FlickOS 2.2

FlickOS 2.2 is still based on Debian 13 "trixie", like 2.0 and 2.1. It adds restore points, which can undo a software change that broke the system, even from the boot menu. A new Software app installs apps from Debian, Flathub and FlickOS's new community repository. FlickOS also has its own look now: an amber halo logo, boot menus, wallpapers and a start button in the brand color.

Coming from 2.1 or 2.0

You don't need to reinstall. Everything in 2.2 comes through FlickOS's apt repository:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Use apt upgrade, not apt-get upgrade: apt-get keeps the FlickOS desktop back because it needs new packages. Then restart.

Restore points need a new install. They work only on the btrfs layout that the 2.2 installer sets up by default. An upgraded system (ext4) gets the package, but nothing of it runs and nothing changes.

The old software manager (gnome-packagekit) stays installed after the upgrade. The menus now open the new Software app, so you can remove the old one:

sudo apt remove gnome-packagekit

Coming from 2.0, read the 2.1 release notes too. Apps that FlickOS only recommends don't arrive with an upgrade. If you want the ad blocker, the task manager and picture thumbnails that new installs get, add them yourself:

sudo apt install gnome-package-updater webext-ublock-origin-firefox lxtask tumbler

The upgrade from 2.0 also adds FlickOS's anonymous weekly count. An upgraded system is counted until you turn it off in Settings → Privacy.

Coming from FlickOS 1.x (Ubuntu/LXLE based), there is still no in-place upgrade. Back up your files and install 2.2 fresh.

What's new

• Restore points: before every software change (installing, removing or updating, from any program, also the automatic updates) FlickOS saves a restore point of the system. Your files in your home folder are not part of it. The newest 5 are kept, and none is made while the disk is nearly full.
• Settings → Restore Points lists them in plain words. Put Back… shows what it would undo before it asks for your password, and the system goes back at the next restart. The system as it was before is kept as a restore point, so putting one back can be undone too. You can also make one by hand, delete them all, or turn them off.
• History lists restore points next to the software changes they were made before.
• Boot menu: if the system won't start, pick Restore points in the boot menu and start an older one. Nothing you do there is kept until you choose Keep in Settings.
• Recovering by itself: after 2 starts in a row that don't reach the login screen, the computer starts the newest good restore point by itself. A notification at login says why, and Settings offers Keep… or Try Again. You can turn this off and have the boot menu wait for you instead.
• The installer uses btrfs by default, so new installs get restore points. ext4 is still offered. You can also choose whether to have swap (none, without hibernation, or with hibernation, the default), and a 10 GB disk is now enough.
• Software: a new app for finding, installing and removing apps. It replaces the old package manager window in the menus, the start menu and the Welcome window.
• It shows apps, not packages, with icons, descriptions, screenshots and the space an app needs before you install it.
• Apps come from Debian (the default), FlickOS, the FlickOS community repository and Flathub. The front page has a Made for FlickOS shelf.
• Removing anything the desktop needs is refused.
• Apps from Flathub are updated with the automatic updates.
• Community repository: other developers can publish apps for FlickOS. FlickOS builds each app from its public source code, checks it and reviews it before it is published. The app's page in Software says so, and that it can use your files like any app from Debian. Automatic updates install community apps' updates too. Developers: see Publish your app for FlickOS on the website.
• FlickOS's own look: a new halo logo, in amber. The boot menus, the splash screen and the installer use it, the installed system gets a FlickOS boot menu theme, and the Dark and Light styles have new wallpapers. On the desktop only the start button's logo is amber; everything else keeps Arc's blue.
• Start menu:
• Log Out, Restart and Shut Down take a second click. The first click turns the button red; click again within 4 seconds to go ahead. Lock Screen still works at once.
• Cupertino has power buttons at the top right of its app grid (while Quick Settings is off).
• Quick Settings has Log Out, Restart and Shut Down next to Settings and Lock Screen, in every layout.
• Cupertino's app grid: clicking an app that is already open brings its window forward instead of starting it again. A middle click, Ctrl+click or Ctrl+Enter starts another copy. The app under the pointer is highlighted, and the grid has a background again, so names stay readable over any window.
• Faster starts: the startup files (initramfs) are now compressed with zstd: about 10% smaller and unpacked in 0.6 s instead of 2.7 s on an older laptop. Upgraded systems get this at their next kernel update.

Fixes

• Sending files to the phone no longer fails every first or second time. A file now counts as sent only once the phone has all of it, and is tried up to three times.
• Cupertino's app grid no longer stops starting apps after a click on its background.
• Settings and the Phone window no longer use the processor while they sit open: a hidden Loading… spinner kept redrawing 60 times a second.
• Installs get noatime again (fewer disk writes): Calamares had ignored FlickOS's mount options.

Trying it and installing

1. Download FlickOS-64bit-v2.2.iso and check it: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS
2. Write it to a USB stick (for example with Balena Etcher or dd) and boot it.
3. The live session logs in automatically as user (password live). Choose Install FlickOS. It is pinned first in the start menu and is also in the right-click desktop menu.

Basics

Right-click the desktop for the menu.

Known issues

• Restore points only on new installs with btrfs (see above). They cover the system, not your home folder: keep backing up your files.
• Opening Settings or the Welcome window a second time doesn't bring the open window to the front, so it looks as if nothing happened. Find the window in the taskbar.
• Low-contrast secondary text: the gray descriptions under settings are hard to read, most of all in the Light style.
• Tiling limits: windows that are already open when tiling is turned on stay floating until you tile them with Super+Shift+T, and all monitors use the same arrangement.
• Traditional's window list shows the windows of all 4 desktops, not only the current one's.
• Quick Settings has no Bluetooth switch yet.
• Phone needs the firewall to let it in. If the firewall is on, allow phones in Settings → Phone.
• There is no upgrade path from 1.x (see above).

Downloads

• ISO: https://sourceforge.net/projects/flickos/files/v2.2/
• Source code and issues: https://github.com/dvbondoy/FlickOS
• Community: https://www.reddit.com/r/flickos/