An Arch-based Linux distribution,
without the setup.

Kiro optimizes the kernel layer for three things: responsiveness, security, and stability. After weighing the realistic options, two kernels do the job better together than any one does alone — so Kiro ships both and lets you pick from the boot menu.

• linux-cachyos — the default. Carries the BORE scheduler tuned for interactive desktop workloads, aggressive compiler optimizations (LTO/PGO), and a tight rebase cadence against mainline, so security and feature backports land quickly. Built for responsiveness on modern x86_64 hardware.
• linux-zen — the fallback. A long-running, broadly-tested kernel shipped in Arch's own official repos, kept close to mainline, and used as the default in Garuda Linux. Conservative, predictable, and a known-safe boot option if anything CachyOS-specific ever misbehaves after an update.

And the rest of Kiro is kernel-agnostic by design — every sysctl, udev rule, systemd drop-in and tmpfile is written without any hardcoded kernel name or kernel-specific path. Swap to linux-hardened, a pinned LTS, or roll your own custom kernel: the tuning, security baseline, and audit checks all keep working. The shipped pair is the default, not a lock-in.

It did, for a stretch — and the choice was made openly. Kiro tested several Arch-based distros side by side; PrismLinux ran linux-lqx (Liquorix) and on real hardware it simply felt faster than stock linux. Liquorix's desktop-latency scheduler, 1000 Hz tick, and full preemption explained the feel. It was a sensible first pick and got documented as such.

What changed was the depth of the analysis. Kiro members got an in-depth kernel study — published on YouTube and Patreon for the members tier — that put every realistic Arch kernel option side by side. The data pointed at linux-cachyos and linux-zen as the stronger pair, security in particular, with responsiveness and stability close behind. (The full reasoning lives in the members content; the question above gives the short public version of what the new pair brings.)

That's why the default actually changed. Kiro is a community distro, not a personal one — so when the numbers say a different pair serves the people installing Kiro better, on security especially, the default has to follow the numbers. Even when personal preference would have stayed with Liquorix. The default is what arrives on every fresh install; it gets decided by what's best for the people running it, not by taste.

None of this is a knock on Liquorix — it's a great kernel. You can install, switch to, and boot it any time via the ArchLinux Tweak Tool (ATT) that ships in every Kiro install — same goes for any other Arch kernel you'd rather run. The Kiro principle is simple: when the evidence shifts, the default shifts with it — in the open, and in the community's favour.

The most common cause is Secure Boot. Like most Arch-based ISOs, the Kiro image isn't signed for Secure Boot, so you need to turn it off in your firmware before the USB will boot.

• Enter firmware setup at power-on — usually Del, F2, or F12.
• Find Secure Boot (usually under Boot or Security) and set it to Disabled, then save and exit.
• Make sure the USB was written in image / DD mode — use Ventoy, Rufus in DD mode, or dd. A plain file copy onto the stick won't boot.

Then boot from the USB again.

Kiro's boot menu offers three driver choices, and the one you pick decides what your installed system gets:

• open source: AMD / Intel (driver=free) — the open mesa stack. The right pick for AMD and Intel GPUs; it does not install a proprietary NVIDIA driver.
• NVIDIA proprietary, modern (driver=nonfree) — keeps NVIDIA's open kernel modules (nvidia-open-dkms), recommended for Turing / RTX 20-series and newer. No detection step — the fastest path if you know you have a modern card.
• NVIDIA proprietary, auto-detect (driver=nonfreechwd) — runs chwd, which detects your exact GPU and installs the right driver, including the legacy branch for older cards.

Installed on the open entry and want NVIDIA now? No reinstall needed — run chwd on the running system:

• chwd --list — show the profile your GPU wants
• sudo chwd -a — install it automatically

The proprietary profiles chwd can install: nvidia-open-dkms (modern, Turing / RTX 20-series+), nvidia-dkms-580xx (current branch), nvidia-dkms-470xx (legacy, for older cards the current branch dropped), and the .prime variant of each for hybrid-graphics laptops. For cards too old even for 470xx, chwd falls back to the open driver. The same tool sets up AMD, Intel, and VM guests too.

Yes for the modern path, not yet for the auto-detect path — and we'll be straight about the difference:

• The “NVIDIA proprietary, modern” entry (driver=nonfree) keeps the baked nvidia-open-dkms with no detection step. This path is verified on real modern NVIDIA hardware — the recommended pick for RTX 20-series and newer.
• The “NVIDIA proprietary, auto-detect” entry (driver=nonfreechwd) lets chwd pick and install the driver. We've verified its install logic, but not yet end-to-end on real NVIDIA hardware — a VM routes to the VirtualBox profile, so chwd's proprietary install is a known limitation pending a real-hardware pass.

If you pick a NVIDIA entry and something's off (a black screen), from a working session: confirm kernel headers (linux-cachyos-headers or linux-zen-headers), re-run sudo chwd -a, and check dkms status reads nvidia … installed (not added) with nvidia-smi seeing the card. We'll mark the auto-detect path verified once confirmed on real hardware — reports from your card welcome.

Torrents only beat a direct download when lots of people leave their client running and seed the file. A small, fast-moving distro rarely has that, so a swarm tends to sit at one or two seeders — slower and less reliable than a plain HTTPS link, not faster. They also add real upkeep: a fresh .torrent for every build, a tracker or webseed, and an always-on seed box — for little gain at Kiro's scale, and Kiro ships new ISOs often.

The direct download already covers what people use torrents for. The ISO is served over HTTPS with published checksums and signature/verify commands, so you can confirm integrity without BitTorrent — and it works on the locked-down or corporate networks that block torrent traffic but allow HTTPS.

It's not off the table forever. If Kiro grows to where a swarm would actually stay healthy, adding a torrent or magnet alongside the direct link is easy to revisit.

Just two.

• The default ISO — what the Download button gives you (SourceForge's /files/latest/). It ships Xfce + Ohmychadwm, the Calamares installer, the nemesis_repo, and the full Kiro app suite (ATT and friends). From there the ArchLinux Tweak Tool installs any of the other desktops on demand.
• The Plasma ISO — the fully-themed KDE Plasma edition, in the Plasma folder on SourceForge.

The shipped kernels can change from build to build, so for the exact contents of any release check the package list (the .pkglist.txt file) next to the ISO on SourceForge.

Kiro's downloads are hosted on SourceForge, and we're genuinely grateful for the free hosting and bandwidth they give open-source projects. Using a free service well isn't the same as abusing it — so we keep our footprint small and tidy up after ourselves, removing older ISOs once a newer release is out. That keeps our storage modest and means we never trip SourceForge's automated “please clean up” maintenance reminders.

Kiro is a rolling release, so an older ISO dates quickly — the newest one is almost always what you want for a fresh install, and your installed system keeps updating no matter which ISO it started from.

Want to keep a specific build? Download it and keep your own copy safe. We don't promise past ISOs stay online — only the current release is guaranteed to be there, always reachable from the Download link.

Kiro ships ATT, which installs any of 14 desktops on demand:

• 7 tilers
  Awesome · Bspwm · Chadwm · I3 · Leftwm · Ohmychadwm · Qtile
• 6 full DEs
  Budgie · Cinnamon · Gnome · Mate · Plasma · Xfce

Pick what fits, or install several and switch from your login screen.

Nothing's broken — and it's not a Kiro setting. That "Xfce Session (Wayland)" entry is XFCE 4.20's own experimental Wayland mode (startxfce4 --wayland), shipped inside Arch's xfce4-session package, not anything Kiro adds. It's still in development upstream and needs a separate Wayland compositor to run — which an X11-based setup like Kiro doesn't include — so it bails out immediately and leaves you on a black screen.

The fix takes one click: at the Kiro (SDDM) login screen, pick the plain Xfce Session — not the one marked (Wayland). SDDM remembers your choice, so it sticks after the first pick.

Why we don't just remove it: the entry lives inside XFCE's own packaging, so deleting the session file would only get put back on the next package update — any distro shipping XFCE 4.20 from the Arch packages carries the exact same entry. As XFCE matures its Wayland session this disappears on its own; until then the plain X11 Xfce session is the one to use.

Full walkthrough: XFCE Wayland session black screen — don't click it.

That's expected — and it's not a Plasma bug. Kiro ships XFCE as the default desktop, and the default has to look right the moment you boot. Part of that polish is a small set of theming variables in /etc/environment that unify how Qt and GTK applications look so nothing clashes out of the box — the same approach the ArchWiki documents.

The catch: those variables work system-wide. When you install Plasma on top, Plasma has its own theming engine — but the XFCE-tuned variables override it. That's where the unexpected black comes from.

The fix takes about a minute. Open /etc/environment, comment out the three theming lines with a #, then log out or reboot:

# /etc/environment — comment these three out for Plasma
#QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
#QT_STYLE_OVERRIDE=kvantum
#GTK_THEME=Arc-Dawn-Dark

There's deliberately no one-click button — editing this by hand is what protects your XFCE look and lets you see exactly what each line does. ATT also warns you before installing a big desktop like Plasma or GNOME, because removing one again is a one-way, messy operation.

Full walkthrough: Why KDE Plasma looks black on Kiro — and how to get the default theme back.

Dark by default is a deliberate design choice — we like everything dark, so the whole desktop is set system-wide to the Arc-Dawn-Dark theme. File manager, menus, and applications all match out of the box. A viewer asked online about the black look, and that's the honest answer: nothing's wrong, it's intentional.

Prefer a light desktop? Nothing is broken. The bright sibling in the same family is the plain Arc theme. People sometimes switch to it, notice it behaves a little differently, and assume something's off — it isn't, it's just a different look set in the same place.

That place is the system-wide theme variable in /etc/environment (the same GTK_THEME line behind the Plasma question above). Press Super + Shift + Enter to open the file manager, and change the theme to whatever you like:

# /etc/environment — dark default …
GTK_THEME=Arc-Dawn-Dark
# … swap to the light sibling
GTK_THEME=Arc

Then log out and log back in so the new look applies everywhere. That last step is the one people miss — without it you can sit there waiting, wondering why nothing changed.

One thing to watch: once you switch, your icons may not match anymore. On a light desktop a dark-leaning icon set can read as too bright — pick an icon set that suits your new theme and you're back in full control of all the colours.

This is one of those settings tucked away on purpose — a hidden gem, not for everybody. Most people are happy with the dark default and never touch it. But if you want the desktop to be truly yours, this is the knob you were looking for.

Yes — Erik's pre-built packages work on any Arch install. Append this block to /etc/pacman.conf:

# /etc/pacman.conf — append at the bottom
[nemesis_repo]
Server = https://erikdubois.github.io/$repo/$arch

No per-repo SigLevel line is needed — the repo inherits your global signing policy. Then trust the Kiro Signing Key and install the keyring + mirrorlist:

sudo pacman -Sy
sudo pacman-key --recv-keys 149ABD0C3A0563EE --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com
sudo pacman-key --lsign-key 149ABD0C3A0563EE
sudo pacman -Sy --needed kiro-keyring kiro-mirrorlist

Packages are then verified against the signed key. Optionally swap the Server line for Include = /etc/pacman.d/kiro-mirrorlist — the same line the default Kiro config ships. On a fresh Kiro install the repo is already configured; this is only needed if you want Erik's packages on stock Arch or another Arch-based distro.

Curious what's inside? Browse the live package index at erikdubois.github.io/nemesis_repo.