openSUSE Tumbleweed to replace YaST with Agama installer by year-end

The openSUSE Project announced that its rolling-release Tumbleweed distribution will transition to the Agama installer before the end of 2026, replacing the legacy YaST installer that has been in use since April 1995. Agama-based images are expected to become the default download on get.opensuse.org within weeks, pending openQA testing and staging workflow validation that demonstrates equivalent stability to the YaST-based images.

Two Agama images are now available for testing: a network-based installer located in the appliances ISO directory on download.opensuse.org, and a new offline installer with a pre-filled package cache released last week that can install Tumbleweed without network connectivity. The project is actively soliciting test feedback, particularly for less common configurations including RAID and LVM disk layouts, multi-disk systems, serial console installations, and unusual hardware. The most significant user-visible change is the removal of individual package selection; Agama offers only a curated subset of installation patterns as a deliberate simplification measure.

What changes in the Tumbleweed installer transition

• Installer architecture: Agama replaces YaST, which receives only minimal maintenance and no active feature development, creating mounting risk as its dependencies continue to evolve.
• Image availability: Two Agama variants exist—a netinstall image in the appliances ISO directory and a new offline installer at a direct ISO URL with pre-filled package cache for network-less installations.
• Quality gates: The cutover depends on openQA coverage and staging workflow integration, where Agama tests are being added but do not yet fully run; release managers will link images only after parity with YaST stability is demonstrated.
• Feature reduction: Individual package selection is removed entirely; only curated patterns are presented, and not all repository patterns are exposed, representing a deliberate simplification rather than a temporary limitation.
• Testing priorities: The project specifically requests validation of RAID, LVM, multi-disk, serial console, offline, and unusual hardware setups, with divergent behavior from YaST to be filed as bugs.

Why it matters

This transition marks the end of a three-decade era for YaST and signals openSUSE's consolidation around Agama as its unified installation technology across both fixed-release Leap and rolling Tumbleweed lines. For system administrators and power users, the loss of fine-grained package selection during installation may require workflow adjustments toward post-install customization or profile-based automated deployments. The call for testing on complex storage and hardware configurations presents an opportunity for the community to shape installer robustness before the default switch.