Omarchy 4.0.4 is now available with one major change under the hood: the Arch-based distro now installs and boots its own custom Linux kernel by default.
The new package linux-omarchy replaces the standard Arch kernel as Omarchy’s preferred choice on regular systems. T2 Macs remain an exception, with the distro prioritizing the specialized linux-t2 kernel on those machines.
According to the developers, the Omarchy kernel is tuned to keep the desktop responsive and multitasking smooth under heavy load or memory pressure. The project also says it improves gaming compatibility, smooths gaming on supported AMD HDMI displays, speeds up common Btrfs operations, and includes power-management improvements.
Omarchy has its own Linux kernel source repository, so linux-omarchy is more than a renamed Arch package. The distro also ships matching linux-omarchy-headers included among the packages for its installation media. The current kernel line is based on Linux 7.2. series.
Hardware compatibility is another area Omarchy targets with the new kernel. The 4.0.4 release notes mention fixes for missing audio, unresponsive touchpads, display freezes, and slow startup or resume on affected machines.
One specific issue addressed in this release involves webcams on Dell XPS systems running Linux 7.2.x. Omarchy 4.0.4 includes a fix for that issue, which is listed separately in the official release notes.
The Btrfs improvements are also relevant for Omarchy users because the distro extensively uses Btrfs in its default setup, including snapshots integrated with Snapper and the Limine bootloader.
For additional details, see the changelog.
Omarchy 4.0.4 was released on September 15 and is available as a new installation ISO. Existing users can upgrade through Update > Omarchy, after which linux-omarchy becomes the preferred boot kernel on supported systems.
