Garuda, a rolling-release Linux distro based on Arch with a strong focus on performance, eye-catching visuals, and user-friendly features, has just released its first ISO refresh for 2026, featuring two notable changes.
The first one is the inclusion of NVIDIA 590 graphics drivers. These drivers no longer support NVIDIA 1000 series GPUs, so to keep the ISO size manageable, the older NVIDIA 580 drivers are not included in the images.
With that said, during installation, the Garuda setup assistant will prompt users with compatible hardware to optionally install the 580 drivers directly from the repositories if required.
The other change affects system configuration management. Garuda Linux configuration files are now handled by the garuda-config-agent, which automatically applies compatible .pacnew configuration changes where possible.
Finally, keep in mind that this ISO refresh is primarily intended for new installations. Existing users do not need to reinstall their systems, as all changes included in the updated images can be obtained through a regular system update using the standard update tools.
As usual, the ISO refresh is available across Garuda’s full range of official editions, including Mokka, Dr460nized, Cinnamon, Dr460nized Gaming, GNOME, Hyprland, i3, KDE Lite, Sway, and XFCE.
For more information, refer to the announcement on Garuda’s forum.
