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RakuOS 2026.10.26: a Drivers page, kernel 7.3, and an overlay you can switch off

October 26, 2026 · Announcements

This update changes how drivers are handled. RakuOS now includes only a couple of drivers in the image, and you pick the rest from a new Drivers page. Drivers you install follow kernel updates on their own. Both channels move to kernel 7.3.0, the RakuOS overlay can be switched off and back on, and the COSMIC apps are much faster. On staging, RakuOS 45 now has a name: Chojiro.

Read this first if you use Xbox controllers, racing wheels or sensor tools

Images built from 23 October on include only two drivers: Broadcom Wi-Fi (wl) and v4l2loopback (virtual cameras). These drivers used to be in every image and are now opt-in:

  • Xbox controllers: xone (wireless adapter and wired Xbox One / Series pads), xpadneo (Bluetooth), xpad-noone (Xbox 360 pads)
  • Racing wheels: Fanatec, Thrustmaster (hid-tmff2, T150/TMX), Logitech (new-lg4ff, TrueForce)
  • AYANEO handheld LEDs
  • YUAN SC0710 capture cards, such as the Elgato 4K60 Pro
  • Sensors: nct6687d, ryzen_smu, zenergy
  • Intel IPU6 laptop cameras, Intel Vision and xtables-addons

If you use one of these, install it after updating (see the next section). Most of them need the Terra repository, which is off by default. The Drivers page tells you which repository each driver needs, and you can turn Terra or RPM Fusion on in the Welcome app's Third-Party Repositories page.

The drivers are still built and signed by RakuOS, exactly as before. Nothing is compiled on your PC.

The Drivers page

RakuOS System has a new Drivers page in all three versions (COSMIC, GTK and Qt). It lists every RakuOS-signed driver built for the kernel you're running and leaves out the ones your image already includes. For each driver it shows:

  • what hardware it's for;
  • the package and its version;
  • which repository it needs.

Click Install, and when it's done RakuOS System offers to reboot so the driver loads. Remove takes it out again. Drivers install into the overlay, so the page needs the overlay turned on (see below). While the overlay is off, the page says so and its buttons are disabled.

From a terminal it's the same package names:

sudo rum install rakuos-kmod-xone       # stable
sudo rum install rakuos-kmod-xone-staging   # staging

More: Drivers.

Drivers now follow kernel updates

A driver is built for one particular kernel, so a driver you installed has to change when the kernel does. That now happens automatically:

  • When an update brings a new kernel, your drivers move to that kernel's builds first. This happens before the update is applied, whether you update from the Software Center, RakuOS System or sudo rum system-upgrade. It also happens when you switch between stable and staging. After the reboot your drivers are ready for the new kernel. The new rum kmod-upgrade command does the work, and you can run it yourself with --dry-run to see what it would do.
  • Driver updates appear only for the kernel you're running. When we rebuild the drivers for a kernel that hasn't reached you yet, those builds no longer show up early in the Software Center or rum check-upgrade. They arrive with the system update that brings their kernel.
  • A driver's helper packages wait for the driver. Packages a driver depends on, such as its firmware or its *-kmod-common package, keep their version until the driver itself updates, so the two always match.

So rum knows which image is coming, every image now carries a label with its kernel release (org.rakuos.kernel.release), and every driver package says which kernels it was built for:

rum repoquery --provides rakuos-kmod-xone     # lists rakuos-kmod-kernel = <kernel>

Also fixed: wired Xbox One controllers sometimes behaved like Xbox 360 pads because xpad-noone claimed them before xone did. xpad-noone now leaves Xbox One controllers to xone.

Kernel 7.3.0

Both channels and the Steam Deck kernel are now on kernel 7.3.0, based on CachyOS 7.3.0-4. Compared with the first 7.3.0 builds, this includes CachyOS's fixes for T2 Macs and reverts an AMD IOMMU change that forced identity mode for some GPUs. The stable kernel now has the RakuOS certificate built in too, as staging has since mid-October.

Turn the overlay off and on

The Overlay page in RakuOS System has a new Turn Overlay Off button. It's for when you want to boot the plain image without your installed packages, for example to rule them out while troubleshooting:

  • Off: at the next boot, the overlay and the packages in it are deleted, and the plain image boots. It keeps booting that way until you turn the overlay back on. Your list of packages (packages.list) and any local RPM files are kept.
  • On: the saved packages are downloaded right away, so you need a network connection, and they're reinstalled into a fresh overlay at the next boot.

While the overlay is off:

  • rum refuses to install or remove packages, and tells you how to turn the overlay back on.
  • The Software Center offers only Flatpaks.
  • Automatic updates still update Flatpaks and the image.

From a terminal:

sudo rakuos reset-overlay --disable
sudo rakuos reset-overlay --enable

Also on the Overlay page: Export List now leaves out packages you installed from local .rpm files. Importing them used to fail, because they aren't in any repository.

Software Center

  • The COSMIC version is much faster. It used to draw every frame on the CPU, which made scrolling lag. It now uses the GPU, and it builds only the parts of a page that are on screen. Screenshots and icons load in the background instead of freezing the window. Opening an app's page is about ten times faster in all three versions (1.5 s → 0.13 s on our test machine). The settings use COSMIC's own controls, such as dropdowns, tabs and toggles. RakuOS System, the Welcome app and the installer got the same GPU fix.
  • The COSMIC edition now ships the COSMIC Software Center instead of the Qt one.
  • AppImage updates work properly:
    • Update sources written as owner/repo now work.
    • Updates that come as .zip files are unpacked.
    • Updating an AppImage from the KDE (Qt) or GTK version actually installs it.
    • The AppImage update settings now have a Version field, for AppImages that don't say which version they are. Without it they offered the same update over and over.
  • Apps from Terra and RPM Fusion only show while those repositories are on. Before, they showed up in search and categories even though you couldn't install them. Turning a repository on or off updates the list right away.
  • Automatic updates no longer ask for a password after you log in, and package updates now actually install during automatic updates.
  • Driver updates are hidden while a system update will move them to a new kernel anyway, so the update list matches what will really happen.
  • Installs and removals no longer get stuck in the queue when you click them while a page is loading.
  • If you're on an Nvidia Legacy image, the tray no longer suggests switching to the Nvidia image.

More: AppImages.

RakuOS System

  • The Drivers page and the overlay switch, described above.
  • Fits small and scaled screens, such as the Steam Deck at 150%. In all three versions the window opens no larger than the screen, and header buttons and image lists wrap instead of running off the edge. Long dialogs scroll.
  • In the COSMIC version, every popup now closes with an ✕ at the top right.
  • In the KDE (Qt) version, the header buttons are normal KDE buttons again.
  • scx_lavd is back on the scheduler page. It's working again.

Welcome app

The Welcome app can now install AppImages, from GitHub or GitLab releases or from a direct download link. It picks the right file for your computer, records its version, and sets up the Software Center's update check so the app stays up to date. Two new entries in Gaming use this: Epic Games Launcher and Xodus Nexus.

New: DamnationX

DamnationX is now in the RakuOS repository. Install it with:

sudo rum install damnationx

Its 3D mode uses proprietary code that only comes in the project's own release, so the package doesn't contain the game itself. On first launch, it asks permission and then downloads the official release from GitHub. The download is checked against the expected SHA-256 checksum. It's installed into /opt/damnationx. Some libraries bundled in the release break on Fedora: one stopped Vulkan from finding a GPU, and others left the game without sound. Those are removed, and the game uses the system's copies. It shows in the app menu as DamnationX, and removing the package also deletes the downloaded game.

Under the hood

  • Low-latency audio by default. PipeWire now runs at 48 kHz with a fixed buffer of 512 frames (about 10.7 ms) and a higher realtime priority, so games and apps get steady audio. To change this, put your own settings in ~/.config/pipewire/pipewire.conf.d/; they override ours.
  • sudo usermod -aG audio $USER works. The image's system groups (audio, video, input and the rest) are now copied to /etc/group at boot, so you can add yourself to them. The boot log no longer fills with "Unknown group" messages either.
  • The Wi-Fi region is set again when a wireless card appears. The rule that does it was starting a service under the wrong name.
  • Ananicy rules apply to your session. ananicy-cpp now restarts when you log in, so it sees your session's processes.
  • The bootloader update no longer fails on every boot when the image's bootloader list was out of date. Images now regenerate that list when they're built.
  • ping is back. It was missing from the base image.
  • Nvidia images skip the 32-bit driver libraries when their 32-bit dependencies aren't available, instead of failing the build.
  • rum's repository overrides. rum now reads dnf5-style repos.override.d folders. RakuOS uses them to keep Fedora's builds of the packages we build ourselves (rpm, systemd, ostree, mesa, goverlay and the whole COSMIC desktop) from replacing ours. Unlike the old method, which edited the repo files, these survive updates of those files. You can add your own in /etc/rum/repos.override.d/. More: rum configuration.
  • The whole COSMIC desktop is now built by RakuOS from upstream's releases: 28 packages, built one after another in a chain. We no longer wait for Fedora to package a new COSMIC release, and COSMIC is built the same way as the rest of RakuOS.
  • On the COSMIC edition, the logo menu has entries for the Software Center and RakuOS System.
  • Image builds now run on GitHub Actions. The GitLab image repositories are mirrored to github.com/RakuOS, and images still publish to Quay as before. If you switch images or channels, nothing changes for you.

RakuOS 45 "Chojiro" on staging

If you're on staging, you're on RakuOS 45, and it now has a name: Chojiro. About pages and tools like fastfetch show "RakuOS 45 (Chojiro)". RakuOS 44 on stable is locked and keeps its current release files until RakuOS 45 ships. What's new on staging:

  • oo7 replaces GNOME Keyring on every desktop, as in Fedora 45. It stores your passwords and secrets and unlocks at login. When you change your password, oo7 now updates too, so unlocking at login keeps working. If something still asks for gnome-keyring, rum installs oo7 instead.
  • KDE: KWallet now keeps its secrets in oo7, and your existing wallets are copied over once, automatically.
  • Every text console (Ctrl+Alt+F2 to F6) uses kmscon.
  • Niri (thanks, ExistingPerson08): DankMaterialShell 2.0, a new graphical shell switcher, and Blueman is gone.
  • Hyprland (thanks, tofan79): a greeter picker, GloView, a preview share picker, screenshots and lock moved to Noctalia, vertical workspace presets and more.
  • COSMIC: cosmic-tasks is no longer installed (thanks, John Holt).

After updating

  1. Reboot.
  2. If you use a driver from the opt-in list above, open RakuOS System › Drivers, turn on the repository it names if needed (Welcome app › Third-Party Repositories), install it, and reboot again.
  3. If you installed a driver before this update, there's nothing to do. It follows your kernel from now on.

If anything goes wrong, pick the previous image in the GRUB menu, or run sudo bootc rollback and reboot. Then tell us on Discord or at rakuos.org/bugs, so we can fix it. For the full list of changes, see the 2026.10.26 changelog.