The Budgie Desktop project has released Budgie 10.10.2, the second maintenance update in the 10.10 series.
One of the most significant improvements is the Labwc bridge, which connects Budgie Desktop to the Labwc Wayland compositor, allowing users to configure Labwc window decoration themes directly in Budgie Desktop Settings, enabling independent customization of window decorations.
Keyboard and locale handling have been reworked as well. The bridge now uses the freedesktop locale1 interface from systemd-localed as the primary source for keyboard layout configuration. If unavailable, Budgie falls back to /etc/default/keyboard, and then to a US layout if needed. Plus, the environment configuration file is no longer rewritten at each login, so user modifications persist between sessions.
Regarding touchpad configuration, the bridge now synchronizes touchpad scroll settings from GNOME configuration into Labwc configuration files. Budgie also allows the left-handed setting for touchpads to be configured independently from the mouse setting, addressing a long-standing limitation for users who prefer left-handed trackpad behavior.
The Icon Tasklist component receives a significant update with the new ApplicationMatcher class, which uses multiple strategies to match application windows with their corresponding desktop entries.
Additional Icon Tasklist fixes improve window identification and activation. Windows in the tasklist popover are now tracked by an exact window reference rather than a class ID, preventing incorrect removal when only one instance exists. The update also corrects grouped application behavior with the “show all windows on click” option and resolves a bug affecting the middle-click action for launching new instances.
Moreover, Budgie Menu now adapts more consistently across screen resolutions after unnecessary scaling logic was removed. The compositor now handles scaling directly, preventing the “stubby” menu effect that could occur after scaling down. In addition, menu height is now set to about 35% of the available work area, with limits between 480 and 600 pixels, and application categories are now locale-aware and sorted correctly for international users.
The Show Desktop feature now uses a proper D-Bus interface. The default Super+D shortcut behaves as expected, and Budgie tracks which windows were minimized when the desktop was shown. When toggling back, only those windows are restored, preventing previously minimized windows from reappearing unexpectedly.
The screenshot tool now retains the custom save path, allowing users to keep their preferred screenshot directory without reconfiguring it each time.
Another usability fix improves dialog focus behavior. The Run and Power dialogs now work correctly with sloppy-focus and mouse-focus modes. Instead of disappearing immediately when focus shifts, the dialogs remain visible until the cursor moves over them.
Finally, as expected, Budgie 10.10.2 includes several bug fixes across the desktop. Icon Tasklist scaling issues have been resolved by removing manual scaling factors, allowing Wayland to handle DPI scaling natively. On-screen display notifications now appear above fullscreen applications after being moved to the overlay layer. The Raven notification panel’s fade-in animation has also been corrected.
For more information, see the announcement.
Image credits: Budgie Project
