Ubuntu Brings Official Desktop Images to RISC-V

Ubuntu 26.10 will be the first release to offer official desktop installation images for modern 64-bit RISC-V computers. Canonical has published experimental images for the SpacemiT K3, with one featuring the standard GNOME desktop and another using Xubuntu’s lighter setup.

The images are not yet officially supported, and some issues remain ahead of Ubuntu 26.10’s planned release on 15 October 2026.

Two desktops for different needs

RISC-V hardware meeting the RVA23 baseline is relatively new, and developers without access to a physical device often test the architecture using QEMU. In emulation, GNOME can take up to 30 minutes to start, making the lighter Xubuntu image a more practical option.

On compatible hardware, Canonical says the GNOME image should deliver a performant desktop experience. Some applications are not ready for RISC-V yet, including the App Center.

Bringing the images together required updates to Ubuntu’s build process and livecd-rootfs to support device trees. Canonical’s work to add RISC-V support to Flutter was also part of the effort, since Ubuntu’s installer and other apps use the toolkit.

Official desktop images for RISC-V

Ubuntu has offered RISC-V server images for years, and users could install a desktop environment on top. But Canonical had not previously provided official installation images with a desktop preinstalled. Hardware makers have often had to create and host their own recovery images for RISC-V tablets, laptops and single-board computers.

The new images make official Ubuntu desktop installers available for modern RVA23-and-newer RISC-V hardware, alongside the existing Intel/AMD and Arm64 downloads.

An Ubuntu 26.04.1 LTS RISC-V desktop image is also available, though it does not yet support the SpacemiT K3. Canonical says K3 support is coming.

You can find the experimental Ubuntu 26.10 desktop image in the Ubuntu daily builds and the Xubuntu image in the Xubuntu daily builds.