Select an image
Ubuntu is distributed on five types of images described below.
Install/live DVD
The combined install/live DVD allows you either to install Ubuntu permanently on a computer, or (by entering 'live' at the boot prompt) to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all.
There are two images available, each for a different type of computer:
- PC (Intel x86) install/live DVD
- For almost all PCs. This includes most machines with Intel/AMD/etc type processors and almost all computers that run Microsoft Windows, as well as newer Apple Macintosh systems based on Intel processors. Choose this if you are at all unsure.
- 64-bit PC (AMD64) install/live DVD
- Choose this to take full advantage of computers based on the AMD64 or EM64T architecture (e.g., Athlon64, Opteron, EM64T Xeon, Core 2). If you have a non-64-bit processor made by AMD, or if you need full support for 32-bit code, use the Intel x86 images instead.
Desktop CD
The desktop cd allows you to try Ubuntu without changing your computer at all, and at your option to install it permanently later. This type of cd is what most people will want to use. You will need at least 384MiB of RAM to install from this cd.
There is one image available:
- Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) desktop CD
- For Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks as well as older IBM OpenPower 7xx machines.
Alternate install CD
The alternate install cd allows you to perform certain specialist installations of Ubuntu. It provides for the following situations:
- setting up automated deployments;
- upgrading from older installations without network access;
- LVM and/or RAID partitioning;
- installs on systems with less than about 384MiB of RAM (although note that low-memory systems may not be able to run a full desktop environment reasonably).
In the event that you encounter a bug using the alternate installer, please file a bug on the debian-installer package.
There is one image available:
- Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) alternate install CD
- For Apple Macintosh G3, G4, and G5 computers, including iBooks and PowerBooks as well as older IBM OpenPower 7xx machines.
Preinstalled desktop image
The preinstalled-desktop image allows you to unpack a preinstalled version of Ubuntu onto a target device.
There are three images available, each for a different type of computer:
- Texas Instruments OMAP3 (Hard-Float) preinstalled desktop image
- For OMAP3 boards. See ARM/OMAP for detailed installation information.
- Texas Instruments OMAP4 (Hard-Float) preinstalled desktop image
- For OMAP4 boards. See ARM/OMAP for detailed installation information.
- Freescale i.MX5x (Hard-Float) preinstalled desktop image
- For Freescale i.MX5x boards. See ARM/MX5 for detailed installation information.
Preinstalled desktop filesystem archive
The preinstalled-desktop filesystem archive allows you to unpack a preinstalled version of Ubuntu onto a target device.
There is one image available:
- Toshiba AC100 / Dynabook AZ (Hard-Float) preinstalled desktop filesystem archive
- For Toshiba AC100 / Dynabook AZ netbooks. See ARM/TEGRA/AC100 for detailed installation information (please make sure to download the .bootimg file alongside with the filesystem archive).
Preinstalled server image
The preinstalled-server image allows you to unpack a preinstalled version of Ubuntu onto a target device.
There are two images available, each for a different type of computer:
- Texas Instruments OMAP3 (Hard-Float) preinstalled server image
- For OMAP3 boards. See ARM/OMAP for detailed installation information.
- Texas Instruments OMAP4 (Hard-Float) preinstalled server image
- For OMAP4 boards. See ARM/OMAP for detailed installation information.
For ARM hardware for which we do not ship preinstalled images, see ARM/Server/Install for detailed installation information.
A full list of available files, including BitTorrent files, can be found below.
If you need help burning these images to disk, see the Image Burning Guide.
Name Last modified Size Description
Parent Directory -
MD5SUMS 07-Aug-2014 22:48 1.1K
source/ 26-Mar-2015 21:36 -
ubuntu-12.04-alternate-powerpc.iso 23-Apr-2012 21:04 620M Alternate install CD for Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) computers (standard download)
ubuntu-12.04-alternate-powerpc.iso.torrent 26-Apr-2012 09:25 24K Alternate install CD for Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) computers (BitTorrent download)
ubuntu-12.04-alternate-powerpc.jigdo 26-Apr-2012 09:25 144K Alternate install CD for Mac (PowerPC) and IBM-PPC (POWER5) computers (jigdo download)
ubuntu-12.04-preinstalled-desktop-armhf+ac100.bootimg 23-Apr-2012 13:29 8.0M
ubuntu-12.04-preinstalled-desktop-armhf+ac100.tar.gz 23-Apr-2012 13:29 482M
ubuntu-12.04-preinstalled-desktop-armhf+mx5.img.gz 23-Apr-2012 14:01 518M