A month and a half after the previous January update, the Arch-based performance-focused CachyOS has released its second update of the year, powered by the Linux kernel 6.19.
A key change is the addition of animated previews in the installer. When selecting a desktop environment, users now see GIF or WebP clips that offer a quick visual overview of each option. Previews are available for KDE Plasma, GNOME, Niri, and COSMIC.
Moreover, the desktop selection list has been reorganized, with environments now ordered from simpler setups to more advanced configurations, such as window managers. The installer also improves hardware handling by automatically detecting and installing the correct CPU microcode package, instead of installing both Intel and AMD versions.
Winboat integration is another key addition. Users can now install and enable Winboat with a single click via the CachyOS Welcome application. For those unfamiliar with the tool, it provides a Windows virtual machine within Docker, simplifying the use of Windows software alongside Linux.
System configuration tools have also been updated. In cachyos-settings, the wireless regulatory domain is now set automatically based on the user’s timezone. Additionally, the bug reporting script now automatically redacts sensitive data, including IP addresses, hostnames, usernames, and MAC addresses, before submission.
The Handheld Edition includes several platform-specific changes for gaming devices. Gamescope-session-plus has been replaced with gamescope-session-cachyos, a fork of Valve’s gamescope-session that enables firmware updates for devices such as the Steam Deck and Lenovo Legion Go. The login manager has also changed, with plasma-login-manager now replacing SDDM.
The handheld variant now uses Limine as the default bootloader, which enables automatic snapshots. Systemd-boot remains available as an option. Plus, the installer has been merged with the desktop Calamares installer, and the installation environment now runs on Wayland instead of X11.
Finally, this release includes several fixes. The installer removes bcachefs from the filesystem selection because it now requires the separate bcachefs-dkms module. The team also resolved issues with LUKS2 encryption on certain devices and fixed problems enabling the Ly display manager.
For more information, see the announcement.
For most users, a standard system upgrade with a simple sudo pacman -Syu command is sufficient to receive all improvements.
