CachyOS and Bitwig

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I've discovered that since august this year CachyOS comes with a LTS kernel. Has anyone used or is using CachyOS and can share how it works with Bitwig?

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Hmmm ...
Never seen CachyOS before. I run Arch though and I can tell you Bitwig works well on 6.12 LTS and 6.16 which I'm running now. Apparently though CachyOS uses a 'modernized/optimized' kernel; it should work all the same though, if not better than the standard LTS. I also see the default compositor is Wayland along with the usual desktop environments ... At a glance, it should just work!

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I installed CachyOS with KDE a few months back in a Windows Virtualbox and then installed Bitwig from the AUR. Bitwig seemed to be running fine, but my testing wasn't extensive, I just made a quick drum pattern using Bitwig instruments. I could not identify any graphical or audio glitches (aside from having to enable absolute mouse mode in Bitwig, but that is to be expected in a VM).
I don't remember exact version numbers of any of the software.
I'm sort of toying with the idea of returning to Linux.

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Thanks for the feedback!

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lokio wrote: Sat Nov 15, 2025 2:46 am I installed CachyOS with KDE a few months back in a Windows Virtualbox and then installed Bitwig from the AUR. Bitwig seemed to be running fine, but my testing wasn't extensive, I just made a quick drum pattern using Bitwig instruments. I could not identify any graphical or audio glitches (aside from having to enable absolute mouse mode in Bitwig, but that is to be expected in a VM).
I don't remember exact version numbers of any of the software.
I'm sort of toying with the idea of returning to Linux.
Did it work out of the box?

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Did it work out of the box?
Yes, aside from the aformentioned absolute mouse mode. I think it even defaulted to using pipewire.

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lokio wrote: Mon Nov 17, 2025 8:43 pm
Did it work out of the box?
Yes, aside from the aformentioned absolute mouse mode. I think it even defaulted to using pipewire.
Nice!

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I run CachyOS with the Bitwig 6 Beta. Works great with the default kernel in pre-empt mode. I use the BORE scheduler. I get about 2.6ms of latency using jack-pipewire.

I have also tried the real time kernel but it is not stable and freezes my system a minute or two after login. Not sure why and it is not at all related to Bitwig.

Overall I think CahcyOS with KDE Plasma in the best desktop version i have ever run with Linux and I have tried everything. It is way more stable than i thought it would be even when i update it daily.

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pfischer8989 wrote: Thu Nov 20, 2025 7:07 pm I run CachyOS with the Bitwig 6 Beta. Works great with the default kernel in pre-empt mode. I use the BORE scheduler. I get about 2.6ms of latency using jack-pipewire.

I have also tried the real time kernel but it is not stable and freezes my system a minute or two after login. Not sure why and it is not at all related to Bitwig.

Overall I think CahcyOS with KDE Plasma in the best desktop version i have ever run with Linux and I have tried everything. It is way more stable than i thought it would be even when i update it daily.
That's valuable info. Is pre-empt mode allready active or do I need do activate it?

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I have to enable it if i remember right. The best thing to do on a new Linux build if you want to use it for low latency audio is to run rtcqs. You can install it on cachyOS by running paru rtcqs

It is just a simple python script that will check the system for things like pre-emp enabling, power settings, groups permissions etc...

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pfischer8989 wrote: Fri Nov 21, 2025 12:20 am I have to enable it if i remember right. The best thing to do on a new Linux build if you want to use it for low latency audio is to run rtcqs. You can install it on cachyOS by running paru rtcqs

It is just a simple python script that will check the system for things like pre-emp enabling, power settings, groups permissions etc...
Ok. Thank you! I've given up on CachyOS for the time being after fighting for 3 hours with a failed dualboot install. Seems like dualbooting from the same drive is not the way to go. I'm going to buy another nvme so I can install it on its own dedicated drive.

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I manged to install it. I was forcing the bootloader onto the Win boot partition (like you do with other distros) instead of creating a separate boot partition.

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Ah ok, makes sense. Yeah I have two drives with two instances of CachyOS. One for audio work and one for gaming.

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I've had a horrible time with Bitwig 6. I had an old thinkpad T430 running fine with bitwig 5 and cachyos (smooth as butter). I got super excited about bitwig 6 without realizing they changed the minimum requirements and my old thinkpad wasn't supported anymore due to the AVX2 requirement. They were nice enough to refund me my upgrade.
However, me and my inifinite wisdom, I thought if i just get a newer thinkpad that meets all the requirement, Bitwig 6 would run fine. I am so wrong. I got a T490s 16GB ram supports avx2 and bought the bitwig 6 upgrade and realized it runs like absolute garbage.
i've been trying to mess with it to get it to run but it's unusuable. project that ran fine under bitwig 6 stutter like crazy. if anyone has any tips or tricks, let me know.

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mrdorianjames wrote: Mon Mar 23, 2026 10:12 pm i've been trying to mess with it to get it to run but it's unusuable. project that ran fine under bitwig 6 stutter like crazy. if anyone has any tips or tricks, let me know.
Hello I suppose you made a fresh installation, since you changed your processor. Do it again it should work right.

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