CachyOS Installation on the Framework Desktop

First, download the latest CachyOS release from the CachyOS website. We'll go through the steps in this Guide assuming you have a simple installation scenario of a fresh install on a blank drive.

Download balenaEtcher as a tool to create the USB installer from the ISO. balenaEtcher is available for MacOS. Install it.

Launch balenaEtcher. Insert your USB drive (8GB or larger). Click on "Flash from file" and select the CachyOS iso that you downloaded. Click on "Select target" and choose your USB drive. Click "Flash" and wait a minute or two for it to complete.

Once the USB drive creation is complete, you can close balenaEtcher and eject the USB drive from your OS.

First, download the latest CachyOS release from the CachyOS website. We'll go through the steps in this Guide assuming you have a simple installation scenario of a fresh install on a blank drive.

Download Rufus as a tool to create the USB installer from the ISO - select the top download option from the link provided. Rufus is available for Windows. Install it.

Launch Rufus. Insert your USB drive (8GB or larger). Click on "Flash from file" and select the CachyOS iso that you downloaded. Click on "SELECT" and choose your USB drive. Click "START" and wait a minute or two for it to complete.

To install CachyOS, disabling Secure Boot is needed. This is required for some Linux distributions. Please refer to this link if you want to understand more before moving forward.

To disable secure boot:

Boot into BIOS by tapping F2 just before the Framework splash screen.

Arrow down to Administer Secure Boot. Press enter.

Arrow down to Enforce Secure Boot. Press enter, select Disabled, and press enter.

Press F10 to save and reboot. With Yes selected, press Enter.

Should you wish to enable it later in the future, repeat the above steps but select Enable this time.

Once you have reviewed the previous step, continue

Insert the USB drive into your powered off Framework Laptop 13, and then power on. If you have an existing OS installed on the Storage drive in your laptop, immediately after the power light comes on begin rapidly tapping (continuously ) the F12 key - you must begin tapping well before you see the Framework logo.

Select the USB drive. Press the enter key.

Next select CachyOS from the list (not the LTS version). Hit the enter key.

The speed of the flash drive will determine how quickly the live environment starts. It will boot directly to a KDE desktop in anywhere from a few to many minutes.

In the bottom right corner of the screen, use the WiFi icon in the system tray to connect to a network. The installer will not work without it.

The first thing to open on the live desktop is CachyOS Hello, a greeter window that provides links to a number of useful resources, an option to select language, and a button to open the installer.

Click "Launch installer" in the CachyOS Hello window after connected to the internet. If the window was closed for any reason, it can be reopened using the Application Launcher on the left side of the task bar.

When the installer opens, select a language, region (locale), timezone, and keyboard layout, clicking "Next" to progress through each slide.

Select a bootloader. The installer includes descriptions for each option. The installer defaults to Limine. GRUB is a very mature and well documented option that's also easy to get help with.

The default option is the Limine, this is a newer option intended to work well with the snapshots feature of the default filesystem.

GRUB is a traditional option that may be preferred by long-time Linux users.

Select the drive for install and choose to Wipe the whole drive. A filesystem for the root partition can also be selected.

The default option is btrfs, a filesystem with features like snapshots that allow users to revert the system to a previous state if, for example, an update fails.

Select a desktop environment. Most of them are well described and have visual demonstrations to help selection.

The default option is KDE. This option will be familiar to Windows users. It can be heavily customized to the user's comfort.

Mac users may find Gnome or Cosmic Desktop more familiar or comfortable.

There is an option selection for extra packages. While it isn't recommended to install multiple desktop environments or display managers, it is possible to do so.

This is where support for Printers can be installed

Set up the primary user by filling out the Name, Username, and Password fields with the relevant information.

Unchecking "Use the same password for Administrator account" allows a separate password to be set for the root account.

Review all the details on the Summary slide. This is the last chance to change install options and data is written to the drive.

After review, click Install then Install Now to finalize all selections and begin the install.