Niri

Note

KaOS now defaults to 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. For those still on the Plasma desktop environment, this guide will help you to convert your current install to Niri.

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. Kitty is set as default terminal, so should be added.

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 file from /usr/share/doc/niri to your home directory:

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

2. Copy the configuration file from /etc/xdg//noctalia-shell/ to your home directory:

   install -D /etc/xdg/noctalia-shell/config.toml ~/.config/noctalia/config.toml

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.

If you did not copy the KaOS Niri config.kdl, you will be presented with an empty, grey, Niri setup. Use Mod key + t to open kitty, and type noctaliato start the shell. The KaOS config.kdl includes an autostart line for Noctalia, to add this now yourself, eidt~/.config/niri/config.kdland addspawn-at-startup "noctalia".

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.