Linux News of the Week: OpenSuse Leap 16 Beta and Farewell to Maxwell + Pascal 5 comments
The beta version of the upcoming OpenSuse Leap 16 release does not use Yast and instead relies on new software. AMD adds hardware support for Hawk Point and promises higher performance with RX 9000 graphics cards. Nvidia announces the upcoming end of Cuda support for Maxwell and Pascal.
OpenSuse Leap 16 reaches beta and says goodbye to Yast
The team has made major changes for Leap 16. In addition to exclusively using Wayland and abandoning Sysvinit, the new Agama installer (project page) is available as the new standard. OpenSUSE is also saying goodbye to the traditional Yast and now relies on a two-component solution: Cockpit (project page) and Myrlyn (GitHub).
While Cockpit is a web-based interface for managing the system, allowing it to adjust system settings both locally and over the network, Myrlyn is the system’s graphical package manager.
The core of the OpenSUSE Leap 16 beta is the Linux kernel 6.12. GNOME 48 and 6.3.4 are available as desktops. The full release notes can be found in the associated blog entry.
Myrlyn Package Manager. (Image: Myrlyn via GitHub) Image 1 of 2
AMDVLK with support for mobile processors and more performance for NAVI 48
AMD has released the first update of the new quarter with AMDVLK 2025.Q2.1. Support for the Hawk Point series of mobile processors is new on board. Additional volcano instruments are also implemented, including VK_EXT_IMAGE_2D_VIEW_OF_3D, VK_EXT_SHADER_REPLICATED_COMPOSITE, and VK_KHR_MAINTENANCE8. AMD also reports performance improvements for some games on NAVI-48 GPUs (RX 9070 (XT)).
There are also several bug fixes, including fixes for a memory overflow and a 10-minute freeze in Kingdom Come: Deliverance II. The full release notes can be found on GitHub.
Other Linux and Open Source Events
The WLROOT-based Wayland Compositor LabWC (GitHub) receives an update to version 0.8.4. In addition to some bug fixes, the software now also offers support for all Pango Font options (project page) via the configuration file.
Nvidia recommends upgrading to future CUDA versions. As can be seen in the patch notes, the company supports the older Maxwell, Pascal, and Volta architectures. Further feature updates will not follow. The toolkit upgrade is planned for the next major release.
With Proton 10 Beta (News), Valve upgrades to Wine version 10, expands the list of compatible games, and fixes numerous bugs.
The SteamOS 3.7.5 preview (Steam) adds trackpad support for the Legion-Go-S handheld. DualShock 3 controllers can also be used again with Bluetooth after pairing via USB.
Topics: AMD Operating Systems Gaming Graphics Cards Linux Nvidia Open Source Steam DeckOS
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