Download KaOS_Test
First, minimal test ISO is uploaded for the September or October stable ISO release.

Almost too many changes to mention, which all need testing.....
Quite experimental (and might not make it on the final ISO) is the addition of ZFS as a filesystem option (something that has been wanted to be default in KaOS since 2013). Installs work, but just for system-boot, see the known issues below. The erase option for automated partitioning gives you the option to use ZFS.
Another change is the move to Dracut (away from Mkinitcpio) for kernel image creation.
Then the ISO also ships Plasma 5.26 BETA and a ton of changes to the installer Calamares, visually the most obvious is the new slideshow/

As always, early test ISOs are minimal, very few apps, just a web-browser, file manager, text editor, GUI package manager. The non-free Nvidia drivers are included since they are a big part of what needs testing.

Plan is to have Frameworks 5.98.0, KDE Applications 22.08.1, Plasma 5.26 (BETA) and Linux 5.19.xx on the final ISO.

The ISO is using packages from the build and kde-next repo, but those repo's is not enabled, so if you decide to install, make sure to add the kde-next & build repo to your pacman.conf.

Debug packages for Calamares are part of all ISOs, run Calamares with gdb if you encounter errors.
provide the installation log, if you encounter any issue at all

You can start Calamares from the Welcome app, or run it with:

sudo calamares -d

The install log will be created in the home directory of the Live user, see ~/installation.log. It is available after the install in the target system in /var/log/installation.log
If run from cli, make sure to pastebin the full output, since no installation.log will be copied then, though that log is more complete.

https://sourceforge.net/projects/kaos-test/files/iso/KaOS-2022.09.22-x86_64.iso
SHA256Sum:

29f1b44c6cbe46f64f3082819f4d13c8d2abe0aee8e702052961de42a99bc6f2  KaOS-2022.09.22-x86_64.iso

On this ISO you will find:
Linux 5.19.10
systemd 251.4
gcc 11.3.0
Qt 5.15.6+
Frameworks 5.98.0
Plasma 5.25.90
KDE Applications 22.08.1
Calamares 3.3 Beta
Octopi 0.13.0 with sysinfo & cachecleaner tool

Known issues:

  • ZFS install can only be done in UEFI mode & with systemd-boot as bootloader. On first boot with ZFS, edit the kernel line by typing e and then removing the second root=uuid=....., leave root=ZFS=ROOT/....`
  • The bottom progress-bar in Calamares reacts to mouse clicks & opens a virtualkeyboard (narrow)

Hi there, I am booting this ISO on a Macbook Pro 13 from 2013.

It has a Retina Display and while the scaling is set to 200x by default and looks good in all other applications, is it displaying very tiny font within Calamares.

I also find the navigation buttons on the side VERY confusing and out of alignment

The sound does simply not work.

journalctl https://paste.ee/p/KQcs1

I changed the color theme to midna dark, and half of the system did not follow, also after closing and opening the applications again

Konsole opens up in a weird window size

SysInfo https://paste.ee/p/wkNwP
All this is still in live mode.

Midna-dark is set to be removed, no-one is willing to maintain (it was user maintained), and had no commits for years, so not compatible with current Plasma, thus certainly not part of this release cycle testing.
Whenever changing colors, make sure that both color scheme & kvantum matches the selected color, one light, other dark, will never work.

For Calamares being full screen, but not resizing content, how to replicate? That screenshot, cala looks awful, and should never be that that way. Please also test with normal scaling. And what graphics card does this system use? nvidia? Is it capable of really running wayland, or needs an X session?

For sound, what card? Output of systemctl --global status wireplumber & systemctl --global status pipewire ?

    demm It is the sound and graphics chip of the macbook

    The GPU is mentioned in the sysinfo, that I attached.

    I am running the rest of your tasks soon and report then back

      I found a few post regarding that hardware & sound stopping, seems the needed drivers were moved out of the kernel lately, those cards seem to need sof-firmware with recent kernels.
      I will add sof-firmware to the next ISO, please test again in live mode then. Adding sof-firmware in live mode might not get the right modules loaded.

      Selecting lang=de_DE in the systemd-boot parameter yields German plasma, and US keybindings.

      Pipewire and Wireplumber are both running fine.

      The need to change kvantum separately, considering all the other KDE distributions come with that "Global theme" feature and this is essentially suggesting, well global theming, seems unfortunate.

      The issue seems to me, that Midna dark has no Application Style attached to it.

      So I guess, applying one to it, could be sufficient.
      I consider a dark style essential to any OS.

      Selecting 100x scaling and then logging out causes this warning

      It then brings me to sddm and let's me relogin without a problem.

      (I like the blue accents in the sddm theme, by the way.
      Nice touch)

      Then, it brings me to the desktop, this time without a wallpaper, just a black screen and the welcome widget.

      Calamares looks just as before with normal scaling.

      Breeze dark is part of the default install (and is maintained), if switching to Global theme midna-dark fails to switch all, then it certainly is time to remove.
      What distro works well with the laptop? Does it need older mesa? X only?

        demm Garuda works just fine.

        They are surely using X still, I can look for mesa.

          So, I am writing this now from the desktop.

          The inactive font looks very thin to me, its almost unreadable.

          lang=de_DE leads also on this system to US keybindings.

          The installer shows no "next" item at this point:

          Again, a lot of the font looks so thin, that I am not confident, I even checked all the boxes, and filled all the fields.

          I am also quite confused, since the lower bar suggests it allows for navigation, and clicking on it reveals something like a little bit of a virtual keyboard.

          • demm replied to this.

            Back to the Macbook again:

            Sound is now broken on Garuda now as well. I am wondering, why the kernel team has decided to ban this relatively widespread chip, while I guess I can just google this.

            Its a bummer, especially considering that systems, who were not involved in the installation procedure, will likely not have any sound on portable systems.

            I am using a SSD in an USB enclosure, to jump between different devices with my main OS.
            Having drivers outside of the kernel means I can always run into systems, who might just lack certain drivers.

            Anyways; https://paste.ee/p/Q3bd5

            What else can I test?

            • demm replied to this.

              shalokshalom Sound is now broken on Garuda now as well

              Please test that install, and add sof-firmware (if that is what is called in Garuda too).

                shalokshalom it reveals something like a little bit of a virtual keyboard.

                Make sure to read the notes (first post) about known issues.

                The installer shows no "next" item at this point:

                Of course, no password is accepted until verified. Next will only activate once the second password field is filled out & matching.

                  Ah, now i see this password input field right next to it.

                  The whole page looks pale and its almost invisible, since it looks very much as if this line is just the continuation of the first password input line.

                  I will test Garuda with whatever is needed for that soundchip.

                  Thanks

                  Installing sof-firmware on Arch did not solve the issue. Interestingly, it changed the "mute" symbol in the systray to an actual, normal speaker symbol.

                  But clicking it, reveals this and there is still no sound:

                  So it lies somewhere else in the stack, or sof-firmware just needs to be configured.

                  First full ISO is uploaded. There is a move to linux 5.19.12, no issue found with that kernel here, but there are reports if some intel systems failing with this kernel (i915), so if you have such a system, please check if Live boots.

                  Some very old network firmwares are no longer included in this ISO, should not effect anyone.
                  KDE Telepathy packages are no longer included on a full ISO, they are unmaintained and full of bugs, Neochat is included instead (Matrix client).
                  https://sourceforge.net/projects/kaos-test/files/iso/KaOS-2022.10.01-x86_64.iso
                  SHA256SUM:

                  b48196744250e43ded5f5d0ff4a3aba757781f063948fea305de017c529ed4b0  KaOS-2022.10.01-x86_64.iso

                    When I switch to new kernel (5.19.12) wlan isn't auto connected restored after suspend to ram.

                    inxi -N
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Cannon Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi
  Device-2: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
    driver: r8169