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Niri Standalone Configuration

Standalone niri scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor configuration, primary target openSUSE Tumbleweed/Slowroll with Noctalia v5 as the desktop shell.

Legacy Arch support: install.sh/cleanup.sh target Arch Linux + Noctalia v4 (Quickshell-based) and are kept for reference only — they are not maintained against the current config/ files, which use Noctalia v5's TOML config and IPC syntax. See Legacy: Arch Linux below.

Prerequisites

  • openSUSE Tumbleweed or Slowroll (Noctalia v5 needs sdbus-c++ >= 2.x, not available on Leap)
  • SDDM display manager (installed by the installer if missing)
  • Flatpak + Flathub, for zen-browser (installed by the installer if missing)

Quick Install

git clone git@github.com:chronicblondiee/niri-config.git
cd niri-config
./install-opensuse.sh

The installer is interactive and idempotent — every step asks for confirmation and creates .bak backups before modifying files. It handles:

  1. Broken symlink cleanup — scans ~/.config for dead links from old setups
  2. Repository setup — adds the home:neifua:Noctalia OBS repo (and KDE:Frameworks as a fallback for polkit-kde-agent-6)
  3. Package installation — official oss repo via zypper, Noctalia via OBS, zen-browser via Flatpak/Flathub, Catppuccin SDDM theme via git clone
  4. Config deployment — niri, Noctalia v5, kitty, fish, GTK dark theme, Catppuccin cursor theme via GitHub release zip
  5. Directory setup — ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/ and ~/Pictures/Screenshots/
  6. Keyboard layout — sets console + X11/Wayland layout to ie (Ireland) via localectl
  7. SSH agent — enables ssh-agent.socket, disables conflicting agents (gnome-keyring, kwallet, gcr)
  8. Service cleanup — masks conflicting notification daemons (swaync, dunst, mako)
  9. XDG portals — configures xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, removes conflicting backends
  10. Default shell — sets fish via chsh (adding it to /etc/shells if needed)
  11. Session files — installs start-niri.sh, SDDM session entry
  12. SDDM — installs/enables SDDM, sets graphical.target, configures the Catppuccin Mocha theme, and forces niri.desktop as SDDM's remembered/preselected session (openSUSE's minimal-X install already logged in once with IceWM before you ran this, so SDDM would otherwise keep defaulting back to it)
  13. Validation — runs niri validate

After installing, reboot — SDDM should now boot straight into Niri. If it still lands on the old desktop, pick Niri from the session picker manually once (bottom-left icon on the login screen) and it'll stick from then on.

A few Noctalia keybindings in config.kdl are best-effort translations from v4. The emoji-picker prefix (/emo) is now confirmed correct — it matches shell.launcher.providers.emoji.prefix in the real v5 settings schema (checked via noctalia config export full). The Control Center tab-jump tokens (notification history, network panel, calendar) are still unverified, since noctalia msg requires a running graphical session to query — check them with noctalia msg --help after logging in and adjust if needed.

Post-install cleanup

Once you've confirmed Niri boots and logs in correctly, run ./cleanup-opensuse-default-desktop.sh to remove openSUSE's default minimal-X fallback desktop (IceWM and its packages) plus any now-orphaned dependencies. It deliberately leaves xorg-x11-server/xinit alone, since SDDM's login greeter still runs under X11 by default on this system — removing them would break the login screen itself, not just the old desktop.

Legacy: Arch Linux

install.sh + cleanup.sh still work for Arch Linux + Noctalia v4 as of when they were last touched, but they are not kept in sync with config/niri/config.kdl or config/noctalia/config.toml, which now target openSUSE + Noctalia v5. If you need the Arch/v4 setup, check out an earlier commit rather than relying on the current config/ tree with these scripts.

./cleanup.sh   # remove Hyprland/Sway/ML4W leftovers (Arch only)
./install.sh   # Arch/pacman/AUR installer (Noctalia v4, unmaintained)

Manual Install

1. Add repositories and install packages

# Noctalia v5 (OBS repo)
sudo zypper addrepo --refresh --name noctalia-v5 \
    https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:neifua:Noctalia/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/home:neifua:Noctalia.repo
sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys refresh

# Official oss repo
sudo zypper install niri xwayland-satellite xdg-desktop-portal-gnome \
    kitty fish nautilus wl-clipboard cliphist lxqt-openssh-askpass openssh \
    sddm noctalia

# polkit-kde-agent-6 (add KDE:Frameworks only if the bare install fails)
sudo zypper install polkit-kde-agent-6 || {
    sudo zypper addrepo --refresh https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/KDE:Frameworks/openSUSE_Tumbleweed/KDE:Frameworks.repo
    sudo zypper --gpg-auto-import-keys refresh
    sudo zypper install polkit-kde-agent-6
}

# zen-browser (Flatpak — no native package; --user avoids needing polkit's
# system-wide Deploy authorization, which has no agent in a plain terminal/SSH session)
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak install --user flathub app.zen_browser.zen

# Catppuccin SDDM theme (no OBS package — install from source)
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/catppuccin/sddm.git /tmp/catppuccin-sddm
sudo cp -r /tmp/catppuccin-sddm/src/catppuccin-mocha-mauve /usr/share/sddm/themes/
Package Purpose Source
niri Scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor oss repo
noctalia Desktop shell v5 (bar, notifications, wallpaper, lock screen) OBS home:neifua:Noctalia
xwayland-satellite X11 app compatibility for niri oss repo
xdg-desktop-portal-gnome Screen sharing, file dialogs oss repo
kitty Terminal emulator oss repo
fish Fish shell oss repo
nautilus File manager oss repo
wl-clipboard + cliphist Clipboard history oss repo
polkit-kde-agent-6 Polkit authentication prompts oss repo, fallback KDE:Frameworks
lxqt-openssh-askpass SSH key passphrase GUI prompt oss repo
sddm / sddm-qt6 Display manager oss repo
Catppuccin SDDM theme Login theme manual, catppuccin/sddm
app.zen_browser.zen Web browser Flathub

2. Install configs

# Niri config
mkdir -p ~/.config/niri
cp config/niri/config.kdl ~/.config/niri/config.kdl

# Noctalia v5 config (replace __HOME__ with your home directory)
mkdir -p ~/.config/noctalia
sed "s|__HOME__|$HOME|g" config/noctalia/config.toml > ~/.config/noctalia/config.toml

# Kitty terminal (Catppuccin Mocha theme)
mkdir -p ~/.config/kitty
cp config/kitty/kitty.conf ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

# Fish shell
mkdir -p ~/.config/fish
cp config/fish/config.fish ~/.config/fish/config.fish

# GTK dark theme
mkdir -p ~/.config/gtk-3.0 ~/.config/gtk-4.0
cp config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
cp config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini ~/.config/gtk-4.0/settings.ini

# Wallpaper + screenshot directories
mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Wallpapers ~/Pictures/Screenshots

Edit the output section at the top of config.kdl for your monitors.

3. Set up services

# Keyboard layout (console + X11/Wayland)
sudo localectl set-x11-keymap ie
sudo localectl set-keymap ie

# SSH agent (systemd socket + GUI passphrase prompt)
systemctl --user enable --now ssh-agent.socket
systemctl --user disable gcr-ssh-agent.socket 2>/dev/null || true

# Disable conflicting notification daemons
systemctl --user mask swaync 2>/dev/null || true
systemctl --user mask dunst 2>/dev/null || true

# Disable conflicting SSH agents (if present)
systemctl --user disable gnome-keyring-ssh.service 2>/dev/null || true
systemctl --user disable kwalletd5.service 2>/dev/null || true
systemctl --user disable kwalletd6.service 2>/dev/null || true

# Remove conflicting portal backends
sudo zypper remove xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland xdg-desktop-portal-wlr 2>/dev/null || true

# XDG portal config for niri
mkdir -p ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal
cat > ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/niri-portals.conf <<'EOF'
[preferred]
default=gnome
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Access=gnome
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.FileChooser=gnome
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Screenshot=gnome
org.freedesktop.impl.portal.Screencast=gnome
EOF

# Set fish as default shell
grep -qx /usr/bin/fish /etc/shells || echo /usr/bin/fish | sudo tee -a /etc/shells
chsh -s /usr/bin/fish

4. Install session files

mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
cp sessions/start-niri.sh ~/.local/bin/start-niri.sh
chmod +x ~/.local/bin/start-niri.sh

# SDDM session entry (requires sudo) — overrides the niri package's own entry
sed "s|__HOME__|$HOME|g" sessions/niri.desktop | sudo tee /usr/share/wayland-sessions/niri.desktop >/dev/null

# Enable SDDM
sudo systemctl enable sddm.service
sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

# SDDM Catppuccin theme (requires sudo) — openSUSE uses conf.d drop-ins
sudo mkdir -p /etc/sddm.conf.d
printf '[Theme]\nCurrent=catppuccin-mocha-mauve\n' | sudo tee /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-theme.conf >/dev/null

5. Validate

niri validate

Components

Component Tool
Compositor niri
Bar Noctalia v5
App launcher Noctalia v5
Notifications Noctalia v5
Wallpaper Noctalia v5
Clipboard Noctalia v5 (native clipboard history)
Terminal kitty
Power/session menu Noctalia v5
Lock screen Noctalia v5
X11 compat xwayland-satellite
SSH agent systemd ssh-agent.socket + lxqt-openssh-askpass
Login theme Catppuccin Mocha (manual install, no OBS package)
Cursor theme Catppuccin Mocha Mauve (manual install, no OBS package)

Keybindings

Core

Binding Action
Super+Return Terminal (kitty)
Super+B Browser (zen-browser)
Super+E File manager (nautilus)
Super+Space / Super+Ctrl+Return App launcher
Super+Shift+Space Emoji picker
Super+Q Close window
Super+F Fullscreen
Super+T Toggle floating
Super+V Clipboard manager
Super+Alt+L Lock screen
Super+Ctrl+Q Session / power menu
Super+Shift+E Quit niri
Super+Slash Show hotkey overlay
Super+O Toggle overview

Navigation

Binding Action
Super+Arrows / Super+HJKL Focus column/window
Super+Shift+Arrows / Super+Shift+HJKL Focus monitor
Super+1-9, 0 Focus workspace 1-10
Super+Tab / Super+Shift+Tab Next/prev workspace
Super+Home / Super+End Focus first/last column
Alt+Tab Cycle windows

Window Management

Binding Action
Super+Ctrl+Arrows / Super+Ctrl+HJKL Move column/window
Super+Shift+1-9, 0 Move window to workspace
Super+Shift+Ctrl+Arrows/HJKL Move column to monitor
Super+Alt+Arrows Resize (10% steps)
Super+Minus / Super+Equal Resize column width
Super+Shift+Minus / Super+Shift+Equal Resize window height
Super+R Cycle preset column widths
Super+Shift+R Cycle preset window heights
Super+Ctrl+R Reset window height
Super+C Center column
Super+M Maximize column
Super+Shift+F Expand column to available width
Super+W Toggle tabbed column display
Super+Period Expel window from column
Super+[ / Super+] Consume/expel directional
Super+Shift+V Switch focus floating/tiling

Noctalia Shell

Binding Action
Super+Comma Settings panel
Super+A Control center
Super+Ctrl+A Calendar (Control Center tab)¹
Super+Ctrl+I Network panel (Control Center tab)¹
Super+N Notification history (Control Center tab)¹
Super+Shift+N Toggle Do Not Disturb
Super+Shift+B Toggle bar
Super+D Toggle dock
Super+Shift+W Random wallpaper
Super+Ctrl+W Wallpaper picker
Super+Ctrl+D Toggle dark mode
Super+Ctrl+N Toggle night light
Super+Shift+M Media panel
Media keys Volume, brightness, player controls (with OSD)

¹ Noctalia v5 moved these into Control Center tabs instead of standalone panels (v4 behavior). The exact tab-jump IPC token wasn't verified against a running instance — check with noctalia msg --help and adjust config.kdl if the binding doesn't land on the right tab. Calendar and weather are also now separate features/tabs in v5, no longer a combined widget.

Utilities

Binding Action
Super+S / Print Screenshot (select region)
Super+Shift+S / Super+Print Screenshot full screen
Super+Alt+S / Super+Shift+Print Screenshot window
Super+Ctrl+C / XF86Calculator Calculator
Super+Escape Toggle keyboard shortcuts inhibit
Super+Shift+P Power off monitors

Monitors

Monitor configuration lives in the output blocks at the top of config.kdl. Niri hot-reloads the config on save, so changes apply immediately.

Finding your outputs

While niri is running:

niri msg outputs

This prints each output's connector name (e.g. eDP-1, DP-1, HDMI-A-1), current mode, available modes, scale, and transform.

From a TTY (no compositor running), check DRM sysfs:

# List connected outputs
for d in /sys/class/drm/card*-*/; do
    [ "$(cat "$d/status" 2>/dev/null)" = "connected" ] && echo "$(basename "$d" | sed 's/^card[0-9]*-//') — $(head -1 "$d/modes")"
done

Configuration options

Edit ~/.config/niri/config.kdl (or config/niri/config.kdl in the repo):

output "eDP-1" {
    mode "1920x1080@60.001"
    scale 1.0
}

Each output block supports:

Property Description Example
mode Resolution and refresh rate "2560x1440@143.995"
scale UI scaling factor (1.0 = no scaling) 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, 2.0
position Pixel position in the layout x=1920 y=0
transform Rotation "normal", "90", "180", "270"

Current setup

This repo's config.kdl hardcodes the actual fixed hardware rather than relying on auto-detection (which only ever configured the first-detected output — the second monitor was silently dropped):

// Acer VG270U P 27" 1440p/144Hz — left
output "DP-2" {
    mode "2560x1440@143.995"
    position x=0 y=0
    scale 1.0
}

// Gigabyte MO34WQC2 34" ultrawide — right, primary
output "DP-1" {
    mode "3440x1440@239.991"
    position x=2560 y=0
    scale 1.0
    focus-at-startup
}

Position values are in logical (scaled) pixels — with scale 1.0 on both, that's the same as physical pixels here. Use niri msg outputs to check logical vs physical sizes when calculating positions for a different scale.

Tips

  • Explicit position/mode on every output beats letting niri auto-place them — automatic placement is fine for a single monitor, but is easy to get wrong (or have silently dropped, as happened here) with two or more
  • Set scale 1.0 explicitly to prevent niri from auto-scaling on HiDPI panels
  • Available modes are listed in niri msg outputs — use the exact WxH@rate string, matching to the 3 decimal digits
  • focus-at-startup on an output picks which monitor gets initial focus (i.e. your "primary")
  • Changes take effect immediately on save (no restart needed)

Repo Structure

├── README.md
├── CLAUDE.md
├── install-opensuse.sh
├── cleanup-opensuse-default-desktop.sh
├── install.sh       (legacy, Arch)
├── cleanup.sh       (legacy, Arch)
├── config/
│   ├── niri/
│   │   └── config.kdl
│   ├── noctalia/
│   │   └── config.toml
│   ├── kitty/
│   │   └── kitty.conf
│   ├── fish/
│   │   └── config.fish
│   ├── gtk-3.0/
│   │   └── settings.ini
│   └── gtk-4.0/
│       └── settings.ini
└── sessions/
    ├── niri.desktop
    └── start-niri.sh

Wallpapers

Catppuccin Mocha wallpapers from orangci/walls-catppuccin-mocha — 330+ images color-matched to the Mocha palette. Place them in ~/Pictures/Wallpapers/ and cycle with Super+Shift+W (random) or Super+Ctrl+W (picker).

Uninstall

# Remove configs
rm -rf ~/.config/niri ~/.config/noctalia ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal/niri-portals.conf

# Remove session files
rm ~/.local/bin/start-niri.sh
sudo rm /usr/share/wayland-sessions/niri.desktop

# Restore default shell
chsh -s /bin/bash

# Disable SSH agent
systemctl --user disable ssh-agent.socket

# Uninstall packages (optional)
sudo zypper remove niri xwayland-satellite xdg-desktop-portal-gnome lxqt-openssh-askpass noctalia polkit-kde-agent-6
flatpak uninstall app.zen_browser.zen
sudo rm -rf /usr/share/sddm/themes/catppuccin-mocha-mauve /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-theme.conf
sudo zypper removerepo noctalia-v5

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Config for Niri on Arch Linux

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