Whonix 18.0 adopts LXQt, enables global IPv6, and debuts Wayland-only Kloak

Whonix 18.0 introduces a major change to the desktop experience by switching from Xfce to the LXQt environment across all images and updates its core components accordingly. Thumbnails are disabled in PCManFM Qt, Waybar configurations are revised, swaylock replaces the previous screen locker, and unnecessary widgets are removed. Loupe becomes the default image viewer, and USBGuard is no longer included.

The release enables system wide IPv6 support, updating gateway ports, VirtualAddrNetworkIPv6, Tor initialization routines, and firewall logic. Tor Browser now uses IPv6 when available, and tools like the uwt wrapper add IPv6 aware proxy handling and new IPC paths. Changes to anonymizer configuration through systemd networkd wait online and tmpfiles improve reliability and boot behavior.

Kloak is rewritten as a Wayland only tool with improved mouse obfuscation, natural scrolling, lower idle CPU use, and hardened sandboxing. Qubes Whonix templates adopt Debian’s deb822 format, remove deprecated units, and integrate updated IPv6 scripts. Qubes Event Buffering is enabled by default in Qubes R4.3 and later, and new images are available for VirtualBox and KVM, with in place upgrades supported for Whonix 17 users.