Ceci est une ancienne révision du document !
I should probably start off by explaining that Ubuntu Lomiri is not intended to be a new flavor of Ubuntu, but is instead just a test release made by Ubuntu Unity developer Rudra Saraswat to see if it is plausible to run Lomiri on Ubuntu Unity instead of X11.
Why this project is useful requires a bit of background.
Display servers draw the application windows on your computer screen. The X Window System has been around for 40 years and has been on version 11 since 1987. It is old technology and due to limitations is on its way to end-of-life on Linux. The replacement systems are new display servers based on the Wayland protocol. Some distributions, like Ubuntu, are already operationally using Wayland.
To date, Ubuntu Unity has been using X11 but Saraswat and the other developers would like to be able to change it over to Wayland because eventually X11 will no longer be supported. The main blockage is that the Ubuntu Unity interface is currently Unity 7.7 and it has a number of dependencies, most notably Nux, that only run on X11 not Wayland. Saraswat has been working on a replacement version of Unity, called Unity X, but it has the same dependency issues. For both Unity 7 and X, there will be a lot of work required to move them to Wayland.
Then there is Lomiri. Originally called Unity 8, it was originally conceived by Canonical as the holy grail of interfaces, a “convergence desktop” that would scale to work on pretty much any device from a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop plus IoT and other hardware too. One aim was to be able to just plug your smartphone into a screen and keyboard and it would be your desktop. Best of all, it was designed for Wayland.
A number of factors ended the Unity 8 dream for Canonical, including a fundraising shortfall to produce the Ubuntu Edge smartphone, the need to trim Canonical’s outlays with an eye to taking the company public and some technical challenges as well. Canonical announced the end of development on Unity 8 in April, 2017. Two days later, UBports founder Marius Gripsgård announced they would take the project over and develop it primarily as a smartphone operating system. On 27 February, 2020, Unity 8 was renamed Lomiri.
Saraswat concluded that a proof-of-concept release using Lomiri on Ubuntu Unity would show that there was at least one open pathway to move Ubuntu Unity to Wayland. Early experiments did not result in stable operating systems, but persistence pays off. With assistance from the UBports team getting all the Lomiri components into the Debian ecosystem, they eventually flowed down into the Ubuntu repositories, making them easy to install.
This latest test shot is dubbed Ubuntu Lomiri 24.04 (not LTS) and Saraswat has made it publicly available so anyone can have a look and see how it works.
Saraswat notes that this version of Ubuntu Lomiri is mostly usable noting that “unlike the half-broken testing Lomiri ISOs I have built in the past, this one’s quite stable and can be installed on real hardware, while also including the Ubuntu Touch LightDM greeter and for that matter, several apps you’d only expect to find on Ubuntu Touch. Do bear in mind, however, that you may encounter occasional crashes here and there.” He is right there, too.
Installation
I downloaded the Ubuntu Lomiri 24.04 ISO file via HTTPS since there is no BitTorrent available. There are also no checksums to verify the download and no minimum system requirements specified.
The download is a fairly hefty 5.9 GB, almost as large as mainstream Ubuntu these days. It was also a slow download, but eventually I got it.
I dropped the ISO file onto a USB stick equipped with Ventoy 1.0.98 and it booted up just fine, despite not being officially supported.
Features
Since this is just a test release, it is pretty “bare bones” overall. The ISO boots up to a very bare desktop but hitting the “super” key displays the launcher, at least, which then allows access to the main menu.
I was able to confirm via command line that it was running on Wayland which is really the point of the whole exercise.
There is no graphical package manager, but APT works from the command line. Snap packages are also enabled with snapd already installed. This was useful as I had to install the FileZilla FTP client as a Snap to get my screenshots out of the live session since drives are not able to be mounted and the Morph web browser would not connect to the file manager to allow getting them off by either of those methods. There are a few bugs.
Settings
Settings are also pretty minimal. In many ways, it looks like a phone OS with just light and dark window themes, 20 wallpapers and that is about it. The desktop is pretty minimalist but at least there is no clutter.
Applications
Some of the applications included with Ubuntu Lomiri 24.04 are: Blueman Bluetooth manager Calculator docviewer.ubports PDF viewer filemanager.ubports file manager LibreOffice 24.2.2.2 office suite Media Player Morph 1.1.0 web browser music.ubports music player Photos photo organizer qmlscene clock Screenshot Terminal terminal emulator Zutty terminal emulator
This application list is pretty skimpy, lacking both a text editor and a graphical package manager, among the other things you would expect in a true desktop distribution. The Zutty terminal emulator crashed each time it was opened, but the other terminal provided worked fine, fortunately.
Interestingly, LibreOffice 24.2.2 is supplied complete, including the LibreOffice Base database application, which is a rarity in Ubuntu derivatives.
Conclusions
Is Ubuntu Lomiri 24.04 a great desktop distribution? No, not right now, but it is not intended to be. Strictly as a test to see if Ubuntu Unity can be run using Lomiri on Wayland, it can only be considered a success. Saraswat concludes, “while Unity7 isn’t going away anytime soon, Lomiri would act as a suitable replacement if there ever arose a need.”
Eventually, Ubuntu Unity will need to move past X11. Lomiri may just be the pocketed “ace” that makes that a reality, especially if Unity X does not work out. Watch for future news!
External links
Official website: https://ruds.io/cloud/s/eNiJxnc7qk2tpKN