elementary OS 8.1.1 Available Now ⋅ elementary blog

New year, new small release! elementary OS 8.1.1 is here with another round of bug fixes and the latest Ubuntu LTS Hardware Enablement Kernel. This update addresses a bunch of little things you reported to us over the winter break. Read on to find out what’s new!

The dock now has more informative tooltips, including show Super + 1–9 shortcuts for the first 9 apps, and a tip about the background apps item.

Workspaces now have an animated pressed state and expand to accept drops when in multitasking view. Additionally, you can now uninstall apps or view them in AppCenter from their secondary-click menu, just as you can from the application menu. And we fixed issues with the appearance of the dock in screenshots on HiDPI displays and where the dock could become invisible in classic sessions.

We now update badges in the Dock and Apps menu, even if you run updates from another app store or via Terminal. We fixed an issue where pressing “Cancel” buttons might not give immediate feedback. And we now send notifications when an app is uninstalled and AppCenter is closed, such as when it’s removed from the app menu or dock.

System dialogs such as password dialogs now have a fade effect in addition to the dim effect. Additionally, we made sure to disable hot corners while they are present and fixed a bug that prevented the use of accessibility shortcuts—like zoom.

We fixed an issue where the window switcher could leave a non-interactive area on the screen when closed, plus an issue where the 6th and 13th key presses could be skipped while Alt + tabscary We fixed some issues with multitasking, including those with full-screen windows not moving properly, animations when reordering workspaces, and missing icons in the show all windows view. Additionally, we fixed blurry picture-in-picture icons on fractional scale displays.

We fixed an issue that the Ctrl + Alt + Of the shortcut from opening the end session dialog until Quick Settings is opened. And end session dialogs now have the same background darkening and fade effects as password dialogs.

We also fixed an issue where apps would launch twice or even potentially crash when pressing Enter while searching the Apps menu.

We’ve made tweaks to several of our default settings in this release, including the default to enable automatic updates, turn off intrusive WiFi notifications, and remove the Multitasking View and System Settings launchers from the dock. System Settings are always available from Quick Settings and Multitasking View can be launched by selecting the already active workspace item in the dock. Of course, you can always change which apps are pinned to your dock and adjust other options in System Settings.

There’s a new option in Applications → Defaults to choose your default PDF viewer, and we’ve tweaked the icon for Background Activity permissions to be a little prettier.

We’ve added Pointing Stick options to Mouse and Touchpad settings and a new setting for Touchpad drag lock. Additionally, we have improved screen reader accessibility.

We fixed an issue where “Driver Available” notifications were sent for drivers that were already installed. And we improved the reliability of remembering Bluetooth state between sessions. And “Wacom” settings have been renamed to “Pen & Drawing” since they also provide settings for internal digitizers in devices like StarLab’s StarLite.

The Screenshot app got some new icons for screenshot modes, and those modes now have text labels. Plus, we now remember the last selected screenshot mode – perfect for when you’re taking multiple screenshots in a row.

We improved screen reader accessibility and keyboard navigation in the Feedback app and fixed issues with custom installation types where the partition editor would appear behind the installer.

OS 8.1.1 also includes the latest long-term support hardware enablement stack from Ubuntu, including Linux 6.17. It brings the latest Intel graphics drivers, better power management for AMD hybrid GPUS, performance improvements for gamers, support for more ARM devices, and more.

elementary OS 8.1.1 is available as a pay-what-you-can purchase from elementary.io today. Localized direct downloads and a torrent magnet link are provided.

Sponsors have been able to download OS 8.1.1 release candidates since last week, so if getting things before anyone else is important to you, consider sponsor us on GitHub