The past few weeks brought RPM package signature verification, the update to KDE Gear 26.08.0, KDE Plasma 6.7.4 and KDE Frameworks 6.29.0, and the migration of the community forum to a new platform. Since then, the base repository has also received a new kernel update, updates to the Firefox, Thunderbird and Brave browsers, and numerous updates to development tools and applications.
New packages in the base repository
A few new tools have been added to the base repository:
- newelle 1.5.0 — desktop virtual assistant based on language models (LLMs), local or remote
- keepsecret 26.08.0 — password manager for desktop and mobile devices
- arduino-cli 1.5.1 and arduino-ide-bin 2.3.10 — command-line tool and official IDE for Arduino development
- xdelta3 3.2.0 — differential compression tool (VCDIFF) for binary files
- alligator 26.08.0 — Kirigami-based RSS feed reader
- kdominate 26.08.0 — tactical board game for one or two players
KDE Gear 26.08.0
KDE applications updated to the 26.08.0 series, bringing new features and bug fixes across more than 250 packages in the suite, including Dolphin, Kate, Konsole, Okular, Gwenview, Kdenlive, KMail and Kontact.
KDE Plasma 6.7.4 and KDE Frameworks 6.29.0
KDE Plasma 6.7.4 updates all major desktop environment components with bug fixes and stability improvements. KDE Frameworks 6.29.0 updates the foundational libraries on which the entire KDE ecosystem is built.
Unified system editor
A unified alternatives system for the default text editor has been introduced, managed via update-alternatives on the system_editor virtual command. Packages such as git (for git commit) and sudo (for visudo) now rely on this alternative instead of depending directly on vim; the default editor is mcedit, from Midnight Commander, while nano, if installed, has a higher priority and becomes the default editor instead; vim remains available as a further selectable alternative. The vim package itself has been split into vim (full), vim-common (runtime files), vim-data (shared data) and vim-minimal (standalone vi/view/ex, without GUI or scripting support), for lighter installations when only a vi-compatible editor is needed.
Compatibility with the latest toolchains
Several packages received rebuilds and compatibility patches for the latest development toolchains. wxWidgets has fully moved to the 3.2 series, with the wxWidgets 3.0 packages retired: applications such as Code::Blocks, Tint II and XML Copy Editor were rebuilt accordingly. Numerous packages were rebuilt against GCC 16.2.0, including the libtool toolkit. QtWebEngine 5 (part of the Qt5 compatibility layer) was updated to 5.15.19 with compatibility patches for FFmpeg 8, PipeWire 0.3, ICU 78 and glibc 2.43, to keep Qt5-based applications working on the distribution’s updated toolchains.
Main updates
- kernel 6.18.49 — Linux kernel stability update; the default TCP congestion control algorithm switches to
cubic(wasreno) and the failsafe initramfs is no longer generated - glibc 2.44 — updated system C library
- Rust (rustc) 1.98.1, CMake 4.4.3 and Go 1.27.1 — updated compiler toolchains and development languages
- Node.js 26.8.1 and PHP 8.5.10 — updated development runtimes and languages
- PostgreSQL 18.6 (and earlier series 14.23, 15.18) — updated relational database
- LibreOffice 26.8.0.3 — new version of the office suite
- Firefox 155.0.1 and Thunderbird 155.0 — Mozilla browser and email client
- Brave 1.94.121 — Chromium-based browser
- Telegram 7.1.3 and Signal Desktop 8.26.0 — messaging clients
- GIMP 3.2.4, Krita 6.0.3, Inkscape 1.4.4, Darktable 5.6.1 and digiKam 9.1.0 — graphics editors and photo processing
- KiCad 10.0.6 — electronic circuit design suite
- VLC 3.0.23 and OBS Studio 32.2.2 — media playback and streaming/recording
- Mesa 26.2.2 and NVIDIA 610.57.04 driver — updated graphics stack, with a fix for an upstream regression that could cause display issues in Wayland sessions; Mesa now also includes the llvmpipe and softpipe software drivers on ix86 and aarch64 architectures, useful when hardware graphics acceleration is not available
- QEMU 11.1.1 and VirtualBox 7.2.16 — updated virtualization solutions
- Docker 29.8.0 — updated containerization platform
- systemd 261.2 — init system and service manager; fixed a bug that could cause a system crash during large upgrades, and corrected the wrong primary group assigned to the
systemd-journal-uploaduser - OpenSSH 10.5p1 — secure remote access tools
- Samba 4.24.6 — interoperability with Windows networks (SMB/CIFS)
- Wireshark 4.6.8 — network protocol analyzer
- Tailscale 1.102.3 and rclone 1.75.1 — mesh VPN and cloud sync
- Midori has switched to a precompiled binary package (midori-bin), using the official upstream distribution instead of building from source
Security
RPM package signature verification has been introduced: openmamba’s official repositories are signed with the distribution’s GPG key, and dnf automatically verifies the signature and integrity of every downloaded package before installation, increasing the security of system updates. The OpenSSL cryptographic library has also been updated to version 3.6.4.
The forum moves to wpForo
The openmamba forum (openmamba.org/en/forum/, in Italian at openmamba.org/it/forum/) has been migrated from the bbPress platform to wpForo, keeping all existing discussions, replies and attachments. The new platform brings a more modern, mobile-optimized interface, an enhanced internal search engine, an extended notification system (replies, mentions, followed topics), reactions to posts, topic tags to find related discussions, and expanded user profiles with activity history and attachment management. Access remains unchanged from the previous system.
openmamba API and internal tools
Internal build system tools updated: autodist 2.2.7, autospec 1.51 and distromatic 3.2.6. For those building openmamba packages, the desktop-base-openmamba package now includes a new devel-base-openmamba subpackage, which groups the base tools and libraries needed to build openmamba software and SRPMs into a single dependency group. A bug in appstream-generator (now at version 1.0.0) has also been fixed; it could prevent the correct generation of the AppStream metadata used by GNOME Software and KDE Discover to display package information.
Installation media
Images are available from the downloads page.
- livecd rolling (x86_64, 2.7 GB — August 25, 2026) — KDE Plasma desktop with basic applications
- livedvd rolling (x86_64, 3.5 GB — August 26, 2026) — KDE Plasma desktop with full software suite
- livecd-light rolling (x86_64 2.2 GB and i586 2.0 GB — August 27, 2026) — LXQt desktop for resource-limited systems
- diskimg-raspberrypi rolling (LXQt, aarch64, 2.5 GB — September 5, 2026) — Raspberry Pi image with lightweight desktop
- diskimg-raspberrypi-plasma rolling (KDE Plasma, aarch64, 3.7 GB — August 24, 2026) — Raspberry Pi image with KDE Plasma
- rootfs rolling (x86_64 2.1 GB, aarch64 1.9 GB — September 2, 2026) — base filesystem for advanced installations
- rootfs-light rolling (x86_64 1.7 GB, aarch64 1.6 GB, i586 1.6 GB — September 3, 2026) — lightweight filesystem, a leaner alternative to rootfs
- rootfs-base rolling (x86_64 115 MB, aarch64 108 MB, i586 117 MB — September 6, 2026) — minimal system for experts and developers
Work is underway to further reduce the size of rootfs-base and the corresponding Docker image: components currently included, such as Python and Perl, will be removed from the minimal installation and will need to be added manually by anyone who needs them.
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