add new image announcement

Author: q66

_posts/2025-04-20-new-images.md

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+---
+title: New images
+layout: post
+excerpt_separator: <!--more-->
+---
+
+The 20250420 set of images is now published.
+
+This is an incremental refresh with some major changes.
+
+<!--more-->
+
+## Changes
+
+There are some major changes in how the images are set up.
+
+One is that EFI/BIOS images now use the Limine bootloader for the
+image itself, instead of GRUB. This does not affect what bootloader
+is used for the installed system (that is the user's choice) but
+it's the first step towards moving GRUB to the `user` repository
+eventually.
+
+The PowerPC/POWER images still use GRUB. For installed systems,
+the recommended choice is `systemd-boot` on EFI and GRUB elsewhere,
+Limine does not yet have distro integration.
+
+The x86 images newly use MBR for best compatibility with all hardware.
+
+Architecture support has been expanded. On top of the existing archs
+from before (AArch64, PowerPC, POWER LE/BE, RISC-V, x86_64) we now
+ship images for the LoongArch64 architecture.
+
+The AArch64 image list has been expanded, with Rock64 and QuartzPro64
+being added.
+
+Various fixes have been made; notably, issues with cross-device links
+and local installs with separate `/boot` should be gone, and `apk`
+will no longer segfault when network connection is unavailable.
+
+Everything has been updated and the images come with kernel 6.14,
+GNOME 48, Plasma 6.3.4, and a variety of updated software.
+
+## Planned changes
+
+For the next image set we plan to provide images for mobile phones
+and generally more mobile packaging.
+
+Additionally, the ARMv7 architecture will be introduced to the builders
+and then to release images.
+
+Device SD images will automatically grow their root partition and
+filesystem on first boot from next time but this has not yet been
+deployed.
+
+Additionally, Limine will get distro integration and will become a
+convenient option for installation.