Pengwin Changelog

Existing users can update immediately by running $ pengwin-setup update

26.02.5:

Systemd is now enabled by default on new installs. Existing users can opt in via pengwin-setup (updates will not automatically turn it on). Pengwin remains fully functional without systemd and on WSL1.
Added a new AIUTILS menu to pengwin-setup for installing AI tools (GitHub Copilot CLI and Copilot for Vim/Neovim).
Branding update: Pengwin now has a new logo.
Migrated to the new WSL architecture: wsl --export / wsl --import now preserves the icon and Windows Terminal profile when importing under a new name.
New installs now register as Pengwin in wsl --list. Upgrades keep the legacy WLinux name for compatibility.
Pengwin now starts in the current directory when launched via “Open with Windows Terminal” and when it’s the default entry.
Added a GUI option to disable D3D12 hardware acceleration (useful for buggy drivers or to force software rendering).
Improved systemd-on-WSL compatibility by masking conflicting services (symlinking their unit files to /dev/null) per Microsoft guidance.
WSL1 compatibility hardening: pengwin-setup now caps Node.js to v22 on WSL1 to avoid newer incompatibilities.
XDG_* environment variables are now correctly defined to improve GUI app behavior.
XRDP performance: enabled compression options for better Xfce responsiveness.
Upgraded VcXsrv to 21.1.16.
Fixed an Xfce installation issue where the polkit user was not defined.
Improved D-Bus management when systemd is disabled.
Improved /run/user directory management when systemd is disabled.
Added fzf (command-line fuzzy finder) to the Tools menu.
Improved the package update progress bar styling to better integrate with the background.
Added Bash completion for the wsl command inside Pengwin.
Improved winget completions.
Updated the .NET installer to .NET 10 (also available on ARM64 platforms) to use the latest dependencies.
Improved the Homebrew installer to better handle the latest upstream changes.
Fixed the LAMP MariaDB installer.
Upgraded the Joomla installer.
Improved Ruby installation performance on machines with more than 4 cores.

25.11.0:

Added the default user to the render group for GPU acceleration
Updated keywords for app metadata to include xfce, systemd, apt, deb, and curl
Corrected typographical errors in features documentation
Upgraded to Debian 13 (Trixie)
Upgraded to Mesa 25.2.6-1~bpo13+1
Updated Terraform to 1.13.4
Updated JetBrains Toolbox installation script URL
Fixed WSL1 systemd upgrade script
Fixed backports configuration for Debian 13
Added check for Debian version consistency during installation
Updated DISPLAY setup to use default gateway from ip route
Updated path for oemcp configuration file
Added kmod and procps as dependencies
Removed systemd from package dependencies
Added mesa-libgallium to Recommends for graphics support
Updated pengwin-load-vgem-module for virtual graphics support

25.06.0:

Upgraded Terraform to 1.12.1
Upgraded Node.js versions to 24 and 22 lts
Upgraded to Debian 12.11
Upgraded to Mesa 25.0.4 and the D3D12 driver includes:
- OpenGL 4.6 support completed
- Expanded video encode/decode support (HEVC 4:2:2/4:4:4, H.264 Baseline)
- Added VP9 and AV1 codecs in GPU Video Acceleration
Changed the TUI engine of pengwin-setup from newt to ncurses, with the following improvements:
- Mouse support, you can now click options and buttons
- Accelerator keys are shown in the options for rapid selection
- The big dialogs like the uninstaller are now resizable
Updated the version of VCXsrv to 21.1.13
Updated python to 3.13
Fixed a regression in pengwin-setup that prevented returning to the previous menu
Fix GPU Video Acceleration access in WSL 2.5.x
Fixed an error in the icon generation in the desktop environment installer
Added udev package due to it is necessary for the video acceleration

24.08.2:

Added a --help option to pengwin-setup and will show you some usability and automation options
Upgraded Terraform to 1.9.5
Fixed a regression that caused that the GUI menu didn't load

24.08.1:

Improved the navigation in the pengwin-setup menus allowing selecting the options with fewer keystrokes.
The backports are active and working, so you'll receive the latest version of many packages like curl, cmake, golang, systemd, emacs, meson, xrdp among others.
Upgraded Terraform to 1.9.4
Included by default the command-not-found package to help users to find the correct package to install when a command is not found.
Fixed and improved the Kubernetes installer.
Fixed an error when spt is trying to upgrade systemd package on WSL1.
Fix XFCE installation with newer versions of WSL, if you are facing the issue run the installer again, from pengwin-setup.
Be sure that dbus is only started once, regardless how many times you start Pengwin.
Added a Message Of The Day Setting, to pengwin-setup to configure it.

24.02.3:

Upgraded to Debian 12.4
Improved N (Node.js) version manager installer
Improved the Node.js installer
Updated Node.js LTS that pengwin-setup installs to 20
Improved ibus and fcitx installation
apt-utils now is installed by default
Improved the navigation of the Programming menu in pengwin-setup
Removed the testing repo to avoid accidental installations of testing packages
Avoid closing Windows Terminal after pegwin-setup finishes

23.07.1:

Updated the NodeJS installer with new versions and the latest version of yarn.

23.07.0:

Upgraded the baseline to Debian 12 bookworm with every new version that comes with it.
To correctly upgrade to this version you'll need to execute 'pengwin-setup update' twice and then 'sudo apt dist-upgrade -y' to complete the upgrade process
Upgraded to Mesa 22.3.6, bringing OpenGL 4 and GPU Video Acceleration via VAAPI. It works out of the box, you only need to enable SystemD via pengwin-setup.
Improve Windows interop when SystemD is active.

23.03.0:

Prepare everything for a smooth transition to bookworm
Upgrade Go to 1.19.4
Improve docker compatibility with WSL1
Added new MariaDB versions to installer
Added nano to the default installation

22.11.3:

Support for SystemD Windows 10 / 11
Added an option in pengwin-setup to enable / disable SystemD
Now you can install the Xfce desktop environment from pengwin-setup
Enabled the backports so, you'll have a more recent version of 7zip, cmake, git, golang, npm among others
Improved the DISPLAY variable management for non WSLg users or who still want to use Xservers
Now Pengwin can start with Windows logon without showing a terminal window
Customized the XRDP login screen with a Pengwin theme
Customized the default wallpaper for Xfce with a Pengwin theme
Updated .NET version to 7.0
Include by default the software-properties-common to ease the installation of packages from PPAs
Allow to disable WSLg from pengwin-setup only for Pengwin
Fixed autocompletion for helm and kubectl
Bump pyenv python to 3.10.4
Upgraded MariaDB installer
Upgraded terraform to 1.2.8
Improved the integration with Rancher Desktop and Docker Desktop
Improved the IBus installer in pengwin-setup
Added support for installing JetBrains Toolbox inside Pengwin
Added wslsystemctl command for starting services in WSL1

22.2.1:

Fix name for Windows Terminal menu

22.2.0:

Fix a launch error with Windows Terminal 1.12

22.1.6:

Use cmd-exe instead of cmd.exe to avoid executing cmd.exe in the Linux home path.

22.1.5:

Fix an error message shown at launch in WSL 1 about xdpyinfo when vcxsrv is installed.
Switch Azure CLI installer to bullseye repos.
Switch Powershell installer to bullseye repos.
Improve the performance in the pengwin.exe config --default-user .
Finally fixed the problem that Pengwin didn't launch in Windows Terminal on specific configurations.
If you have Windows 11, Windows Terminal 1.12, and have Windows Terminal as your default console, now when you open Pengwin from the Start Menu, it will show the correct profile on Windows Terminal.

22.1.0:

Show a better message in WSL2 when the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature is not enabled
Keep the previous Debian repo for compatibility with packages expecting buster
Skip some steps in 00-pengwin.fish for non-interactive sessions
Add testing repo with a low priority
Change which by command -v in the scripts, due to which is deprecated and slower
Change command -v by command -q in fish scripts
Add an alias to the wsl command so that you can type wsl --version instead of wsl.exe --version inside Pengwin
Remove the version restriction in iproute, due to the latest kernel support the ss -a command without issues in WSL2
Improve start menu shortcut generation (short the generated path)
dotnet package use the new repo for bullseye
Bump Python to 3.10.1 also updated all installation types
Fix gopath in go installer
Fix MariaDB 10.6 install and improve the overall LAMP installer
Show progress ring in profile tab and taskbar in Windows Terminal when updating pengwin-setup and generating start menu shortcuts
Install x11-utils as part of VcXsrv installation
Fix a bug that breaks XRDP upon SDKMan installation
Upgrade .NET installer to 6.0
Switch to the newer poetry install script
Make the SDKMan install the latest Java by default when using the Java installer in pengwin-setup
Upgrade VcXsrv to 1.20.14.0

21.8.0:

Improved Start menu icons for Pengwin
Fixed HiDPI with GTK in WSLg
Upgraded docker version
Fixed the cloud cli installer
Upgraded Terraform to 1.0.5

21.7.1:

Now Pengwin is compatible with XRDP. Installing xrdp and xorgxrdp should work now.
Improved high-dpi support in the embedded VcXsrv
Fixed the NodeJS NVM (no longer installs N instead)
Fixed the MariaDB installer in LAMP. Also, the support for ARM64 was improved.
Improved Python PyEnv configs and bump Python version to 3.9.6
Upgraded helm and fixed Kubernetes installer
Fixed the docker support uninstaller

21.5.5:

Enables put notifications so you will receive a message everytime a new Pengwin version is released

21.5.4:

Automatically creates an entry with logo in Windows Terminal
Add default background and colors to Windows Terminal (you can change them in Settings)
In App Settings, it is possible to set Pengwin launch at startup
If display scale factor is 200% or more now the mouse cursor will be 64px wide

21.4.1: