New Update Your Linux gaming rig just got a serious boost with CachyOS's latest update

[Gandalf_The_Grey]

CachyOS, a relatively new Arch-based Linux distribution that is designed to be easy to use and is highly optimized, has just received its March 2025 update. This release is substantial, with the inclusion of a new bootloader with Btrfs snapshot support and better device compatibility for gamers and laptop users. If you’re a Linux enthusiast and want something new to try, this definitely seems like an interesting choice.

The new bootloader is called Limine and works with both BIOS and UEFI to ensure compatibility with a wide range of systems. Similar to the Grub bootloader, it features theming so the developers from CachyOS can make your boot experience look good. Additionally, it has Btrfs snapshot support, which is turned on for all new installations that opt for the Btrfs file system. The team behind this distribution said that they’ve tested out the snapshot support extensively and claim it works well.

Another big focus for this update is hardware support. If you have the RDNA4, RTX 5070 Ti, or 5070 graphics cards, they are supported out of the box, unlocking better performance. Additionally, if you have ASUS gaming devices, the addition of the ASUS Armory driver means CachyOS now supports the ROG Ally as well as fan and power management on certain laptops.

Your Linux gaming rig just got a serious boost with CachyOS's latest update

CachyOS's March update is here, with out-of-the-box support for the newest GPUs, including RDNA4 and RTX 50 series. It even gets your ROG Ally running nicely.

www.neowin.net

 

[SeriousHoax]

There is no mention of whether the Limine bootloader supports secure boot or not.
Nothing has been added to their wiki, still Grub and systemd-boot.

Secure Boot Setup

Set up secure boot with sbctl after installing CachyOS

wiki.cachyos.org

 

[simmerskool]

There is no mention of whether the Limine bootloader supports secure boot or not.
Nothing has been added to their wiki, still Grub and systemd-boot.

Secure Boot Setup

Set up secure boot with sbctl after installing CachyOS

wiki.cachyos.org

@SeriousHoax sidenote fwiw: I installed CachyOS with KDE Plasma last night in VMware workstation to check it out. the install went well up to point, I recall using Limine. but CachyOS seems to have an issue with vmtools in that it is not letting me copy / paste from host, although VMware copy / paste is enabled. tried several terminal cmds suggested by chatGPT, and normally an issue like this gets resolved lickity-split, but I was getting punchy around 200am and gave up. (then booted fedora 44 -- it just works ) will try again with CachyOS tonight / tomorrow...

 

[SeriousHoax]

@SeriousHoax sidenote fwiw: I installed CachyOS with KDE Plasma last night in VMware workstation to check it out. the install went well up to point, I recall using Limine. but CachyOS seems to have an issue with vmtools in that it is not letting me copy / paste from host, although VMware copy / paste is enabled. tried several terminal cmds suggested by chatGPT, and normally an issue like this gets resolved lickity-split, but I was getting punchy around 200am and gave up. (then booted fedora 44 -- it just works ) will try again with CachyOS tonight / tomorrow...

The host-vm copy-paste issue is related to wayland. On X11 they work perfectly with every distro but not stable with wayland. Though I actually had much better experience with copy-paste on CachyOS on VMware than Fedora Maybe Fedora and Wayland has improved this matter in recent times. I should check out Fedora 44.

 

[lokamoka820]

The host-vm copy-paste issue is related to wayland. On X11 they work perfectly with every distro but not stable with wayland. Though I actually had much better experience with copy-paste on CachyOS on VMware than Fedora Maybe Fedora and Wayland has improved this matter in recent times. I should check out Fedora 44.

Regarding X11 and Wayland, is X11 still required or is Wayland adequate at this point? I've noticed that major distribution companies are starting to switch to Wayland with their latest releases.

 

[Schug]

There is no mention of whether the Limine bootloader supports secure boot or not.
Nothing has been added to their wiki, still Grub and systemd-boot.

Secure Boot Setup

Set up secure boot with sbctl after installing CachyOS

wiki.cachyos.org

Limine supports secure boot. I just set it up following the page you linked running a dual boot with Windows 11. You need to follow Limine section on that page (and the content before it). The only current downside is that some intrusive anti-cheats (FACEIT - Counter-Strike) on Windows don't allow Windows to be chainloaded via Limine (you will get an error launching the anti-cheat). When I want to play FACEIT, I have to make sure I boot Windows boot manager from UEFI (not Limine). I'm sure other anti-cheats will follow suit at some point.

 

[SeriousHoax]

Regarding X11 and Wayland, is X11 still required or is Wayland adequate at this point? I've noticed that major distribution companies are starting to switch to Wayland with their latest releases.

I don't think you would need X11 for anything at the moment. Wayland is the future, and it's stable enough for most things nowadays and most distros has started to use it as the default. If anyone needs X11 there is XLibre which is a fork of X11 that is actively maintained.

Limine supports secure boot. I just set it up following the page you linked running a dual boot with Windows 11. You need to follow Limine section on that page (and the content before it). The only current downside is that some intrusive anti-cheats (FACEIT - Counter-Strike) on Windows don't allow Windows to be chainloaded via Limine (you will get an error launching the anti-cheat). When I want to play FACEIT, I have to make sure I boot Windows boot manager from UEFI (not Limine). I'm sure other anti-cheats will follow suit at some point.

Yeah, since that comment of mine I have tried Secure Boot with Limine but I wasn't aware of the anticheat issue. I don't play CS but I play Rainbow Six Siege often which uses BattleEye anticheat+their own. I don't know if BattleEye has any incompatibility with windows booting from Limine. I'm not dual-booting at the moment.

 

[simmerskool]

Regarding X11 and Wayland, is X11 still required or is Wayland adequate at this point? I've noticed that major distribution companies are starting to switch to Wayland with their latest releases.

I think fedora is only Wayland for awhile and it works well, or no issues for my fedora but chatGPT suggested something similar to @SeriousHoax re X11 (Wayland) re my copy/paste issue with CachyOS, (I got jammed up with life the past 2 days and haven't gotten back to CachyOS to see if I can fix it).