The CachyOS team has released the June 2026 ISO, delivering another feature-packed update for its Arch Linux-based distribution. Known for its aggressive performance optimizations and gaming-focused approach, CachyOS continues refining both the user experience and the underlying system with improvements ranging from compiler tuning to installer enhancements and new desktop options.

As the project’s fourth major ISO refresh of the year, the June release emphasizes speed, usability, and modern hardware support while remaining fully compatible with Arch Linux’s rolling-release ecosystem.

A New Hyprland Noctalia Desktop Experience

One of the headline additions is a new Hyprland Noctalia desktop option available directly from the installer.

Noctalia provides a polished, preconfigured Hyprland environment with a modern appearance, allowing users to enjoy a highly customizable Wayland compositor without spending hours configuring dotfiles after installation. The installer even includes a preview so users can see the desktop before selecting it.

For users interested in lightweight, keyboard-driven workflows, this new option makes Hyprland much more approachable.

Performance Optimizations Continue

Performance remains the defining characteristic of CachyOS, and the June 2026 release introduces several additional optimizations.

Notable improvements include:

• Python packages now built using extended Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO)
• A new GCC branch prediction tuning patch designed to improve performance on modern Intel and AMD processors
• A fix for an OpenBLAS regression affecting high-core-count CPUs
• Additional package-level optimizations throughout the distribution

These updates continue CachyOS’s philosophy of extracting as much performance as possible from modern hardware.

Improved Package Management and Security

The June release also includes several important changes to package management.

One notable enhancement is network isolation for Pacman scriptlets and hooks, preventing installation scripts from accessing the network by default. This improves security during package installation and reduces the risk of unexpected behavior.

Additionally:

• proton-cachyos has been renamed to proton-cachyos-native
• The installer no longer includes the paru AUR helper
• Users are now encouraged to use Shelly, available with both graphical and command-line interfaces

Installer Improvements

The installation experience has received considerable attention in this release.

Updates include: