Ubuntu 26.04 “Resolute Raccoon” Snapshot 4 Arrives as Final Monthly Test Build Ahead of LTS Launch

Canonical has released the fourth and final monthly snapshot of the upcoming Ubuntu 26.04 long-term support (LTS) release, giving developers and enthusiasts one last cutting-edge test build before the distribution enters its beta phase. Known as Resolute Snapshot 4, this build is a culmination of months of development testing and is designed both to exercise Ubuntu’s automated release infrastructure and to allow early-adopters to evaluate the overall health and readiness of the next major Ubuntu LTS release.

Ubuntu 26.04, codenamed Resolute Raccoon, is scheduled to formally become an LTS release in April 2026, offering extended support and stability guarantees typically expected by enterprise users, developers, and production environments. LTS releases of Ubuntu historically remain supported for five years, making them popular choices for servers, cloud deployments, and desktop users who value long-term reliability.

Unlike the standard daily build images that are continuously generated throughout the development cycle, monthly snapshots like this one provide more stable, curated test points. They help Canonical validate the automated processes that will ultimately be used to generate final release media. Snapshot 4 is the last of these planned “checkpoints,” and marks an important transition toward the final polishing stages of the Ubuntu 26.04 release cycle.

What’s in Snapshot 4

Snapshot 4 is primarily focused on providing a cohesive snapshot for testing rather than shipping major new features. The release includes current integration work, bug fixes, and updated packages that reflect the state of the Ubuntu archive at this point in time. Users who download and test the ISO images can help uncover any lingering issues before the beta and eventual stable releases. The snapshot images support multiple official Ubuntu flavors, including the main Ubuntu desktop edition and community flavors such as Ubuntu Budgie and Lubuntu.

The availability of these snapshot builds also means early insight into the core foundations of Ubuntu 26.04, which is shaping up to be a significant upgrade over previous versions. Some of the noteworthy enhancements planned for Ubuntu 26.04 include updates to core compilers and toolchains, moving to newer upstream software stacks, and improved hardware compatibility — particularly with recent generations of processors and peripherals. While the snapshot itself isn’t meant to highlight any individual feature update, it reflects the continuous integration of those ongoing changes.

The Road to LTS

The release of Snapshot 4 comes shortly after Ubuntu 26.04 entered feature freeze, a milestone that signals the shift from active feature development to stabilization and bug fixing. At feature freeze, new functionality is generally no longer added, and developers focus on addressing bugs, regressions, and quality issues. This phase ensures that the final release is dependable and polished when it ships.

Following this snapshot release, the Ubuntu 26.04 schedule calls for a UI freeze on March 12, which will lock down user interface elements and prevent further visual changes. Next, Canonical is expected to release the Ubuntu 26.04 beta on March 26, offering a more complete preview of the system ahead of final releases. The kernel freeze is planned for April 9, at which point the kernel version to be included in the final LTS is finalized — Canonical is targeting the Linux 7.x kernel series, bringing with it significant advances in hardware support and performance improvements. The full Ubuntu 26.04 LTS is anticipated to be officially released on April 23, 2026.

This structured release cadence reflects Ubuntu’s long-standing development philosophy of incremental refinement and extensive testing, ensuring that each version delivered to the wider community is stable and robust. Monthly snapshots, feature and UI freezes, and staged betas provide multiple opportunities for community feedback and quality assurance long before the final code is deemed ready.

What Users Should Know

For most users and production environments, the Snapshot 4 build is not recommended as a primary operating system due to its role as a development test release. Instead, testers and developers are encouraged to download and evaluate these ISOs to provide feedback on bugs or compatibility issues that may still be present. Those who want to experiment with the latest in Ubuntu development should always back up any important data and ideally use isolated environments or virtual machines.

Early testers have already explored aspects of Ubuntu 26.04 that address usability and system experience — such as how password feedback appears when using sudo (showing asterisks during password entry, a departure from decades of silent input) — and other architectural shifts that hint at the broader direction Canonical is taking with this LTS cycle.

Looking beyond Snapshot 4, the next few weeks will bring increasingly stable builds culminating in the beta release, and then the final LTS launch in April. For developers building software for Ubuntu and for users preparing to upgrade from older LTS releases like Ubuntu 24.04, these milestones represent important checkpoints to validate compatibility and performance ahead of the wider rollout.