Garuda Linux "Spotted Eagle" (210507)

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Hey guys! Today is the day of another major iso release :grin:
As usual, we got a bunch of changes and improvements for your favourite distro. Apart from the usual bug fixes there are some changes regarding default browsers, iso offerings, minimal system requirements & packages.
Lets dive in!

All editions:

  • Some of you might remember that we chose Librewolf as default browser for the last release. As the browser is a central application for everyone, we still strive to find the best fit for this part of the system. As a result, a quite new browser called "FireDragon" (in fact a Librewolf fork) will be the default browser for every edition except XFCE from now on. The reasoning behind this is quite simple: created with feedback of our forum members in mind it was easy to customize the default settings to be attractive for regular users as well. Logins & history are saved by default for example, also some issues such as not working addon search or homepage shortcuts have been resolved while the relevant parts of privacy respecting defaults are still present. Further feedback is welcome in the FireDragons forum thread. :fire: :dragon:
  • Downloading isos is now easier than ever using our new "Garuda Downloader" created by @TNE. Since its distributed as Appimage and Windows application its usable on every system! Its attractive especially for people with limited bandwidth as it is able to use existing isos as source - thanks to Zsync2 only different parts of the new iso have to be downloaded (similar to delta-updates) which potentially saves a lot of data. Try it now to download this new release :wink:
  • Restoring snapshots has been made easier - when booted into a snapshot Timeshift will automatically open and prompt to restore the snapshot.
  • To prevent issues caused by lower end systems there is now a requirement check happening before the installation can be started - 2.5GB of RAM & 30GB storage space is needed at least. This step has been taken in order to help people who chose to ignore our download page notes (which are apparently quite a lot of people).
  • People using hybrid graphics laptops now profit from Optimus-manager-qt being used by default. This makes switching the currently active graphics card really easy without having to use the command line.
  • Most of our packages have been transitioned to fixed releases. Previously, all the packages were built directly from the master branch in case of detected changes. As the general goal is to make the distribution as whole more stable we decided to adopt fixed releases. This increases the possibility of finding errors more quickly, also partly pushed updates will no longer produce possibly broken packages due to automatically happening rebuilds.
  • Our boot animations got an overhaul, making them more unique than before. Additionally, they have been disabled in Live boot to make spotting & reporting eventual boot issues easier.
  • Linux-zen 5.12.1 is used as kernel.

Edition changes:

  • Dr460nized:
    The dr460nized editions received some QoL changes & bug fixes: some of the preset desktop effects such as translucency were causing confusion for a lot of people so they have been disabled. Sweet themes & Latte dock presets have been updated. Also, the new default audio engine is Pipewire instead of PulseAudio as its now a viable drop-in replacement. KDE has been updated to version 5.21.5.
  • Dr460nized-dev:
    This new edition is basically dr460nized plus experimental extras made for people who want to help testing new, possibly unstable features. Differences include KwinFT instead of Kwin, linux-cacule as kernel & zram-generator instead of systemd-swap. Please provide feedback in the forum if using this edition! :slight_smile:
  • GNOME:
    As the new major GNOME version 40 got released recently this edition got a major overhaul: it doesn't feature any extensions anymore as our experiences with major version upgrades of GNOME has been pretty bad. With each of those, all of the used extensions broke reliably, making the upgrade a frustrating thing to deal with for most end users who aren't used to this process as the desktop experience changes completely until the extensions are updated for the new release. The new audio engine got changed to Pipewire as well.
  • LXQt-Kwin:
    LXQt-Kwin now uses BeautyLine icons for a more attractive and unified look & features Pipewire as audio engine.
  • Qtile:
    Qtile got updated to the latest release and now features blur thanks to picom-ibhagwan. Following dr460nized & GNOME, Pipewire is featured here as well! There is now a minimize/maximize function using tabs implemented. Also, the colours of bar & window colors got changed.
  • Sway:
    Being maintained by @OdiousImp, our new Garuda Sway edition ships with a completed configuration with easy to use keybindings and a cheat-sheet to help you get started. Following the Nord color scheme it is both good to look at and just as fast utilising the best of Wayland native alternatives to offer a seamless transition to the Wayland Compositor. It features Waybar, Wofi / nwg-launchers & azote for easy usage. (please note that this edition only supports open source video drivers)
  • Wayfire:
    Wayfire features greetd-qtgreet as display manager and has blur & fire effects enabled by default now. Its GRUB & Plymouth theme is now following the looks of the dr460nized editions.
  • Removed isos:
    KDE-Multimedia, Cinnamon, Mate & Recbox have been removed from our official iso list for now due to missing maintainers. Cinnamon will return at a later as official version. KDE-Multimedia & MATE however will be continued as "Community editions" and will be released once ready.

Application & settings:

  • BeautyLine icons:
    Once again, more icons have been added and a lot of broken symlinks & empty icons have been fixed.
  • Garuda Assistant:
    Due to newly added signing keys in the repository a lot of people have been getting signature errors which prevented system updates. To make fixing this easier for end users, the assistant now features options to refresh keyrings. Also, switching shells is an option now.
  • Garuda-fish-config:
    We are back to using neofetch-git instead of paleofetch as it works more reliably. Also, a new "helpme" alias can be used to get a cheatsheet for almost all commands using cht.sh - make try it the next time instead of whoogling how to use a specific command!
  • Garuda-zsh-config:
    Following the fish-config, paleofetch is also replaced by neofetch-git.

Servers & infrastructure:

  • A lot of new repository mirrors for our repository have been added in (sorted by the date added):
  • A new iso download / repository mirror provided by Fosshost which has its own CDN (Fastly)

Downloads (website is going to be updated with the new editions soon):

And finally, as usual, the raw changelog :yum:

Raw changelog

Edition changes:

  • All editions:
    • Added FireDragon as default browser - our own customized Librewolf fork with enhanced KDE integration & saner defaults, making the browser easier to use without having to customize all the settings (expect XFCE)
    • A notification which remembers to restore the snapshot when booted into one has been added
    • Added Optimus manager (priority to highest) and made hybrid mode as default for NVIDIA users
    • Disabled preload in live
    • Disabled Plymouth in live to make spotting boot issues easier
    • Garuda applications are now fixed releases
    • Fixed polkit rules used for opening applications / mounting without sudo
    • New bootanimations have been added
    • Requirement checks are now in place to prevent installation on machines which would not run Garuda properly - 3.5GB of RAM & 30GB storage space are needed to actually start the installer now
  • Dr460nized:
    • Added candy-icons to make Sweet global theme work
    • Added thunderbird-appmenu as it is updated to the current thunderbird version finally
    • Added uncluttered neofetch config
    • Back to magic lamp effect (minimize)
    • Disabled translucency & left side trigger which was causing a lot of confusion
    • Enabled confirmation dialog for the logout plasmoid
    • Fixed bad opacity values of latte-dock
    • Fixed blurry start menu buttom
    • Updated Latte layout
    • Updated Sweet theme (includes different Plasma loading screen)
    • Switched to Pipewire
  • GNOME:
  • i3:
    • Added azote for easily changing the background
  • LXQt-Kwin:
    • Switched to BeautyLine icons
    • Switched to Pipewire
  • Qtile:
    • Added minimize, maximize function using tabs.
    • Changed colors to bar and windows borders.
    • Changed to picom-ibhagwan-git for blur!
    • Replaced WindowName widget with Tasklist for windows tabs.
    • Replaced battery widget with network widget.
    • Updated qtile config as per latest release.
    • Switched to Pipewire!
  • Sway:
  • Wayfire:
    • Added greetd-qtgreet as displaymanager
    • Changed to Sweet theme
    • Changed to Thunar as filemanager & gammastep instead of redshift
    • Updated keybindings
  • Dr460nized-dev:

Application & settings changes:

  • BeautyLine icons:
    • Added more icons
    • Fixed wrong symlinks & empty icons
  • Garuda-assistant:
    • Added option to refresh keyrings to fix signature errors
    • Added option to switch shells
  • Garuda-downloader:
    • New application made by @TNE which downloads latest isos, is able to use existing isos as source for downloads - downloading only the different parts of the iso files saving you possibly a lot of bandwidgh. its available on Windows & Linux
      Garuda-fish-config:
    • "helpme" alias to cht.sh, an interactive cheatsheet for a lot of things
    • Ls aliases show icons
    • Removed the fish-systemd function
    • Removed the paru --bottomup alias as it was causing issues when run alone, shipped in /etc/paru.conf now
    • Updated done function
    • Using neofetch-git instead of paleofetch-git
  • Garuda-hooks:
    • Fix btrfs openswap
  • Garuda-network-assistant:
    • Check available commands before trying
    • Updated scripts
  • Garuda-setup-assistant:
    • Added FireDragon to browsers
    • Fixed some strings
    • Removed dotfile updating on system update as this was causing issues
  • Garuda-starship-config:
    • Fixed the issues caused by a change of the config syntax
  • Garuda-zsh-config:
    • Enabled tab selection
    • Using neofetch-git instead of paleofetch-git

Server & infrastructure changes:

  • Garuda-tools:
    • Added zsync2 support for downloads
  • GitLab:
    • All settings packages have their fixed release PKGBUILD included in the respective repo now to decrease time spent updating repos
    • Settings packages now follow semantic versioning for a more stable experience, starting at version 1.0.0
  • Nextcloud:
    • Updated to version 21
  • Website:
    • Added package list to download options
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