# Unstable Stream Update: 23th September 2026

**URL:** https://aerynos.discourse.group/t/unstable-stream-update-23th-september-2026/102
**Category:** Stream updates
**Created:** [September 23, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://aerynos.discourse.group/t/unstable-stream-update-23th-september-2026/102 "2026-09-23T18:44:01Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Page:** 1

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### Author: ![khaga87](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex054/user_avatar/aerynos.discourse.group/khaga87/32/135_2.png) [@khaga87](https://aerynos.discourse.group/u/khaga87)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2026, 6:44pm UTC](https://aerynos.discourse.group/t/unstable-stream-update-23th-september-2026/102/1 "2026-09-23T18:44:01Z")

</div>

## Changes

There has been a lot happening in the aerynOS packaging space over the last couple of weeks, with hundreds of commits landing in the recipes repository since our last stream update. Over and above the usual package update churn, we have made significant changes across our desktop, graphics, boot stacks along with a number of performance optimizations.

One of the biggest changes this stream update is the arrival of GNOME 51! This particular stack upgrade brings updates to Mutter, GNOME Shell, GDM, GTK 4, libadwaita and the core GNOME applications. Instead of repeating what GNOME 51 brings over GNOME 50, you can read about this on dedicated Linux websites.

In addition to GNOME 51, we have decided to expand our range of Wayland environments. We have landed jay, labwc, miracle-wm, miriway and Mir along with additional components such as bemenu. Joshua Strobl is also working with the aerynOS team to get Budgie ready for inclusion as an option for aerynOS users though this is not yet ready for inclusion at this time.

On the boot side, we changed up how we handle the graphical boot process. We have swapped out kmscon for simpledrm. This has allowed us to simplify the early boot environment and substantially reduce the size of the initrd, from roughly 197 MB to around 57 MB. In theory, the smaller initrd should reduce the amount of data that needs to be decompressed during boot and may lead to a faster boot process (we haven’t fully benchmarked this yet).

Our stable and gaming kernels have been updated to 7.2.7 whilst our LTS kernel has been updated to 6.18.53. We have rebuilt the NVIDIA, Broadcom, bcachefs, v4l2loopback and ZFS modules with our volatile stream testers not finding any issues. Accompanying our linux kernel updates, we have updated the linux-firmware to the September 2026 release.

Joey has been continuing his performance optimization work over the last couple of weeks. Expat, Lua and libxml2 have all received additional PGO/LTO and build-tuning work, with Lua now also using mimalloc and CSPGO. Joey benchmarked each change to ensure that the proposed optimization work actually made a notable difference and only once validated and tested, did we merge them into our repository. Whilst we are in alpha, performance optimization isn’t always at the front of our priority list, however it’s through work like this that we often receive feedback about how smooth, fast and performant aerynOS feels to use day to day.

A few other notable changes this update include Mesa 26.2.3, LLVM 23.1.2, PipeWire 1.6.9, FFmpeg 9.0.2, WebKitGTK 2.54.0 and Gamescope 3.16.29 along with Firefox 156.0.1 and Thunderbird 156.0.1.

### Highlights

- Gnome v51
- Simpledrm: Now used for booting
- Firefox 156.0.1
- kernels 7.2.7/6.18.53
- llvm 23.1.2
- mesa 26.2.3
- pipewire 1.6.9

### Major updates

- Bash 5.3.20
- bcachefs 1.39.6
- binutils 2.47
- containerd 2.40
- ffmpeg 9.0.2
- flatpak 1.18.3
- gnu-coreutils-compat 9.12
- harfbuzz 14.5.0
- heroic-games-launcher 2.22.3
- intel-graphics-compiler 2.41.5
- libinput 1.32.0
- libnfs 7.0.2
- libpcap 1.11.0
- libportal 0.11.0
- linux-firmware 20260916
- mkvtoolnix 102.0
- opengamepadui 0.46.1
- openjph 0.32.0
- openexr 3.5.0
- protobuf 36.2
- readline 8.3.6
- rsync 3.5.1
- ruby 4.0.7
- sccache 0.18.0
- sof-bin (sound-open-firmware) 2026.09
- thunderbird 156.0.1
- upower 1.91.4
- util-linux 2.42.4
- uutils-coreutils 0.12.0
- vscode-bin 1.138.0
- webkitgtk 2.54.0
- wine 11.18
- xz 5.8.4

### Other updates

Other updates include, but are not limited to:

- bazaar 0.9.6
- fuzzel 1.15.0
- gitte 0.10.1
- ironbar 0.19.1
- klassy 6.7.3
- less 710
- plezy 2.20.0
- vim 9.2.1099
- vlc 3.0.24
- zed 1.20.2
- zulip-desktop 5.13.1
- wget 2.3.0
- unrar 7.3.1

### Fixes

- Bash: fixed how bash initializes non-interactive shells
- Lua: Now optimized with mimalloc, PGO, and better build tuning flags
- Expat: Now optimized for performance with PGO and proper build flags
- Libxml2: Now better optimized with PGO

### New packages

- labwc 0.20.2
- miracle-wm 0.11.1
- miriway 26.08.1

### Full git changelog

As usual, there are many other minor updates not mentioned as the list would get too long. You can see the full changelog here:

> **[Comparing...](https://github.com/aerynOS/recipes/compare/4c5a5c3b715851c7319bdfa1d14ebf4eec305e49...407cf90bfdb2b63062b7a5175e24938767c79c76)**
>
> aerynOS Package Recipes. Build dashboard: https://dash.aerynos.dev - Comparing 4c5a5c3b715851c7319bdfa1d14ebf4eec305e49...407cf90bfdb2b63062b7a5175e24938767c79c76 · aerynOS/recipes

## How to Contribute

As ever, feel free to report any issues below and join the [AerynOS Zulip server](https://aerynos.zulipchat.com) community.

### How to sponsor us

If you appreciate the work we are doing and are in a position to do so, we would appreciate any sponsorship sent our way:

- Stripe Recurring: [Stripe Checkout](https://donate.stripe.com/9B628r5XS19l34y04RdAk02)
- Stripe One-off: [Stripe Checkout](https://donate.stripe.com/4gM9ATfys8BNdJc5pbdAk01)
- Ko-Fi: [https://ko-fi.com/aerynos](https://ko-fi.com/aerynos)

We should note that we prefer Stripe donations if possible.

## Thank you!

Thank you to all our supporters and contributors. You are making a difference! ❤