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CachyOS Setup Guide.

cachyos desktop image

CachyOS Website Wiki

Recently switched for CachyOS with KDE Plasma desktop. Here are some notes / stuff I learned from doing so. This is really for my own information; follow or use it at your own risk.

Before Install

  • Turn off Secure Boot in bios.
  • Install CachyOS

Desktop - KDE Plasma . I originally tried Gnome but it had some weird stuff going on with my mouse pointer in games. There were hacks to get around it, but it wasn’t pretty. So I started again with the default / suggest desktop.

Note :- the installer kept failing for me after asking for username/password screen. I discovered that rerunning it usually fixed the issue. It seemed the installer had an issue if you have to resize or re-partition a hd/ssd drive.

After install - Update

Ensure everything is up to date.

	pacamn -Syu

There is also an update alias you can use instead.

 update -noconfirm

(no confirm stops it from prompting the update packages)

CachyOS updates regularly, there is an icon in the system tray. Only really need to click it once a week, or type the commands above.

See bottom of this guide on how to enable secure boot

Install display Link Drivers

paru -S displaylink evdi-dkms
sudo systemctl enable --now displaylink

Reboot..

When it restarts the 3rd monitor might be flickering, go to display configuration and set it’s refresh rate down to 120htz.

Then to prevent it happening on reboot, go to “Login Screen” settings and click the Apply Plasma Settings button at the top.

Google Drive setup

sudo pacman -S kio-gdrive kaccounts-providers fuse2
curl -sL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Amm1rr/9fe79a845d0cee5f32b3999af1659752/raw/fix_kde_google_integration.sh | bash

Go to system settings, online accounts and add a google account.

VS Code

In the cachyos hello program (start -> hello) select Install Apps it’s there in Envelopment.

Steam Gaming

In cachyos hello program CachyOS Install Gaming Packages is all you need to click on.

Bitwarden

  • Open the CachyOS-Hello application, which usually starts upon logging in.
  • Navigate to the app selection/download section.
  • Repo Tab..
  • Search for Bitwarden.

OnlyOffice

  • Open the CachyOS-Hello application, which usually starts upon logging in.
  • Navigate to the app selection/download section.
  • Repo Tab..
  • Search for OnlyOffice.

CachyOS + Limine Secure Boot Guide (Strict Mode)

This guide covers the “new” requirements for Limine, including wallpaper hashing and configuration enrollment.

1. Preparation

Enter your BIOS and set Secure Boot to Setup Mode (Clear/Delete keys). Ensure your current bootloader is working before starting.

2. Configure Automation

CachyOS has a built-in variable to handle Limine’s strict security. Enable it first:

echo "ENABLE_ENROLL_LIMINE_CONFIG=yes" | sudo tee -a /etc/default/limine

3. Hash the Wallpaper

Limine requires a BLAKE2B hash of your wallpaper to be appended to the path in your config file.

  1. Generate the hash:

    # Default CachyOS splash is usually /boot/limine-splash.png or /boot/cachy.png
sudo b2sum /boot/limine-splash.png

    (Copy the long alphanumeric string it outputs)

  2. Edit the config:

    sudo nano /boot/limine.conf

    Find the wallpaper: line and append the hash using a # (no spaces). It should look like this: wallpaper: boot():/limine-splash.png#<your_copied_hash_here>

4. Key Enrollment

Enroll your own keys without Microsoft’s influence:

sudo sbctl create-keys
sudo sbctl enroll-keys -n

5. Enroll and Update Limine

Now, you need to “seal” the configuration and sign the binaries.

  1. Enroll the config:

    sudo limine-enroll-config
sudo limine-update

  2. Sign the Bootloader:

    # Sign both the primary and the fallback/location-specific binaries
sudo sbctl sign -s /boot/EFI/BOOT/BOOTX64.EFI
sudo sbctl sign -s /boot/EFI/limine/limine_x64.efi

  3. Sign the Kernel:

    sudo sbctl sign -s /boot/vmlinuz-linux-cachyos

6. Verification

Run sudo sbctl verify. If everything is valid, reboot and enable Secure Boot in your BIOS.

Why the wallpaper matters?

In the newest versions of Limine, if Secure Boot is ON, the bootloader operates on a “Trust Nothing” policy. If a file (like limine.conf or a splash image) isn’t explicitly hashed and that hash isn’t embedded into the signed .efi binary, Limine considers it a potential security breach and will halt.

Cool CachyOS Wallpapers

I found a github repo that has a few nice wallpapers for CachyOS. I used one for my blog post, more are available here.