LXQt 2.0.0 Released

Monday, 15 April, 2024

The LXQt team announces the release of LXQt 2.0.0, the Lightweight Qt Desktop Environment.

Highlights

General

LXQt 2.0.0 is based on Qt ≥ 6.6. For supporting styling and LXQt File Dialog with Qt5-based apps, libqtxdg-3.12.0, lxqt-qtplugin-1.4.1 and libfm-qt-1.4.0 can be installed alongside their Qt6-based versions in LXQt 2.0.0.
PCManFM-Qt’s desktop module, LXQt Runner and LXQt Desktop Notifications are completely ready to be used under Wayland compositors which support the “layer shell protocol”, like LabWC, Wayfire, kwin_wayland, Hyprland, Sway,…
Wayland will be the main target for LXQt 2.1.0, as Qt6 was for LXQt 2.0.0. The components which are not ready for Wayland yet include ScreenGrab, LXQt Global Shortcuts, LXQt Panel’s task-bar and keyboard indicator (but LXQt Panel can be used under Wayland without those plugins), some input settings, and settings of monitor, power button, and screen locker. However, most Wayland compositors have tools that can be used instead of them, such that an LXQt-Wayland session is already possible for advanced users.
LXQt Panel has a new default application menu called Fancy Menu, featuring “Favorites”, “All Applications”, and an improved search.
QTerminal is the only app whose Qt6 port will be released separately – complications were encountered due to the removal of legacy encodings from Qt6. Until then, its Qt5 version 1.4.0 could be used.

NOTE for Distros: For having Qt5 styling and Qt5 file dialog with LXQt 2.0.0, the installable packages of Qt5-based lxqt-build-tools, libqtxdg, lxqt-qtplugin and libfm-qt may need to be renamed, such that they can be installed in parallel with their Qt6 versions. Also, the point release of the Qt5-based lxqt-qtplugin-1.4.1 is needed for a correct Qt5 font setting (see its release note).

LibFM-Qt / PCManFM-Qt

The desktop module is completely ready for Wayland, thanks to layer-shell-qt6. Now, PCManFM-Qt can give you a real desktop not only with desktop-agnostic X11 windows managers, but also with Wayland compositors which implement “layer shell protocol”, like those based on wlroots or KWin. Also, see Using Desktop under Wayland in Wiki.
The MIME types of LXQt Archiver and Arqiver are updated in LibFM-Qt.
Some menu icons are added.

LXQt Panel

Fancy Menu is added as the new default application menu. (The old menu is kept, but it is not the default menu anymore.)
Wayland support is added for positioning the panel by using layer shell.
Miscellaneous fixes.