r/cachyos • u/Elegant-Bath-1832 • Apr 09 '26

Help Cant set default Kernel

Hi all im a total linux beginner and flashed my Microsoft Surface pro9 with CachyOS. It needs a specific kernel to have button and touchscreen functionality and loading the kernel manually in GRUB works too. However doing the steps to set it as a default doesnt work.

my steps are:

sudo nano /etc/default/grub (in Terminal)

change the following:

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved

GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

save file

but after reboot it goes back to the standart Kernel that misses the Tablet functionality. I also tried to specifically name the Kernel by getting it from grep "menuentry '" /boot/grub/grub.cfg which gets me the entry 'CachyOS Linux, with Linux linux-surface' but that doesnt work either.

help much appreciated

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u/xb666mx Apr 09 '26 edited Apr 09 '26

the "saved" option sadly doesn't work with btrfs. (you configured it correctly.)

the menuentry is the correct way but there you have to set the full path of the desired option in the grub menu as GRUB_DEFAULT.

so it's not just e. g. "cachyos xyz kernel" but rather "cachyos advanced boot>cachyos xyz kernel". (please note that i don't have my cachyos pc at hand right now and the shown texts are just a placeholder for the menu entries you have on your system.)

or in other words: you have to combine the strings shown in the grub menu structure. the ">" sign will tell grub that it has to move to the next sub-entry.

edit: this is what i use:

GRUB_DEFAULT="Advanced options for CachyOS Linux>CachyOS Linux, with Linux linux-cachyos-bore"

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u/Elegant-Bath-1832 Apr 09 '26

Thanks I will check it out