CachyOS ships with Limine as the default bootloader. Not GRUB, not systemd-boot. If you are coming from vanilla Arch or Fedora, this is unfamiliar territory. Here is how it works and what “upstream default” actually means.

The Setup

CachyOS installs two kernels by default:

Both get entries in a single /boot/limine.conf, auto-generated by a tool called limine-entry-tool. This is a CachyOS-specific package that scans installed kernels, builds Limine boot entries with proper initramfs paths and cmdline, and writes them to the config.

What the Tool Actually Does

The upstream config at /etc/limine-entry-tool.conf defines:

BOOT_ORDER="*, *fallback, Snapshots"
ENABLE_SORT=no

This means: list all kernel entries in package order, then fallback entries, then btrfs snapshots. No alphabetical sorting. The first kernel entry (linux-cachyos, the latest non-LTS) becomes entry 1. The LTS kernel becomes entry 2.

The Default Entry

The key line in limine.conf:

default_entry: 1
remember_last_entry: yes

Entry 1 = latest kernel. This is the upstream CachyOS default. The first entry in the list is always the newest kernel, and Limine defaults to it.

The remember_last_entry: yes part means if you manually pick LTS from the boot menu one time, Limine remembers that choice for subsequent boots. Practical for testing — pick once, it sticks.

What I Found

My system had default_entry: 2 — pointing to the LTS kernel. This was not the upstream default. Either a previous manual change or an old install artifact. One line fix:

sudo sed -i 's/^default_entry: 2/default_entry: 1/' /boot/limine.conf

Why This Matters

If you run CachyOS with both kernels installed and never touch the Limine config, you should be booting the latest kernel by default. If you are stuck on LTS without knowing why, check default_entry in /boot/limine.conf.

The LTS kernel is there as a fallback. You select it from the Limine menu at boot if the latest kernel breaks something. That is the design — latest by default, LTS as safety net.

No GRUB, No Problem

Limine is minimal. No grub-mkconfig, no grub.cfg regeneration after kernel updates. The limine-mkinitcpio-hook pacman hook runs limine-entry-tool automatically when kernels are installed or removed. The config updates itself. This is the CachyOS way — less moving parts than GRUB, less opinionated than systemd-boot.

If you are on CachyOS and your default kernel seems wrong, now you know where to look.