CachyOS March 2025 update adds new bootloader and updated hardware support to the Linux distribution

CachyOS is back with a fresh March 2025 release for the Linux distribution. The development team focused heavily on hardware support this time around, and it definitely shows. There’s a ton packed into this update, with improvements aimed at both desktop and handheld users.

Let’s start with something big: Limine. CachyOS now supports this bootloader, which works with both BIOS and UEFI setups. It even offers theming, similar to Grub. On top of that, if you’re using BTRFS as your filesystem, you’ll get automatic snapshot support right out of the box. That’s huge for anyone who wants an easy rollback option without extra configuration.

Another highlight is Samba support. After hearing from users, the developers added a new package called cachyos-samba-settings to make Samba setup easier. It’s a small addition, but for people running mixed networks or sharing files between machines, it will make life much simpler.

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Nvidia users will want to pay attention. CachyOS has re-enabled GSP Firmware for the proprietary Nvidia driver, following improvements on Nvidia’s side. It’s a move aimed at making newer hardware play nicer with Linux, and it looks like the rough edges have finally been smoothed out.

ASUS laptop and handheld users also have something to cheer about. The kernel now includes support for the ASUS Armoury driver, which should improve fan control and power management on devices like the ROG Ally. This is especially useful for gamers or anyone using one of ASUS’s newer machines.

CachyOS is now using a customized Wine build that switches to WoW64, cutting out some of the dependency bloat from lib32 libraries. With Steam moving in a similar direction, this update could help future-proof gaming on Linux. And speaking of performance, Wine and Wine-Staging will now default to NTSync, which should speed up many Windows apps running through Wine.

Hardware support gets a big boost too. RDNA4 and Nvidia’s RTX 5070 and 5070 Ti cards are now supported out of the box. Users shouldn’t run into any hiccups installing the OS on machines with this newer gear. CachyOS also added DLSS Swapper support, which helps keep DLSS files up to date with the latest versions. It’s a nice touch for gamers who want to squeeze out every bit of performance.

There are some fixes and rollbacks as well. The ntfs3 kernel driver is no longer the default after users ran into problems with NTFS drives. And for Intel users, the deprecated crc32c-intel module has been removed from mkinitcpio. If you’re still using it, you’ll want to update your config manually.

The new ISO is available now here for both Desktop and Handheld editions.