KaOS 2024.05: Exciting Updates To KDE Plasma Distro

The latest stable ISO release for version 2024.05 of KaOS, brings exciting updates and improvements to this independent Linux distribution. KaOS is designed to offer a smooth and efficient experience with the KDE Plasma desktop environment.

The previous major release, KaOS 2024.01, upgraded the distro to KDE Plasma 6 and 2024.05 continues to build on that release by introducing new features and improvements.

Key updates in Version 2024.05 of KaOS

Plasma Desktop Updates: Users can now enjoy the latest releases, including Plasma 6.0.5, KDE Gear 24.05.0, and Frameworks 6.2.0. These enhancements promise improved functionality and enhanced user experience. Moreover, these components are built on Qt 6.7.1, ensuring stability and compatibility across the system.
KDE Gear Enhancements: In KDE Gear 24.05, Dolphin now provides enhanced folder insights, automatically displaying modification times.
Bcachefs support: The kernel build now includes support for the experimental Bcachefs filesystem, with necessary tools available in the repositories, offering high performance, scalability, and reliability.

Phonon Sound Backend: A new Phonon sound backend has been added, switching from VLC to phonon-mpv. VLC lacks Qt 6 support, so phonon-mpv is now the default, providing full compatibility with Qt 6. This ensures a more seamless and integrated audio experience.
ISO size Reduction: Kernel modesetting for all graphics cards has been removed, reducing the ISO size by about 700 MB. This change helps streamline the ISO, making it more efficient and compact.
Qt6 and Frameworks 6 Integration: Several applications, such as Gcompris, Calligra, KWave, and Kaffeine, are now compatible with Qt6 and Frameworks 6, enhancing their performance and features.

GTK2 Removal: Finally, GTK2 has been removed from the KaOS repositories. The last major application requiring it, Ardour, now uses an internal YTK with version 8.4.0.
Marknote: A new package included is Marknote, a note management application integrated with Plasma 6. Marknote provides note management within the Plasma 6 environment.
Kjournald Log Viewer: Kjournald is a new GUI tool for viewing system logs with various filtering options. Previously, using ‘journalctl’ commands was necessary to get good logs, but now Kjournald simplifies this process.
LibreOffice: LibreOffice, now a pure Qt6/kf6 application, has replaced Calligra as the default office application for KaOS.
Croeso Configuration Tool: Croeso, included in KaOS, helps configure new installs by adjusting 15 settings, customizing wallpaper, and selecting packages. Written in QML, it smoothly integrates with the Live system’s Welcome application, which also includes an installation guide.

Enhanced XFS Filesystem Defaults

The ISO utilizes the CRC and finobt enabled XFS filesystem by default, providing improved error detection and crash recovery algorithms. Additionally, the free inode btree doesn’t index used inodes, ensuring faster and more consistent inode allocation performance as filesystems age.

Updating KaOS Linux

Existing users can maintain their KaOS installations by executing the sudo pacman -Syu command in a terminal emulator app, as KaOS follows a rolling-release model.