We've installed a modified version of the swaylock screen locking application. Anyone who has used swaylock will be familiar with its somewhat minimal interface – when you lock the screen, you just get a completely white screen with no indication of what has happened or what you need to do. We felt this was a bit unhelpful, so we've added a custom frontend which gives a bit more feedback as to what is happening and what you need to do to unlock it again. You can now lock the screen by pressing Ctrl-Alt-L, or by choosing 'Shutdown' from the main menu and selecting 'Lock Screen' in the dialog. You'll then see the lock screen, with a password entry box.
The underlying GNU/Linux operating system has been upgraded, this release is based on the Ubuntu 25.04 'Plucky Puffin' repository, as of 2025-05-04; Linux kernel has been updated to 6.14; Partclone has been updated to 0.3.36; added libfsapfs-utils, usb-modeswitch and fscrypt packages in Clonezilla live system; added ocs-find-live-key program and updated ocs-put-log-usb so that it can copy the log files even when Clonezilla live USB drive is used in 'To RAM' mode; it will find the USB key that is vFAT file system and that contains the Clonezilla-Live-Version' file, then it will be treated as Clonezilla live USB drive; ocs-live-repository - added dev=///OCS_LIVE_USB so that the Clonezilla live USB drive can be assigned as the image repository, especially when Clonezilla live USB drive is booted in 'To RAM" mode', the Clonezilla live USB drive has to be vFAT file system since it's used to boot in both UEFI and MBR mode.
This release presents the new Linux kernel 6.8.0-59. Moreover, the reorganisation of the system wide and user-specific environment variables has been completed and a bug in the program for the access to remote file systems has been fixed.
Update 11 of ALT Workstation operating system is available. The new distribution release is based on Platform 11 (p11 'Salvia' stable branch). The build is available for the x86_64 and AArch64 architectures, using the 6.12 (LTS) Linux kernel. System environment: GCC 14 compiler suite; systemd 255.18; glibc 2.38; glib2 2.82. The new distribution retains the ability to boot ALT Workstation in LiveCD mode. The LiveCD uses Nouveau drivers, while the installed system defaults to NVIDIA drivers. Key features of the release on Platform 11: redesigned system theme; switched from MATE to GNOME desktop environment; numerous new GNOME-compliant applications; updated documentation. The most significant change in Workstation is transition to the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME components: GTK 4.16, Libadwaita 1.6, GNOME Shell 47.4.
6.4.1 fixes a number of small, long-standing issues, including: Fixed the issue that a pkg(8) update might delete the df-latetest.conf config file, which rendered pkg(8) unusable. Updated the shipped ca_root_nss package so that the newer Let's Encrypt certificates are trusted and thus pkg(8) works with the Avalon HTTPS repo. Fixed a memory leak in the legacy IDE/NATA driver that could easily lead to kernel panics. Expose SMBIOS entry point via kenv so dmidecode(8) works on UEFI-only systems.
This version is highly recommended [because] we first added an app store (based on Flatpak) in it. Upgraded base system: The foundational system has been updated from Oracular (Ubuntu 24.10) to Plucky (Ubuntu 25.04). Added a new shortcut Super + V to toggle the clipboard history. Pre-installed GNOME Software to support installing software from the software store. Pre-installed Flatpak to support installing software from the software store. Fixed Firefox localization issue. Bumped GNOME to 48 and added HDR support.
The status of the 4MLinux 48.0 series has been changed to STABLE. Edit your documents with LibreOffice 25.2 and GNOME Office (AbiWord 3.0.5, GIMP 2.10.38, Gnumeric 1.12.59), surf the Internet with Firefox 137.0 and Chrome 135.0, send emails via Thunderbird 128.9, enjoy your music collection with Audacious 4.4.2, watch your favorite videos with VLC 3.0.21 and SMPlayer 24.5.0, play games powered by Mesa 24.3.3 and Wine 10.4. As always, the new major release has some new features. Kino (IEEE 1394 DV non-linear video editor) is now included out of the box (huge work has been done to make this old application work within a modern operating system). VVenC (H.266/VVC encoder) has been added to the 4MLinux codec pack. FreeTube (desktop application acting as a YouTube client) and Bristol (synthesisers, electric pianos and organs emulator) are now available as downloadable extensions. And finally, the LTS Linux kernel in 4MLinux has been updated to its version 6.12.
Various new userland features - numerous changes to make the imsg API stricter and better, which were followed by adapting all applications across the tree. Allow the user to provide an alternative perfpolicy when on battery, extending the semantics of hw.perfpolicy to provide two buttons to specify desired behavior. This gives users more flexibility in setting the performance when AC-powered vs. battery powered. Made calendar(1) use the environment variable RECIPIENT_EMAIL for sending mails to. Made security(8) use GMT rather than the local timezone when checking for changes in device nodes and setuid files. Avoids false positives when changing timezones. Added a new variable PASSWDSKIP that can be set in /etc/daily.local to prevent security(8) from complaining about specific accounts that have no password.
The April 2025 ISO image of Archcraft is now available to download. Changelog: updated ISO image profile to archiso 83-1; latest base with new packages; update all Archcraft and AUR packages; updated Openbox and bspwm configurations; fixed issues with rofi menu layouts; fixed Polybar crashes; small improvements and bugs fixed.
The independent, community-controlled distribution, OpenMandriva Lx 6.0, a fixed-point release (as opposed to the rolling-release branch), is out right now. Main features: KDE Plasma 6 desktop by default (X11 and Wayland available); community spins featuring the latest desktop environments LXQt 2.2.0, GNOME 48.1, Xfce 4.20.1 and COSMIC 1.0 alpha; this also features the first official stable release of the OpenMandriva Server edition; if you run OMLx 6.0 inside VirtualBox, we strongly recommend using the X11 variant, since there are some known problems with Wayland on VirtualBox-emulated GPU; VirtualBox users may need to set VMSVGA controller to boot successfully; it works fine on most hardware and in QEMU with KVM....