Dakota Alpha 6
Dakota Alpha 6 is out. This one is brought to you by Ahmed Ahdan/ Built against GNOME 51 and freedesktop-sdk 26.08.1, running Linux 7.2.6, NVIDIA 615.71.09. Kernel OGC 7.2.6-ogc1 for your gaming needs.
This one certainly feels good! Please remember that we still do NOT support secure boot, so temper your expectations! Here's the changelog, I'll make a video on this one since we have a lot to discuss!
Version matrix
Alpha 5 baseline values are from tag stable-20260731 (as reflected in the Alpha 5 release announcement):
| Component | Alpha 5 | Alpha 6 | Source / Pin |
|---|---|---|---|
| GNOME Shell | 50.3 | 51.0 | gnome-build-meta |
| Mutter | 50.3 | 51.0 | gnome-build-meta |
| freedesktop-sdk | 25.08.14 | 26.08.1 | elements/freedesktop-sdk.bst |
| gnome-build-meta | 50.3-5-g4b25046 | 51.0-3-ge34f1eb | elements/gnome-build-meta.bst |
| Kernel | 7.0.11 | 7.2.6 | elements/core/linux-fdsdk.bst |
| Game Mode kernel | 7.1.4-ogc1 | 7.2.6-ogc1 | elements/core/linux-ogc.bst |
| NVIDIA | 610.43.02 | 615.71.09 | elements/bluefin-nvidia/nvidia-drivers.bst |
| bootc | 1.16.6 | 1.16.13 | elements/gnomeos-deps/bootc.bst |
| systemd | 260.2 | 261.2 | gnome-build-meta |
| Mesa | 26.1.4 | 26.2.2 | freedesktop-sdk |
| GTK | 4.22.4 | 4.24.0 | gnome-build-meta |
| PipeWire | 1.6.1 | 1.6.8 | gnome-build-meta |
| WirePlumber | 0.5.15 | 0.5.17 | freedesktop-sdk |
| NetworkManager | 1.56.1 | 1.58.1 | gnome-build-meta |
| xdg-desktop-portal | 1.22.1 | 1.22.1 | gnome-build-meta |
Note on kernel and bootc: Dakota pins its kernel at 7.2.6 via elements/core/linux-fdsdk.bst (ahead of freedesktop-sdk 26.08.1's default of 7.2.2) and pins bootc at 1.16.13 via elements/gnomeos-deps/bootc.bst (ahead of gnome-build-meta's default of 1.16.6).
GNOME 51 "A Coruña" was officially released on September 16, 2026 — see the official release notes.
Migrating Major GNOME Versions
This is the first time we utilized dakota:next tracking a dev release, and Ahmed smoothly transitioned the testing branches through these:
| Change | Commit |
|---|---|
| GNOME 51 and freedesktop-sdk 26.08 on testing | 5005f85 |
| freedesktop-sdk 26.08.1 and NVIDIA 615.71.09 | e835b88 |
| Complete fdsdk 26.08 port across all variants | a29d9f6 |
| Derive fdsdk pin and patches from tracked gnome-build-meta | 57a70d3 |
| Stage sandbox shell explicitly for fdsdk 26.08 | 526affd |
| Core junctions to GBM 50.4 and fdsdk 25.08.16 | 5e630bc |
| Core junctions to GBM 51.0-3 | 12334d2 |
Track gnome-build-meta master in :next | 3af437b |
Kernel and hardware
Here's a bunch of enablement crap:
| Change | Commit |
|---|---|
| Kernel 7.2 with hardware enablement | 5fbeae7 |
| Align testing on 7.1.8 | 6e388f8 |
| OGC gaming kernel 7.2.6-ogc1 | 1371bce |
Carry hid-asus build fix for OGC 7.2.6-ogc1 | d2c8cf7 |
| NVIDIA 610.57.04 plus missing data files | ed2bea8 |
| ATH12K Wi-Fi across variants | b307333 |
| Restore desktop capabilities across streams | a984a81 |
| Preserve hybrid graphics configuration | 997f6ec |
brlaser CUPS driver | 846cd92 |
dmidecode for BIOS info | 0c5c9ea |
| Disable zram in favor of zswap | 53952c7 |
ydotool input automation and uinput rules | a182aba |
plugdev and nintendo_switch groups for udev | 02bb985 |
Desktop
And some of the upcoming desktop improvements that we've been going over in the Discussions:
| Change | Commit |
|---|---|
| Curated GNOME Shell extensions suite | 01b757b |
quick-settings-audio-panel enabled by default | 8897f7c |
| BudsLink-Companion replaces Bluetooth-Battery-Meter | b07c05d |
syncthing-toggle → bluefin-bling v2 | bd7bbe6 |
| Ghostty resize overlay off by default (Wayland loop) | 556bc0c |
| Ghostty dual-theme tracks GNOME Dark/Light | ffe6271 |
| Stop GDM fingerprint retry loop on unenrolled readers | ddc37d7 |
| Disable PC-speaker WirePlumber sink | a5e9152 |
| Portable unzip flags for extension installs | 787bf4d |
| Preserve release ZIP root files in extension packaging | 20113c3 |
| Avoid broken and intrusive desktop defaults | 691a377 |
| Developer mode adapted to Dakota | 9efe6e9 |
| Bluefin dinosaur avatars in GNOME user-account picker | e106345 |
| Unbreak fresh-ISO post-install (uwelcome, brew, devmode) | 85a1123 |
Game Mode
Bluefin's "Game Mode" is fleshed out now, offering access to a "Bazzite Light" gaming setup, perfect for slaying out. Destiny on Linux please Sony!
| Change | Commit |
|---|---|
| OGC gaming kernel 7.2.6-ogc1 | 1371bce |
| 32-bit GL/Vulkan drivers, Steam UI GPU acceleration | 096b351 |
Steam .deb pinned to versioned pool URL | e051009 |
patches/linux-ogc added to sync overlay | efc23c7 |
| Re-pin LuaJIT after upstream deleted ROLLING tag | f277abd |
Image and boot plumbing
The chunka work is great, you'll notice way smaller updates than the old images. Top of the line hunter!
| Change | Commit |
|---|---|
| Single source of truth for the image-variant set | a987f87 |
| Real stream tag in fastfetch via boot-time booted-image sync | d4048c6 |
| Generate ownership during image builds with chunkah | 4360e70 |
| Fetch remote companion data before reading in chunkah | 73ff57e |
| Preserve export mtimes in chunkah | 1c081c0 |
| Compose host toolchain once during image builds | e4a2dfd |
Stop using /dev/stdin for inline writes under BuildBarn/BuildBox | 5e30bde |
Behavior changes
- Ghostty ships
resize-overlay = never; theme tracks the GNOME Dark/Light preference. snd_pcspsink disabled in WirePlumber — audio no longer falls back to the PC speaker after resume.- zram is disabled; swap is zswap backed by
/var/swap/swapfile. - Bluetooth-Battery-Meter is replaced by BudsLink-Companion plus the
io.github.maniacx.BudsLinkFlatpak. aarch64images are not published this cycle. (We'll turn these on soon)
Images
| Image | Stream | Command |
|---|---|---|
| Dakota | Stable | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota:stable |
| Dakota | Testing | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota:testing |
| NVIDIA | Stable | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia:stable |
| NVIDIA | Testing | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia:testing |
| Gaming | Stable | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-gaming:stable |
| Gaming | Testing | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-gaming:testing |
| NVIDIA Gaming | Stable | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia-gaming:stable |
| NVIDIA Gaming | Testing | sudo bootc switch ghcr.io/projectbluefin/dakota-nvidia-gaming:testing |
You can't rebase to Dakota from another image. If you're not on Dakota already, reinstall from the ISO.
ISO downloads
Testing instructions and bug reporting: ISO Testing. File ISO bugs in projectbluefin/dakota-iso.
Lore
Remember that the wolves are coming, level up your skills at training.projectbluefin.io. It's a tough world out there, here's a sneak peek at the artwork from the artists at makemeacomic.com! These are just a sample of entries from a mysterious journal uncovered on Europa by a [REDACTED] merchant. Inside are the secrets to unlocking the potential of Contributor-Guardians and their mounts. But the forces of the Toilmaster are already ahead of them. Instructions from a doomed CNCF Expedition are sparse:
There's a stone here. "All these worlds are yours, except Europa, attempt no landing there." But sir didn't the Hummingbird team leave three days ago?
Bluefin
Long-Range Raptor Mount