COSMIC Epoch 1.9 adds image viewer, on-screen keyboard

System76 released COSMIC Epoch 1.9 on September 23, 2026, adding two new apps to its Rust-based Linux desktop: an image viewer and an on-screen keyboard. Phoronix reported the release a day later, once its notes were published. It arrived 13 days after COSMIC Epoch 1.8, which keeps the desktop on a roughly two-week release rhythm.

COSMIC is System76's own desktop environment, the default on its Pop!_OS Linux distribution. It is written in Rust with the company's libcosmic toolkit rather than built on GNOME or KDE. For anyone packaging it, one change matters more than the new apps: building part of it now needs an extra tool.

The two new apps

COSMIC Viewer is a native image viewer that can also edit. LinuxCompatible reports that it browses thumbnails, shows EXIF data (the camera details stored inside a photo), and adds markup without changing the original file. It was written by Ashley Wulber and Jeremy Soller, according to LinuxCompatible.

Format family	Supported in COSMIC Viewer
Common photos	JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF
Modern web formats	WebP, AVIF, JPEG XL
Phone photos	HEIC
Vector	SVG

COSMIC OSK is the desktop's own on-screen keyboard, written by Michael Murphy, a System76 engineer and Pop!_OS maintainer. The official release notes say it takes touch and gamepad input. The session now starts it automatically, and COSMIC Settings gains a page to configure it. A new panel applet toggles it on and off.

Everything else in 1.9

The GitHub release notes list changes across more than 15 components. The larger ones:

• COSMIC Store is redesigned to "highlight the developer of each app/applet," the notes say.
• The compositor, the part that draws windows on screen, now shows layer-shell programs on the lock screen. Layer shell is the Wayland protocol that panels, docks and overlays use. It also fixes a stuck Super key, context menus in the app library, and resizing of maximized windows.
• COSMIC Files swaps its custom context menus for the shared libcosmic ones and adds icons for .exe files.
• COSMIC Settings now shows the COSMIC version in its About page.
• COSMIC Greeter, the login screen, gains optional support for systemd-homed, Phoronix reports. That is systemd's system for portable, encrypted home directories.

The notes also changed after release. LinuxCompatible wrote that the release was marked a pre-release with notes still pending. The notes have since been filled in on GitHub, and Phoronix covered the release once they were. The same thing happened with 1.8.

What this means for developers

If you package COSMIC or build it from source, install git-lfs first. LinuxCompatible reports it is now a required dependency, because COSMIC Edit stores its PNG image assets with Git Large File Storage. Without it, a clone can hold small pointer files where those images should be, and the build ships broken assets. Check your build environment and your CI image before the next release, not after.

If you write apps or scripts for the desktop, two changes are useful. The session now sets a COSMIC_VERSION environment variable, so a script can read which release it is running on. The About page shows the same number, which should make bug reports easier to reproduce.

If you build panels, docks or overlays with the Wayland layer-shell protocol, test them on the lock screen now. They can appear there in 1.9, which is a new surface your program may not have been designed for.

And if you distribute an app through COSMIC Store, look at your listing. The redesign puts the developer's name up front, so make sure it says who actually maintains the app.