Customization

cache22 is immutable. /usr is read-only and pacman -S will refuse. This section covers the supported ways to add software, change configuration, and run development environments.

In rough order of preference:

  1. Flatpak. GUI applications with no impact on the base system. Every desktop variant ships a graphical storefront preconfigured.
  2. Distrobox. A full container (CachyOS, Arch, Fedora, Ubuntu, Debian, Alpine, openSUSE, Rocky, or Alma) with native package management. Use for CLI tools, dev environments, and packages not appropriate for Flatpak.
  3. Kernel Args. Persistent kernel command-line options via cache22-karg and /etc/cache22/extra-cmdline.
  4. bootc usroverlay. Temporary writable /usr for testing only. Discarded on reboot.
  5. Gamescope Mode. SteamOS-style autologin into a gamescope session running Steam Big Picture. KDE variants only.
  6. Hyprland Session. What the Hyprland variants ship, the default keybindings, and where the config files live. Hyprland variants only.

For more invasive changes (additional packages baked into the image, custom system files, additional variants), fork the repository: see Building and Forking.

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