This release includes known issues such as timezone selection defaulting to New York in Calamares, network connectivity problems in VirtualBox, and Waydroid failing to open due to a missing directory. Additionally, DKMS struggles with NVIDIA drivers on Debian-signed kernels, some hardware defaults to 125% display scaling, and Plasma-Firewall disconnects from its backend. A feature request suggests providing PinePhone images with Maui Shell and Maui Apps. Users can report unlisted issues through the designated platform.
The first major change is that we have added a new Bootloader. Limine is a great bootloader, which can be used for BIOS and UEFI. Limine also supports some theming like GRUB. We have also added direct Btrfs snapshot support, like it works with 'grub-btrfs'. This has been greatly tested from our side and works well. The snapshots will be enabled out of the box for all installations which are using Btrfs as a filesystem. We have added a package, called 'cachyos-samba-settings', which configures and sets up Samba support. This has been requested by our users. After discussions with NVIDIA, we have re-enabled the GSP Firmware for the closed-source kernel module. The GSP Firmware had a bunch of improvements in recent releases, and most drawbacks seem to be solved now.
Mauna Linux 24.6 has been released, based on Debian 12.10, bringing security and bug fixes for over 43 packages. Due to a bug in the ISO creation of version 24.5, users of that version must perform a fresh installation, while those on earlier versions can update normally via Mauna Update. Key updates include new versions of browsers like Brave, Chrome, Edge, Opera, and Vivaldi, as well as the addition of Steam Lauch, OnlyOffice 8.3.2, TeamViewer, and Zoom to the repositories. The system also features Linux Kernel 6.1.129 LTS and an improved Power Manager. The new version is now available for download on the official website.
The Q4OS project is pleased to announce the eighth update of its stable edition Q4OS 5 codenamed Aquarius. The new Aquarius 5.8 series receives important security and bug fixes, the recent Debian Bookworm 12.10 updates and updated Debian stable 6.1.0-32 kernel. This release brings along a few Q4OS specific improvements, fixes and a cumulative upgrade covering all the changes since the previous stable Aquarius release. The Calamares live installer has got new translations. Desktop profiler tool now features brand new plugin for handling Flatpak applications in case Flatpak framework is enabled in the system. In addition to the new plugin the Desktop profiler capabilities have been expanded and the code has been largerly rewritten to support true multithreading.
Tailored alternatives to more Windows apps We've greatly expanded our built-in database to detect installer files for popular Windows apps. It now supports over 150 apps, recommending even more tailored alternatives to sideloading their Windows executables. For example, when you launch the Windows installer for an app like Obsidian, Zorin OS displays a dialog that directs you to the app's native Linux version in the Software store. It also suggests the closest native alternatives to other Windows-only apps, like the built-in Document Viewer instead of Adobe Acrobat Reader. To craft the most user-friendly experience for new users, we endeavor to support the widest selection of software. This update makes it easier to run the most compatible versions of your favorite apps in Zorin OS.
The Emmabuntüs Collective is pleased to announce the release on March 24, 2025, of the update of its distribution, Emmabuntüs Debian Edition 5 1.04 (32-bit and 64-bit), based on Debian 12.10 'Bookworm' and the XFCE and LXQt desktop environments. This new version of our distribution mainly concerns updates to the software included in it following the release of Debian 12.10, with the update of the excellent Debian beginner’s handbook which now includes a German version included in our distribution, as well as the addition as standard of the Debian reference manuals included in it for the following languages: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and Japanese. Emmabuntüs DE 5 1.04 includes the following new features and enhancements: based on the Debian 12.10 'Bookworm' operating system; Updates - Firefox 128.8.0esr, Thunderbird 128.7.0esr, deb-get 0.4.4, Ventoy 1.1.05, CTparental 5.1.23, Warpinator 1.8.8, Boot-Repair 4ppa2081, RadioTray-NG 0.2.9, Debian beginners handbook 12.10; accessibility feature updates - Ocrizer 1.4, Elograf 0.6.0.
Updated the UEFI Secure Boot shim package to v1.58 after a Windows 11 update revoked older shims by incrementing the minimum "SBAT generation". This fixes any 'SBAT self-check failed' errors to ensure Rescuezilla continues boot on UEFI Secure Boot enabled systems which require the latest 'SBAT generation'. This also fixes the 'revoked UEFI bootloader' message warning when creating a bootable USB stick using Rufus. Replaced Ubuntu 23.10 (Mantic) and Ubuntu 22.10 (Lunar) builds with build based on Ubuntu 24.10 (Oracular) for best support of new hardware. Temporarily does not include Mozilla Firefox on Oracular release until switched to new source. Image Explorer (beta) temporarily out-of-service across variants. Fixed querying drives with the Bionic 32-bit version, which broke since Rescuezilla v2.5 due to using the --merge feature introduced in util-linux v2.34.
Our refresh release, 'Mercury Neo', is now available with updated core packages for the offline installation option and the live environment and a few bug fixes and improvements for the online installation option. 'Mercury Neo' ships with Calamares 25.02.2.1, Firefox 136.0.2, Linux kernel 6.13.7, Mesa 25.0.1, X.Org Server 21.1.16, NVIDIA 570.124.04. Bug fixes and improvements: we removed installing xwaylandvideobridge from the installation script since it is removed upstream; a bug in our install script for ranking the Arch mirrors before installation is fixed; we removed obsolete NVIDIA options from the NVIDIA boot menu; when choosing Systemd in the auto-install option, the installation process will now create a 2GB EFI partition instead of a 1GB partition, this will give the user more space and freedom to install multiple kernels and other desirable options.
Today is a very special day: March 22 is the 25 year anniversary of the first public release of Finnix, the oldest live Linux distribution still in production. Finnix 0.03 was released on March 22, 2000, and to celebrate this anniversary, I'm proud to announce the 35th Finnix release, Finnix 250! Besides the continuing trend of Finnix version number inflation (the previous release was Finnix 126), Finnix 250 is simply a solid regular release, with the following notes: Linux kernel 6.12 (Debian 6.12.17-1); made automatic per-user shared ssh-agent functionality more reliable; added packages: util-linux-extra; Removed packages: reiserfsprogs, reiser4progs (ReiserFS removed from Linux kernel); boot initramfs now checks for build-specific media (will no longer load the first thing it sees which looks vaguely Finnix-like); htop display improvements (primarily better display of large numbers of CPU cores); upstream Debian package updates; many minor fixes and improvements.
Victor Perevertkin (Extravert-ir) has accomplished major rewrites to the Plug and Play Manager in the ReactOS kernel. With these changes, ReactOS now has the ability to run more third party drivers and to boot from USB devices. This also allows ReactOS to boot on chipsets with EHCI, OHCI, and UHCI controllers. This work is a stepping stone to ReactOS being truly compatible with vendor drivers for the Windows operating system. Johannes Anderwald (janderwald) solved an issue where the USB driver would enter an infinite loop when a USB device would not enter the ready state. Fixing this infinite loop allowed ReactOS to boot on more hardware. Thanks to the work of Oleg Dubinskiy, 0.4.15 features many audio improvements. Oleg added support for more audio formats, looped playback of wave files, higher sample rates, and multiple output channels. In addition, Victor Perevertkin imported the open source AC’97 driver from the Windows Driver Kit (WDK).