The highly anticipated next development cycle has officially begun! Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, code named 'Resolute Raccoon', daily build images are now available! You can download and test Ubuntu 26.04 today!
If you love hunting for bugs or simply enjoy seeing how development happens, you can jump in right now.
Ubuntu 26.04 'Resolute Raccoon'
A while ago, Canonical announced the official codename for Ubuntu 26.04 LTS as Resolute Raccoon.
The 26.04 LTS release serves as a tribute to Steve Langasek. He worked for Canonical for many years as a former Debian and Ubuntu release manager, and he chose this codename before he passed away in early 2025.
As a Long Term Support (LTS) release, Ubuntu 26.04 will be very important. It is scheduled to arrive in 23 April 2026.
Remember, LTS versions receive five years of official support and security updates. This stability establishes the foundation for servers, cloud deployments, and enterprise desktops.
Get Your Hands on the Ubuntu 26.04 Daily Builds
Now that the development cycle (or the "resolute cycle") has opened, daily build images are available for download.
Developers automatically generate these builds from bleeding edge code almost every day. They aim to give everyone who wants to test the next release an easy way to do so.
You can download the Ubuntu 26.04 daily builds from the Ubuntu CD image server. The server provides a couple of important folders:
- The
current/folder contains the latest images that have successfully passed basic automated checks. You should try this folder first. - The
pending/folder holds the most recently built images, but they have not yet been automatically tested.
A Critical Warning About Testing:
Because these images use the latest code, they are "raw" artefacts. The daily builds are not intended to be used as a daily driver.
If you want to test the development version, you should try it in a spare hardware or a virtual machine.
Big Changes Behind the Scenes
The 26.04 LTS cycle brings massive changes to how the team manages testing. The release team proposes to launch without the ISO Tracker entirely.
For over 15 years, the ISO Tracker served as the backbone for image testing and validation. However, the system has accumulated years of technical debt, database problems, and code rot. It became increasingly unreliable and difficult to maintain. Relying on this aging PHP/Drupal application was no longer a sustainable option.
This is a bold move and this decision helps simplify the workflow and sheds legacy dependencies.
New Testing Tools
Instead of the ISO Tracker, testing and validation will now use a combination of modern tools:
- Test Observer
- QA Jenkins
- Lightweight manual aggregation tools like shared dashboards or spreadsheets.
For this specific 26.04 LTS cycle, a temporary shared spreadsheet or dashboard will act as the central view for all reported results. This public document will replace the ISO tracker's "Mark image as ready" function.
Furthermore, automated testing continues through QA Jenkins jobs, and the team has automated all Desktop and Raspberry Pi ISO testing.
Ultimately, this cycle gives the team an opportunity to evaluate modern replacements and simplify the release process.
Although some community members noted they will miss the old ISO tracker leaderboard, which gamified testing by tracking user contributions, most agree that replacing the system is a good move.
