Budgie 10.10.4 Released
https://buddiesofbudgie.org/blog/budgie-10-10-4-released
If you enjoy what Budgie is doing in the Linux space consider donating!
https://opencollective.com/buddies-of-budgie
Joshua Strobl
November 1, 2026
Budgie 10.10.4 is our fourth minor release of the Budgie 10.10 series. This is primarily a bug fix release, but it also makes automatic and intelligent hiding work on Wayland, reworks dock mode, lets you switch Raven views with the keyboard, adds a shortcut for showing your panels, and more!
Features and Improvements
Panel Auto-hide and Dock Mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlU262Yeg-I
Features and Improvements
Panel Auto-hide and Dock Mode You can also watch this video via PeerTube / MakerTube here.
https://makertube.net/w/38p7RnxBQF13NKyRNb5KbM
Ever since our move to Wayland with Budgie 10.10, automatic hiding and dock mode have been quirky to say the least. Under X11, Budgie could get the size and position of your windows, and hid a panel set to Intelligent whenever the focused window intersected it. On Wayland, Budgie gets its list of windows from the wlr-foreign-toplevel-management protocol, which tells us whether a window is maximized and which monitor it is on, but not its size or position. Without that, the overlap check we relied on had nothing to work with.
In 10.10.3, a panel set to Intelligent "hid" by dropping behind your windows. That worked until a window was maximized: the panel was now underneath it, so moving your mouse to the edge of the screen did not bring it back up, and it stayed hidden until that window was no longer maximized (issue #950). Automatic did not hide the panel at all, and a dock set to hide still reserved its whole edge, so your maximized windows could not use that space either. 👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/950
With 10.10.4, the panel code received a major refactor, with automatic hide as well as dock mode receiving an almost complete rework. A hidden panel now stays above your windows, but is otherwise invisible with a small 3px area (the width / height of the panel depending on orientation) along its edge for capturing mouse events.
Moving your mouse to that edge brings the panel back, and clicking anywhere else goes through to the window underneath. Panels will stay visible while one of their popovers is open, so you can use Budgie Menu, interact with IconTasklist popovers, change volume using the Sound applet, and so forth. Panels set to automatically hide also no longer reserve space on the screen, so your maximized windows can use the full screen.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Automatic and Intelligent Since
Budgie cannot check whether a window intersects a panel, both policies now go by maximized windows instead:
Automatic hides the panel whenever any window on its monitor is maximized.
Intelligent hides the panel only while the focused window is maximized.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Fullscreen Applications
If you are watching a fullscreen video, moving your mouse to the edge of the screen now shows the panel above the video. Games that lock your mouse pointer are not affected, as long as your compositor correctly supports / implements the pointer constraints protocol.
Panels with "Automatically hide" set to Never stay behind fullscreen applications, and there are now two ways to bring your panels up over one (issue #600):👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/600
Super+T is a new shortcut that shows all of your panels without opening Budgie Menu. Pressing it again hides them, as does moving your mouse over a panel and then away from it.
The Super key now shows every panel when opening Budgie Menu, not just the panel the menu is on. If you are already opening the menu to launch an application, there is no need for a separate shortcut. The panels stay visible while the menu is open, and hide once it closes and your mouse is not over any of them.
https://buddiesofbudgie.org/blog/budgie-10-10-4-released
If you enjoy what Budgie is doing in the Linux space consider donating!
https://opencollective.com/buddies-of-budgie
Joshua Strobl
November 1, 2026
Budgie 10.10.4 is our fourth minor release of the Budgie 10.10 series. This is primarily a bug fix release, but it also makes automatic and intelligent hiding work on Wayland, reworks dock mode, lets you switch Raven views with the keyboard, adds a shortcut for showing your panels, and more!
Features and Improvements
Panel Auto-hide and Dock Mode
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlU262Yeg-I
Features and Improvements
Panel Auto-hide and Dock Mode You can also watch this video via PeerTube / MakerTube here.
https://makertube.net/w/38p7RnxBQF13NKyRNb5KbM
Ever since our move to Wayland with Budgie 10.10, automatic hiding and dock mode have been quirky to say the least. Under X11, Budgie could get the size and position of your windows, and hid a panel set to Intelligent whenever the focused window intersected it. On Wayland, Budgie gets its list of windows from the wlr-foreign-toplevel-management protocol, which tells us whether a window is maximized and which monitor it is on, but not its size or position. Without that, the overlap check we relied on had nothing to work with.
In 10.10.3, a panel set to Intelligent "hid" by dropping behind your windows. That worked until a window was maximized: the panel was now underneath it, so moving your mouse to the edge of the screen did not bring it back up, and it stayed hidden until that window was no longer maximized (issue #950). Automatic did not hide the panel at all, and a dock set to hide still reserved its whole edge, so your maximized windows could not use that space either. 👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/950
With 10.10.4, the panel code received a major refactor, with automatic hide as well as dock mode receiving an almost complete rework. A hidden panel now stays above your windows, but is otherwise invisible with a small 3px area (the width / height of the panel depending on orientation) along its edge for capturing mouse events.
Moving your mouse to that edge brings the panel back, and clicking anywhere else goes through to the window underneath. Panels will stay visible while one of their popovers is open, so you can use Budgie Menu, interact with IconTasklist popovers, change volume using the Sound applet, and so forth. Panels set to automatically hide also no longer reserve space on the screen, so your maximized windows can use the full screen.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Automatic and Intelligent Since
Budgie cannot check whether a window intersects a panel, both policies now go by maximized windows instead:
Automatic hides the panel whenever any window on its monitor is maximized.
Intelligent hides the panel only while the focused window is maximized.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Fullscreen Applications
If you are watching a fullscreen video, moving your mouse to the edge of the screen now shows the panel above the video. Games that lock your mouse pointer are not affected, as long as your compositor correctly supports / implements the pointer constraints protocol.
Panels with "Automatically hide" set to Never stay behind fullscreen applications, and there are now two ways to bring your panels up over one (issue #600):👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/600
Super+T is a new shortcut that shows all of your panels without opening Budgie Menu. Pressing it again hides them, as does moving your mouse over a panel and then away from it.
The Super key now shows every panel when opening Budgie Menu, not just the panel the menu is on. If you are already opening the menu to launch an application, there is no need for a separate shortcut. The panels stay visible while the menu is open, and hide once it closes and your mouse is not over any of them.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Raven
You can now switch between Raven's widgets and notifications views with the keyboard while Raven is open (issue #1005). Pressing Super+A or Super+N switches to that view, and pressing the shortcut for the view you are already on closes Raven.👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1005
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
labwc Bridge
Moving Windows Between Monitors
Super+Shift+arrow keys now move the focused window to the monitor in that direction, as they did on Budgie 10.9 (issue #1006).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1006
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Picture-in-Picture
Picture-in-Picture windows, such as the ones from Firefox, now stay on top of your other windows (issue #1018).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1018
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Clicking the Desktop
By default, labwc opens its root menu when you left click the desktop. On a touchpad, this was easy to trigger by accident, and since releasing the click over a menu item activates it, a tap and drag could end up with accidental launches (like of Budgie Desktop Settings).
Left clicking the desktop now only focuses it, while right clicking still opens the root menu. This also fixes Budgie Menu and Raven not closing when left clicking the desktop with desktop icons turned off (issue #1004). Existing labwc configs are migrated on login, keeping any mouse settings you added yourself.👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1004
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Screen Dimming and Locking
You can now choose how long Budgie waits before dimming your screen (issue #999). The delay can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes, and setting it to 0 turns dimming off. The next release of Budgie Control Center will add it to the Power panel (pull request #128). Until then, you can set it with gsettings:👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/999
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-control-center/pull/128
gsettings set com.solus-project.budgie-wm dimming-delay 90
You can also choose which screen locker Budgie uses, gtklock or swaylock (issue #1021). By default, Budgie uses the first one it finds installed, checking gtklock first:👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1021
gsettings set org.buddiesofbudgie.budgie-locker locker-choice 'swaylock'
If the locker you chose is not installed, Budgie falls back to the one that is.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Faster Panel Startup
Previously, Budgie Menu, Icon Tasklist and the Autostart page in Budgie Desktop Settings each loaded the full list of installed applications separately, and Icon Tasklist did so again for every application it needed to match to a window. Now, the list is loaded once and shared across the panel, and reloaded when you install or remove applications. We measured the panel's first 90 seconds with 281 applications installed, with two runs per build for the timing measurements:
Linuxnext: There is a before and after chart you can look at it in the blog.
The heap increase is the shared list of applications, which is kept for as long as the panel runs. Opening the Autostart page, and Icon Tasklist matching windows opened after startup, also use the shared list now.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bug Fixes
Panel
In a language other than English, applets could disappear from the panel after updating to 10.10.3. Each applet's settings store the name of the plugin it comes from, and the panel matched that against the name libpeas reports for each plugin.
Raven
You can now switch between Raven's widgets and notifications views with the keyboard while Raven is open (issue #1005). Pressing Super+A or Super+N switches to that view, and pressing the shortcut for the view you are already on closes Raven.👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1005
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
labwc Bridge
Moving Windows Between Monitors
Super+Shift+arrow keys now move the focused window to the monitor in that direction, as they did on Budgie 10.9 (issue #1006).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1006
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Picture-in-Picture
Picture-in-Picture windows, such as the ones from Firefox, now stay on top of your other windows (issue #1018).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1018
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Clicking the Desktop
By default, labwc opens its root menu when you left click the desktop. On a touchpad, this was easy to trigger by accident, and since releasing the click over a menu item activates it, a tap and drag could end up with accidental launches (like of Budgie Desktop Settings).
Left clicking the desktop now only focuses it, while right clicking still opens the root menu. This also fixes Budgie Menu and Raven not closing when left clicking the desktop with desktop icons turned off (issue #1004). Existing labwc configs are migrated on login, keeping any mouse settings you added yourself.👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1004
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Screen Dimming and Locking
You can now choose how long Budgie waits before dimming your screen (issue #999). The delay can be anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes, and setting it to 0 turns dimming off. The next release of Budgie Control Center will add it to the Power panel (pull request #128). Until then, you can set it with gsettings:👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/999
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-control-center/pull/128
gsettings set com.solus-project.budgie-wm dimming-delay 90
You can also choose which screen locker Budgie uses, gtklock or swaylock (issue #1021). By default, Budgie uses the first one it finds installed, checking gtklock first:👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1021
gsettings set org.buddiesofbudgie.budgie-locker locker-choice 'swaylock'
If the locker you chose is not installed, Budgie falls back to the one that is.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Faster Panel Startup
Previously, Budgie Menu, Icon Tasklist and the Autostart page in Budgie Desktop Settings each loaded the full list of installed applications separately, and Icon Tasklist did so again for every application it needed to match to a window. Now, the list is loaded once and shared across the panel, and reloaded when you install or remove applications. We measured the panel's first 90 seconds with 281 applications installed, with two runs per build for the timing measurements:
Linuxnext: There is a before and after chart you can look at it in the blog.
The heap increase is the shared list of applications, which is kept for as long as the panel runs. Opening the Autostart page, and Icon Tasklist matching windows opened after startup, also use the shared list now.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bug Fixes
Panel
In a language other than English, applets could disappear from the panel after updating to 10.10.3. Each applet's settings store the name of the plugin it comes from, and the panel matched that against the name libpeas reports for each plugin.
Since applet names became translatable in 10.10.3, libpeas reports the translated name, so any applet with a translation failed to match and was dropped from the panel. Applets now store the plugin's module name in a new module key, which the panel prefers.
Applets without it are matched against the untranslated name from the plugin's .plugin file, and translated names saved by 10.10.3 are still accepted. On login, the panel fills in the module key for existing applets and replaces any translated name with the untranslated one. Other panel fixes:
A panel no longer stays hidden when one of its applets is not installed or fails to load. That applet is also removed from the panel's configuration.
Budgie Menu no longer covers a panel that does not reserve screen space.
Clicking a dropdown inside a popover, such as the schedule in the Night Light applet, no longer closes the popover.
The panel no longer crashes at startup when a panel has no stored position (issue #1001).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1001
A newly created panel now saves its position right away, so it is not lost if your session ends shortly after creating it.
A panel no longer moves off your primary monitor after changing its edge.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bluetooth Applet
Budgie Control Center 2.1.1 removed its Bluetooth panel, which broke the settings button in the Bluetooth applet. The button now opens the first of these that is installed:
1. Bluejay
2. Blueman
3. Budgie Control Center
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Crystal Dock
The wallpaper border workaround can now handle JPEG XL wallpapers on distributions whose ImageMagick lacks JPEG XL support, by building Budgie with GraphicsMagick instead (issue #988).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/988
Changing a Crystal Dock setting no longer regenerates your wallpaper twice (issue #945).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/945
Restarting budgie-daemon no longer leaves old swaybg processes running.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
VMware The mouse pointer is visible again in VMware virtual machines. The labwc session now sets WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS when it detects VMware's virtual GPU, as it already did for virgl (issue #1037).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1037
Qt Applications Older Qt applications and AppImages without Wayland support can launch again. When QT_QPA_PLATFORM is not already set, the labwc session now sets it to wayland;xcb, so Qt falls back to XWayland.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Packaging Changes
New Build Option graphics-lib chooses the library budgie-daemon uses to convert wallpapers for the Crystal Dock workaround:
imagemagick (default) uses ImageMagick 7's magick.
graphicsmagick uses gm convert.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Settings
org.buddiesofbudgie.budgie-locker is a new schema with a locker-choice key. Distributions shipping both gtklock and swaylock can override it to set their default.
com.solus-project.budgie-wm gains dimming-delay, defaulting to 30 seconds, and toggle-panels, defaulting to Super+T.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Panel Layouts
Applet entries in panel.ini can now use a Module= key, which is preferred over ID= when present. Existing layouts continue to work.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Contributor List
Budgie Desktop is developed by Buddies of Budgie, with contributors around the world. Alongside all of our amazing translators, here is a list of all the contributors that made this release possible:
David Mohammed👇
https://github.com/fossfreedom
Evan Maddock👇
https://github.com/EbonJaeger
Joshua Strobl👇
https://github.com/JoshStrobl
Applets without it are matched against the untranslated name from the plugin's .plugin file, and translated names saved by 10.10.3 are still accepted. On login, the panel fills in the module key for existing applets and replaces any translated name with the untranslated one. Other panel fixes:
A panel no longer stays hidden when one of its applets is not installed or fails to load. That applet is also removed from the panel's configuration.
Budgie Menu no longer covers a panel that does not reserve screen space.
Clicking a dropdown inside a popover, such as the schedule in the Night Light applet, no longer closes the popover.
The panel no longer crashes at startup when a panel has no stored position (issue #1001).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1001
A newly created panel now saves its position right away, so it is not lost if your session ends shortly after creating it.
A panel no longer moves off your primary monitor after changing its edge.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Bluetooth Applet
Budgie Control Center 2.1.1 removed its Bluetooth panel, which broke the settings button in the Bluetooth applet. The button now opens the first of these that is installed:
1. Bluejay
2. Blueman
3. Budgie Control Center
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Crystal Dock
The wallpaper border workaround can now handle JPEG XL wallpapers on distributions whose ImageMagick lacks JPEG XL support, by building Budgie with GraphicsMagick instead (issue #988).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/988
Changing a Crystal Dock setting no longer regenerates your wallpaper twice (issue #945).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/945
Restarting budgie-daemon no longer leaves old swaybg processes running.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
VMware The mouse pointer is visible again in VMware virtual machines. The labwc session now sets WLR_NO_HARDWARE_CURSORS when it detects VMware's virtual GPU, as it already did for virgl (issue #1037).👇
https://github.com/BuddiesOfBudgie/budgie-desktop/issues/1037
Qt Applications Older Qt applications and AppImages without Wayland support can launch again. When QT_QPA_PLATFORM is not already set, the labwc session now sets it to wayland;xcb, so Qt falls back to XWayland.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Packaging Changes
New Build Option graphics-lib chooses the library budgie-daemon uses to convert wallpapers for the Crystal Dock workaround:
imagemagick (default) uses ImageMagick 7's magick.
graphicsmagick uses gm convert.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Settings
org.buddiesofbudgie.budgie-locker is a new schema with a locker-choice key. Distributions shipping both gtklock and swaylock can override it to set their default.
com.solus-project.budgie-wm gains dimming-delay, defaulting to 30 seconds, and toggle-panels, defaulting to Super+T.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Panel Layouts
Applet entries in panel.ini can now use a Module= key, which is preferred over ID= when present. Existing layouts continue to work.
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Contributor List
Budgie Desktop is developed by Buddies of Budgie, with contributors around the world. Alongside all of our amazing translators, here is a list of all the contributors that made this release possible:
David Mohammed👇
https://github.com/fossfreedom
Evan Maddock👇
https://github.com/EbonJaeger
Joshua Strobl👇
https://github.com/JoshStrobl
Namelus11811👇
https://github.com/Namelus11811
Thank you as well to everyone who reported issues, tested fixes, and helped us track down bugs during this release cycle!
Release Stats Leaving out translations and build system changes, here is how much changed since 10.10.3:
Budgie Desktop: 20 commits, with 3,046 lines added and 1,846 removed across 45 files.
https://github.com/Namelus11811
Thank you as well to everyone who reported issues, tested fixes, and helped us track down bugs during this release cycle!
Release Stats Leaving out translations and build system changes, here is how much changed since 10.10.3:
Budgie Desktop: 20 commits, with 3,046 lines added and 1,846 removed across 45 files.
Buddies of Budgie
Budgie 10.10.4 Released
Budgie 10.10.4 is our fourth minor release of the Budgie 10.10 series. This release makes automatic and intelligent hiding work on Wayland, reworks dock mode, lets you switch Raven views with the keyboard, adds a shortcut for showing your panels, and fixes…
Linux 7.4-rc1 Released With Nice Performance Improvements, AMD Ryzen Zen 6 Preparations & AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 Default
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.4-rc1
Written by Michael Larabel
Even with Linus Torvalds having been on holiday, Linux 7.4-rc1 is out today on-schedule for capping off the Linux 7.4 merge window.
Linux 7.4 brings many exciting changes. With v7.4-rc1 out today on schedule without the possible week delay Linus Torvalds talked about in the v7.3 announcement, it still stands good chances of releasing before the end of December. With that, Linux 7.4 will likely end up being this year's Long Term Support (LTS) kernel version. That is assuming no frightening delays toward the end of the kernel cycle that would drag it out. As it stands now, if Linux 7.4 releases on time it will likely be here on 20 December.
Among the many changes in Linux 7.4 is the new AMD PerfOpt feature for Radeon iGPUs to help enhance AI/LLM performance, AMD Ryzen Zen 6 support getting all squared away ahead of those next-gen client CPUs launching, a lot of laptop quirks/additions, AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 enabled by default, Intel IPU8 support for upcoming Nova Lake laptops, more Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 laptop enablement, optional buffered IOmap support for EXT4, basic Apple M4 support enablement albeit not yet ready for end-users, Google Tensor G5 SoC and Pixel 10 device support with the mainline kernel, faster kernel build times, and much more.
In the next day or two I will be out with my usual feature overview to summarize all the interesting Linux 7.4 kernel features/changes, beyond my dozens of individual articles in recent weeks. This is a BIG kernel with the most commits ever during the merge window; AI is in large part driving that huge upward trajectory in commit/patch count.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.4-Massive-Window
Stay tuned for the Linux 7.4 feature overview on Phoronix followed by Linux 7.4 kernel benchmarking getting underway.
Update: Linus Torvalds is now out with his customary release announcement:
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whOCnAwXz-FMRdQEDJQ+9b2YXh9M=GHgRay0o4cxSmPVg@mail.gmail.com/T/#u
"This is a *BIG* merge window. I think the reason is the by now obvious one, but I'm actually taking it as a good sign: I'm *much* happier with the flood of AI triggered work going into the merge window than it showing up mainly as extra fixes during the -rc period. So I'm hoping that this merge window being larger than usual is a sign that the AI fixes are becoming more part of the "normal development" than a flood of fixes that go into the whole stabilization phase. I think that's a much healthier model. But we'll see how the -rc's look.
That said, a small part of the "this is a big merge window" may also be that people are expecting 7.4 to be the next LTS release, which is another independent reason why some releases tend larger than others. So it may not *just* be the flood of AI patches.
Whatever the reason(s) for a big release, it's huge both in commits - almost 20k commits vs the more common ~15k - and as a diff. Although the diff is large partly for the other traditional reason: yet another AMD hardware register dump into huge headers. A full third of the patch is just AMD GPU register offsets and bit masks. We've been here before, and I'm sure we'll see it many times again in the future. Just ignore the noise."
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.4-rc1
Written by Michael Larabel
Even with Linus Torvalds having been on holiday, Linux 7.4-rc1 is out today on-schedule for capping off the Linux 7.4 merge window.
Linux 7.4 brings many exciting changes. With v7.4-rc1 out today on schedule without the possible week delay Linus Torvalds talked about in the v7.3 announcement, it still stands good chances of releasing before the end of December. With that, Linux 7.4 will likely end up being this year's Long Term Support (LTS) kernel version. That is assuming no frightening delays toward the end of the kernel cycle that would drag it out. As it stands now, if Linux 7.4 releases on time it will likely be here on 20 December.
Among the many changes in Linux 7.4 is the new AMD PerfOpt feature for Radeon iGPUs to help enhance AI/LLM performance, AMD Ryzen Zen 6 support getting all squared away ahead of those next-gen client CPUs launching, a lot of laptop quirks/additions, AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 enabled by default, Intel IPU8 support for upcoming Nova Lake laptops, more Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 laptop enablement, optional buffered IOmap support for EXT4, basic Apple M4 support enablement albeit not yet ready for end-users, Google Tensor G5 SoC and Pixel 10 device support with the mainline kernel, faster kernel build times, and much more.
In the next day or two I will be out with my usual feature overview to summarize all the interesting Linux 7.4 kernel features/changes, beyond my dozens of individual articles in recent weeks. This is a BIG kernel with the most commits ever during the merge window; AI is in large part driving that huge upward trajectory in commit/patch count.
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-7.4-Massive-Window
Stay tuned for the Linux 7.4 feature overview on Phoronix followed by Linux 7.4 kernel benchmarking getting underway.
Update: Linus Torvalds is now out with his customary release announcement:
https://lore.kernel.org/lkml/CAHk-=whOCnAwXz-FMRdQEDJQ+9b2YXh9M=GHgRay0o4cxSmPVg@mail.gmail.com/T/#u
"This is a *BIG* merge window. I think the reason is the by now obvious one, but I'm actually taking it as a good sign: I'm *much* happier with the flood of AI triggered work going into the merge window than it showing up mainly as extra fixes during the -rc period. So I'm hoping that this merge window being larger than usual is a sign that the AI fixes are becoming more part of the "normal development" than a flood of fixes that go into the whole stabilization phase. I think that's a much healthier model. But we'll see how the -rc's look.
That said, a small part of the "this is a big merge window" may also be that people are expecting 7.4 to be the next LTS release, which is another independent reason why some releases tend larger than others. So it may not *just* be the flood of AI patches.
Whatever the reason(s) for a big release, it's huge both in commits - almost 20k commits vs the more common ~15k - and as a diff. Although the diff is large partly for the other traditional reason: yet another AMD hardware register dump into huge headers. A full third of the patch is just AMD GPU register offsets and bit masks. We've been here before, and I'm sure we'll see it many times again in the future. Just ignore the noise."
Phoronix
Linux 7.4-rc1 Released With Nice Performance Improvements, AMD Ryzen Zen 6 Preparations & AMDGPU HDMI 2.1 Default
Even with Linus Torvalds having been on holiday, Linux 7.4-rc1 is out today on-schedule for capping off the Linux 7.4 merge window.
October 2026 in KDE Linux
If you enjoy what KDE is doing in the Linux space consider donating or becoming a member!
https://kde.org/donate/
https://blogs.kde.org/2026/11/01/october-2026-in-kde-linux/
Welcome to a new edition of This Month in KDE Linux, dedicated to KDE’s next-generation operating system.
https://linux.kde.org/
October was another infrastructure-heavy month for the project. A major initiative involved migrating the OS image storage and updating system to work with KDE’s new S3-based file storage server. Another consisted of moving KDE Linux’s OpenQA system to a dedicated server on KDE infrastructure, and off of Harald Sitter’s personal server.
This very large amount of work was done by Bhushan Shah, Sky Poincet, Harald Sitter, and Ben Cooksley, so thanks to them!
It should all be pretty transparent, but if you find yourself unable to update with a “Protocol error” message, see the recovery instructions here.
https://linux.kde.org/docs/migrate-older/#2026-10-25-image-or-earlier
/////////////////////////////////////////////
Some other improvements made it in as well:
Navya Sai Sadi added a basic slideshow to the installer:👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/488
Jordan Brough fixed a bug that garbled the text of the keyboard layout indicator on the full disk encryption unlocking screen.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/646
Harald Sitter made Info Center show the active edition (for example, “testing”):👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/620
Tabitha Moon enabled the ntsync kernel module by default, which improves performance in games played through Wine and Proton.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/650
Hadi Chokr added a bunch of linting and validation checks, ensuring that future contributions are checked for common mistakes, errors, and typos.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/653
Nate Graham added wayland-protocols to the base image, removing a barrier to compiling some KDE projects out of the box.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/655
/////////////////////////////////////////////
How you can help
KDE Linux is making progress towards its Beta milestone, and remains 85% of the way there.👇
https://invent.kde.org/groups/kde-linux/-/milestones/2#tab-issues
There’s lots to do! If you’re a fan of the project, please help out; there are many ways:👇
User support: help support people on discuss.kde.org using KDE Linux.
https://discuss.kde.org/tag/kde-linux/450
Issue reporting: install KDE Linux and report issues.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs/install
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/issues
Documentation: improve the docs by submitting merge requests.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs
https://invent.kde.org/websites/linux-kde-org/-/merge_requests/
Flatpak: fix packaging or code issues in Flatpak-packaged apps.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/issues/71
OS development: help build KDE Linux! There’s plenty to do.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs/kde-linux-dev
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/work_items/?sort=created_date&state=opened&milestone_title=Beta&first_page_size=100
If you enjoy what KDE is doing in the Linux space consider donating or becoming a member!
https://kde.org/donate/
https://blogs.kde.org/2026/11/01/october-2026-in-kde-linux/
Welcome to a new edition of This Month in KDE Linux, dedicated to KDE’s next-generation operating system.
https://linux.kde.org/
October was another infrastructure-heavy month for the project. A major initiative involved migrating the OS image storage and updating system to work with KDE’s new S3-based file storage server. Another consisted of moving KDE Linux’s OpenQA system to a dedicated server on KDE infrastructure, and off of Harald Sitter’s personal server.
This very large amount of work was done by Bhushan Shah, Sky Poincet, Harald Sitter, and Ben Cooksley, so thanks to them!
It should all be pretty transparent, but if you find yourself unable to update with a “Protocol error” message, see the recovery instructions here.
https://linux.kde.org/docs/migrate-older/#2026-10-25-image-or-earlier
/////////////////////////////////////////////
Some other improvements made it in as well:
Navya Sai Sadi added a basic slideshow to the installer:👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/488
Jordan Brough fixed a bug that garbled the text of the keyboard layout indicator on the full disk encryption unlocking screen.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/646
Harald Sitter made Info Center show the active edition (for example, “testing”):👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/620
Tabitha Moon enabled the ntsync kernel module by default, which improves performance in games played through Wine and Proton.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/650
Hadi Chokr added a bunch of linting and validation checks, ensuring that future contributions are checked for common mistakes, errors, and typos.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/653
Nate Graham added wayland-protocols to the base image, removing a barrier to compiling some KDE projects out of the box.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/merge_requests/655
/////////////////////////////////////////////
How you can help
KDE Linux is making progress towards its Beta milestone, and remains 85% of the way there.👇
https://invent.kde.org/groups/kde-linux/-/milestones/2#tab-issues
There’s lots to do! If you’re a fan of the project, please help out; there are many ways:👇
User support: help support people on discuss.kde.org using KDE Linux.
https://discuss.kde.org/tag/kde-linux/450
Issue reporting: install KDE Linux and report issues.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs/install
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/issues
Documentation: improve the docs by submitting merge requests.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs
https://invent.kde.org/websites/linux-kde-org/-/merge_requests/
Flatpak: fix packaging or code issues in Flatpak-packaged apps.👇
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/issues/71
OS development: help build KDE Linux! There’s plenty to do.👇
https://linux.kde.org/docs/kde-linux-dev
https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/work_items/?sort=created_date&state=opened&milestone_title=Beta&first_page_size=100
kde.org
Donate and support KDE
Help us create software that gives you full freedom and protects your privacy, and be a part of a great community
SteamVR Beta Updated - 2.19.1
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/250820/view/683017363938871519
Note: If you have manually changed Steam Link's encoded video size or render resolution, those settings are preserved. Set them back to Auto to try the new defaults.
Feedback and Bug Reports
If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, include a system report to help us investigate.
Replies to this announcement are not tracked for bug reporting purposes. Please use the forum linked above to report issues.
The Steam Link for Meta Quest FAQ is available here.
Anyone can opt into the SteamVR Beta. Instructions are available here.
SteamVR 2.19.1 Updates
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Streaming (Steam Link):
Higher Default Resolution
Increased the default recommended render resolution for streamed PC VR applications (render scale 1.5, targeting 1.4× the headset's panel resolution).
Steam Link no longer runs a GPU performance test to choose the recommended resolution.
Increased the default encoded video size on Steam Frame from 1152 to 1216.
Sharper Colors and Details
Improved color clarity, using higher-quality filter to downsample color before encoding, preserving fine colored details.
Improved brightness preservation at edges between strongly saturated colors (see below).
Sharper peripheral image quality through higher-quality downscaling outside the foveated region.
Crisper text and UI throughout SteamVR, including the dashboard, third-party overlays, theater screen, and SteamVR Home.
A new system-layer rendering pipeline renders foveated and non-foveated views directly from their source textures, eliminating an intermediate render texture and an extra resampling step.
SteamVR 2.19 on left, SteamVR 2.18 on right
Compare Before and After
Interested users can compare the new streaming quality with the previous implementation. On the host PC, go to Steam Link > Advanced > Stream Quality and choose Default or Legacy. Legacy reproduces the previous streaming image quality.
Additional Steam Link (Streaming) Updates:
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Reorganized the Steam Link settings page.
Added Preferred Foveated Sharpness (System UI) under Steam Link (on your PC). Adjust the size of the sharp foveated region for the SteamVR interface, choosing a narrower, sharper area or a wider area.
Fixed several issues that could cause incorrect frame timing at startup.
Fixed a possible cause of Error 17.
Fixed IPv4 and IPv6 address comparisons when selecting network links.
Improved head motion prediction.
Corrected eye view poses for projection layers to include the eye-to-head offset.
Added per-application refresh rate overrides.
When connecting an eye-tracking headset, SteamVR now asks whether to share eye tracking data with PC applications.
Improved eye-tracked foveation alignment during rapid head movement.
Meta Quest: Fixed the 72 Hz notification remaining visible in Battery Saver mode
HTC Focus Vision: Added support for face tracking data over OSC with the face-tracking accessory
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
General:
Improved image quality for SteamVR Interface and 3rd party overlays. (smoother edges, reduced shimmer, fewer visual artifacts, and better image quality at different distances)
Updated Settings > Video > Overlay Render Quality to use improved filtering, with a new Ultra quality option. Also available under Steam Link > Advanced.
Reduced aurora color movement during theater transitions.
Added a minimum brightness to stars in the construct, preventing the environment from becoming completely black.
Fixed laser mouse dragging being interrupted by grip presses or brief tracking loss.
Per-application settings now show "Not Supported" when Motion Smoothing is unavailable.
Fixed settings sliders extending beyond their tracks for out-of-range values, and Advanced-only sliders not hiding correctly.
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/250820/view/683017363938871519
Note: If you have manually changed Steam Link's encoded video size or render resolution, those settings are preserved. Set them back to Auto to try the new defaults.
Feedback and Bug Reports
If you encounter issues with this update, please post in the SteamVR Bug Report forum. If possible, include a system report to help us investigate.
Replies to this announcement are not tracked for bug reporting purposes. Please use the forum linked above to report issues.
The Steam Link for Meta Quest FAQ is available here.
Anyone can opt into the SteamVR Beta. Instructions are available here.
SteamVR 2.19.1 Updates
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Streaming (Steam Link):
Higher Default Resolution
Increased the default recommended render resolution for streamed PC VR applications (render scale 1.5, targeting 1.4× the headset's panel resolution).
Steam Link no longer runs a GPU performance test to choose the recommended resolution.
Increased the default encoded video size on Steam Frame from 1152 to 1216.
Sharper Colors and Details
Improved color clarity, using higher-quality filter to downsample color before encoding, preserving fine colored details.
Improved brightness preservation at edges between strongly saturated colors (see below).
Sharper peripheral image quality through higher-quality downscaling outside the foveated region.
Crisper text and UI throughout SteamVR, including the dashboard, third-party overlays, theater screen, and SteamVR Home.
A new system-layer rendering pipeline renders foveated and non-foveated views directly from their source textures, eliminating an intermediate render texture and an extra resampling step.
SteamVR 2.19 on left, SteamVR 2.18 on right
Compare Before and After
Interested users can compare the new streaming quality with the previous implementation. On the host PC, go to Steam Link > Advanced > Stream Quality and choose Default or Legacy. Legacy reproduces the previous streaming image quality.
Additional Steam Link (Streaming) Updates:
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Reorganized the Steam Link settings page.
Added Preferred Foveated Sharpness (System UI) under Steam Link (on your PC). Adjust the size of the sharp foveated region for the SteamVR interface, choosing a narrower, sharper area or a wider area.
Fixed several issues that could cause incorrect frame timing at startup.
Fixed a possible cause of Error 17.
Fixed IPv4 and IPv6 address comparisons when selecting network links.
Improved head motion prediction.
Corrected eye view poses for projection layers to include the eye-to-head offset.
Added per-application refresh rate overrides.
When connecting an eye-tracking headset, SteamVR now asks whether to share eye tracking data with PC applications.
Improved eye-tracked foveation alignment during rapid head movement.
Meta Quest: Fixed the 72 Hz notification remaining visible in Battery Saver mode
HTC Focus Vision: Added support for face tracking data over OSC with the face-tracking accessory
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
General:
Improved image quality for SteamVR Interface and 3rd party overlays. (smoother edges, reduced shimmer, fewer visual artifacts, and better image quality at different distances)
Updated Settings > Video > Overlay Render Quality to use improved filtering, with a new Ultra quality option. Also available under Steam Link > Advanced.
Reduced aurora color movement during theater transitions.
Added a minimum brightness to stars in the construct, preventing the environment from becoming completely black.
Fixed laser mouse dragging being interrupted by grip presses or brief tracking loss.
Per-application settings now show "Not Supported" when Motion Smoothing is unavailable.
Fixed settings sliders extending beyond their tracks for out-of-range values, and Advanced-only sliders not hiding correctly.
Improved anti-aliasing on the play area floor grid.
Fixed a crash during shared resource manager shutdown.
Fixed a crash caused by a dangling texture during Steam's VR manager shutdown.
Fixed a crash when unblocking previously blocked add-ons.
Fixed crashes in SteamVR's web handler caused by malformed requests.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
OpenXR:
Added XR_KHR_composition_layer_cylinder support on PC and Steam Frame.
Added XR_FB_composition_layer_image_layout support on Steam Frame.
Added XR_EXT_stationary_reference_space support.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Linux:
SteamVR now runs under the Sniper runtime, supporting Steam Runtime 3 clients while retaining the scheduling priority SteamVR needs.
Non-Proton OpenXR games can now launch without SteamVR already running.
OpenVR and OpenXR runtimes can now run inside Flatpak, bubblewrap, and other sandbox environments.
Added a symlink for the 32-bit OpenXR runtime, which can also be used by Proton.
Added support for all Render Quality options. (High quality samplers were previously disabled)
Fixed a crash during shared resource manager shutdown.
Fixed a crash caused by a dangling texture during Steam's VR manager shutdown.
Fixed a crash when unblocking previously blocked add-ons.
Fixed crashes in SteamVR's web handler caused by malformed requests.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
OpenXR:
Added XR_KHR_composition_layer_cylinder support on PC and Steam Frame.
Added XR_FB_composition_layer_image_layout support on Steam Frame.
Added XR_EXT_stationary_reference_space support.
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Linux:
SteamVR now runs under the Sniper runtime, supporting Steam Runtime 3 clients while retaining the scheduling priority SteamVR needs.
Non-Proton OpenXR games can now launch without SteamVR already running.
OpenVR and OpenXR runtimes can now run inside Flatpak, bubblewrap, and other sandbox environments.
Added a symlink for the 32-bit OpenXR runtime, which can also be used by Proton.
Added support for all Render Quality options. (High quality samplers were previously disabled)
Steampowered
SteamVR - SteamVR Beta Updated - 2.19.1 - Steam News
Today's SteamVR brings improvements to streamed image quality: sharper text, clearer colors, and better detail. These improvements benefit all streaming VR applications, the SteamVR interface, desktop streaming, third-party overlays, and the theater screen.…
Didn't expect the flatpak support for vr in steamvr? so another problem that you wont face with flatpak steam anymore!
Radeon RADV Vulkan Driver Adopts An LLM Policy
https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Adopts-LLM-Policy
Written by Michael Larabel
The Mesa RADV driver that provides Vulkan API support for AMD Radeon GPUs on Linux has adopted its own policy around AI / large language models (LLMs) for code contributions.
Beyond Mesa having its own AI/LLM policy, the Radeon RADV driver has instituted its own loose policy around AI/LLMs. Samuel Pitoiset of Valve's Linux graphics team and one of the prolific contributors to the RADV driver is the one that took the initiative and moved forward in adding this RADV-specific policy.
Ultimately it's a loose one in not outright forbidding AI/LLM-based contributions but discourages its use and leaves the door open to closing merge requests that were AI generated. The new policy is:
"If you find a bug or shortcoming in RADV and cannot address it yourself, file an issue on the tracker. LLM-assisted MRs require a good understanding of the codebase, and reviewing them has a real cost. Reviewers/maintainers may close such MRs at their discretion.
LLM-written issues are discouraged: they tend to be verbose and hard to read. Please describe the issue in your own words. LLM-generated reproducers are fine as long as you have reviewed them and they demonstrate the bug."
Pitoiset rationalized the need for this RADV policy due to beginning to see more AI-generated patches and wanting to get out ahead of them before the developers become overwhelmed. He wrote in the merge request for this policy:
"We are starting to get slightly more LLM MRs by external contributors these days for RADV and it seems better to state this now before getting flooded."
The policy was merged today to Mesa Git.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/45668
https://www.phoronix.com/news/RADV-Adopts-LLM-Policy
Written by Michael Larabel
The Mesa RADV driver that provides Vulkan API support for AMD Radeon GPUs on Linux has adopted its own policy around AI / large language models (LLMs) for code contributions.
Beyond Mesa having its own AI/LLM policy, the Radeon RADV driver has instituted its own loose policy around AI/LLMs. Samuel Pitoiset of Valve's Linux graphics team and one of the prolific contributors to the RADV driver is the one that took the initiative and moved forward in adding this RADV-specific policy.
Ultimately it's a loose one in not outright forbidding AI/LLM-based contributions but discourages its use and leaves the door open to closing merge requests that were AI generated. The new policy is:
"If you find a bug or shortcoming in RADV and cannot address it yourself, file an issue on the tracker. LLM-assisted MRs require a good understanding of the codebase, and reviewing them has a real cost. Reviewers/maintainers may close such MRs at their discretion.
LLM-written issues are discouraged: they tend to be verbose and hard to read. Please describe the issue in your own words. LLM-generated reproducers are fine as long as you have reviewed them and they demonstrate the bug."
Pitoiset rationalized the need for this RADV policy due to beginning to see more AI-generated patches and wanting to get out ahead of them before the developers become overwhelmed. He wrote in the merge request for this policy:
"We are starting to get slightly more LLM MRs by external contributors these days for RADV and it seems better to state this now before getting flooded."
The policy was merged today to Mesa Git.
https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/mesa/mesa/-/merge_requests/45668
Phoronix
Radeon RADV Vulkan Driver Adopts An LLM Policy
The Mesa RADV driver that provides Vulkan API support for AMD Radeon GPUs on Linux has adopted its own policy around AI / large language models (LLMs) for code contributions.
Affinity is coming to Linux. no ETA but sometime in the future.
https://x.com/Affinity/status/2117276850795790442
Affinity:
Take a deep breath, because we’re about to spill the tea ☕️ Affinity is coming to Linux, it’s in active development, but we’ve got no ETA to spill just yet.
As always there is open source software like Krita, Inkscape, Blender, or even Gimp that can do a lot of what affinity does but for people that simply cant move for some reason well you should be able to switch if nothing else is stopping you.
https://x.com/Affinity/status/2117276850795790442
Affinity:
Take a deep breath, because we’re about to spill the tea ☕️ Affinity is coming to Linux, it’s in active development, but we’ve got no ETA to spill just yet.
As always there is open source software like Krita, Inkscape, Blender, or even Gimp that can do a lot of what affinity does but for people that simply cant move for some reason well you should be able to switch if nothing else is stopping you.
🔥1
GE-Proton11-12 Released
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/GE-Proton11-12
Such a big changelog so cant include all of it :P
But it has the usual core component updates so you get the latest patches from upstream proton, Controller improvements, Steam Overlay changes, Wayland and Windowing improvements, more Video Playback improvements and changes, Rendering and HDR changes aswell, and lastly some proton fixes with many other changes to this custom proton runner.
https://github.com/GloriousEggroll/proton-ge-custom/releases/tag/GE-Proton11-12
Such a big changelog so cant include all of it :P
But it has the usual core component updates so you get the latest patches from upstream proton, Controller improvements, Steam Overlay changes, Wayland and Windowing improvements, more Video Playback improvements and changes, Rendering and HDR changes aswell, and lastly some proton fixes with many other changes to this custom proton runner.