Ubuntu 26.04 LTS shipped with a packaging oversight that caused video and audio files to display blank thumbnails in the file manager when using the Default (minimal) install option. The missing packages — gst-audio-thumbnailer and gst-video-thumbnailer — were accidentally omitted from the minimal install metapackage but were present in the Extended selection install. Ubuntu 26.04 replaced older Totem-based thumbnailers with newer Rust-based ones built on GStreamer and Glycin, which is why the metapackage needed updating. A stable-release update (SRU) was issued and began rolling out in late June. Users still seeing blank icons can manually install the packages via apt.
590 Impressions