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# KaOS 2024.05 Release Gets Closer to Ditch X11 for Wayland
- URL: https://itsfoss.com/news/kaos-2024-05-release/
- Published: 2024-05-28T09:17:45.000Z
- Updated: 2024-05-28T09:21:50.000Z
- Description: KaOS 2024.04 brings in good improvements for the users.
- Author: Sourav Rudra
- Tags: Distribution Releases, News, #Import 2025-11-08 21:15

KaOS is a pretty unique [independent Linux distro](https://itsfoss.com/independent-linux-distros/) that aims to provide the latest KDE experience and follows a rolling release approach to handle updates.

It started off 2024 with a major [2024.01 release](https://itsfoss.com/kaos-2024-01-release/) that featured an early build of KDE Plasma 6 before any other distro.

Now, we have yet another release in the form of **KaOS 2024.05**, which has some useful enhancements. Let's get started.

## 🆕 KaOS 2024.05: What's New?

![a screenshot of kaos 2024.05 desktop](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/05/KaOS_2024.05_a.jpg)

With Linux kernel 6.8.11 powering it, this release is all about improving the overall functionality of KaOS.

Here are a few key highlights:

- **Support for bcachefs**
- **Initial Wayland Work**
- **Updated Application Stack**

### Support for bcachefs

![a screenshot of kaos 2024.05 bcachefs support in parition manager](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/05/KaOS_2024.05_c.jpg)

Introduced as an experimental feature, KaOS now has support for the copy-on-write (COW) filesystem, [bcachefs](https://bcachefs.org/?ref=itsfoss.com). The developers have added all the necessary bcachefs-tool to the repositories for anyone to use.

### Initial Wayland Work

Thanks to the inclusion of the [SDDM 0.20.0](https://github.com/sddm/sddm/releases/tag/v0.20.0?ref=itsfoss.com) display manager, **KaOS is now closer to the transition to Wayland** than ever before. When that happens, like many distros, KaOS will join the Wayland-equipped distro club.

### Updated Application Stack

![a screenshot of kaos 2024.05 calamares installer](https://itsfoss.com/content/images/2024/05/KaOS_2024.05_d.jpg)

On the application side of things, the [Calamares](https://calamares.io/?ref=itsfoss.com) installer on KaOS now lets you use popular file systems like *XFS*, *EXT4*, *BTRFS*, and *ZFS* during automated partitioning.

KaOS still uses the [KDE Plasma 6](https://itsfoss.com/kde-plasma-6/) desktop environment, with a few additional KDE elements like Gear 24.05.0 and Frameworks 6.2.0 that have been built on Qt 6.7.1.

This release also marks the inclusion of the [phonon-mpv](https://github.com/OpenProgger/phonon-mpv?ref=itsfoss.com) sound backend, which has resulted in the removal of the previous VLC backend that was not playing nice with Qt6.

Similarly, **GTK2 was completely removed** from the KaOS repositories, and many packages were updated, with some notable ones including:

- **Systemd 253.19**
- **OpenSSL 3.3**
- **Mesa 24.0.7**
- **Python 3.11**
- **ZFS 2.2.4**
- **KMod 32**

And, a new Marknote package has been added, which is a KDE Plasma 6 compatible note management application.

The [release blog](https://kaosx.us/news/2024/kaos05/?ref=itsfoss.com) has some more technical details that you can go through.

## 📥 Download KaOS 2024.05

You can grab the latest KaOS release from the [official website](https://kaosx.us/pages/download/?ref=itsfoss.com), and for instructions, you can also refer to the [documentation](https://kaosx.us/docs/?ref=itsfoss.com).

[KaOS 2024.05](https://kaosx.us/pages/download/?ref=itsfoss.com)

**For existing users**, you can run the following command to get the latest KaOS build:

```
sudo pacman -Syu
```

💬 *Impressed by this release? Hoped for a few more refinements? Add your thoughts below!*