Pre-release

Spaced Linux 8.26.6 is the stabilization release for every tester report filed against 8.26.5, across both the live USB ISO and installed systems.

Highlights:

• Restores desktop audio memory: a per-user fallback remembers output volume and mute, repairs only the broken first-boot 0%/muted state, and leaves intentional choices alone (#119, #121, #125).
• Adds an XRandR recovery helper that reasserts the active mode after login and screensaver unlock, disables TV underscan and borders, and selects full-range RGB where supported (#116–#118).
• Fixes the lost command-line reboot with an unqualified wrapper and a PATH-independent Calamares restart command (#120, #113).
• Re-applies the installer's IANA timezone to the installed system and keeps the hardware clock in UTC, so zones without daylight saving such as Hawaii no longer inherit a stale offset (#104).
• Installs independent SpacedBazaar 0.1.2 with suggested apps, retains the working dynamic Voice2Text release URL, and keeps the broken upstream Bazaar identity out of every install path (#108, #110).
• Makes Pluma the system-wide default for text and shell scripts and persists Caja's show-hidden-files preference for new and upgraded profiles (#124–#126).
• Seeds Audacious's playlist to open attached beneath the player while leaving later moves application-owned (#122).
• Returns btop, nvtop, and zstd to the image package set (#111).
• Styles Caja rubber-band selection and text selection so click-drag areas stay visibly translucent in all ten themes (#109).
• Refreshes the Brisk menu mark (silver on dark, black on light) and ships compact matching power and privilege icons (#107, #112).
• Enables the Spaced GRUB theme on installed systems with higher-contrast menu typography (#127).

Verification:

• Passed the repository source gate, a clean Ceres ISO build, portable SHA-256 verification, and SquashFS/package inspection.
• Graphical KVM and VirtualBox BIOS/EFI live boots reached SSH and a running MATE/Compiz/Caja desktop with nonblank captures.

SHA-256: f6f07bcdaa1c933bf1e2ebd06b7e323f44083574f63a7adb25376dfcf7223922

See the changelog for the complete list of changes.

crhy released this

Spaced Linux 8.26.4 is a release candidate for broader hardware testing.

Highlights:

• cleaner Spaced themes without accidental nested boxes or square toolbar shelves
• polished buttons, Welcome actions, installer branding, and larger titlebar controls
• corrected NVIDIA/Compiz detection and standard-DPI scaling
• resilient Voice2Text downloads and safer reproducible ISO builds

Validated on the release artifact:

• KVM live boot to SSH and MATE
• VirtualBox BIOS and EFI live boot to SSH and MATE
• complete VirtualBox BIOS installation, ISO-detached reboot, LightDM login, and installed MATE desktop
• ISO boot catalog, SquashFS ownership/package state, installed-system cleanup, and SHA-256 verification

Physical-hardware coverage is still requested. Please report the machine/GPU and attach boot logs for any failure.

Verify after downloading both files:

sha256sum -c spaced-linux-8.26.4-amd64.iso.sha256

Pre-release

crhy released this

Spaced Linux 8.26.3 — hardware-test release

This release fixes the remaining live-media discovery, display-manager startup, and VirtualBox graphics problems found while validating 8.26.2.

Boot and installer fixes

• Removed the live-boot timeout setting that delayed media scanning until its search loop had already ended, causing “Unable to find a medium containing a live file system.”
• Reused Plymouth’s active virtual terminal for the live LightDM session, preventing Xorg from blocking on the tty1-to-tty7 switch in headless KVM.
• Made Calamares use Qt software rendering so its slideshow remains responsive with VirtualBox VMSVGA.
• Added unattended KVM and VirtualBox BIOS/EFI ISO smoke tests that require SSH, MATE, the panel, Caja, and Compiz, and retain desktop screenshots.

Desktop and update fixes

• Corrected live-versus-installed LightDM configuration and added AccountsService.
• Repaired drive, optical-media, ISO, and volume icon fallback across every shipped theme.
• Made suggested Flatpak installs retry independently and continue after an individual application fails.
• Added Caja administrator support, Gigolo Windows-share browsing, Timeshift, GTK portal support, and keyring integration.
• Made Spaced Update reread the installed release marker after APT finishes.

Validation completed

• full source validation, syntax checks, package audits, and ISO checksum verification
• BIOS and UEFI boot-entry inspection
• KVM live-desktop smoke test
• VirtualBox BIOS live-desktop smoke test
• VirtualBox EFI live-desktop smoke test

Real-hardware boot and installation are the remaining release gates.

Verify the download

sha256sum -c spaced-linux-8.26.3-amd64.iso.sha256

Pre-release

Spaced Linux 8.26.2 — real-hardware boot, fixed for real

8.26.1 was still broken on physical machines: the live GRUB default entry
carried a QEMU-only display setting that real hardware cannot use, so many
systems hung on a blank screen with a blinking cursor even after 8.26.1
removed the serial-console bug.

Boot fixes in this release

• Removed the QEMU-only video=Virtual-1:1280x1024 from the live GRUB
  default entry. Virtual-1 is a virtual GPU output name; on physical
  hardware it does not exist, so no framebuffer was set up and the boot
  stopped at a blinking cursor. This is the fix the previous release missed.
• Removed forced early nouveau.modeset=1 from the default boot append line,
  which could hang NVIDIA hardware before the desktop loads.
• New verbose boot entry (noplymouth console=tty0 noquiet loglevel=7)
  captures the full boot log for diagnosis instead of a splash.
• Cleaned up the safe-graphics entry to a standard nomodeset line.
• Documented the entire live boot chain and all failure history in
  docs/BOOTING.md.

Prevention

make check now rejects video=, Virtual-1, console=ttyS0, and
forced early nouveau.modeset=1 in the live boot path, so these specific
regressions cannot ship again.

Also fixed

• The QEMU test harness exposed two GPUs, which stalled the guest's X and
  showed a black screen even though the kernel booted. Test VMs now use a
  single -vga std.

Verify download

sha256sum -c spaced-linux-8.26.2-amd64.iso.sha256

This is a prerelease for hardware testing. If you boot it on real
hardware, please report whether the live session starts and, if not, which
GRUB entry and the last lines shown with the verbose boot option.

Pre-release

Spaced Linux 8.26.1 — a fast release fixing the real-hardware boot regression

What was wrong

8.26 carried a serial-console setup meant for headless debugging. On real machines without a physical console port this left the display blank with a blinking cursor (the kernel console was redirected to ttyS0) and triggered sysvinit's INIT: Id "S0" respawning too fast loop. The QEMU tests never caught it because the headless VM already used -serial none.

Fixes in this release

• Removed console=ttyS0 from the live kernel command line.
• Removed the unconditional S0 serial getty from /etc/inittab.
• Headless access remains available over SSH, so no debugging capability is lost.

Also in 8.26.1

• Compiz is now the sole MATE window manager (no Marco fallback).
• Dark themes now drive the toolkit colour scheme so they reach GTK and Qt apps.
• New optical-media icon overlays for the Spaced icon themes.
• Bumped the release identity to 8.26.1 across packaging, OS metadata, installer, bootloader, website, and docs.

Verify download

sha256sum -c spaced-linux-8.26.1-amd64.iso.sha256

Testing

Booted and verified in KVM: reaches the MATE desktop with Compiz as the window manager and no boot-time errors.

Pre-release

Sorry, I had a sneaky serial console boot error sneak into this build. 8.26.1 is uploading now.

• Began the 8.26 release transition across package, ISO, bootloader, installer, website, documentation, and VM metadata; QEMU now derives its default ISO filename from VERSION to prevent drift.
• Changed the post-install app to resolve the newest crhy/Voice2Text-AI GitHub release at install time instead of shipping a stale versioned bundle URL.
• Added a non-destructive MATE panel migration that restores any missing canonical applets on upgraded profiles without resetting user-added panel content (issue #83).
• Enlarged GTK dialog controls and every Compiz/Metacity titlebar button target, with full-height titlebar painting across all ten selectable themes (issue #65).
• Added high-contrast modern GTK switch styling so on/off position is visible in MenuLibre and other GTK 3 interfaces.
• Added per-user web MIME defaults for fresh accounts, complementing the system Brave handlers so links cannot silently fall back to Pluma (issue #35).
• Expanded the source validation gate to enforce cross-file release consistency, current Voice2Text resolution, all shipped shell/Python syntax, panel migrations, titlebar metrics, switch visibility, and non-executable image assets (issue #46).
• Corrected the documentation to describe Ceres as Devuan's rolling unstable suite rather than assigning it a numbered Freia release.
• Rebuilt Spaced Update with a polished theme-aware interface, clear selectable update rows and staged progress, while moving raw command output into one collapsed Technical details panel (spacedupdate issue #3).
• Moved generated local packages out of the privileged live-build cache so ordinary developer rebuilds cannot be blocked by stale root-owned output, and removed duplicate package/repository scans from the validation pass.
• Routed GRUB font staging, package-list generation, and local Debian package builds through the Flatpak host bridge so IDE-driven ISO builds use the required host tools and Python modules.
• Added a checksum-verified temporary Ceres transition pin for xkb-data 2.47-1, resolving the repository window where keyboard-configuration 1.248 rejects the newly published 2.48 package.
• Corrected the internal 8.26 release codename and aligned the desktop configuration reference with the actual default Spaced Linux Dark theme and JPEG wallpaper.
• Preserved GTK, icon, Marco, and wallpaper choices across reboot with an event-driven per-user fallback for first-installed-account dconf state, without polling or overriding custom backgrounds.
• Made the host and privilege runners overridable so automated or IDE builds can avoid a blocked graphical PolicyKit prompt.