As of Ubuntu 25.04, Ubuntu Desktop installer still doesn’t support a fully custom disk partitioning schema with LUKS/LVM encryption. The workaround is to install Ubuntu Server first (the text-based installer does support all wild combinations), then apt install ubuntu-desktop. However, there are a couple of things to fix afterwards.

netplan/NetworkManager

netplan by default uses systemd.networkd to control network interfaces. Using NetworkManager is much easier though, let’s switch to that (otherwise VPN via NetworkManager will refuse to enable itself).

Edit /etc/netplan/00-installer-config.yaml and add renderer: NetworkManager:

# This is the network config written by 'subiquity'
network:
  ethernets:
    enp0s5:
      dhcp4: true
  version: 2
  renderer: NetworkManager

Boot-up speed

The server boots up way slower than a desktop. Go through Speed up Ubuntu Boot.

Fonts

To fix ugly fonts, install Ubuntu Tweaks. Go to Fonts and configure:

• “Interface Text” is “Ubuntu Regular 11”
• “Document Text” is “Ubuntu Regular 11”
• “Monospace Text” is “Ubuntu Mono Medium 12”

You may also need to install additional fonts that are not pulled in by ubuntu-desktop meta-package:

• fonts-crosextra-caladea, fonts-crosextra-carlito
• fonts-dejavu
• fonts-linuxlibertine
• fonts-noto-extra, fonts-noto-ui-core
• fonts-sil-gentium

Open Firefox, Settings, and configure Fonts > Advanced:

• Proportional: Serif
• Serif: DejaVu Sans
• Sans-Serif: Ubuntu
• Monospace: monospace