EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.3.9 released

This is a release-candidate for 7.4, marking a fundamental commitment to a "legacy" architecture, embracing Xlibre and gtk2-ng. And, finally successful, supporting Sound Open Firmware (SOF), so audio will work on very modern computers.

Changes since 7.3.8:

• EasyOS built with gtk2-ng — June 08, 2026
• ROX-Filer video thumbnails — June 08, 2026
• Kernel 6.12.92 compiled with SOF enabled — June 07, 2026
• Alternative method to build EasyOS with Xlibre — June 05, 2026
• Xlibre video drivers compiled in EasyOS — June 05, 2026
• Xlibre input drivers compiled in EasyOS — June 05, 2026
• Xlibre server and drivers compiled in EasyOS — June 05, 2026
• Chromium 149.0.7827.53
  

Note, not built with excalibur-backports repository (as is version 7.3.8).

ROX-Filer is one of our fantastic gtk2-based apps, and we have been on a roll enhancing it; the latest feature is video-thumbnails. We intend that a lot of other excellent but neglected gtk2-based apps will find their way into EasyOS.

Release notes, showing details of past releases:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3.9/release-notes.htm

Download the drive image file:

https://distro.ibiblio.org/easyos/amd64/releases/excalibur/2026/7.3.9/

If you are a newcomer to EasyOS, please read the version 7.3 announcement, as it has more getting-started information:

• EasyOS Excalibur-series version 7.3 released — April 26, 2026

Also, an overview of how and why EasyOS is unique:

https://easyos.org/about/how-and-why-easyos-is-different.html

The change to an SOF-enabled kernel brings with it some trepidation, given past troubles. Let me know if you experience any audio issues, like no sound or some input or output channels being wrong.

Hopefully, we will just fix and tweak a few things, then with great fanfare release version 7.4!

Feedback welcome at the forum:

https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?p=171787#p171787

Have fun!   

Tags: easy