CachyOS' latest update brings accessibility tools, easier installation, and much more

CachyOS's November update focuses on accessibility improvements and broadens hardware support for its users. Notably, the installer now includes the Orca screen reader and espeak-ng speech synthesizer, enabling visually impaired users to more easily navigate the installation process.

In parallel, the distribution’s installer expands support for login managers. Cosmic Greeter is enabled for COSMIC desktop installations, while support for Plasma Login Manager is being developed but remains on hold until KDE Settings integration is complete. To aid users with specific storage needs, the mkinitcpio “systemd” hook is now enabled by default and auto-disabled when ZFS or Bcachefs filesystems are selected due to incompatibility. Bcachefs users also benefit from the new default inclusion of bcachefs-dkms, replacing the standard kernel module for improved integration.

Building on system compatibility, CachyOS now installs intel-media-sdk and vpl-gpu-rt for supported Intel GPUs, has ended support for NVIDIA’s 390xx driver, shifts Fermi GPU users to Nouveau NvBoost, and introduces support for Xbox ROG Ally and ROG Ally X handheld devices.

Following user experience refinements, CachyOS-Hello launches the PackageInstaller with the “Install Apps” button and now supports command-line operations. On the gaming side, Proton-CachyOS introduces dxvk-gplasync for Direct3D support and disables AMD's Anti-Lag with FSR4 upgrades for greater stability. Finally, the update fixes Limine bootloader issues on certain UEFI systems and switches the btrfs-overlayfs hook to the systemd version for compatibility.