Apr 2029 so for now there is no argument that you can't just keep *using* RISCV unless you have some compelling reasons to upgrade.
[1] https://ubuntu.com/about/release-cycle
> anybody trying to *use* RISCV?
My impression is that RISC-V is still mostly hype.
The performance of the handful of end-user machines I have seen is, frankly, rubbish. They are dog slow and also not that cheap or plentiful.
Bear in mind the only official Ubuntu _desktop_ is GNOME and it's also big and slow, because it's in Javascript not a compiled language. Result, GNOME on RISC-V is borderline unusable, and I am not fussy and still use 15Y old computers because I like the keyboards.
I have spoken with RISC-V industry people, including from silicon vendors, and it's always "jam tomorrow" -- soon, real soon, we'll be launching the fast versions. Yes, we know, it's a bit slow, but you want to be ready for when the _next_ generation comes.
There is kit. The Chimera Linux creator told me that one of the only reasons they did a RISC-V version was to make use of their RV board which was lying idle... and then they found it was a bit bottleneck and that edition was going to be cancelled until someone offered them remote access to a big enterprise box over the Internet for doing builds. Loads of dog-slow cores, but loads of storage.
In the meantime Arm is fast now. Apple has the fastest but many of the team who built "Apple Silicon" have left and work for other chip vendors now, and they are working on it.
The Windows world doesn't know because a large chunk of the OS runs under emulation. Then again, the Windows world is so completely used to bloated fat sluggish apps that it has no idea that it's missing anything.
You really need to hunt to find native Arm64 Windows apps. I did:
https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/21/lenovo_thinkpad_x13s_the_stealth/
Getting good speed and battery life from Windows on Arm is like using Linux 25 years ago, or Classic MacOS in the early PowerPC era. There aren't many native apps, you'll have to hunt hard for them, maintain them yourself, and be constantly vigilant for unwanted emulated stuff sneaking in -- and you have no option but to tolerate half the OS being emulated.
Whereas Linux on Arm64 is blisteringly quick, but most of the non-FOSS freeware we all have to use and tolerate don't work. No Arm Chrome for Linux, and in turn, that means that tons of the bloated fat Electron apps don't work, so no Slack etc. It's a bit like using Alpine Linux or FreeBSD on x86-64: it works, it's fast, but it really drives home to you that a lot of stuff ghas gone -- all those little comfort factors you've got used to on modern Linux, like a big devices driver collection, lots of proprietary freeware, and good high-quality Windows emulation for running essential proprietary things from Windows.
With Arm you have a choice: cheap cool-running battery-frugal chips, or relatively big hot ones that are screamingly quick. There are compromises on the software unless you run macOS, but you have a spectrum of choices with good tradeoffs.
With RISC-V, you don't. You get the worst of all worlds. Only FOSS OSes, poor choice of apps, and crappy performance -- and it's not cheap or plentiful either.
So Ubuntu is calling the RISC-V industry's bluff: OK, the fast kit is coming soon, is it? And you can emulate it today? OK, so we will target that emulated kit then. Anyone using it now for embedded stuff or whatever will want the LTS anyway, and they've already got that.
It's the next best compromise to just saying "you know what, your hardware is rubbish and we should never have supported it, so we're killing it."
Instead they're saying "all right, big mouth, here is one last chance."
I don't think the RISC-V industry is going to pull a rabbit from its hat. I think it will never catch up but it will stagger along, good enough for non-performance-critical embedded stuff where the fact it saves $5 a unit matters. There will be a few lacklustre showcase desktop boards but nobody who tries one will ever buy a 2nd one.
This is different from the comparable situation with Chinese CPUs, like Loongson and Zhaoxin. It doesn't matter if they're sluggish. The reason they exist is so it's OK for the PROC to invade the ROC. The PROC has its own domestic good-enough computers, so it can crippled the ROTW's supply and not be hurt by it.
The PROC has geopolitical reasons to tolerate and subsidise sluggish silicon.
The RISC-V industry doesn't. It is merely propelled by hardware OEMs who want to save a buck. It's a weaker proposition.
After trying different distros.....
Came to the conclusion that I just fancy a simpler life, hence....
Fedora kde for power users
Linux mint for all and sundry
PS Leaving the point something percent who need a more specific distro for whichever specialist app they use to make monies with
Requires the new RVA23S64 ISA profile
The Ubuntu site describes that with the wording
>> We have upgraded the required RISC-V ISA profile to RVA23S64
Clearly, "upgrading" software is now used to mean "you can not run it on *your* oafish computer", although Ubuntu have gone one step further than Microsoft, by not even being able to point at suitable replacement hardware.
Sure, you can run it in emulation, but is that really useful to anybody trying to *use* RISCV?