Linux distribution CachyOS with new software manager
The April release of CachyOS brings the graphical package manager Shelly and better hardware detection. Encrypted DNS requests ensure privacy.
(Image: heise medien)
For its third release this year, the CachyOS team has revised the Linux distribution's installer. Shelly will be pre-installed as a new software management tool. The Wayland compositor MangoWM with Material Shell (DMS) has been added to the desktop selection; however, the UKUI desktop is no longer on the list.
The hardware tool chwd now automatically configures the fingerprint sensor during installation so that it can be used for authentication with sudo. In terms of hardware detection, certain Intel CPUs are now recognized more accurately, allowing their power-saving options to function better.
The bootloader Grub, with the “os-prober” option enabled by default, now searches for already installed operating systems without further user intervention to include them in the bootloader. Immediately after installation, a system snapshot is created, to which one can return at any time.
In addition to the installer, the CachyOS Hello dialog has also been revised. After installation, there is a button to configure DNS-over-HTTPS (DoH) via blocky. This is intended to provide more privacy through encrypted DNS requests. The redesigned DNS page helps find the fastest server or add your own. A button for VRAM management has also been added to optimize graphics memory in AMD and Intel GPUs. For NVMe SSDs, CachyOS now uses the I/O scheduler kyber by default instead of none. This should ensure a more responsive system under mixed loads.
Manage software with Shelly
With this release, CachyOS replaces the Octopi tool with Shelly. The new graphical software installation tool is a package manager for systems based on Arch Linux. With Shelly, Zoey Bauer aims to provide a user-friendly alternative to pacman and Octopi with a modern GTK4 interface. It can also be operated via the command line. Shelly is not a pacman wrapper but interacts directly with the libalpm library for fast package management. The tool displays news from the Arch Linux website and manages packages from repositories, installs software via AUR as well as Flatpaks and AppImages. The latter three can be activated with a checkbox on first start.
Existing systems can retrofit the package manager with sudo pacman -S shelly.
Current Underpinnings
The new CachyOS installation image again includes a live system with KDE Plasma, the current kernel 7.0, and many bug fixes, which are detailed in the Release Notes. As a rolling release, the distribution delivers all updates via the package manager; a separate upgrade is not necessary. Those who have already installed the system should already be up to date. The distribution provides ISO files for desktop PCs and gaming handhelds for download. Read more about the Linux distribution CachyOS in the article “CachyOS 2026.01: Performant Arch Linux for PCs and Gaming in Review” on heise+.
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