Lyra OSDocumentation

Releases

Desktop 16.1 RC 1

What is new, limits, qualification and integrity of the GNOME Desktop candidate.

Release notesDesktop GNOME · 16.1 RC 1Documentation review: Translated from the Portuguese version reviewed on

Lyra OS Desktop 16.1 RC 1 “Odisseia” is the release candidate of the GNOME Desktop on openSUSE Leap 16.1. It is the first Desktop image whose checksum is signed by the official release key, and it starts the strict freeze: until the stable release, only fixes for bugs, crashes, security and critical performance are accepted.

Publication

Desktop 16.1 RC 1
Published2026-10-23
FileLyraOS-Desktop-16.1-rc.1-x86_64.iso
SHA-256268be0ca1cad4548bf42ba51ffd130e9bcb15adac772820cec8db6ca84b9b4bb
Downloadreleases/16.1/rc1/desktop/ on SourceForge
Source codetag v16.1-rc.1 (commit 721706f)
BaseopenSUSE Leap 16.1, kernel 6.12.0-160100.7

The Lyra OS version now follows openSUSE Leap numbering: what was planned as Desktop 1.1 is published as 16.1, and the codename Odisseia identifies the 16.x generation. The cycle went from Alpha 8 straight to this RC.

Changes since Alpha 8

  • Default appearance: the Lyra palette is no longer applied at first login; GTK windows and the terminal follow the default GNOME and libadwaita colors. The Lyra Firefox theme is still selected by default.
  • NVIDIA through Vega: the optional driver installation was requalified for version 615.71.09, with the module signed by SUSE for the Leap 16.1 kernel, and validated with Secure Boot. After installation, Vega refreshes the system's NVIDIA repositories.
  • GNOME Shell stability: the dock no longer destroys active context menus when the open applications change, a path that could crash GNOME Shell.
  • Faster boot: waiting for the network (NetworkManager-wait-online, about 5.6 s on physical hardware) is no longer part of the desktop boot chain. libvirt iSCSI pools remain available on demand.
  • Remote administration with Vega: outside a local session, for example over SSH with vega-cli, administrative actions ask for the administrator's own password.

Scope and limits

  • New installations only. Upgrading an Alpha 8 installation to RC 1 is not supported; reinstall. Upgrades between releases are planned for a future cycle.
  • Parental controls remain outside 16.1.
  • RAID, LVM, manual partitioning and side-by-side installation remain outside the covered scenario.
  • System languages: en-US, pt-BR and es-ES, with English as the fallback.

How the RC was qualified

The exact ISO went through the release gate in a QEMU/KVM virtual machine with UEFI and Secure Boot: live session with and without network, installation, first boot, Secure Boot, update with snapshot rollback, languages and a check of the OBS repositories. All required evidence passed and is published in the evidence.json file, together with the GO decision.

Known risks: qualification was done in a virtual machine, and validation on physical hardware is still in progress; the welcome window title still appears in English; with NVIDIA cards, an external monitor may not wake up after suspend.

Integrity

Download the ISO, the .sha256 file and the .sha256.asc signature from the same folder and check them:

sha256sum -c LyraOS-Desktop-16.1-rc.1-x86_64.iso.sha256
gpg --verify LyraOS-Desktop-16.1-rc.1-x86_64.iso.sha256.asc LyraOS-Desktop-16.1-rc.1-x86_64.iso.sha256

The signature must be valid for the official release key, fingerprint 01B6 3EED BE6B 0791 26A0 116E FA73 53A1 31EC EFEB. The step-by-step procedure is in the installation guide.

Stable release

The stable 16.1 release will be rebuilt from the final openSUSE Leap 16.1 packages, released on November 3, 2026, and will go through a new gate before publication, planned for November 5, 2026.

Source: release notes in the Desktop repository (in Portuguese).