Sculpt OS release 23.10

Sculpt OS 23.10 makes metering and power-management options of modern PC CPUs available via an interactive user interface. One can watch the temperature of each CPU core, monitor the individual CPU frequencies, switch between power profiles, and reveal details about power draw. Beyond the CPU power controls, we generally improved support for modern Intel-based laptops. For example, features like battery monitoring, keyboard backlight control, and external displays just work now on the Framework Gen 12 laptop.

The PinePhone version of Sculpt OS received several usability improvements motivated by the feedback we got from the Pine64 community. Most importantly, a new screensaver reduces the power draw to less than 40%, by completely removing the drivers for the display and the touchscreen while the screen is blanked. Those drivers are restarted when pressing the power button. Furthermore, the volume buttons have become functional, and the dial pad has become more flexible.

At the back of stage, we conducted a number of improvements in the engine room of Sculpt: tool chain update to GCC 12.3, Linux 6.1.20 based PC NIC driver, principle mechanisms for on-target debugging, revised virtualization interface, file vault block-encryption implementation.

Ready-to-use system images for PC and PinePhone are available at the Sculpt download page and the builtin system update dialog. As usual, the release is accompanied by an updated version of the documentation.