A fresh set of SparkyLinux 2025.09 ISO images has landed, giving fans of the semi-rolling distribution something new to play with. This release, codenamed “Tiamat,” is built on the Debian “Forky” testing base and comes with plenty of updated software and refinements.
Packages have been refreshed from Debian and Sparky testing repositories as of September 14, 2025. The Linux kernel ships in version 6.16.7, while the Sparky repos also provide 6.12.47-LTS and 6.6.105-LTS options. The Calamares installer has been bumped to 3.4.0, and support for installing on encrypted disks is back.
The web browser selection includes Firefox 128.14.0-ESR out of the box, with Firefox 143.0 sitting in the repositories. KDE users will notice Quiterss has been swapped out for Akregator, while LXQt editions now use Liferea instead of Quiterss. GCC 15 is included, and GCC 14 has been dropped. All Sparky graphical components have been updated to the new testing version.
One important thing to note: installation on UEFI machines requires an active internet connection. For these systems, the developers recommend using Calamares (accessible via the Sparky Installer menu icon). If you’re installing Sparky amd64 on an older machine with BIOS, the CLI installer (sudo sparky-installer) is the better option.
For those running the stable Sparky 8 release and wanting to jump into semi-rolling, upgrade instructions are posted on the official site. New users logging into the live system should know the live user password is “live” and the root password is left empty.
SparkyLinux 2025.09 is available in a wide variety of editions: LXQt, KDE Plasma, MATE, Xfce, MinimalGUI (Openbox), and MinimalCLI (text mode). You can download an ISO here now.
If you’re after a lightweight, Debian-based Linux distribution that keeps moving without fully switching to bleeding edge, SparkyLinux continues to be a project worth watching.
