Canonical has pulled the Ubuntu 24.04.5 desktop ISO for AMD64 architectures after discovering a critical bug that crashes the installer when users select the "Extended" install option. The error originates from vestigial references to TPMFDE in livecd-rootfs and subiquity, which trigger unmet dependency conflicts that prevent installation from completing. Only the AMD64 desktop image is impacted; Arm64 builds, Server editions, and community flavors remain available and functional. Canonical has already merged fixes for both affected packages and expects to republish the corrected desktop image by early next week.

Canonical Pulls Ubuntu 24.04.5 Desktop ISO After Installer Crashes on AMD64 Systems

The AMD64 image has a critical bug triggering installer failures during extended installs. Other architectures and Server editions remain unaffected as Canonical prepares a fix.

Canonical pulled the Ubuntu 24.04.5 desktop ISO for AMD64 architectures two days after launch. A critical bug causes the installer to crash when users select the "Extended" install option. The release shipped on September 10 and brought Linux Kernel 7.0 along with the latest Mesa stack. If you are looking at the AMD64 desktop build right now, it is currently unavailable from Canonical's download pages.

The issue is isolated. Arm64 builds are fine. Server editions are fine. Community flavors like Kubuntu and Xubuntu are unaffected. Even the standard install path on the AMD64 image does not trigger the crash, though Canonical pulled the whole artifact anyway. "For excess caution and to prevent poor experience for 24.04.5 Desktop users we pulled down the Desktop ISO," said Matthieu Clemenceau of the Ubuntu Release Team.

The technical mess

Dan Bungert, a Canonical engineer, filed bug #2167127 on September 11. The problem comes down to vestigial references to TPMFDE, the TPM-backed full-disk encryption that Ubuntu tried to integrate into the desktop environment.

During refactoring work on enhanced-secure-boot, the livecd-rootfs package shed most of the required files. However, ghost references to the old code remained in the ISO. When subiquity, the installer, scans the system, it sees these remnants and assumes TPMFDE is available. The actual bits are missing, so the installer falls back to non-TPMFDE mode incompletely.

The result is a wall of unmet dependency errors. Users end up staring at conflicts between boot-managed-by-snapd and packages like grub-efi-amd64, shim-signed, and secureboot-db. The installer just bails before the system can install.

Other images never had the TPMFDE support in place, so there is no mix of half-enabled and half-classic layers on Server or Arm64 builds. That is why those artifacts did not need to be pulled.

The fix and what to do now

Canonical is moving fast. Both livecd-rootfs and subiquity have been patched. The livecd-rootfs change removes the vestigial references and has been merged into noble-proposed. The subiquity patch forces the installer to ignore missing TPMFDE bits entirely and use strict classic layers.

Testing results as of September 12 are clean. Both arm64 and amd64 test builds from proposed passed. Subiquity tests for default and extended selections also passed. A verification-done tag is set on the livecd-rootfs fix.

Clemenceau said the replacement image should appear "likely early next week." That points to the week of September 14. A test ISO is available  from here for anyone who wants to verify the patch before the official respin lands.

If you need to install right now, head here for the 24.04.4 ISO. You will start with slightly older packages, but you can update to the 24.04.5 level after the dust settles.

Keep in mind that the new ISO boots with Linux Kernel 7.0, which provides better support for newer hardware. If you are building a machine with the latest silicon, waiting for the fixed image is probably the better call. For older rigs, 24.04.4 will likely work fine.

If you already downloaded the broken ISO, once the fix lands you can use zsync to patch it. You will save yourself a download of roughly 6GB.

This is one of the few times a major distribution has pulled an installer image for a pre-installation bug rather than a runtime regression. It is a sharp reminder of how messy full-disk encryption integration can get when you strip out half the codebase during a refactor. The wider Ubuntu 24.04 LTS line remains stable. Maintenance support continues until April 2029.

Head here for more details.