Part of CachyOS Wiki Notes. From the official CachyOS wiki (last updated 2026-05-20).

Installing CachyOS on a Desktop or Laptop

Before you begin

• If only GRUB and Limine show up as boot manager options after Launch Installer, the system booted in Legacy/BIOS mode.
• Legacy USB Support should be Auto.
• Install alongside and Replace partition “are not 100% reliable and can cause the installation to fail.”
• Manual partitioning is strongly preferred.
• After a failed install, reboot into the ISO — the installer does not properly unmount partitions on failure, which causes continuous errors.
• Secure Boot is configured post-install (separate wiki page).

Check the boot mode:

efibootmgr -v

If it prints EFI variables are not supported on this system. you booted Legacy/BIOS — enable UEFI in firmware settings.

Manual partitioning (UEFI/GPT)

Flow: Launch Installer -> Language + Region/Timezone -> Keyboard Layout -> Manual partitioning -> boot partition -> root partition -> DE -> packages -> login credentials -> summary -> Install Now. (MBR/BIOS has its own tab.)

Boot partition (step 5)

• Limine: ≥ 4096 MiB, FAT32, mount /boot, flags boot.
• systemd-boot & rEFInd: same parameters as Limine; the partition table varies per boot manager.
• GRUB: follow the GRUB tab’s parameters.

Root partition (step 6)

• Size ≥ 20000 MiB, filesystem any (see CachyOS Filesystems), mount /, no flags.

Dual booting with Windows

• Not 100% reliable: Windows updates can overwrite the EFI partition and break the bootloader. Separate drives avoid this.
• The EFI partition may need resizing to meet the boot manager’s minimum size.
• FAT filesystems cannot be resized in place — back up the EFI filesystem, resize + reformat with something like gparted, then copy the filesystem structure back.

Windows-side prerequisites:

powercfg /H off

(Run in PowerShell as administrator — disables Fast Startup and Hibernation; reboot after.)

manage-bde -status

(Encryption Method showing None = BitLocker disabled; BitLocker must be off.)

Also required: Secure Boot disabled, a ≥30 GB empty partition (shrink a Windows partition via Win + R -> diskmgmt.msc -> right-click the main partition, usually C: -> Shrink Volume... -> at least 30720 MB), and a bootable CachyOS USB.

Limine should auto-detect the Windows EFI partition. If Windows does not appear in the boot menu:

sudo limine-scan

Related: Preparing a CachyOS USB Installer, CachyOS Boot Managers, CachyOS Desktop Environments.