COSMIC Epoch 1.11 adds xdg-dialog-v1, hybrid GPU fixes

System76 released COSMIC Epoch 1.11 on October 20, 2026, a point update to the desktop it writes in Rust for its Pop!_OS Linux system. It stops pop-up dialogs from hiding behind other windows and makes games launch on the right graphics chip on laptops that have two. Both were everyday annoyances for people running COSMIC as their main desktop.

What COSMIC Epoch 1.11 is

COSMIC is a desktop environment: the panel, app launcher, window manager and settings app that sit on top of Linux. System76, a US maker of Linux computers, builds it in the Rust programming language for Pop!_OS. "Epoch 1" is its first stable generation, and each 1.x release adds features and fixes.

This release came 12 days after Epoch 1.10, which shipped on October 8, according to the project's GitHub release list. The cadence has been steady since the summer:

Release	Date
Epoch 1.8.0	September 10
Epoch 1.9.0	September 23
Epoch 1.10.0	October 8
Epoch 1.11.0	October 20

Epoch 1.9 added an image viewer and an on-screen keyboard in September. Version 1.11 is smaller, made up of fixes across a dozen COSMIC components.

Dialogs that stay on top

The headline change is support for xdg-dialog-v1 in cosmic-comp, COSMIC's compositor. Wayland is the modern Linux display system, and the compositor is the part that draws and stacks every window. The new piece, xdg-dialog-v1, is a Wayland protocol. That is a shared rule set, and this one lets an app mark a window as a modal dialog.

A modal dialog is a window that blocks its parent until you answer it, such as a "Save changes?" prompt. The release notes say the new support "ensures that modal dialogs are not hidden by other windows." Before, such a prompt could slip behind another window and leave its app looking frozen.

The right GPU for games

Many laptops pair a low-power graphics chip built into the processor with a faster, separate GPU. These are called hybrid graphics systems. Launching a game on the weak chip wastes the fast one.

Phoronix reports that the COSMIC app library will now "ensure the correct GPU is used for video games." The pop-launcher search tool gets the same fix for hybrid systems, according to the release notes.

Other fixes in Epoch 1.11

The GitHub release notes list these changes by component:

Component	Change
libcosmic (the shared toolkit)	Text fields no longer swallow Escape, so menus close on the first press; scrollbar padding fixed
cosmic-app-library	Down arrow selects the first result after a search
cosmic-applets	Close button works after closing a window from previews; volume scrolling bugs fixed
cosmic-comp	Closed windows removed when no screen is connected; fixes for input methods using the virtual keyboard protocol
cosmic-osk (on-screen keyboard)	Activation now arrives over a private D-Bus signal, so it works alongside other input methods
cosmic-edit	JSON files open in the text editor by default
cosmic-settings	New touchpad options for tap-and-drag and drag lock; broken startup app links replaced
cosmic-randr	Display settings open again on screens whose serial numbers broke the output
pop-launcher	Searches are case-insensitive and handle words in parentheses better

D-Bus is the message system Linux desktop programs use to talk to each other. The release also carries translation and dependency updates for many projects.

What this means for developers

Most of 1.11 is polish, but three changes touch people who build software for the Linux desktop.

• Retest dialogs on Wayland. If your app's confirmation or file dialogs vanished behind other windows on COSMIC, check again on 1.11 before filing a bug. Modal stacking is now the compositor's job.
• Check GPU choice on hybrid laptops. If you ship a game or a GPU-heavy tool, launch it from the COSMIC app library and from pop-launcher on a two-GPU laptop. Confirm it lands on the fast chip.
• Input method authors, look at the D-Bus change. The on-screen keyboard now activates over a private signal. Several virtual keyboard protocol fixes landed too, so retest any input method that drives COSMIC.
• Expect a release every two weeks or so. If you package or support COSMIC for a team, budget for frequent small updates rather than a few large ones.