The developers of the Arch Linux-based CachyOS distribution have released a new ISO snapshot today, for January 2026, which brings the latest package updates, new features, and various improvements.

The CachyOS Release for January 2026 ships with the latest KDE Plasma 6.5.5 desktop environment with the Wayland session enabled by default and the new Plasma Login Manager that will be introduced in the upcoming KDE Plasma 6.6 release. Plasma Login Manager replaces SDDM on new installations.

The new CachyOS ISO also contains both stable and LTS kernels to improve compatibility for newer devices and hardware, a new service that shows the syncing status of the CachyOS mirrors, and an updated NVIDIA module to reduce interrupt time for low-latency displays.