Phase 1: Making a Bootable Drive

The reasons are clear. The safety net is active. Now, let’s build "The Powerhouse". Follow the steps below to flash your drive and take control of your hardware.

1. Download the CachyOS ISO: Head to the official CachyOS Website and grab the latest version by clicking either “Download Desktop Edition” or “Download Handheld Edition”, and then select “Direct” (Direct means downloading directly from Cachy).
2. Download BalenaEtcher: Head to the official BalenaEtcher Website and click “Download Etcher”, then choose the version that your system requires.
3. Flash the ISO onto the Drive: Now it is time to flash the ISO onto the drive:
   • Plug in your USB drive: It must be at least 8GB in size. Warning: This will wipe everything on your USB; make sure to back up anything important on the drive to the cloud to avoid data loss.
   • Select the Image: Open BalenaEtcher and select “Flash from file” to pick your CachyOS ISO file.
   • Select the Target: Select your target USB. It should automatically fill this in with your USB device, but if it doesn't, make sure to select the correct drive manually.
   • Flash: Hit “Flash!” and wait for your device to finish flashing. You should receive a message saying “Flash Complete”.

Phase 2: Making a Partition for CachyOS

Follow the steps below to configure your custom storage block inside Windows:

1. Open Disk Management: Open your search bar on your start menu and search for “Disk Management”.
2. Shrink your Volume (Drive): Right-click the drive that you would like to shrink and select “Shrink Volume”.
3. Choose the amount: Enter the amount of space that you feel like you would need for CachyOS in mebibytes (MiB). I would recommend at the very least 20 gigabytes (GB) (in mebibytes this is 20000MiB).
4. Complete the Shrink: Click “Shrink”. You should now see an empty space with that amount titled “Unallocated Space”. Leave this exactly as it is; the CachyOS installer will use this space later.

Phase 2.1: Making Your PC Boot from USB

Now we need to tell your computer to load the USB environment instead of Windows via the BIOS:

1. Restart and Tap the Key: Restart your PC after your USB drive has been flashed. As soon as the screen goes black, start spamming your BIOS key repeatedly. Common keys are F12, F2, F10, or Delete.
2. Select Your USB Device: Find your storage list menu (usually at the top) and move your USB device brand name to the front of the list.
3. Disable Secure Boot: You must disable Secure Boot or the system won't load the drive. For MSI, look under the security tab. For non-MSI, research your specific motherboard path. Save changes on exit.
4. Entering the Live Environment: Wait for the CachyOS boot screen to load, select the first option, and wait for the desktop to initialise.

Phase 3: Running the Dual Boot Installer

1. Launch the Installer: Click on the “Launch Installer” button inside the CachyOS Hello dashboard menu.
2. Choose Limine as Your Bootloader: When presented with the selection notification prompt, choose Limine.
3. Select Your Language: Choose your preferred setup language.
4. Select Your Region: Select your location parameters.
5. Select Your Keyboard Layout: Match this exactly to your physical laptop or desktop hardware keyboard.
6. Select Manual Partition: Choose manual partition to keep full granular control and avoid modifying your active Windows installation workspace. Click “Next”.
7. Partition Layout: Click on the empty unallocated space block we made earlier. Click “Create”, input 4016 MiB, set the file system to fat32, set mountpoint to /boot, and check the boot flag box. Click “OK”. Click the remaining space, hit “Create”, leave the size default, set the file system to btrfs, and set mountpoint to “/” (root). Click “OK”, then "Next".
8. Choose the Desktop Environment: Select your preferred skin layer appearance layout. My primary recommendations are KDE Plasma (Windows-esque customisation) or GNOME (Mac layout structure style). Click “Next”.
9. Installing Additional Packages: Select the checkboxes for “Printing-Support” and “Support for HP Printer/Scanner” so that your computer is immediately ready to print documents without the hassle of looking for drivers. Click “Next.”
10. User Credentials: Configure your profile fields (Name, Username, Computer Name). Fill out a strong, secure administrative password layout (I recommend a cloud keeper solution like NordPass). Leave auto-login disabled for network safety. Click “Next.”
11. Summary: Complete a final granular verification display assessment of your structural system modifications checklist before deploying.
12. Installing the Operating System: Click “Install” and then “Install Now.” Tap the "Black Box" log icon adjacent to the tracker bar if you want to inspect terminal commands. DO NOT force power off your system parameters during configuration processing.
13. Rebooting into the Operating System: Once the "All done" success screen launches, check the "Restart now" box toggle option and hit “Done.” Pull your physical USB stick out as the screen goes black, launch your BIOS, and set Limine as priority #1 boot option. Boot cleanly into CachyOS using the default "linux-cachyos" configuration option field track.

Phase 4: CachyOS Hello Apps & Tweaks

1. Launch CachyOS Hello: If CachyOS Hello didn’t open automatically after logging into the system, simply search for “CachyOS Hello” in the “Application Launcher” and open it. Once you’re presented with the CachyOS Hello menu, click on Apps/Tweaks.
2. Install Gaming Packages: The first thing you need to do is click on “Install Gaming Packages,” and once you’ve done that, you will be presented with an authentication box in which you have to enter your password to be able to run the install command as the superuser or sudo. After you have done this, it will ask, “Proceed with installation?” in which all you need to simply do is type “Y”. After you have typed “Y” and clicked enter, it will proceed to install all available gaming packages. When it has completed downloading all the required packages, press the “ENTER” key to exit the terminal.
3. Download Core Applications: Next, click on CachyOS Package Installer and browse all of the popular packages section; this is where you can download software directly to your computer. I recommend downloading Firefox (if you don’t already have it installed), Discord, Code, OnlyOffice-bin, VLC, Kdenlive, and finally, VirtualBox. Once you have ticked the boxes for the applications/packages that you wish to install, click the “Install” button in the bottom right-hand corner, then click “OK,” enter your password like before, and if it asks what provider to install from, I recommend downloading from the default location, type “Y,” and click enter to install.
4. Run a Baseline System Update: Finally, go back to “Apps/Tweaks” and click on “System Update” to update your system to the latest version, enter your password, type “Y” to confirm, and if necessary, reboot your system and log back in; if not required, just click “Enter” to exit the terminal.

Phase 1: Making a Bootable Drive

Follow the steps below to flash your system setup drive environment deployment package:

1. Download the CachyOS ISO: Head to the official CachyOS Website and grab the latest version by clicking either “Download Desktop Edition” or “Download Handheld Edition”, and then select “Direct” (Direct means downloading directly from Cachy).
2. Download BalenaEtcher: Head to the official BalenaEtcher Website and click “Download Etcher”, then choose the version that your system requires.
3. Flash the ISO onto the Drive: Now it is time to flash the ISO onto the drive:
   • Plug in your USB drive: It must be at least 8GB in size. Warning: This will wipe everything on your USB; make sure to back up anything important on the drive to the cloud to avoid data loss.
   • Select the Image: Open BalenaEtcher and select “Flash from file” to pick your CachyOS ISO file.
   • Select the Target: Select your target USB. It should automatically fill this in with your USB device, but if it doesn't, make sure to select the correct drive manually.
   • Flash: Hit “Flash!” and wait for your device to finish flashing. You should receive a message saying “Flash Complete”.

Phase 2.1: Making Your PC Boot from USB

Configure your hardware component priorities inside your motherboard configuration utility panel:

1. Restart and Tap the Key: Restart your PC after your USB drive has been flashed. As soon as the screen goes black, start spamming your BIOS key repeatedly. Common keys are F12, F2, F10, or Delete.
2. Select Your USB Device: Find your storage list menu (usually at the top) and move your USB device brand name to the front of the list.
3. Disable Secure Boot: You must disable Secure Boot or the system won't load the drive. For MSI, look under the security tab. For non-MSI, research your specific motherboard path. Save changes on exit.
4. Entering the Live Environment: Wait for the CachyOS boot screen to load, select the first option, and wait for the desktop to initialise.

Phase 3.1: Running the Clean Replacement Installer

1. Launch the Installer: Click on the “Launch Installer” button inside the CachyOS Hello dashboard menu.
2. Choose Limine as Your Bootloader: When presented with the selection notification prompt, choose Limine.
3. Select Your Language: Choose your preferred setup language.
4. Select Your Region: Choose your region (if not automatically filled).
5. Select Your Keyboard Layout: After selecting your language, you will be required to choose a keyboard layout (please make sure this matches your hardware; if you make a mistake, you can change it in the actual operating system).
6. Select Erase Disk: Choose Erase Disk because it will wipe the drive completely, reformat it, and prepare a fresh slate for your new operating system. Once you have selected Erase Disk, click “Next.”
7. Choose the Desktop Environment: Select your preferred skin layer appearance layout. My primary recommendations are KDE Plasma (Windows-esque customisation) or GNOME (Mac structure style). Click “Next.”
8. Installing Additional Packages: Select the checkboxes for “Printing-Support” and “Support for HP Printer/Scanner” so that your computer is immediately ready to print documents without the hassle of looking for drivers. Click “Next.”
9. User Credentials: Configure your profile fields (Name, Username, Computer Name). Fill out a strong, secure administrative password layout (I recommend a cloud keeper solution like NordPass). Leave auto-login disabled for network safety. Click “Next.”
10. Summary: Complete a final granular verification display assessment of your structural system modifications checklist before deploying.
11. Installing the Operating System: Click “Install” and then “Install Now.” Tap the "Black Box" log icon adjacent to the tracker bar if you want to inspect terminal commands. DO NOT force power off your system parameters during configuration processing.
12. Rebooting into the Operating System: Once everything is installed and you see a screen saying “All done,” you can reboot your system. To reboot your system successfully, tick the “Restart now” box and then click “Done.” Once the computer goes to a black screen and it has stopped printing text, remove your USB drive and boot into your BIOS. Now, locate the boot priority section in your BIOS bit and set Limine as your number one boot option; this process can vary depending on your motherboard. When booting into CachyOS, always select “linux-cachyos”; if you need to revert to a previous build of CachyOS, snapshots are also available in the Limine bootloader. Once you have booted into the operating system, all you need to do is simply log in with the credentials that you created.

Phase 4: CachyOS Hello Apps & Tweaks

1. Launch CachyOS Hello: If CachyOS Hello didn’t open automatically after logging into the system, simply search for “CachyOS Hello” in the “Application Launcher” and open it. Once you’re presented with the CachyOS Hello menu, click on Apps/Tweaks.
2. Install Gaming Packages: The first thing you need to do is click on “Install Gaming Packages,” and once you’ve done that, you will be presented with an authentication box in which you have to enter your password to be able to run the install command as the superuser or sudo. After you have done this, it will ask, “Proceed with installation?” in which all you need to simply do is type “Y”. After you have typed “Y” and clicked enter, it will proceed to install all available gaming packages. When it has completed downloading all the required packages, press the “ENTER” key to exit the terminal.
3. Download Core Applications: Next, click on CachyOS Package Installer and browse all of the popular packages section; this is where you can download software directly to your computer. I recommend downloading Firefox (if you don’t already have it installed), Discord, Code, OnlyOffice-bin, VLC, Kdenlive, and finally, VirtualBox. Once you have ticked the boxes for the applications/packages that you wish to install, click the “Install” button in the bottom right-hand corner, then click “OK,” enter your password like before, and if it asks what provider to install from, I recommend downloading from the default location, type “Y,” and click enter to install.
4. Run a Baseline System Update: Finally, go back to “Apps/Tweaks” and click on “System Update” to update your system to the latest version, enter your password, type “Y” to confirm, and if necessary, reboot your system and log back in; if not required, just click “Enter” to exit the terminal.