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Ryoku ships and boots the stock Arch linux kernel. The Hub’s Extras section can add the CachyOS kernel (linux-cachyos) as an opt-in alternative. This page is what to weigh before flipping it, what it does and does not change, and how to back out. Your stock kernel is never removed, so this is a low-risk toggle.

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Should you switch?

  • An optimized, patched build: Clang ThinLTO and AutoFDO, an x86-64-v3 target, and the Cachy patchset.
  • The mainline EEVDF scheduler with sched-ext compiled in, so you can opt into a latency or gaming scheduler (scx_lavd and friends) via scx-scheds.
  • A modest, workload-dependent throughput edge on CPU-bound work, plus steadier behaviour under load.
The gain is real for gamers and heavy multitaskers; a light desktop will barely notice it. Whatever you decide, your stock Arch kernel stays installed and remains the safe fallback you can always boot.
The CachyOS kernel requires a CPU that supports x86-64-v3 (essentially every CPU since roughly 2015). The installer refuses to add the repo on a CPU that does not.

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Enable it

1

Open Extras

Ryoku Settings (Mod+,) > Store / Extras, then find CachyOS Kernel.
2

Install the bundle

Install it like any other Extras bundle. Under the hood the Hub runs ryoku-extras-install, which adds the [cachyos-v3] repository (signing the CachyOS key and inserting the repo above [core]) and installs linux-cachyos and linux-cachyos-headers.
3

Reboot

A reboot is required to actually run the new kernel. On a Ryoku install the Limine boot entries regenerate automatically when the kernel package lands, so linux-cachyos appears in the boot menu and the stock kernel stays the default.
Prefer the terminal? ryoku-extras-install install bundle cachyos-kernel does the same thing. See Extras for how bundles work.
Installing the kernel rebuilds every DKMS module against it, so watch for NVIDIA build errors during the transaction. /boot also gains a second kernel image and initramfs, so it uses more space.

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What changes, and what doesn’t

Ryoku adds only the [cachyos-v3] repository and installs the kernel. That repo holds CachyOS’s own packages rather than rebuilds of Arch’s core and extra, so the kernel is the only thing sourced from CachyOS. Deliberately left out:
  • The baseline [cachyos] repo (which ships CachyOS’s forked pacman).
  • The cachyos-core-v3 / cachyos-extra-v3 userland rebuilds.
That means a later pacman -Syu cannot quietly replace your userland or your package manager. Your desktop, defaults, apps, and the [ryoku] repo are exactly as before; you have simply borrowed a kernel. Kernel updates flow through the normal ryoku update run, snapshots and all.

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Is it still Ryoku?

Yes. A distribution is defined by its desktop, tooling, repository, and defaults, not by which kernel it boots. Installing linux-cachyos is the same kind of choice as linux-zen or linux-lts: one swappable component. The system stays Ryoku, on the Arch base, with the [ryoku] desktop, the ryoku CLI, and the same opinionated defaults. /etc/os-release still reads exactly as before. Opinionated does not mean fixed. The Ryoku default is opinionated: a fresh install boots the stock Arch kernel, and that choice is ours to make. The CachyOS kernel is an explicit opt-in, never the default. Offering the toggle does not dilute the default install; it hands a power user one clearly labelled lever and leaves everyone else exactly where they were.
This is not a full CachyOS install. CachyOS’s own ISO gives you their entire optimized userland, their pacman fork, and their branding, a CachyOS system, not Ryoku’s shell and Hub. The toggle exists so you can get the kernel’s benefit without giving up the thing that makes the machine Ryoku.

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Rollback

Rollback is built in and cheap:
  • Just boot the stock kernel. The stock Arch kernel is never removed. If the CachyOS kernel misbehaves, pick the stock entry at the Limine menu and you are back. There is nothing to undo.
  • Recover the whole transaction. Installing the kernel is a pacman transaction, so snapper and snap-pac take a pre/post snapshot pair and limine-snapper-sync exposes them in the boot menu; a whole bad transaction is recoverable from the boot screen. See Updates.
  • Remove it outright. In Ryoku Settings > Extras > CachyOS Kernel, choose remove, or run ryoku-pkg-remove linux-cachyos linux-cachyos-headers. The [cachyos-v3] repo line is left in place; it is inert with no CachyOS packages installed, so delete it by hand only if you want a spotless pacman.conf.

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See also

Extras

How the Extras bundles install, update, and remove software.

Updates

Snapshots, the boot-menu recovery path, and how updates stay reversible.
Last modified on July 4, 2026