The kernel

Computers with a processor from about 2013 onward get a tuned kernel built from CachyOS's sources. Older computers get the standard Arch Linux kernel. The installer decides, and everything else about SakuraOS is the same on both.

The tuned kernel

SakuraOS builds the CachyOS kernel itself, so it is signed with the same key as the rest of SakuraOS's packages. The build:

• uses the BORE process scheduler, with sched-ext available;
• is compiled with Clang, ThinLTO and -O3, for x86-64-v3 processors;
• runs at 1000 Hz with full preemption, which favors responsiveness over throughput;
• is built from a specific, pinned commit of CachyOS's sources, checked against CachyOS's signing keys.

It is compiled for a generic x86-64-v3 processor rather than for the build machine, so every computer that supports x86-64-v3 gets the same kernel.

How the installer chooses

x86-64-v3 is a set of processor instructions, including AVX2, that arrived with Intel's Haswell processors in 2013 and AMD's Excavator processors in 2015, though some later low-cost Pentium and Celeron models lack it. A kernel built for it will not run on anything older. The installer asks the system's program loader which instruction sets the processor supports:

/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 --help | grep "x86-64-v3 (supported"

If x86-64-v3 is supported, you get the tuned kernel. If not, or if the check cannot be made, you get the standard Arch kernel, which runs on every 64-bit processor.

Which kernel am I running?

uname -r

A version ending in cachyos is the tuned kernel.

After going back to a restore point

Going back across a kernel update is handled automatically, sometimes with one extra restart. See How restore points work.

Last checked against the SakuraOS release of 3 October 2026. If your system behaves differently from this page, the page is wrong: please report it.