Shelly ALPM 3.1.7, released today by Seafoam Labs, introduces RLPM, a native Zig reimplementation of Arch's libalpm that can dispatch package operations alongside the original library. Written under lead engineer Zoey Bauer, RLPM handles the full ALPM workflow while still letting users fall back to libalpm, though the authors openly admit complete compatibility remains unfinished. The project reached well beyond early adopters after CachyOS made Shelly its default GUI package manager in April 2026, amplifying RLPM's impact across a large out-of-the-box user base. With safety features like sealed memfd archives, Landlock/seccomp sandboxing, and openat2 path confinement, Shelly pairs an aggressive rewrite arc with surprisingly honest calls about its own limits.
Liquorix kernel maintainer Steven Barrett (damentz) tagged version 7.2-18 on October 12, riding upstream Linux 7.2.10 with a focused batch of seventeen patches targeting zswap and zram memory compression. The release trims latency-inducing waste in how the system compresses and decompresses RAM-backed swap, staying true to Liquorix's job of keeping interactive systems snappy rather than chasing raw throughput.
Liquorix tagged its newest kernel build, 7.2-17 today, sitting on top of upstream Linux 7.2.10. It's really a maintenance release: the changelog is just "merge v7.2.10" plus a version bump, carrying forward the real feature work from last week's 7.2-16, which added a boot-switchable "PDS sleep credit." The enthusiast kernel swaps in the custom Project-C/PDS scheduler, a 1000 Hz tick, and full preemption for snappier interactive performance, though that comes at a cost to raw throughput. Available for Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch on AMD64 only, it suits gamers and power users who want responsiveness but isn't a fit for set-and-forget servers.
Liquorix maintainer Steven Barrett released kernel build 7.2-16 on October 6, 2026, built on top of upstream Linux 7.2.9. The update centers on Project-C scheduler refinements and adds a boot switch so users can toggle the PDS sleep credit without recompiling. It also wires the sleep credit into the ZEN Interactive profile and reads a fresh timestamp for wakeup deadlines. Available for AMD64 on Debian, Ubuntu, Arch, and Fedora, the kernel targets gamers and audio producers who value responsiveness over throughput.
Liquorix maintainer Steven Barrett shipped 7.2-15 today, updating the enthusiast kernel to track upstream Linux 7.2.9. The three-line changelog also undoing a Project-C scheduler tweak called "sched/alt" that Barrett had added just five days earlier in 7.2-14. The quick add-and-revert cycle highlights how Liquorix functions as a live testing ground for scheduler experiments that could eventually influence upstream Linux. It remains a free, AMD64-only build installed via a one-line script or your distro's package system.
Arch Linux has published its tenth monthly install image of the year, 2026.10.01, a 1.5 GB x86_64 snapshot built around the Linux 7.2.7 kernel. Because Arch is a rolling release, the image is really just a dated capture of the project's repositories, so existing users are told to stay current with a simple pacman -Syu rather than reinstalling. The same ISO bundles archinstall 4.5, which adds aarch64 bootloader support and fixes some long-standing installer annoyances. It arrives as a 24-year-old project with re-elected lead Levente Polyák and a package ecosystem spanning over 64,000 official and AUR entries.
Liquorix, the enthusiast Linux kernel, has shipped version 7.2-14, built on upstream Linux 7.2.8 and tagged October 1, 2026. The headline change lets a coupled waker/wakee thread pair alternate across busy cores instead of starving each other on one SMT slot, targeting fully loaded multithreaded systems where no core is idle. A secondary tweak enables VIDEO_INTEL_CVS for broader Intel camera and media support, while security fixes like CVE-2026-43494 get backported from upstream. Install it with the official script across Debian, Ubuntu, and Arch, though builds target AMD64 only.
Archinstall, the guided installer for Arch Linux, released version 4.5 on September 29, 2026, shipping 131 commits since its previous release. The headline addition is AArch64 support for GRUB and Limine EFI bootloaders, closing the installer's biggest platform gap and letting 64-bit ARM machines use the same guided flow. It also turns on TLS verification for network fetches, moves Wayland compositors to systemd-logind, adds real-time kernel variants, and introduces three new languages: Norwegian Bokmål, Serbian, and Vietnamese. With 21 contributors, including 14 first-timers, the update leans more on security, maintainability, and standardized releases than flashy new features.
Steven Barrett released Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-13, merging upstream Linux 7.2.8 and bumping the package version to 7.2.8-1. Unlike most of its 7.x siblings, this point release adds no fresh Project-C scheduler patches, since those got baked in across releases 7.2-1 through 7.2-12. The build still carries forward the project's signature interactive tuning, including SMT-aware scheduling, Zen Interactive frequency defaults, and the dmem-ttm-v8 VRAM patchset.
Shelly ALPM, the visual GTK4 package manager for Arch Linux from Seafoam Labs, shipped two releases in under 24 hours, starting with the feature-rich v3.1.5 on September 25. That release adds an optional Atoll-powered AUR browser, a shelly build --install command that chains dependency fetching, building, and installing into one step, and new repo-db tools for maintaining private repositories. The build system also gets broad compatibility fixes for tricky packages like snapd, CUPS, and Heroic, plus predictable PATH handling and new build.extra_path and build.env settings. A next-day v3.1.6 patch followed on September 26 with a single fix for a UI bug that called the wrong CLI command to fetch data.
Liquorix shipped kernel 7.2-12 today, merging upstream Linux 7.2.7 and flipping its Debian ABI from 6-1 to 7-1. Unlike the frantic early-September sprints, this release restores a clean one-step cadence after 7.2-11 had skipped v7.2.5. The real story lives behind the scenes: a rebuilt Arch Linux CI pipeline featuring a new Jenkinsfile, Docker registry-mirror support, and a wget-to-curl switch.
Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-11 has been released. The release caps the project's fastest pace ever, with seven packages going out in a ten-day window from 7.2-5 to 7.2-11. Most of the action happened in the surrounding builds, especially the Project-C scheduler tweaks and the 7.2-8 dmem-ttm-v8 memory patch that helps low-VRAM and integrated-GPU systems. It is a clean baseline with prior patches carried forward, so the real value stays in Liquorix's hand-tuned scheduler rather than any new version lead.
Shelly ALPM v3.1.4 shipped on September 13th, bringing a new --aur-cache flag that lets Arch users reclaim disk space by clearing built AUR package archives. The native builder received fixes for real-world PKGBUILD headaches like SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH timestamps and shared source filenames, while isolated builds now use the project's own Shelterstrap helper instead of Arch's pacstrap. Recommended installs flow through CachyOS or the AUR, and the binaries are available now on the project's GitHub release page.
Liquorix 7.2-10 drops today with two fresh "Project-C" scheduler patches that refine wake-affinity placement for both SMT sibling threads and non-SMT performance cores. The release marks the tenth tag in under two weeks, a pace that coincides with a freshly accepted Debian Sid build confirming broad stability. Built on the Zen Kernel, the package still prioritizes low-latency responsiveness over raw throughput using PDS scheduling, a 1000Hz tick rate, and hard kernel preemption.
Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-9 has been released. The update centers on a Project-C scheduler tweak that pins synchronous wakees to the waker's physical core until it's fully occupied, directly addressing cross-core thrashing and system hangs on SMT hardware. This refinement arrives after the scheduler was completely rolled back in version 7.2-6 due to severe regressions, forcing a slow, patch-by-patch reintroduction alongside Steam Deck VRAM fixes.
Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-8 has landed, building on upstream Linux Kernel 7.2.4 with two headline updates. The release swaps in a v8 VRAM management patchset originally developed for the Steam Deck, improving memory coordination for APU and low-VRAM GPU users. It also reapplies SMT idle scheduler optimizations to the PDS/BMQ scheduler, now paired with a newly added freeze-prevention patch after earlier builds caused system hangs.
Steven Barrett has released Liquorix kernel package 7.2-7, merging upstream Linux v7.2.4 and bumping the internal version to 7.2.4-1. This wraps a remarkably fast development sprint, though the notable move is the complete revert of Project-C scheduler patches that were added and rolled back earlier this week. The build stays firmly focused on audio production, gaming, and low-latency interactive workloads, shipping with Zen Interactive Tuning, PDS scheduling, and hard kernel preemption by default.
Liquorix Linux has officially shipped kernel 7.2-6, though the release is defined less by what it adds and more by what it strips away. Just 20 hours after introducing the ambitious Project-C custom scheduler, maintainer Steven Barrett pulled a full revert to restore stability to the v7.2.3 upstream base. The rapid four-version sprint from September 3rd to 5th suggests the new scheduler introduced regressions severe enough to warrant an immediate rollback. Users running Debian, Ubuntu, or Arch on AMD64 can still grab the patched kernel via the official install script or distro repos, with Project-C expected to return once the code clears a cleaner testing pass.
Steven Barrett shipped Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-5 today, the third incremental update in under thirty-six hours. The release focuses on Project-C scheduler optimizations that keep coupled tasks on SMT sibling threads and prioritize placing sync wakees on the waker's core before looking at idle CPUs. It's a niche but highly relevant update for Linux gamers and audio producers chasing lower wake latency, though the project remains AMD64-only and lacks official support for ARM hardware.
Liquorix Linux Kernel 7.2-4 is now available, continuing an intense development sprint that has produced ten kernel updates in under two weeks. Based on Linux 7.2.3, the new build introduces significant SMT scheduling changes within the ongoing Project-C initiative, replacing a previous skip-patch with a new optimization that places sync wakees directly on the waker's sibling thread.
