Rhino Linux 2025.1 arrives with a new GRUB theme and other updates

  • Rhino Linux 2025.1 Now Available
  • New GRUB theme and welcome application
  • Pacstall has received many improvements

Rhino Linux 2025.1

The latest version of this unofficial Ubuntu flavor with Rolling Release development I arrive in September, and another one was planned for the end of 2024. In the end they decided to wait to polish things up a bit, and yesterday announced the launch of Rhino Linux 2025.1As its name makes clear, this is the first ISO of the year we have just entered, because that is what projects that use the Rolling Release model usually release: new images with the latest updates designed to perform installations from scratch.

About the kernel, it is now Linux 6.12.3 by default for the generic ISO, while 6.9.0-okpine is used in the PINE64 hardware images and 6.11.0-raspi in the Raspberry Pi images. On the other hand, building courtyard has been moved to Pacstall to ensure updates are handled correctly.

Other new features in Rhino Linux 2025.1

Among the most important new features, one of the most notable is a new application named Hello RhinoIt is written in Rust and uses IcedTK, and serves to provide support links to the official website, blog, Discord community, and documentation. The app will automatically launch after the OS installation, similar to what we see in other older distributions.

As for your desktop, Unicorn Desktop already has dynamic workspaces, which will improve productivity. Until now, static workspaces were limited to a maximum of 4, and had to be created manually. Starting yesterday, Unicorn will automatically create a new workspace whenever the previous ones have an application open on them, and when there is no application on them they will be destroyed.

New GRUB theme and Rhino Stampede announcement

With this version we welcome a GRUB with its own Rhino Linux themeIt's a small change, but it gives a modern impression and is more consistent with the rest of the operating system.

On the other hand and continuing with the welcomes, the launch of Rhino Stampede, which is the Rhino Linux testing metapackage. As you might imagine, it is used to test changes before they reach what could be considered the stable branch, and can be installed by typing the following into the terminal.

rpk install rhino-stampede-dev

Changes in Pacstall

Pacstall has received several major improvements between Rhino Linux 2024.2 and Rhino Linux 2025.1. The 5.5.x series of Pacstall brought support for i18n/l10n, which means that it can be translated, redundancy aside, and used in many other languages.

The 6.0.x series of Pacstall implemented important changes to improve package conformance. These included the removal of the _archive variable and the replacement of it with the new extract-to syntax in package sources. Additionally, the arch array is now mandatory for all packages, which was previously optional. The 6.1.x series also introduced a new special flag, -x/–debug, designed to facilitate package manager development when working on bug fixes or adding new features.

What's more, with Pacstall 6.0.0 came Chaotic Pacstall Prebuilt Repository (PPR). Chaotic PPR is a system where Pacstall builds debs from pacscripts and uploads them to an APT repository. More information at this and this other link.

To know more about pacstall, we have an article in Our archive, but it can basically be compared to an AUR for Ubuntu-based distributions, with some differences. That's why there's also a Chaotic option.

How to upgrade to Rhino Linux 2025.1

Existing users can upgrade with the following command

rpk update -y

We remind you that Rhino Linux 2025.1 as such are just new ISOs with the new packages designed for clean installations. It can be downloaded from its official website, where we will find images for x86_64 architectures, the generic one, and ARM for Rasbperry Pi and PINE64 devices. The next iteration is expected to arrive in mid-2025.


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