The latest version of PorteuX is here. Version 2.2 comes packed with updates that will matter to both casual users and Linux veterans, such as kernel 6.16. If you’re already running this lightweight distro, it’s a smart time to upgrade. If not, it might be worth giving it a try.
One of the most practical changes is a patch to Xorg that lets the modesetting driver support tear-free rendering. This won’t be enabled out of the box, since most desktop environments already handle vsync through their compositors. But if you’re using something like LXDE or LXQt and want to enable Xorg’s version, it’s just a matter of dropping a config file in the right place.
There’s also a pretty big fix for Xfce users running Nvidia cards. A known issue with Mesa 25.1.x and xfwm4 using GLX for vsync has caused headaches. To work around that, PorteuX now sets vsync to use xpresent by default. That should make things much smoother.
VirtualBox fans should be aware that newer Linux kernels now initialize virtualization when KVM modules are loaded, and that breaks VirtualBox. PorteuX 2.2 disables this behavior with a boot config tweak, but if you still run into issues, you’ll need to unload KVM modules manually.
The kernel itself gets a major refresh. Support for old, unused hardware has been removed. Multi-threaded squashfs decompression is now turned on, which improves performance but uses about 100MB more RAM. That’s a good trade-off if you’re on modern hardware.
Graphics performance in general should feel better. The Nouveau driver got a fix for slow video rendering. The Nvidia kernel module is now larger, thanks to a firmware update. And a bunch of old Xorg drivers have been purged, including legacy ones for ATI, Mach64, VESA, and others that no one should be using in 2025.
On the desktop side, GNOME has been updated to 48.3 and KDE to 6.4.2 in the current branch. There are fixes for the KDE weather widget, krunner math functions, and the Xfce lock screen. Keyboard shortcuts in Xfce under Wayland are also improved, which is great if you’re testing out a Wayland workflow.
Several packages have been added, like wlr-randr, wlrctl, and wayland-utils. btrfs is now part of the core module. On the flip side, apps like evince and several unused input drivers are gone.
Overall, PorteuX 2.2 doesn’t try to do anything flashy. It just quietly improves on what was already a fast and flexible distro. Updates like these show that the project is paying attention to what users actually need without adding bloat. That’s something I really appreciate.
