FAQ & Troubleshooting

General

Is Genesi OS free?

Yes — completely free and open source (AGPL-3.0).

What is Genesi OS based on?

CachyOS (itself an optimized Arch Linux), using the CachyOS kernel with the BORE scheduler. Genesi adds AI Mode, a custom theme, and its own package set on top.

Does Genesi support Secure Boot?

Not yet — disable Secure Boot in your BIOS/UEFI before installing.

Can I run it in a VM?

Yes (VirtualBox, VMware, QEMU/KVM). Allocate at least 8 GB RAM and 4 cores for a smooth experience.

AI Mode

What is AI Mode?

A daemon (genesi-aid) that detects running AI workloads and tunes the system — CPU governor, swappiness, huge pages, process priority — then reverts when the workload ends. See AI Mode for the full picture.

How do I disable it?

sudo systemctl disable --now genesi-aid

How do I open Quick Chat?

Press Ctrl+Alt+Space from any application, use the AI Mode widget/tray menu, or run:

genesi-ai-quick --show

What is the difference between Approval and Automatic?

In Approval mode, the agent explains each system action and waits for you to allow or deny it. In Automatic mode, supported actions run without that per-action prompt. Privileged operations can still trigger the system authentication dialog, and destructive disk commands remain blocked.

Does the assistant send my conversations to the cloud?

No. AI Chat, Quick Chat and agent tool execution use local models through Ollama or Genesi Turbo. Memory Palace is also local and remains opt-in.

Updates & Packages

How do I update?

sudo pacman -Syu

Can I install AUR packages?

Yes — paru is pre-installed:

paru -S package-name

Troubleshooting

Wi-Fi not working

lspci -k | grep -A 3 Network
sudo pacman -S linux-firmware
sudo reboot

AI Mode not activating

sudo systemctl status genesi-aid
sudo journalctl -u genesi-aid -f
sudo systemctl restart genesi-aid

Ctrl+Alt+Space does not open Quick Chat

systemctl --user restart genesi-ai-quick.service
genesi-ai-quick-shortcuts
genesi-ai-quick --show

The shortcut helper detects the active desktop session and repairs its global keybinding without changing the selected model or AI Mode profile.

System won't boot

Boot from the USB, then chroot in and repair the bootloader:

sudo mount /dev/sdXY /mnt
sudo arch-chroot /mnt
grub-install /dev/sdX
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
exit
sudo reboot