Hello TUXEDO Fans and Open-Source Enthusiasts!
Last weekend, the moderators of r/opensource, the largest open-source community on Reddit, shut out AI-assisted projects with new rules . r/fossdroid followed shortly afterwards. The backlash is fierce: whether software is free depends on its license, not on the tool. Meanwhile, the Linux kernel is heading the opposite way: the tag for AI-assisted patches is set to be dropped , and Linus Torvalds himself submits AI-assisted patches.
Both sides have a point. Language models help projects that lack new contributors and track down security flaws in old code. But somebody has to actually read the generated code, or the review ends up with volunteers. The kernel shows the middle ground: everyone may use AI, but a human signs off on every contribution and takes responsibility for it. What matters is not the tool, but whether someone understood their code.
The rest of this issue is considerably more hands-on. As KDE App of the Week, we introduce KGeoTag, which adds the shooting location to photos from cameras without a GPS receiver after the fact, for example using a GPX track. The tip of the week shows how Plasma automatically lowers the refresh rate on battery to save power on the go. Everything else that has happened in TUXEDO OS is summarized in the update overview.
Enjoy reading,The TUXEDO OS Team
Note: With the TWIX series, we keep you up to date with the latest developments around TUXEDO OS. We also introduce interesting applications and share practical tips and tricks for the KDE desktop and TUXEDO OS. At the same time, TWIX thrives on your feedback. We always welcome your suggestions, topic ideas, and proposals for improvement. Feel free to join the discussion in our TWIX thread on Reddit , where you can reach us directly. Of course, you are also welcome to contact us via any of our other social media channels.
Updates in TUXEDO OS
firefox 2:159.0~tux1
Saved passwords now appear in the sidebar by default. The upload dialog opens the folder last used for uploads instead of the last save location.
You can search open tabs with Ctrl +Shift +A , while extensions and themes have moved to Ctrl +Shift +F . Custom shortcuts can be set under about:keyboard .
On Wayland, tabs no longer accidentally detach into a new window when clicked, and pages with map views no longer use excessive memory on AMD graphics. Menus no longer fade in when system animations are turned off.
More in the security updates section and in the Firefox 159.0 release notes .
thunderbird 3:153.6.0esr~tux1
TUXEDO Control Center 3.1.2
Package rebuild without functional changes.
tuxedo-tomte 3.0.6
Tomte now only sets up the LAN driver tuxedo-yt6801 for Motorcomm network chips on kernel versions below 7.0. To do so, Tomte can now tie rules to the kernel version and additionally checks meta packages.
Board Packages 1.0.1
Seven packages following the pattern tuxedo-board-gm7ixxn install the LAN driver tuxedo-yt6801 specifically on devices with the corresponding mainboard. If a board package is removed, the driver can also be removed with sudo apt autoremove .
Other Packages
chromium 156.0.8078.47 and 156.0.8078.73 (security updates, see below)
Signal 8.33.0, Rocket.Chat Desktop 4.18.5 and 4.19.0, Bitwarden 2026.10.1, and draw.io 32.6.1
Important Security Updates
firefox 2:159.0~tux1
Mozilla rates the update as high overall and fixes 167 vulnerabilities: 108 are rated high, 52 moderate, and 7 low. They include several sandbox escapes and numerous use-after-free bugs. Mozilla does not mention any exploitation.
Details in security advisory MFSA 2026–118 .
thunderbird 3:153.6.0esr~tux1
Fixes 154 vulnerabilities, 100 of them rated high. Five affect Thunderbird itself, for example a crafted message that pulls in the content of other messages when you reply (CVE-2026–118175). According to Mozilla, many of the remaining flaws cannot be exploited via email because Thunderbird does not run scripts when displaying messages.
Details in security advisory MFSA 2026–122 .
chromium 156.0.8078.47 and 156.0.8078.73
Version 156.0.8078.47 fixes 353 vulnerabilities, six of them critical, such as memory corruption in Skia (CVE-2026–113341) and WebRTC (CVE-2026–113303).
Version 156.0.8078.73 fixes 52 more, four of them critical, such as memory corruption in FileSystem (CVE-2026–118306) and a use-after-free in Layout (CVE-2026–118344). Google does not mention any exploitation for either version.
Details on the Chrome Releases blog.
KDE App of the Week: KGeoTag – Adding Location Data to Photos After the Fact
Anyone who takes photos with a digital camera on vacation or while hiking knows the problem: weeks later, you often no longer know exactly where a picture was taken. Smartphones save the location automatically, but many digital cameras lack a GPS receiver. KGeoTag closes this gap: the KDE application adds coordinates to photos after the fact, so photo managers can later show where they were taken on a map.
Marking Photo Locations on a Map
The easiest way to assign a location is via the map: after loading your photos, select one or more of them and drag and drop them onto the right spot. Alternatively, you can enter coordinates by hand. Frequently used places, such as your home, can be saved as bookmarks and then assigned with a few clicks.
Matching against a GPS recording is particularly useful. If you recorded your route with a smartphone or GPS device, load it into KGeoTag as a GPX file. The application compares each photo’s capture time with the timestamps of the track and assigns it to the matching point. If there is no exact match, KGeoTag calculates the position from the neighboring track points.
KGeoTag shows the loaded photos with a preview on the left and the map with the GPX track on the right. The assigned photo appears as a thumbnail on the track.
KGeoTag determines the matching time zone from the location of the GPX recording, and you can also set it manually. If the camera’s clock is off, the application compensates with a fixed time offset. When saving, KGeoTag can also apply this offset to the capture time of the images.
Saving Location Data Permanently
KGeoTag writes the coordinates either directly into the images' Exif data, into separate XMP sidecar files, or both. With sidecar files, the original photos remain unchanged. When writing directly to the images, the application creates a backup copy with the .orig extension by default. You can choose your preferred method in the settings.
In addition to latitude and longitude, KGeoTag can also add the elevation. You can enter it by hand or have it looked up via the OpenTopoData service, in which case KGeoTag sends the coordinates to that service. Other photo managers such as digiKam or KPhotoAlbum can then read the stored data. Besides JPEG, KGeoTag supports PNG, WebP, TIFF, and some RAW formats such as CR2, NEF, and DNG, among others.
New in KGeoTag 2.0
Version 2.0 was released on March 13, 2026, and relies exclusively on Qt 6 and KDE Frameworks 6; support for Qt 5 has been dropped. New is a place search taken from Marble , KDE’s map application: you search for a place by name and use its coordinates. In addition, KGeoTag can open the current map center in OpenStreetMap or Google Maps in your web browser via the map’s context menu.
Installation
KGeoTag is licensed under the GPL and can be installed on TUXEDO OS via Discover. Pay attention to the version: on TUXEDO OS based on Ubuntu 24.04, the DEB package still ships KGeoTag 1.5.0, while the current version 2.0.0 is available there as a Flatpak from Flathub. TUXEDO OS based on Debian already ships KGeoTag 2.0.0 as a DEB package.
Info: Are you interested in Plasma development and want to know what new features are planned and which programs have been recently updated? You can find a detailed overview in the weekly column This week in Plasma by KDE developer Nate Graham.
TUXEDO OS Tips & Tricks: Automatically Lower the Refresh Rate on Battery
Many notebooks, gaming models in particular, come with displays running at 120, 165, or 240 Hz. Motion looks smoother, but every extra frame costs power because the GPU and the display have to work harder. At your desk with the power adapter plugged in, that does not matter, but on the go it does. KDE Plasma can run a script when the notebook switches to battery, lowering the refresh rate and raising it again once you plug in. TUXEDO OS ships everything you need.
Note: The TUXEDO Control Center also offers a refresh rate setting in its profiles. However, it only takes effect in an X11 session. Under Wayland, the Control Center reports that this feature is currently not supported on Wayland. The approach described here, using Plasma’s power management, works under Wayland, which has been the only session since Plasma 6.8.
Find Suitable Modes
The kscreen-doctor tool shows in the terminal which combinations of resolution and refresh rate your display offers. On notebooks, the internal screen is usually called eDP-1 , and an asterisk marks the active mode:
kscreen-doctor -o
(out)Output: 1 eDP-1 3271c3d7-2653-4b17-b173-e7da1d886641
(out) enabled
(out) connected
(out) Modes: 1:2880x1800@90.00*! 2:1600x1200@59.87 3:1600x1200@89.91 8:2560x1600@59.99 9:2560x1600@89.95
Try the mode you want for battery operation by hand first. Not every mode in the list actually works: on our test device, an InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen7 with a 90 Hz display, the driver rejected all 60 Hz modes. If the picture does change visibly, write down the modes for AC and battery. Stick to the same resolution if possible, otherwise the display will look less sharp on the go.
kscreen-doctor output.eDP-1.mode.2560x1600@60
(out)kscreen.doctor: Output 1 set mode "2560x1600@60"
(out)applying config failed! The driver rejected the output configuration
Create the Script
Use a text editor such as Kate to create the file refreshrate.sh in the ~/.local/bin folder. Enter the name of your screen and the two modes in the three variables at the top. The example applies to a display with 2560 × 1600 pixels and 240 Hz that switches to 60 Hz on battery:
#!/bin/bash
# Switch the refresh rate depending on the power source
DISPLAY_NAME="eDP-1"
AC="2560x1600@240"
BATTERY="2560x1600@60"
case "$1" in
ac) kscreen-doctor output.$DISPLAY_NAME.mode.$AC ;;
battery) kscreen-doctor output.$DISPLAY_NAME.mode.$BATTERY ;;
*) echo "Usage: $0 ac|battery"; exit 1 ;;
esac
Then make the script executable and test it once with both parameters. The screen should flicker briefly and change its refresh rate:
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/refreshrate.sh
~/.local/bin/refreshrate.sh battery
~/.local/bin/refreshrate.sh ac
Add It to Power Management
Open System Settings » System » Power Management and switch to On Battery at the top. Under Other Settings , click Choose run conditions next to Run command or script and select When entering „On Battery“ state . In the new field, enter the full path including the parameter, for example /home/user/.local/bin/refreshrate.sh battery . Repeat this on the On AC Power page with the parameter ac . Click Apply to save the settings.
Under Other Settings, KDE Plasma’s power management runs a script as soon as the notebook switches to AC power or battery.
From now on, Plasma switches to the battery mode when you unplug the power adapter and back when you plug it in. If the charge drops far enough for Plasma to switch to On Low Battery , the lower refresh rate stays in place. How much runtime you gain depends on the device: with 165 or 240 Hz displays, the savings are considerably larger than with a 90 Hz model. The script leaves external monitors untouched.
Ubuntu Security Updates
The Ubuntu security updates listed here are generally incorporated directly into TUXEDO OS. Some updates are only available from Ubuntu for a fee and are therefore not made available to the community until a later date. Unfortunately, we have no control over this:
USN-8958–1: dotnet8, dotnet10, dotnet11 vulnerabilities
USN-8956–1: brotli vulnerability
USN-8955–1: nginx vulnerabilities
