The team behind the lightweight Debian-based Linux distro Sparky announced the release of version 7.6, the sixth update in the Sparky 7 “Orion Belt” series, based on and fully compatible with the stable Debian 12 branch.
Although the original plan was to unveil this update earlier, a GPG key issue in the Sparky testing 2024.11 ISO images led to an interim 2024.12 release last December. Consequently, the stable ISO images were rescheduled for this January 2025 launch.
This release arrives with all package updates from both Debian and Sparky stable repositories as of January 3, 2025. Moreover, Sparky 7.6 features several noteworthy enhancements, including:
- Linux Kernel (PC): 6.1 LTS (with additional kernels such as 6.12, 6.6 LTS, and 5.15 LTS available in the Sparky repos)
- Linux Kernel (ARM): 6.6 LTS
- LibreOffice: 7.4.7 (with 24.8.4 available in the Debian backports repo)
- KDE Plasma: 5.27.5
- LXQt: 1.2
- MATE: 1.26
- Xfce: 4.18
- Openbox: 3.6.1
- Firefox ESR: 128.5.0esr (133.0.3 in the Sparky repos)
- Thunderbird: 128.5.0
The distro provides various installation images designed for various hardware configurations. If you’re using an amd64 system with BIOS/UEFI plus Secure Boot, you can choose among Xfce, LXQt, MATE, KDE Plasma, MinimalGUI (Openbox), or MinimalCLI (text mode).
Meanwhile, if you have an i686 non-PAE (Legacy) setup, you can opt for the MinimalGUI (Openbox) or MinimalCLI images. There are also ARMHF and ARM64 editions featuring Openbox and CLI modes.
For users trying out the live system or ARM editions, default login credentials are provided to simplify the initial setup. PC live system users can log in with the username ‘live‘ and the password ‘live.’ ARM device users should use the username ‘pi‘ and the password ‘sparky.’
Lastly, if you’re already running SparkyLinux 7, there’s no need to perform a fresh installation. You can keep your system up to date by running regular updates through your package manager or executing “sudo apt update && sudo apt full-upgrade” in the terminal.
ISO images are now available for fresh installations on the project’s download page. The release announcement provides detailed information about all changes in Sparky 7.6.
Sparky 2023/2024 Review Once again, another try and another disappointment. Sparky 2023.07 Rolling would not even boot from the flash drive on my Dell Latitude 7490 laptop. Sparky 2024.05 Rolling installed OK but would not run. Didn't even bring up the desktop! It is unfortunate that Sparky is headed by just one person and is a one-man distribution. I think that's the main reason why Sparky has become so buggy in the past few years. The developer is spread way too thin and simply can't keep tabs on everything. The number of really reliable distros is also becoming less and less as some developers have become very lax about fixing bugs. I'll stick with Linux Mint 22, Ubuntu 24.04 (With snapd completely removed) and Fedora which seems to have highly educated and competent developers.