CachyOS has released its June 2026 update, adding the new Hyprland Noctalia desktop, DNS-over-QUIC support, and a GCC branch prediction tuning patch for modern CPUs. The installer now drops paru in favor of Shelly and fixes a lingering 90-second shutdown delay with new user service timeouts. Python gains extended PGO, pacman adds network isolation for hooks, and proton-cachyos has been renamed to proton-cachyos-native. Existing users can update immediately via the standard package manager refresh.

CachyOS June 2026 Release Brings Hyprland 'Noctalia', DNS-over-QUIC, and GCC Branch Tuning

The fourth update of the year swaps paru for Shelly, fixes a 90-second shutdown hang, and rewrites pacman network isolation for scriptlets and hooks.

CachyOS has dropped its June 2026 release, and the changelog is doing exactly what the distro was built to do: tune everything under the hood until it hums. You've got a new Hyprland option featuring the Noctalia shell, which some readers may know from PikaOS, DNS-over-QUIC support baked into the welcome app, and a GCC patch that actually teaches your compiler how to handle branch mispredictions on modern Intel and AMD silicon.

It's been a busy year for the German-based Arch derivative. As of March, CachyOS reportedly surpassed vanilla Arch to become the most popular desktop distribution, a claim fueled by its aggressive rebuild of every package with x86-64-v3/v4 and Zen4 instruction sets. This latest drop keeps that momentum going, focusing on the developer experience, gaming tweaks, and some very specific bug fixes that only a power user would notice.

Performance and Compiler Tweaks

The package stack got some serious love. Python now uses extended PGO, which should make Python-heavy workloads feel noticeably snappier. On the compiler side, they've added a patch for generic x86 branch misprediction tuning. If you're compiling code on a modern CPU, GCC will now account for branch misprediction costs more accurately.

We also see pacman gaining network isolation for scriptlets and hooks by default—a security win you probably didn't know you needed until now.

Next, the regression in Phoronix Benchmarks with OpenBLAS on high core-count CPUs is finally squashed. proton-cachyos has been renamed to proton-cachyos-native to align with the "native" naming convention.

Desktop, Installer, and Hardware

For desktop variety, there's a new Hyprland option with the Noctalia shell, complete with a preview video so you aren't guessing what you're installing. paru has been yanked from the installer; the project now pushes Shelly (GUI or CLI) as the go-to AUR helper.

MangoWM is moving to SDDM, and GNOME System Monitor has been swapped for a tool just called "Resources." If you're running audio, you'll get realtime-privileges added to that package group now. Live sessions also get better keyboard layout detection.

The CachyOS-Welcome app now supports DNS over QUIC via blocky, with custom endpoints if you're that way inclined. They've added a dedicated Troubleshooting page, Ptyxis terminal support, and localizations for Azerbaijani and Greek. Existing translations in Italian, German, French, Japanese, and Bulgarian were refreshed. They also fixed a crash where saved settings couldn't be read—settings now reset to defaults instead of blowing up.

chwd, the hardware detection tool, now resolves driver conflicts on multi-GPU systems where cards need incompatible driver branches. It'll install the best common driver or fall back to the primary GPU. There's also a 32-bit Vulkan driver for virtual machines now.

In cachyos-settings, they applied 15-second startup and 10-second shutdown timeouts to user services. This is the fix for the 90-second shutdown delays that have been plaguing the distro when services refuse to quit. The installer itself saw maintenance: it handles keyboard layout ordering correctly now, copies the right pacman config, and finally cleans up leftover /etc/calamares directories. The redundant Limine post-install step is gone. Selecting "Install Apps" in Welcome no longer crashes if cachyos-pi isn't there; the button just hides itself.

The removal of paru is a statement. Shelly is solid, but it signals a shift in how the project wants users to interact with the AUR. The 90-second shutdown fix is the kind of quality-of-life patch that makes a distro feel polished. And the GCC branch prediction tuning? That's pure CachyOS. You're not just getting Arch with a skin; you're getting Arch with the compiler whispering in the CPU's ear.

No manual changes needed for existing users. Just run the usual update:

sudo pacman -Syu

You can grab the Desktop Edition ISO from the official download page.