Myrlyn, a Qt-based front end that runs on top of the libzypp package engine (the same backend used by Zypper), aiming to replace YaST’s role in installing and managing software on openSUSE’s Leap and Tumbleweed editions, has reached version 1.0.
One of the most notable changes in the new release is the availability of community repositories for openSUSE Leap 16.0, which were previously missing on the server side, allowing users to inspect and manage packages from those repositories directly through the UI.
Myrlyn 1.0 also expands configurability for privileged operations. Environment variables for myrlyn-sudo can now be defined in a per-user configuration file located at ~/.config/openSUSE/myrlyn-sudo.conf.
Solver behavior visibility has been improved as well. After running actions such as “Package Update” or “Dist-Upgrade,” the dependency resolver mode is now shown directly in the main window until changes are accepted.
Regarding search capabilities, the default mode used when “Auto” search is selected can now be toggled between “Starts With” and “Contains” via a dedicated control in the interface. In addition, Myrlyn can now search within RPM Recommends, making it easier to understand why certain packages were pulled in as dependencies rather than explicitly installed.
Apart from that, the largest set of improvements in this release targets the zypp history browser. The timeline view has been reworked into a hierarchical structure organized by year, month, and day.
Moreover, events are now grouped by the transaction that triggered them instead of being listed only by date, allowing users to clearly distinguish between individual zypper dup, install, remove, or Myrlyn-initiated operations.
Filtering capabilities have also been expanded, enabling users to narrow history views by package name or pattern, repository, removal events only, or repository changes such as additions, removals, or URL updates.
For more information, see the changelog. Myrlyn 1.0 is expected to be available soon as an update for Tumbleweed users, who are currently on version 0.9.9.
