CachyOS has released version 260124, marking the January 2026 update of this Arch-based Linux distribution. This release focuses on installer improvements, Wayland adoption, login manager changes, and better hardware and gaming support.

Key highlights of CachyOS 260124

• Reworked installer with faster downloads
• Wayland enabled by default on the live ISO
• Plasma Login Manager replaces SDDM
• Stable and LTS kernels included
• Improved NVIDIA, AMD, and gaming support

Installer improvements

The installer has been significantly reworked.

Bootloader selection now takes place directly inside the installer. Each option includes a description, and Limine is now the default bootloader. Bootloader management has been consolidated into a single package.

Architecture detection now runs before the base system installation. This reduces the download size by about 1 GB. The installer now passes the --needed flag to pacman, which avoids reinstalling packages that are already up to date.

For encrypted systems, GRUB now uses LUKS2. When Btrfs is selected on NVMe storage, the installer applies single-level compression by default.

Xorg dependencies have also been removed for Wayland-based desktop environments.

ISO and kernel changes

The live ISO now uses Plasma Login Manager instead of SDDM. The live session has switched from X11 to Wayland.

The ISO includes both Stable and LTS kernels. The Stable kernel is selected by default to improve support for newer hardware.

Desktop environment updates

• KDE Plasma: Plasma installations now use Plasma Login Manager instead of SDDM.

• Niri: The Niri desktop now uses noctalia-shell with updated configuration files.
• GNOME: The GNOME installation process has been cleaned up. GNOME applications are now grouped into a dedicated subgroup.

Graphics and hardware support

For NVIDIA users, EnableAggressiveVblank is now enabled. This reduces time spent handling interrupts on low-latency displays.

CachyOS now installs nouveau-fw for older NVIDIA cards. This enables VA-API support for Kepler-family GPUs.

The AI-SDK now supports several newer AMD GPUs. Handheld device detection has moved from HHD to steamos-manager with inputplumber.

Proton-CachyOS and gaming updates

Proton-CachyOS includes multiple gaming improvements:

• FSR4 machine-learning frame generation for RDNA3 and RDNA4 GPUs
• Optional d7vk support for DirectDraw
• DualSense haptic feedback patches
• Improved handling of DLSS, XeSS, and FSR presets
• Automatic HDR enablement when using Wine Wayland on NVIDIA dGPUs

A long-standing patch that reduced 1% low FPS has been removed. The proton-cachyos-slr build is now the default in the gaming meta package, while the native version remains supported.

For further information on CachyOS 260124 - see the official release announcement published in the project’s blog.