Post Install

Updating The System

Using Octopi (GUI)

Octopi is a graphical package manager for Arch-based distributions that provides a convenient way to manage packages and updates. To update your system with Octopi, follow these steps:

1. Launch Octopi from the application menu.
2. In the main window, click on the Check updates button (Top left), now next to it System upgrade.
3. Octopi will now check for available updates and prompt you to either install them on Octopi itself or in a terminal.
4. To proceed with the update, click the Apply button.
5. Octopi will download and install the updates.
6. It is advised to reboot your computer after a big update (especially if the kernel got an update).

Using Pacman

1. Open a terminal emulator (or press ctrl + alt + t - mod + return in a WM e.G Qtile).

2. Run the following command to update the system:

   sudo pacman -Syu

3. It is advised to reboot your computer after a big update (especially if the kernel got an update).

Offline System Update

CachyOS supports offline system upgrades using the pacman-offline script. This allows your system to download package updates and apply them on the next reboot. (Yes like on Windows)

Note

The pacman-offline tool integrates with systemd’s offline updates feature. It automatically handles kernel updates and module loading.

The /etc/pacman.d/offline.conf file is crucial for managing which packages are updated during regular and offline updates. Ensure it’s configured correctly for your desired kernel or add the packages you want so they only get updated during the pacman-offline execution and get ignored in a regular update. Example: pacman -Syu.

If you enable the automatic update timer, you no longer need to manually update your system.

1. Install the pacman-offline package

   sudo pacman -S pacman-offline

2. Telling Pacman to read from the separate package ignore list.

   Add the following line to the /etc/pacman.conf file

   Include = /etc/pacman.d/offline.conf

   Example

   # REPOSITORIES
   #   - can be defined here or included from another file
   #   - pacman will search repositories in the order defined here
   #   - local/custom mirrors can be added here or in separate files
   #   - repositories listed first will take precedence when packages
   #     have identical names, regardless of version number
   #   - URLs will have $repo replaced by the name of the current repo
   #   - URLs will have $arch replaced by the name of the architecture
   #
   # Repository entries are of the format:
   #       [repo-name]
   #       Server = ServerName
   #       Include = IncludePath
   #
   # The header [repo-name] is crucial - it must be present and
   # uncommented to enable the repo.
   #
   
   Include = /etc/pacman.d/offline.conf

3. Adding the CachyOS kernels in order to make pacman ignore them during regular updates

   The pacman-offline tool uses this file to determine which packages to ignore during the traditional pacman updates.

   Example: when you run sudo pacman -Syu

   Replace the contents of the /etc/pacman.d/offline.conf file with the following:

   # Arch Linux kernels
   IgnorePkg = linux linux-headers linux-docs
   IgnorePkg = linux-lts linux-lts-headers linux-lts-docs
   IgnorePkg = linux-zen linux-zen-headers linux-zen-docs
   IgnorePkg = linux-hardened linux-hardened-headers linux-hardened-docs
   
   # CachyOS kernels
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos linux-cachyos-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-bmq linux-cachyos-bmq-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-bore linux-cachyos-bore-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-deckify linux-cachyos-deckify-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-eevdf linux-cachyos-eevdf-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-gcc linux-cachyos-gcc-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-hardened linux-cachyos-hardened-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-lts linux-cachyos-lts-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-rc linux-cachyos-rc-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-rt-bore linux-cachyos-rt-bore-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-sched-ext linux-cachyos-sched-ext-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-server linux-cachyos-server-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-lto linux-cachyos-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-bmq-lto linux-cachyos-bmq-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-bore-lto linux-cachyos-bore-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-deckify-lto linux-cachyos-deckify-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-eevdf-lto linux-cachyos-eevdf-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-gcc-lto linux-cachyos-gcc-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-hardened-lto linux-cachyos-hardened-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-lts-lto linux-cachyos-lts-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-rc-lto linux-cachyos-rc-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-rt-bore-lto linux-cachyos-rt-bore-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-sched-ext-lto linux-cachyos-sched-ext-lto-headers
   IgnorePkg = linux-cachyos-server-lto linux-cachyos-server-lto-headers

   Now all of those packages are going to get ignored in the regular updates but checked during the offline preparation.

4. Start the preparation for the offline update only once

   Run the following command

   sudo systemctl start pacman-offline-prepare.service

   This command will then make pacman-offline to execute once and synchronize the package databases and proceed to download updates but doesn’t install them.

If you want this script to be automated. Follow the following steps:

1. Enable the preparation timer

   The pacman-offline-prepare.timer being enabled will allow systemd to trigger this script to download updates in a daily basis after a few minutes of every system startup.

   sudo systemctl enable pacman-offline-prepare.timer

2. Reboot your system:

   The updates will be installed during the next system reboot.

3. (Optional) Automatic System Reboots:

   Enable the pacman-offline-reboot.timer to automatically reboot your system by default at 3am (Your timezone) if they’re pending updates. Be aware that its not always at the same time schedule due to the inclusion of RandomizedDelaySec which is set to 2 hours by default.

   sudo systemctl enable pacman-offline-reboot.timer

   Tip

   You can edit the pacman-offline-reboot.timer file to either modify at what time you want your system to reboot if they’re is any pending update or disable the randomized schedule.

Configuring Firewall (ufw)

Note

UFW is enabled by default after installation.

To configure ufw, follow these steps:

Enable

sudo ufw enable

Disable

sudo ufw disable

Allow

By default, ufw allows all incoming and outgoing traffic, you can add specific rules to the firewall to block or allow specific connections.

# For example:
sudo ufw allow ssh

Deny

# To deny a specific port, check the following example:
sudo ufw deny 80

Status

sudo ufw status verbose

Note

Be careful when configuring firewall rules, as improperly configured rules can lock you out of your own system.

Note

You can also configure it graphically using “Firewall” section in the KDE Plasma settings.

Enabling Global Menu

For some apps like Visual Studio Code, the global menu may not work or may be attached to the parent app instead of the panel.

# To enable global menu support, run the command and restart the app.
sudo pacman -S appmenu-gtk-module libdbusmenu-glib

Enable AppArmor support using AppArmor.d profiles (Optional)

1. Add the following kernel parameters to your Boot Manager, see Boot Manager Configuration for reference

   lsm=landlock,lockdown,yama,integrity,apparmor,bpf

2. Install apparmor and apparmord (Set of over +1500 profiles) packages

   sudo pacman -S apparmor apparmor.d-git

3. Enable/Start AppArmor service

   systemctl enable --now apparmor.service

4. Enable caching for AppArmor profiles

   /etc/apparmor/parser.conf

   ## Add the following lines:
   write-cache
   Optimize=compress-fast

   Save the file and reboot.

Changing the Default Shell

Currently, CachyOS uses fish as the user’s default login shell. However, you can change the default shell to whatever you like.

bash

This is the default shell on almost every Linux distribution. It is also still used as the root user’s login shell. bash has basic autocomplete functionality and easy history management. It differs from zsh and fish in that it doesn’t have the fancy customization and plugin ecosystem that both fish and zsh have.

Changing your default shell to bash

❯ chsh -s /usr/bin/bash

zsh

We provide a zsh config with commonly used plugins and configurations. It aims to have 1:1 functionality with our fish config. This is also the default shell used in MacOS.

Changing the default shell to zsh

❯ chsh -s /usr/bin/zsh

Updating/using tldr

Note

CachyOS uses tealdeer which is a faster Rust based implementation of the original tldr

This tool is extremely useful for those who don’t want to read much or waste time reading a help/man page.

1. Open a terminal and run the following command

   tldr --update

2. Example of using tldr:

   tldr java
     Execute a `.jar` program:
   
      java -jar filename.jar
   
   # As you can see, it's really useful and it new tools/pages get added over time