Spaced Linux 10.26.6 is now available — all changes since 10.26.1

[crhy]

Spaced Linux 10.26.6 is available now, with a new ISO and matching signed APT packages for existing installations.

This release brings more reliable theme switching, a working restart after removing the installation medium, a Caja file-move fix, and a round of desktop refinements. It also includes everything delivered since 10.26.1: new theme presets, clearer update handling, improved sharing setup, audio-profile persistence, and graphics compatibility fixes.

Download Spaced Linux 10.26.6 · ISO · SHA-256 checksums · Website

Windows 7 Light, with Caja, terminal and GTK controls in the final ISO's theme validation session.

What's new in 10.26.6

• Theme switching stays on Compiz. A window-decoration race found during VirtualBox testing is fixed. Qt and LibreOffice theme settings now reach the desktop session too.
• Installation finishes with a reliable restart. The final key press or click still works after the live medium is removed, even if Xorg exits.
• Caja keeps the filename you choose. Moving a file between filesystems and renaming it in the conflict dialog no longer repeats the original conflict.
• Themes are easier to find. Right-click the desktop for Change Theme…, with clearer names such as Windows 7 Light and Dark.
• More desktop polish. A large red X for xkill, finer white Compiz paint-fire defaults, GDebi for downloaded .deb packages, and the spaced-open-target shortcut helper.
• More careful graphics selection. GTX 10-series/Pascal cards are never offered a driver newer than the compatible 580 branch by Spaced GPU Driver Manager.
• A smaller live filesystem. Improved squashfs compression; the final ISO is 1,632,811,008 bytes, about 1.63 GB.

Open the theme chooser directly from the desktop.

The theme chooser on a fresh 10.26.6 live desktop.

Coming from 10.26.1?

The companion comment below contains every published changelog entry after 10.26.1 through 10.26.6, including the intervening APT-only revisions and the separate Spaced Welcome 0.1.19 delivery, plus more screenshots. The main additions include Ubuntu and Windows 7 presets, automatic terminal and wallpaper matching, better update progress and recovery, sharing-password setup, saved sound-card profiles, working Help buttons, improved title-bar hit areas, and Roboto fonts.

Ubuntu preset, captured from the final ISO during theme validation.

Upgrade or install

Existing users can open Spaced Update, check OS Release, and install 10.26.6. The signed APT repository contains the matching 10.26.6-1 packages and spaced-wallpapers 2026.10-2. If the updater is not available, the package upgrade can also be run in a terminal:

sudo apt update
sudo apt full-upgrade

Reboot after the upgrade to load the updated desktop session and graphics components. For a fresh installation, download the ISO and compare its SHA-256 with:

bed3263b2d61f85e292eb86f34bb14969618215b77d667be60139e7436154617

What was verified

The published ISO download matches that checksum. Public APT signatures and all 15 new package downloads were verified. Repository validation passed 244 unit tests and two GTK runtime tests. The final ISO passed KVM and VirtualBox checks in both BIOS and UEFI modes, with all 13 themes in each configuration: 52 theme checks.

Separate candidate tests covered a full Calamares installation, the cross-filesystem Caja regression, and restart after actual ISO ejection. SMB checksum transfers and desktop file operations passed against another Spaced Linux machine. Actual Windows-client discovery/authentication and affected physical NVIDIA/AMD hardware remain unverified; the related hardware and partial-fix issues remain open.

Detailed release review · Validation archive · Report an issue

Screenshots above and in the comment are unretouched captures of the final 10.26.6 ISO. Theme-validation captures deliberately include ordinary controls, Caja and a terminal so the colors and contrast can be inspected.

[crhy]

All published fixes and changes since 10.26.1

This covers 10.26.2 through 10.26.6, including 10.26.3-2, 10.26.5-2 and 10.26.5-3. The entries below reproduce the published project changelog, preserving the delivery channel and original dates. Spaced Welcome is a separate component; its 0.1.19 change is identified accordingly. Changes already delivered in 10.26.1 are outside this comparison.

Historical entries describe the fixes delivered, rather than claiming all hardware and client combinations were tested. In particular, the Windows sharing changes are included, but an actual Windows client was not available for this release's end-to-end verification. Physical GPU validation and the remaining portions of #334 and #351 are still open. See the release review for the exact scope.

A look at the changes

Windows 7 Dark: coordinated GTK controls, Caja, terminal, decorations and panel, captured during final-ISO theme validation.

Spaced Welcome 0.1.19 on a fresh live profile. Applications already installed get Open buttons; this fresh profile offers Install.

Spaced Update 0.2.3, showing the Updates tab before an update check. The releases below add real APT progress, release notes, one-time package repair/retry, and a separate warning when only a Flatpak update fails.

The driver manager in the final ISO. This capture detects a virtual graphics adapter; it is an interface illustration, not a physical NVIDIA or AMD test.

Set a separate sharing password from System → Preferences. The accompanying service and network-readiness fixes are listed below.

GDebi is included for .deb files. This example opens the already-installed release package without reinstalling or removing it.

Complete release-by-release record

10.26.6 - 2026-10-23

Prepared for the 10.26.6 ISO and 10.26.6-1 APT packages. Includes the
Samba network-ready fix first delivered as 10.26.5-3 (#344).

• Keep Compiz running when changing themes. Protecting window-decoration
  pixmaps during import fixes a race that could switch the session to Marco,
  reproduced during Windows 7 theme selection in VirtualBox.
• Restart reliably after removing the installation medium. A small resident
  input handler survives the loss of the live filesystem and Xorg, so the
  final key press or mouse click can still restart into the installed system.
• Backport MATE Caja's upstream fix for moving a file between filesystems
  after renaming it in the conflict dialog. Caja now preserves the chosen
  name instead of asking about the original conflict again (upstream PR #1888).
• Qt and LibreOffice applications follow the Spaced theme again. The theming
  variables in /etc/profile.d/spaced-application-theming.sh never reached
  the desktop because /etc/X11/Xsession does not read /etc/profile.d; a
  new Xsession.d script loads them into every session (VLC needs to start in default Adwaita-Dark theme #339).
• Right-click the desktop and choose Change Theme… to open the theme
  chooser (Right click menu option to change theme #346).
• Simpler theme names everywhere they are shown: Windows 7 Light, Windows 7
  Dark, Windows XP, Windows 11 Light and Dark, Mac OS X, Ubuntu, Linux Mint,
  GeoWorks, Android and more. Theme IDs are unchanged, so existing settings
  keep working (Rename and clean up some of the themes #347). The renamed background catalog ships in
  spaced-wallpapers 2026.10-2, required by the matching APT packages.
• xkill now shows a big red X with white highlights and a black shadow
  instead of X11's tiny fallback glyph, through a new Spaced-Cursors theme
  built on Adwaita (Change Xkill icon to be a big red X #356).
• New Compiz "paint fire" defaults: finer white fire with more particles and
  Shift+Super+right-click to clear. Existing accounts get them only where the
  Compiz default is still in place (Improved Compiz Fire Writing Settings. #353).
• Spaced GPU Driver Manager never gives a GTX 10-series (Pascal) card a driver
  newer than the 580 branch, even if NVIDIA's repository is still enabled from
  an earlier run; it installs Devuan's compatible driver or keeps the current
  one (Nvidia GPU issue (kernel?) #334).
• New spaced-open-target helper for keyboard shortcuts: point a custom
  shortcut at a script, an app ID (Flatpaks included) or any file, and it runs
  or opens it in its default app (Global Keyboard Shortcuts Fixes #351).
• GDebi is preinstalled and opens downloaded .deb packages.
• Smaller ISO: the live filesystem uses 1 MiB squashfs blocks and the x86 BCJ
  filter, measured at 131 MB (8.4%) smaller on the 10.26.5 tree
  (docs/10.26.6-IMAGE-SIZE.md).

10.26.5-3 - 2026-10-20

Delivered to installed systems through the 10.26.5-3 APT packages.

• Retry Samba after NetworkManager has actually brought an interface up. This
  removes the Wi-Fi boot race that could leave a discoverable Spaced computer
  refusing Windows file-sharing connections until another reboot (SMB starts before Wi-Fi connects #344).

10.26.5-2 - 2026-10-20

Delivered to installed systems through the 10.26.5-2 APT packages and
included in the final 10.26.5 ISO.

• Make every newly opened MATE Terminal immediately use the active theme
  instead of inheriting stale colors from its shared factory process. Dark
  presets now use neutral gray on black, and Spaced Light and Dark retain 25%
  background transparency.
• Let the running theme monitor discover presets installed during the current
  desktop session.
• Switch registered wallpapers automatically without MATE Appearance showing
  a separate confirmation prompt.

10.26.5 - 2026-10-20

Prepared for the 10.26.5 ISO and 10.26.5-1 APT packages.

• Add Spaced and Compiz to Enchant's per-user dictionary for new and
  existing profiles, without overwriting words added by the user (Add Spaced and Compiz to the dictionary #333).
• Remember each PulseAudio card's selected hardware profile, including the
  analog or digital profile chosen for a USB DAC, and restore it after login
  or when the device is reconnected (DAC/Amp sound settings on reboot #336).
• If an OS update fails while configuring packages, repair pending dpkg state,
  validate dependencies and retry the exact transaction once. Persistent
  errors still stop and remain visible; the updater never loops (Update Failure #337).
• Rename the Nvidia installer to Spaced GPU Driver Manager, add a guarded
  Nvidia 580 compatibility path for Pascal/GTX 10-series cards, and include
  the native Radeon/ATI compatibility drivers for older AMD hardware.
• Add polished Spaced Ubuntu, Windows 7 and Windows 7 Aero Dark presets with
  coordinated panel, Brisk Menu, terminal, window-decoration and application
  colors. Improve contrast and cross-toolkit light/dark behavior throughout
  the theme collection.
• Consolidate all Spaced wallpaper files and references under
  /usr/share/backgrounds/spaced, eliminating duplicate artwork.
• Refresh the website theme gallery and screenshots.

10.26.4 - 2026-10-18

Delivered through the 10.26.4 ISO and 10.26.4-1 APT packages.

• Remove the obsolete deb822 Spaced repository entry after an upgrade only
  when it exactly duplicates the signed package-owned source. Customized
  repository entries are preserved (Apt update warnings #316).
• Make Help buttons in Screenshot and the MATE control-center tools open the
  installed MATE manual by including Yelp and mate-user-guide (Screenshot 'Help' non-response #315).
• Give Caja's inline rename field an explicit dark surface, white text and a
  white insertion caret on the desktop, and use the theme text color for
  rename carets in ordinary Caja windows (Cursor in Caja too faint #313, Rename File on Desktop Font black on black #318).
• Exclude Marco's transparent resize area from window screenshots by default,
  removing the unwanted border around captures (Screenshot 10x issue #301).

10.26.3-2 - 2026-10-15

• Spaced Update (0.2.3) no longer reports "System update failed" when the
  system update succeeded but one of your Flatpak apps could not update, for
  example a locally built app whose source is older than the installed copy.
  It now finishes with a warning and names the app in Technical details.
  Delivered through Spaced Update (APT packages 10.26.3-2); no new ISO.

10.26.3 - 2026-10-14

Delivered through the 10.26.3 ISO and 10.26.3-1 APT packages, with the X
server rebuilt as 2:21.1.25-1devuan1+spaced10.26.3.

• Fix the desktop not starting on AMD graphics after updating. X server
  21.1.25 changed an internal structure without telling drivers, so the
  amdgpu driver crashed the X server at startup and only a text login
  appeared. Spaced now ships 21.1.25 with the upstream fix (the same change
  as Debian's 2:21.1.25-2), keeping all of 21.1.25's security fixes, and
  refuses to install the broken 2:21.1.25-1devuan1 from Spaced Update or
  apt. If you held the X server packages, run
  sudo apt-mark unhold xserver-common xserver-xorg-core xvfb and update;
  remove any modesetting workaround file you added afterwards so TearFree
  returns (Xorg AMD issues. #298).
• Fix folder sharing with "Everyone" (SMBD Everyone File Share issue #297):
  • The Samba service now starts at every boot; before, a reboot could leave
    shared folders refusing connections.
  • Guests can open folders shared from inside your home folder. Home folders
    change from 0700 to 0711: others can pass through to a shared folder but
    cannot list your home.
  • New Windows Sharing Password (System > Preferences): Windows 10 and 11
    refuse guest access, so they sign in to your shares with your user name
    and this password.
  • Windows PCs now list Spaced computers under Network.
  • Gigolo's Open, and anything else opening a folder, uses Caja again instead
    of VSCodium.
• Spaced Update's "What's new" window now shows the release notes; it was
  empty (10.26.2 What's new in the Spaced Update app shows nothing. #295).
• Website: the ISO fits on a 2 GB USB stick, and the install steps mention F2
  or Delete for the BIOS setup (Website Updates #296).
• New test tools: scripts/tests/samba-network-test.sh checks file sharing
  between real machines, and scripts/tests/xorg-amdgpu-headless-test.sh
  checks the X server on an AMD GPU.

10.26.2 - 2026-10-08

Delivered through the 10.26.2 ISO and 10.26.2-1 APT packages, with Compiz
2:0.8.18-9+spaced10.26.2 and Spaced Welcome 0.1.19.

• New Brave profiles get two folders on the bookmark bar instead of five
  separate links: “🚀 Spaced” (project links, each with a symbol, now with
  Voxa at voxaai.me) and “📰 News” (Voat first, then ten news sites ordered by
  how quickly their front pages load) (Add link to voat #278, News folder in bookmarks. #289). Existing profiles are not
  changed.
• Link Spaced Linux's DistroWatch page from the Brave bookmarks, the website
  and the README.
• Website: the home page now leads with what a newcomer gets (a desktop you
  can talk to, no account), adds a three-step install section with a direct
  ISO link and checksum, a section for people coming from Windows, and a Voxa
  section.
• Make the minimize, maximize and close buttons easier to hit in all eleven
  themes: each clickable box grows from 24x24 to 32x27 px, the 4 px dead gaps
  between them and the 3 px dead strip above them are gone, and the icons and
  the title bar keep their size. scripts/tests/titlebar-hit-test.sh measures
  the boxes on a virtual screen (Bounding box for close icon still too small #279).
• Rebuild Compiz as 2:0.8.18-9+spaced10.26.2 with a fix to its window
  decorator: the click area of each title-bar button was displaced 10 px left
  of and 10 px below the drawn button, so only the lower-left part of minimize,
  maximize and close responded. Source and patch are under patches/compiz/
  (Bounding box for close icon still too small #279).
• Turn the remaining Brave reporting off by policy — Safe Browsing, extended
  reporting, metrics, URL-keyed data collection, search suggestions, alternate
  error pages, background mode, default-browser setting, promotional tabs,
  feedback surveys and AI chat — and disable Wallet, VPN and Talk. Private
  windows with Tor stay available (Disable "Safe" Browsing by default in Brave. #282).
• Make a selected folder or icon on the desktop easy to see in every theme. A
  rule that keeps the desktop window transparent also erased the selection
  colour, so the selected icon was tinted almost black and its label box
  nearly vanished. Selected desktop items now use the theme's selection colour,
  darkened enough for the white label text, both while the desktop has the
  keyboard and after another window takes it (Highlighted Folders on the desktop are hard to see. #275).
• Clicking a magnet or torrent link with no app to open it now asks "qBittorrent
  is needed to open this link. Install it now?" and opens Spaced Bazaar on
  qBittorrent's page when you choose Install. Once qBittorrent or any other
  torrent app is installed, the link goes straight to it (Software Dialog should Open Spaced Bazaar #290).
• "Find More in Software" in the "Open With" window now opens Spaced Bazaar;
  it used to do nothing, because it starts GNOME Software, which Spaced does
  not ship (Software Dialog should Open Spaced Bazaar #290).
• Spaced Update opens on the OS Release page and checks for a new release by
  itself. Checking for updates no longer asks for a password; installing still
  does. The progress bar follows APT's real download and install progress and
  names what it is working on, and "What's new" shows the release notes of the
  version found inside the app (Cleaning up Spaced Update #277).
• Spaced Welcome 0.1.19: buttons say "Open" for an application that is already
  installed and start it, and "Install" for one that is not, on both the Set Up
  and Help & Apps pages, including SpacedBazaar. A red notice at the top warns
  that closing Welcome without installing anything leaves no browser or media
  player (Add in Red Letters at the top of Spaced Welcome. #285). Delivered by the Spaced Welcome release.
• Roboto replaces DejaVu Sans as the default font for applications,
  documents, the desktop and window titles (Roboto Bold). It fits about 12%
  more text on a line at the same line height. Fonts you chose yourself in
  Appearance are kept. docs/font-comparison/ compares the fourteen
  candidates as the desktop renders them (Better default font? #286).

Release engineering and supporting changes

The release review also added opt-in live-VM theme checks for both hypervisors, retained screenshots and runtime reports, pinned rebuilt source artifacts by SHA-256, and documented the Caja patch and its removal condition. The published validation archive and signed APT repository make the shipped bytes independently checkable. Website theme labels and release/download links now match 10.26.6.

The squashfs saving above was measured on the 10.26.5 tree, not as a byte-for-byte size comparison between the two published ISOs. The original “eleven themes” title-bar entry refers to the collection at that time; final 10.26.6 validation covers 13 presets.

Complete source comparison: v10.26.1…v10.26.6 · Download 10.26.6