Over two months after its previous May release, powered by the latest and greatest Linux kernel 6.15, the Arch-based gamers-focused CachyOS has announced its fifth release of the year.
One of the most notable additions is the ability to choose a preferred shell during installation. Users can now opt for cachyos-fish-config (the default), cachyos-zsh-config, or stick with Bash if neither is selected. This flexibility caters to different workflow preferences while maintaining Fish as the out-of-the-box choice for those who prefer its streamlined syntax.
Under the hood, following user reports of “trigger-happy” out-of-memory kills, CachyOS has removed its integration with systemd-oomd, opting instead for the kernel’s native memory-pressure controls. The distribution’s keyring workflow has also been hardened to retry more aggressively when key downloads hiccup.
For Plasma users, the installer now defaults to a Wayland session. If the hardware cannot handle it—think legacy NVIDIA cards—the plasma-x11-session package is automatically pulled in, preventing black-screen surprises.
At the same time, fwupd is pre-installed on both Plasma and GNOME images, allowing firmware updates straight from Discover or GNOME Software. The timing is handy: fwupd 2.0.12, released late last month, added fresh support for Intel Battlemage GPUs and new USB-C hubs, broadening the catalog of devices that can flash firmware sans Windows reboot roulette.
On the graphics stack, mesa-git now carries the merge request that enables AMD Anti-Lag 2—Team Red’s answer to NVIDIA Reflex—across Vulkan titles. CachyOS’ Proton build picks up matching patches, so Steam gamers can toggle the feature without external scripts.
Proton-CachyOS also introduces the environment variable “PROTON_FSR4_UPGRADE=1.” When set, Proton will fetch AMD’s latest FSR 4 DLL and transparently replace older FSR 3.1 libraries, sparing users from manual DLL shuffling. A similar shortcut debuted in Proton GE 10-9 only yesterday, underscoring how fast FSR 4 is propagating through the Linux ecosystem.
Additional upstream Wine-Wayland and anti-cheat patches round out the gaming story, promising smoother input latency and fewer “unsupported driver” pop-ups in multiplayer titles.
Lastly, CachyOS’ Steam-Deck-style Handheld Edition now boots cleanly on the Lenovo Legion Go family, including the new cost-conscious Legion Go S model. Given the current Prime Day buzz around that device, Valve-style gaming on Lenovo hardware just became easier for users unwilling to reflash Windows or wrestle with device trees.
For more information, see the announcement.
Existing users can grab all these improvements with a simple sudo pacman -Syu command. For those opting for a fresh install, the updated ISO files are available for download via CachyOS’s SourceForge mirrors.
