Niri

Note

KaOS now offers the option to install Niri, a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. Niri is built on top of KaOS and offers a range of features that makes it easy to use and customize. It has been fully integrated with Noctalia in KaOS, a sleek and minimal desktop shell. This can be used as an alternative to the Plasma desktop environment.

Installation

As always, make sure the system is fully up to date before installing any:

sudo pacman -Syu

And install Niri and Noctalia with:

sudo pacman -S niri noctalia

Tip

Make sure to read through the mentioned optdepends, and add them for the best experience.

Both these packages include configuration files adjusted for KaOS specific settings. To use those, you will have to copy them from their respective location to your users home directory:

1. Copy the configuration files from /usr/share/doc/niri to your home directory:

   install -D /usr/share/doc/niri/config.kdl ~/.config/niri/config.kdl
   install -D /usr/share/doc/niri/noctalia.kdl ~/.config/niri/noctalia.kdl

2. Copy the configuration files from /etc/xdg/quickshell/noctalia-shell/Assets/Templates/ to your home directory:

   install -D /etc/xdg/quickshell/noctalia-shell/Assets/Templates/colors.json ~/.config/noctalia/colors.json
   install -D /etc/xdg/quickshell/noctalia-shell/Assets/Templates/settings.json ~/.config/noctalia/settings.json

3. If you want to use a dropdown terminal in Niri, you will have to use Kitty (mentioned in the optdepends), Kitty also includes KaOS specific settings. To use those, you will have to copy them from //usr/share/doc/kitty to your users home directory:

   install -D /usr/share/doc/kitty/current-theme.conf ~/.config/kitty/current-theme.conf
   install -D /usr/share/doc/kitty/kitty.conf.in ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf
   install -D /usr/share/doc/kitty/quick-access-terminal.conf ~/.config/kitty/quick-access-terminal.conf

Logging into Niri

Once the needed packages are installed, logout, or better, reboot your system and select Niri in the login screen (SDDM or Plasmalogin). Once logged in you will be presented with a menu that shows some common shortcuts.

Customizing Niri & Noctalia

Use the extensive documentation available at Niri and Noctalia to learn more about a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor, shortcuts, customization options, and more.