EndeavourOS Titan Nova: What the Interim ISO Update Includes

EndeavourOS Titan Nova is a maintenance-focused refresh of the distribution’s installation media, released on August 28, 2026. It is designed to keep new installations current while the EndeavourOS team continues work on Triton, the next release planned around a Wayland-based live environment. 5

For people already running EndeavourOS, the practical message is simple: Titan Nova is not an upgrade that must be installed. Systems that receive regular rolling-release updates already obtain the relevant packages through the normal update process. The new ISO mainly matters when creating a fresh installation or using the live environment. 58

Why EndeavourOS released Titan Nova before Triton

The project says Triton needs more development time because its live environment will run Wayland, alongside upcoming changes affecting the Plasma desktop environment. Rather than rush that larger release, EndeavourOS issued Titan Nova as a bridge. 5

That makes Nova more of a current snapshot than a major feature release. Its purpose is to reduce the amount of post-install updating and provide newer hardware, graphics and installer components to people installing EndeavourOS from scratch.

What the Titan Nova ISO includes

The refreshed live and offline-install environments bring together the following software and hardware-support updates:

• Linux kernel 7.1, with secondary reporting specifying the 7.1.8 package version. 38
• KDE Plasma 6.7.4, alongside KDE Frameworks 6.28 and KDE Gear 26.04 in the live environment. 3
• Mesa 26.1, with secondary reporting specifying Mesa 26.1.7. 78
• Updated NVIDIA components, including nvidia-utils 610.57 and nvidia-open 610.54. 7
• Firefox 153 according to one package listing. Another report lists Firefox 154, so the supplied sources do not agree on the exact browser version. 78
• A refreshed Calamares installer and X.Org components in the updated live environment. 7

The update also improves the live-session experience for NVIDIA hardware using the open-source Nouveau driver. That is particularly relevant for users testing the distribution before installation, since graphics initialization and acceleration can determine whether the live desktop is usable on a given machine. 7

Keyboard setup errors are addressed

Titan Nova includes a workaround for an issue triggered by recent keyboard-configuration changes. The problem could cause errors during setup, so the ISO update is aimed at making installation more reliable. The project expects a permanent solution to arrive with Triton rather than treating the Nova workaround as the final design. 7

The available sources describe broader installer and hardware-support improvements, but they do not provide enough evidence to identify a specific bootloader change. That detail should therefore not be treated as a confirmed Titan Nova feature.

Why Budgie is temporarily missing

Budgie has been removed from the installer for the time being and is expected to return in a future EndeavourOS release. The supplied release reporting confirms the temporary removal, but does not establish a sufficiently detailed, source-backed explanation of the upstream transition or the exact conditions for its return. 7

The change is therefore best understood as part of the project’s ongoing desktop and display-stack transition, rather than as evidence that EndeavourOS has permanently abandoned Budgie.

How Titan Nova follows Titan and Titan Neo

Titan Nova is the second minor refresh in the Titan series. The original Titan release arrived on March 12, 2026, with Linux 6.19 and KDE Plasma 6.6. Titan Neo followed as another refreshed ISO, and Nova arrived roughly four months after that update. 111

This sequence reflects how an Arch-based rolling distribution can use refreshed installation images without creating separate long-term upgrade branches. The ISO names identify the state of the installation media; they do not require existing users to perform a matching distribution upgrade.

Do existing EndeavourOS users need Titan Nova?

No. If an EndeavourOS installation is kept up to date, there is no need to download the Titan Nova ISO, reinstall the operating system or perform a special “upgrade to Nova.” The changes primarily affect new installations, the Calamares and offline installers, and the live environment stored on the ISO. 58

Titan Nova is most useful for someone installing EndeavourOS now, testing the system from a USB drive, or wanting newer kernel, graphics and installer components from the outset. Existing users should continue using the normal update process while waiting for the more substantial Triton release.