Asmi GNOME 24.10

Overview

This ISO is a remix of Ubuntu 24.10 with GNOME 47 desktop.

No Snaps, Flatpaks, or Extra Apps

There are no Snaps, Flatpaks, or extra applications. This makes it very lightweight compared to the official Ubuntu desktop. You can install them if needed after installing the distribution to disk.

Calamares Installer

Ubuntu’s new flutter-based installer still lacks some features for manual partitioning (such as LVM and LUKS encryption). Installation can also sometimes fail when installed on real hardware (it installs fine in a VM). Calamares is included as a replacement for the official Ubuntu installer.

Wayland Only

GNOME’s future is Wayland-only. GNOME developers plan to drop support for the X11 session in future releases of GNOME. The desktop is configured to use Wayland session.

Extensions

Since adding too many extensions is known to cause issues with GNOME, a minimal set of extensions are included that improve usability without going overboard.

ArcMenu

ArcMenu shows a traditional application menu instead of the grid view menu shown by GNOME. The launcher icon for both menus are moved to the top-left of the screen so that you can move your mouse to the top left and then decide when menu you wish to open.

TopHat

TopHat shows system stats in the top panel. This extension is quite useful and lightweight and shows CPU, memory, disk and network usage. Clicking the status icons in the top panel shows a popup with detailed information.

Impatience

Slow animations can be annoying when you are trying to get work done. Impatience is an extension that reduces the animation time for closing, opening and switching windows, etc. This makes everything feel faster due to the shorter animation time.

Bing Wallpaper

This extension is my favourite and shows the Wallpaper of the Day from Bing.com. This is similar to the wallpapers displayed on Windows which change every day. The collection of wallpapers is quite beautiful.

Removable Drive Menu

Removable Drive Menu shows a button in the top panel with options to unmount and safely remove storage devices such as pen drives, etc.

Net Speed Simplified

Net Speed Simplified shows the current network speed and usage on the top panel.

Caffeine

Caffeine adds a toggle to the quick settings panel. You can use this toggle to prevent your system from going to sleep.

Just Perfection

Just Perfection combines a number of useful tweaks and can replace many other single-purpose extensions like Grand Theft Focus, No Overview on startup, etc.

Download

This distribution is available as a free download. ISO files are linked below.

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Download from Google Drive

Please use Ventoy or Etcher to boot the ISO from a USB drive. Both BIOS and EFI boot is supported.

Using GNOME in a Virtual Machine

The GNOME desktop requires 3D acceleration to work properly in a virtual machine. With Virt-Manager and Qemu/KVM there can be lag or occasional freezes.

The performance is much better in VirtualBox if you enable 3D acceleration and increase graphics memory to 128MB. Enabling 3D acceleration can sometimes cause graphical glitches, which is yet another problem.

If you need an Ubuntu-based distribution for use in virtual machines, it is recommended to use the Xfce version of Asmi Linux or any other Xfce-based distribution.

Notes

• Asmi Linux includes some proprietary tools like Asmi Settings and Asmi Indicator. If you are a FOSS purist, you can remove these packages after installation.
• Asmi uses only Ubuntu’s and Mozilla’s offical repositories. You will receive updates till Ubuntu 24.10 reaches End-of-Life (EOL) in July 2025.
• This distribution is provided “as is” without support or warranty. If you wish to report an issue or have any suggestions, please send us an email at [email protected].

Donate

If you wish to support this project you can make a donation using the link below. This will give you access to some bonus downloads, such as refreshed ISO images for Asmi 24.04.