Arch Linux has released its October 2026 installation ISO, giving users planning a fresh setup an updated installation medium that includes package changes from September. The new snapshot ships with Linux kernel 7.2.7, up from Linux 7.2.2 included in last month’s image.
Beyond the kernel, September brought several noteworthy updates to Arch’s core system stack. These include systemd 262, GRUB 2.16, mkinitcpio 42.1, Bash 5.3.20, curl 8.22, OpenSSL 3.6.5, util-linux 2.42.4, XFSProgs 7.2, and cryptsetup 2.8.8.
The distribution also received the September 16 Linux firmware bundle, updating firmware packages for AMD, Intel, NVIDIA, Realtek, Qualcomm, Broadcom, MediaTek, Radeon, Atheros, and other supported hardware.
On the graphics side, Mesa advanced to version 26.2.3 during the month, along with its OpenGL and OpenCL components, and NVIDIA users received the 615.71 driver series.
Desktop users saw plenty of movement as well. KDE Plasma was updated to version 6.7.5, along with KDE Frameworks 6.30 and KDE Gear 26.08.1 applications. This includes updates to Dolphin, Ark, Okular, Elisa, Akonadi, and many other KDE utilities and PIM components.
GNOME users, meanwhile, received GNOME Shell and Mutter 50.5, along with updates to GNOME Maps, GNOME Software, Nautilus, and other components from the GNOME 50 series. The new GNOME 51 is expected to be available in the repos soon.
COSMIC Desktop also received a refresh with most core components moving to version 1.9.
One notable change this month is Archinstall 4.5, which arrived in the repositories near the end of September. Archiso, the toolset Arch uses to build its installation and live media, was also updated to version 91.
Browser and desktop application updates were plentiful. Firefox reached version 157, Chromium moved to 153, and Thunderbird was updated to 156.0.1. Other noteworthy upgrades include GIMP 3.2.6, LibreOffice 26.2.6, Blender 5.2.2, and many more.
Developers also received fresh toolchain and language updates. LLVM and Clang moved to version 23.1.1, Go reached 1.27.1, Git advanced to 2.56, Node.js to 26.10, and .NET 10 packages were refreshed to the 10.0.12 release series.
Container and virtualization tooling saw changes as well. QEMU moved to version 11.1.1, and VirtualBox was bumped to 7.2.20. On the container side, Arch picked up containerd 2.4.1, Podman 6.1.3, Buildah 1.45.1, crun 1.30.1, and updated common container tooling.
Other package updates worth mentioning include Nginx 1.30.5, OpenMPI 5.0.11, OpenCV 5.0, Nextcloud 35, OpenJDK 27, NVIDIA CUDA 13.4.2, and Flatpak 1.18.4.
As usual, the monthly Arch ISO is mainly intended for new installations. Existing users do not need to reinstall or download the new image because a regular sudo pacman -Syu will bring an existing Arch system up to date.
Arch Linux 2026.10.01 is available from the project’s official download page and its worldwide mirror network.
