Release of 1.5.4-SLIM: Stable is here.

After a long series of release candidates, we are happy to announce 1.5.4-SLIM, our new Stable image, available here: https://iso.argentlinux.io/Argent.KDE.1.5.4-SLIM.amd64.iso

And MD5 hash here: MD5SUM_PENDING Argent.KDE.1.5.4-SLIM.amd64.iso

Goodbye BETA

It was about time to drop the BETA. The entire series of 1.5.3-BETA-RC are no longer necessary.

Major artwork revamp

We had a major artwork revamp thanks to Darius Crisan (welcome back, btw), so we promoted our new era of Argent Artwork: 4 major themes that you can choose from, called Argent Dawn and Argent Dusk together and each with their Docks variants.

The major revamp included fixing the nuances used in our artwork, entailing forking a lot of other themes which we found fit for each of our KDE Plasma and GTK4 components.

The new themes already come installed if you upgrade to the latest packages. You can choose them by going into System Settings > Colours & Themes.

They're more beautiful than ever!

Other important news

EPKG

EPKG reached a new beginning, we have expanded the new binary package management method (STILL EXPERIMENTAL!) to new commands:

  • epkg iup: refresh the binhost package index
  • epkg is: search the binhost index for packages
  • epkg iug: upgrade the whole system from binaries
  • epkg aiug: same as iug, without confirmation
  • epkg ip: show what would be installed, without touching the system
  • epkg ir: remove packages safely, only if nothing else needs them
  • epkg ic: remove packages no longer required by @world
  • epkg ibin-info: show how a package was built
  • epkg ibin-repos: list the configured binhost repositories in priority order
  • epkg iremove-orphans: remove orphaned packages, with confirmation
  • epkg airemove-orphans: remove orphaned packages, without confirmation

It searches, installs and upgrades way faster than regular emerge due to its implementation. But it is still in development, and we require users to detail any kind of bugs that appear with this new experimental method.

We have also expanded epkg clean to clean downloaded binary packages as well. It will unfortunately ask for double accept, but you can run epkg autoclean instead after each upgrade.

Implemented epkg wipe and epkg awipe (automated wipe) as well, which remove all downloaded packages from the system.

KDE Plasma and Discover

We upgraded to KDE Plasma 6.7.5 and GCC 16.2.1, LLVM 22. All smooth and good.

Now KDE Discover is also fixed, it has automatic flatpak enabled. Whoever installs Argent will have the possibility to use KDE Discover with flatpak in its full capability.

If users want to have snap support for Discover, they have to install discover-snap plugin and activate it in Discover.

Others/Auxiliaries

  • Added keys regeneration through avasile.
  • EPKG_BACKUP_PKG="1" in any /etc/portage/make.conf/xx-zz.conf if you want to keep your downloaded packages.
  • kio-extras-smb added together with smb functionality. You can now use smb proper.
  • Added default user-created sudo. If you install sudo, it will already be configured for your current user.
  • virtualbox-* packages finally being removed if you're not on virtualbox.
  • Dropped old argent themes, no longer maintained and necessary.
  • Added forked argent-papirus-icon-theme. Very nice icons.
  • The main wallpaper of Argent is attributed to Justiony Wick.
  • /etc/os-release now points to Argent proper. OS is Argent.
  • epkg devsync --unsigned and epkg install --unverify rescue modes in case keys fail. Be careful!
  • Other ebuild related fixes...

Documentation

We have upgraded the wiki.argentlinux.io to a proper new documentation and theme. Check it out and read everything you need to know about Argent Linux!

Found a bug?

Please report it on our issue tracker or come talk to us on Discord.

Having said all of this...

We bid our users a warm "Happy hacking!"

And hope we see you on Argent!