Noble's newest ISO crashes out

Ubuntu pulls 24.04.5 downloads due to installer bug

Canonical has pulled the Ubuntu 24.04.5 desktop ISO because of a bug that crashes the installer when users select the extended install options.

The fifth point release to 24.04 landed on 10 September, bringing refresh install media powered by the Linux 7.0 kernel. Some who downloaded it found they couldn’t complete an OS installation if they picked the extended install option.

Leftover references to Ubuntu’s TPM-backed full-disk encryption support in the desktop ISO appear to be the cause, confusing the underlying subiquity installer, despite the feature’s required components having been removed.

Only the standard amd64 Ubuntu desktop image is affected. Other Ubuntu 24.04.5 images, including those for Arm64, and flavours are unaffected by the crash.They remain available for download.

Canonical’s Matthieu Clemenceau shared the update, noting that the release team has ‘identified the problem and is working on a fix’.

A new desktop image will be “spun” up as soon as the fix is reviewed and tested. That’s expected to arrive early next week, so keep an eye on the release server (or this post, as I’ll update it to mention when the new ISOs are out) .

For the moment, anyone who needs to install an Ubuntu 24.04 desktop can use the Ubuntu 24.04.4 ISO – available on the release page – and update to 24.04.5 afterwards by installing all available software updates, then rebooting.

Some users may be minded to to wait for the replacement image, as the new 24.04.5 ISOs boot with the Linux 7.0 kernel and thus provides better support on newer hardware.

And if you’ve already downloaded the dodgy ISO, don’t bin it: once the fixed image lands, you can use zsync to update it (it downloads the changed parts) rather than grabbing the full ~6GB ISO again.