Preparation steps

System Requirements

Before you begin with the preparation for installation, you need to make sure that your computer meets the following system requirements in order to run CachyOS.

Minimum requirements
Recommended requirements

3 GB RAM
30 GB of Storage Space (HDD/SSD)
x86-64-v1 capable CPU (64-bit)
Integrated graphics card
Stable internet connection

x86_64 Microarchitecture Level Support

Intel
- Anything older than Haswell. For example: Intel 3770k, Intel N2600
AMD
- Anything older than Zen. For example: AMD FX Series

Creating a Bootable CachyOS USB Drive

There are several tools and methods that you can use to create a bootable USB drive of CachyOS. The USB drive must have at least 8GB of available space.

balenaEtcher

Download balenaEtcher. balenaEtcher supports flashing an image of Linux, MacOS and Windows. If you downloaded the .zip file, extract it and execute the binary using the following commands:
Terminal window
```
# Extract zip file:
bsdtar xvf <zip file name>
# cd to the new folder:
cd balenaEtcher-linux-x64/
# Execute balenaEtcher:
./balena-etcher
```
Plug in your USB drive to your system.
Select Flash from file and select the CachyOS ISO image file.
Click Select target and choose the label that matches your USB drive.
Press Flash to start the flashing process.

At the end of flash process you will get a Flash Completed! message. Close balenaEtcher and reboot your system to boot into CachyOS.

Command Line Interface (Linux & MacOS)

Plug in your USB drive.

Detect the plugged USB drive using the following commands:

# Linux
# Your USB drive could be identified e.g: /dev/sda, by disk model and size.
sudo fdisk -l

# MacOS
# USB drives are identified as "/dev/diskY" where "Y" could be 0,1 etc.
diskutil list

Copy the iso contents to your USB drive by running:

# Replace <usbdrive> with the label of your drive.
sudo dd bs=4M if=full_iso_name.iso of=/dev/<usbdrive> status=progress oflag=sync

dd will now copy the contents of the ISO file over to your USB drive. Once it’s done, you will be ready to use the USB drive as the CachyOS installation media. Reboot your system to boot into CachyOS.

Rufus (Windows Only)

Plug in USB drive.
Download Rufus and install it, or run the portable version.
On Device, click on the dropdown list and select your USB drive.
On Boot selection, click on SELECT and locate the CachyOS ISO image file.
Click START.

Plug in your USB drive.
Download Ventoy

Untar Ventoy using the following command:

# Replace version with the correct one e.g: ventoy-1.0.99-linux.tar.gz
bsdtar xvf ventoy-version-linux.tar.gz
# cd to the new folder: (version might change)
cd ventoy-1.0.99/

Execute VentoyGUI.x86_64 by either double clicking on it or via terminal:
Terminal window
```
# It will ask for administrative privileges, enter your credentials
./VentoyGUI.x86_64
```
Select your USB drive by clicking on Device.
Click on Install.
After it finished installing Ventoy into your USB drive, you can now close the window and place the CachyOS ISO file into the new usable partition of the drive.