Background

Pop!_OS is Getting Beta

Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS with the new COSMIC DE, developed by System76, is coming with many new features to explore and discover. Test out the beta as we fine-tune for release.

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Upgrading from Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS to Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta

- Read the release notes below before upgrading. This is a beta release and some bugs are expected. - If you wish to upgrade, backup your current install and run **```pop-upgrade release upgrade -f```** from the terminal. - Favorites in the Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS dock are not saved after upgrade. Adding apps to the COSMIC dock is called “Pin to app tray”. Pin to the app tray by right-click on them in the Dock or Application Library. - PPA’s are disabled during upgrade as they can lead to errors. Re-enable PPAs after upgrading.

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Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta

Filesize: GB

**Recommended:** 4 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, 64-bit processor **Classes:** Computers with Intel or AMD graphics or 10 series NVIDIA and older (e.g. GTX 1060 and previous) Disable Secure Boot in your BIOS to install Pop!_OS. Use the following image checksum to verify the file once downloaded:

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Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta with NVIDIA

Filesize: GB

**Recommended:** 4 GB RAM, 16 GB storage, 64-bit processor **Class:** Computers with 16 series NVIDIA Graphics or newer (e.g. GTX 16xx to RTX 5xxx) Disable Secure Boot in your BIOS to install Pop!_OS. Use the following image checksum to verify the file once downloaded:

Release Notes

- Pop!_OS 24.04 LTS Beta includes the new COSMIC Desktop Environment designed and developed by System76. COSMIC DE is largely feature complete for the first release and development focus has turned to bug fixes for the final release. - This is a beta release and some bugs are expected. - On occasion, the installer does not start in a virtual machine. Press Super to activate the Launcher and search for "Installer". - Some GNOME apps are replaced by COSMIC apps - GNOME Files (Nautilus) > COSMIC Files - GNOME Terminal > COSMIC Terminal - GNOME Text Editor > COSMIC Text Editor - GNOME Media Player (Totem) > COSMIC Media Player - Pop!_Shop is replaced by COSMIC Store - Key components - COSMIC Epoch 1 Beta - Linux kernel 6.16.3 - Mesa 25.1.5-1 - NVIDIA Driver 580 - libwayland/libwayland-client 1.23.1-3 - libdrm 2.4.125-1 - Dragging and Dropping files from Wayland apps to X11 apps is not currently supported. For instance dragging files from COSMIC Files to Slack. Use the applications upload option as a work-around until the feature is added. - On distributions other than Pop!_OS, Firefox may need a configuration flag set to match COSMIC theming - Go to **```about:config```** and set **```widget.gtk.libadwaita-colors.enabled```** to **```false```** - Google Chrome based browsers - As of Google Chrome version 140, no configuration is necessary for Wayland - For versions prior to 140 and other Chrome based browsers that aren’t updated, setting the **```ozone-platform-hint```** is necessary. Go to chrome://flags in a tab, search for **```ozone-platform-hint```** and change the setting to “auto”. Restart the browser. - Gaming is working well but we expect to need more fixes in our xwayland implementation for the Release Candidate. - Some games may start partially off screen. Press F11 or Super+F11 to full screen the game (Goat Simulator is one example) - Display toggle hotkeys and an on-screen-display is not supported yet. - The “Accent hint” around windows doesn’t match the roundness style setting in Appearance. This is expected for at least COSMIC apps for the Release Candidate. - COSMIC has a built-in screenshot tool. If you require annotations, we recommend Flameshot which can be installed from Flathub via COSMIC Store. Version 13.1 or higher is required for COSMIC. - COSMIC Store doesn’t currently display Flatpak suggested addons for apps. This is planned for the Release Candidate. - Accessibility: The screen reader may not read all COSMIC apps widgets or may read them in an unintuitive direction. We’re working on screen reader flow and navigation for the Release Candidate. - Some application indicators do not appear in the Notification Tray applet. - Switching to an application using its application indicator does not currently work. - Printing support in COSMIC Text Editor is planned for the release candidate - Additional features and bugs expected to be fixed are triaged in the RC column on the [project board](https://github.com/orgs/pop-os/projects/23/views/1)