Canonical is preparing to release Ubuntu 26.04 LTS without the long-standing ISO Tracker, ending a 15-year dependency on the aging PHP/Drupal system that powered image testing and release validation.
The ISO Tracker has served as the central platform for Ubuntu’s release testing since the early days of the distribution. But after years of technical debt, database instability, and fragile code, the release engineering team has decided to retire it entirely for the 26.04 LTS cycle.
Instead, testing and validation will shift to a combination of modern tools — Test Observer, QA Jenkins, and temporary shared dashboards or spreadsheets — designed to decouple the release process from legacy infrastructure. The goal is to simplify workflows and identify which tracker components remain essential before designing a full replacement.
The decision follows failed attempts to “charm” the ISO Tracker for easier deployment. Developers described the system as brittle and nearly impossible to maintain, requiring large-scale rewrites to function in modern environments.
Under the new process, the ISO Tracker will no longer handle test cases, image validation, or bug tracking. Release coordination will instead move to Discourse threads, supported by automated data from Jenkins and manual aggregation through lightweight dashboards. Test Observer, a new testing coordination service still under integration, will eventually take over full image validation duties.
Automated testing remains at the core of the workflow. Jenkins continues to serve as the source of truth for build success and smoke test results, visualized through Grafana dashboards. Both desktop and Raspberry Pi images are now fully automated, with the latter reducing testing time from hours to about 90 minutes. Flavor teams are also being encouraged to contribute their own automated test suites for shared infrastructure.
Testing coordination will occur across Discourse for milestones and Matrix for snapshot communication. Flavor leads will report readiness during milestone weeks, while internal dashboards will aggregate results from Jenkins, Test Observer, and flavor updates.
Canonical acknowledges the change is bold for an LTS cycle but plans to validate the tracker-less process during monthly snapshots, the 24.04.4 point release, and the 26.04 LTS Beta. Each stage will include an internal retrospective to refine the approach ahead of the final release.
Source: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/release-26-04-lts-without-the-iso-tracker/69577
Image Credit: https://ubuntu.com/
