KIRO 006 : Why Kiro feels faster — the Liquorix kernel, and how I chose it

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:01]Hi guys.

[00:00:03]This video is still going to be about Cairo.

[00:00:08]But it's going to be a little bit more technical in the sense that we're going to talk about kernels.

[00:00:15]Fast fetch shows us that we're on liquorix and that's a strange name.

[00:00:21]Almost something what we could call a candy or some kind of thing, right?

[00:00:27]But no, it's not candy at all.

[00:00:32]liquorix I don't Right.

[00:00:38]Best to add kernel.

[00:00:40]So basically that's where you need to read and read and read.

[00:00:46]How did I come to this selection? So a little bit of history.

[00:00:53]First of all 10 years on pure Arch, right? There is no Arch kernel anymore at this point in time on my machine.

[00:01:02]>> [sighs and gasps] >> But 10 years of Arch Linux, stable Arch Linux, but no issues, right?

[00:01:09]Switch sometime to time to LTS to guys who know me from the Arch Linux world with ALCI with the Zen kernel, the LTS kernel and we have even a Zen mod kernel. So there are choices, right?

[00:01:22]Control Alt T. sudo pacman sudo pacman - S right that's one of the choices.

[00:01:32]But these are all the others.

[00:01:35]No, not that one.

[00:01:37]Control C All right, sudo pacman let's try that again. Tab and tab. Well, right. Now all the firmware bits to the left this is something else, right? But all the rest there is a casual board, there is the LTS, the RC, the Linux LTS, the mainline, the RT, Tachyon. Never installed it, right? Then like if you're on Cash OS, for example, and this ATT that we've developing can go and travel to anywhere, right?

[00:02:09]Then yes, you can spend a month or two, maybe, and then um maybe, right? Maybe you've installed and tested all of these kernels. All of those guys can't be installed can be installed, but not those guys here, because that's for AMD and I have an Intel, right? But you can test them all, install them all.

[00:02:32]It's a matter, and I think that's that's the main thing in kernels.

[00:02:36]It's a personal preference.

[00:02:38]And it's a often a story of white and black. No, not that kernel, this kernel, right?

[00:02:45]And my message is clear.

[00:02:48]Test it out.

[00:02:50]This Liquorix thing is super fast on my machine. It's my choice for my machine, right?

[00:02:58]I've been testing the Linux Cash OS and the Cash OS bore, as well. And as a matter of fact, at this point in time, if you type kernel, I have them installed, as well, right? So, I switch when I boot up, I switch between this one, that one.

[00:03:12]And it Honestly, it doesn't feel any faster or worse slower, right? It feels the same.

[00:03:19]So, the decision was, of course, based well, first on I think first on gut feeling, right?

[00:03:27]This is better, right? There was a huge difference between the Arch Linux kernel and the Liquorix or the LQ-X, maybe in short.

[00:03:37]And that felt like I had a race machine again, right? 5-year-old PC, yes, it's working again. So, it's it's a step up for me, anyway, right?

[00:03:47]That's important to know for me.

[00:03:50]So, how did we derive to all those conclusion conclusions? Well, I've [snorts] um I've updated our ATT, our Arch Linux suite tool, made sure that wherever I go, I can install the kernel that I want on whatever we're booting on, systemd-boot, GRUB, rEFInd, rEFInd, and tell them that's the default, right? So, in that development period, in those weeks, I was installing all kinds of Linux kernels and and testing them out and playing with them.

[00:04:25]And it is only when I looked at Prism Linux, right? There are so many nice distros out there, so have a look around before you decide for Cairo.

[00:04:37]Prism Linux, a modern high-performance Arch-based distribution, right? We my website as well, right? We've all beautiful things, right? We sell it, we try to sell our stuff, but in the end, try it out and decide if you like it or not.

[00:04:53]And it's I think here that we found Oh, yeah, true. There is a Liquorix kernel. Let's try that one, right? And that's why uh in the end, right? We're also going to decide to use this this kernel.

[00:05:07]And it sets us a little bit apart, there's another reason, right? Cash always has his kernels, and then Arch has their kernel. Well, we have our kernel, and that's all good.

[00:05:18]The thing is, and that's something I don't um know beforehand, before we release, right?

[00:05:25]Will this kernel, the Liquorix kernel, boot off on your machine? It boots on my machines, plural, >> [sighs] >> but maybe not on your machine, right?

[00:05:35]So, that depends on on the hardware. So, we'll have to to wait and see what the response is there.

[00:05:42]Once you boot up, you've seen me do it now three times, Ctrl Alt e, right?

[00:05:48]Launch the Arch Linux Tweak Tool.

[00:05:51]And don't do it double because then it says, "Hey, there is already one open, right?"

[00:05:57]And just click whatever you want, right? If you want to have the the Linux Zen, if you you trust the Linux Zen, fine.

[00:06:03]Headers will be installed as well.

[00:06:05]Uh just to be sure, here's the remove Linux Cache OS bore. Just remove it again. Voilà, it's out of my system.

[00:06:14]If we wait a little bit.

[00:06:15]So, this is the selling point, I hope, right? For Arch Linux Tweak Tool. You see what happens to your machine. You see it here when you open it in a terminal, and this one is actually where it happens, right? It opens up Alacritty. You see I uh it gets removed, successfully removed.

[00:06:33]All right, done.

[00:06:34]Close, and I have still my own kernel, right? So, if you type kernel or kernel is a plural, both will work.

[00:06:43]That's the one and the only one that I have to boot up with.

[00:06:47]If you want to have um a little bit more technicality to the story, that's possible.

[00:06:53]>> [snorts] >> I believe I believe that if you go to Cairo ISO, look at all the files that I've um kept. I thought that maybe interesting.

[00:07:06]So, if you go to GitHub, I will dupes.

[00:07:13]Some kind of name.

[00:07:16]Dupes de Bois, right? Some some creation back in the days.

[00:07:20]You'll see here these things are shared.

[00:07:23]Distro testing.

[00:07:24]Best practices MD, IDs MD, Cairo versus Arch MD, Cairo versus Cache OS, Cairo versus Prism. And I've made a new one.

[00:07:34]What changed to the ISO is certainly interesting, I think. I should read it myself again.

[00:07:39]Here's [snorts] Liquorix MD.

[00:07:42]I thought I made.

[00:07:45]Let's see.

[00:07:48]Yesterday I told him in preparation of this video is go and see what's um what's so special about the Liquorix kernel. So, if we open it up here, that's the change log, the last thing that we've done. We are 26 26, that's 25. So, it has be just to be this one or that one.

[00:08:12]Yesterday, right? This we're testing.

[00:08:15]Maybe this one.

[00:08:22]Where did I put it then?

[00:08:25]Anyway, right? So, there is information shared um like this one. This is Kyro versus Prism.

[00:08:34]Config research. So, basically I told uh Claus, let's look have a look around.

[00:08:39]Look over the fans. How did the devil do it? How did Garuda do it? How did Prisma Linux do it?

[00:08:45]And KaOS do it did it, right? Based on Dogs 4, I think. Maybe and of of course Arch.

[00:08:52]I'll go in there and go with SSH, which is probably going to be a tutorial if you want it. Let me know in YouTube or in um Patreon if you would like to have an an informational video on SSH SSH. Which basically means I have two computers.

[00:09:13]I log in to with a kind of tunnel, right? Log in to another system and then I run all kind of scripts in that system to see what's going on. Is everything is installed? So, there's a complete back end when I develop developed Skyro, well, the new Kyro, right?

[00:09:30]>> [snorts] >> And um I do all kind of tests. Is this installed? Is it enabled? Is it changed?

[00:09:37]All the settings that we intended, have they been applied? Are all the files that we needed to remove, have they been removed? Right? All those checks, really thorough check and without cloth it would take hours or days.

[00:09:51]But with cloth, it's easy. All right?

[00:09:55]So it gives us an comparison on in security, in setting that's important.

[00:10:00]Good that I see it.

[00:10:02]Before we made this this study and then how to get the best ISO out there, right? That was the goal.

[00:10:10]I don't know if I succeeded, right? But it feels good anyway, for me, right?

[00:10:14]Again, for me, this kernel, my PC, my hardware. But um what was I going to say? Yeah, that it needed to be any operating system or iPad or or tablet, I mean, or or smartphone, right? What does it need? It needs security, it needs speed, and it's stability. I thought I said to him, "That's what I want. I'm not focused on games." I also said that I think in the beginning. I'm not focused on games.

[00:10:43]I get squeezy when images or or flashing of after 15 minutes I'm out. [sighs and gasps] So [snorts] that means that's not my my goal. But I want to have a snappy system. I want to have a responsive system. When I click, it has to be there. [clears throat] Not click and then there, right? It's too long. There There's this kind of gut feeling what I went for to say I'm going to take this particular um kernel. So have a look at this more technical stuff and about information, technical information that is set.

[00:11:23]The prison changes I prison has this as value, Cairo has that as value, and it digs deep into the the engines.

[00:11:31]Well, it's it's it's less kernel, well, some of them are, right?

[00:11:35]There are kernels Oh, sorry.

[00:11:37]There are kernel things in here, but there's also other stuff that's not so related with kernels.

[00:11:44]I think such RAM, yeah. So, well, um Kylo restricted, so keep he gives me advice about swapping as in all that.

[00:11:53]And in the end, we get the summary improvements applied to Kylo. I said, "Okay." So, basically, he took a look at all these Arch-based [clears throat] systems around me. I said, "Okay, let's take that. Let's take this. Let's take that."

[00:12:10]And I tried and I tried and I changed and I tried. Well, and the end result is now Kylo.

[00:12:17]All right?

[00:12:18]So, I've tested also in VirtualBox, so an SSH connection to the virtual machine, and then go ahead and all kind of tests that I did. 93 passes, one warn, one fail, and then we figured out, "Oh, we didn't write it to write of the to the wasn't okay in the sense that something failed." And then we looked again. And this case is is benign, right? We forgot to remove Kylo Calamares config, so the user got that.

[00:12:45]That's not the intention, so, all right?

[00:12:48]All kinds of auditing things that we've perfected over dozens, if not 20, tests and more just to figure out is Kylo ready, all right?

[00:13:05]So, have a look around. There is probably more that I haven't told since this is the kernel as such online. You can quickly check this.

[00:13:13]One of the things Well, I when I see something I have I can start again. So, this is the main selling point, I think, the tick rate. We are three times faster than the Arch core repo, basically, and how much um how fast can he um process things, and also how fast can he shut things down? I mean, like responsiveness.

[00:13:39]Stop immediately, or say, "No, you have to wait a little bit later, a little bit, and now I'll will do your I'll give the CPU some uh instructions, right?"

[00:13:47]So, instant response from the CPU is something that really struck me when I changed from the Arch Linux kernel to this one, right?

[00:13:58]And it's in here somewhere, I think, as well, in the comparison between Cairo versus Arch, maybe, if Liquorix was already there at that point in time.

[00:14:10]Right? All kinds of things. No, this is still another study, not about um No, not about kernels, but about other things, uh systemd enabled stuff, and all that.

[00:14:25]So, um if you're interested already, you can have a look at this. What changed to the ISO?

[00:14:31]I guess I'll need to update this, probably, because it's written 2 days ago, right? 2 days ago, pretty accurate, but still, I'm going to ask him to check again if there are somewhere some things that um we miss.

[00:14:47]But yeah, we've tuned it in so many ways, right? Not only in a kernel. There are so many settings in our sysctl, if you know what that is.

[00:14:56]And there is power profiles, which is called tuned and tuned PBD, where you can set balanced or performance, right? So, all of these things, as well as the the cache OS um Where are you? The settings of um uh she OS.

[00:15:17]Well, it means that I need to update this, because that's also something that's in here which changed.

[00:15:24]Um so, sure.

[00:15:27]This is not the ISO from May. I just didn't change the name, right? But it is totally different ISO.

[00:15:36]All right? Cheers.