Decided to try writing a Wayland compositor for fun.
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Ppl naturally want to put something in the Overview backdrop, like a blurred version of the wallpaper (see how popular Blur My Shell is). Orthogonally, some ppl want the wallpaper to be static, rather than move with workspaces (it can be distracting).
I'm not prepared to dive head-first into image rendering and blur shaders yet, so I made it possible to put a layer surface into the backdrop. This enables both of those cases, likely even more cool things!
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/wiki/Overview#backdrop-customization
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Ppl naturally want to put something in the Overview backdrop, like a blurred version of the wallpaper (see how popular Blur My Shell is). Orthogonally, some ppl want the wallpaper to be static, rather than move with workspaces (it can be distracting).
I'm not prepared to dive head-first into image rendering and blur shaders yet, so I made it possible to put a layer surface into the backdrop. This enables both of those cases, likely even more cool things!
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/wiki/Overview#backdrop-customization
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Today, screenshot UI updates! Implemented tablet and touchscreen input for area selection (at long last). And, added a small clickable capture button, so screenshots can now be confirmed tablet-, touch-, or mouse-only!
After long 3 months of work, I'm glad to release niri v25.05 with the Overview, screenshot UI tablet and touch support, dynamic screencast target and windowed fullscreen, IPC pick-window and pick-color, window urgency, and lots of other things!
Release notes prepared for your reading pleasure as always: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/releases/tag/v25.05
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After long 3 months of work, I'm glad to release niri v25.05 with the Overview, screenshot UI tablet and touch support, dynamic screencast target and windowed fullscreen, IPC pick-window and pick-color, window urgency, and lots of other things!
Release notes prepared for your reading pleasure as always: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/releases/tag/v25.05
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Tagged a niri v25.05.1 hotfix, fixing kitty quick access terminal, numlock, and some jank with hidden cursor.
Alright after some much needed rest, I set out to deal with the thing everyone has to bump into when setting up niri: some way to use Xwayland. I am still very much *not* planning to integrate Xwayland directly, but with this PR (and an accompanying xwayland-satellite PR), niri will create the X11 sockets and autostart xwl-s on demand, all out of the box with zero configuration. So, it'll work just like other compositors, but with xwl-s instead of direct Xwayland.
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Alright after some much needed rest, I set out to deal with the thing everyone has to bump into when setting up niri: some way to use Xwayland. I am still very much *not* planning to integrate Xwayland directly, but with this PR (and an accompanying xwayland-satellite PR), niri will create the X11 sockets and autostart xwl-s on demand, all out of the box with zero configuration. So, it'll work just like other compositors, but with xwl-s instead of direct Xwayland.
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In niri v25.05, the screenshot UI learned to respond to some keyboard window movement bindings by moving the screenshot selection. Now it supports several more movement commands, including moving across monitors. It works similarly to a floating window: the selection origin is preserved relatively, and the size is adjusted by the monitor scale difference. Under the right conditions, it'll match a floating window exactly.
Also, holding Space will now let you move the selection origin!
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In niri v25.05, the screenshot UI learned to respond to some keyboard window movement bindings by moving the screenshot selection. Now it supports several more movement commands, including moving across monitors. It works similarly to a floating window: the selection origin is preserved relatively, and the size is adjusted by the monitor scale difference. Under the right conditions, it'll match a floating window exactly.
Also, holding Space will now let you move the selection origin!
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...and now moving also works with on a touchscreen with a second touch
Got this idea from how in osu! you can drag with one finger and press with second/third to "click". -
apparently niri is on the GH trending page today: https://github.com/trending Amidst a sea of LLM repos
Today I implemented most of the ext-workspace protocol [1] in niri. It lets desktop components (i.e. bars) show workspaces and do some basic operations on them.
The two bars with ext-workspace that I know of are sfwbar and xfce4-panel. Unfortunately, I seem to have surfaced several problems in their implementations. I opened issues in sfwbar; would be great if someone took a look from Xfce. Also if there are other clients I missed?
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/1800
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Today I implemented most of the ext-workspace protocol [1] in niri. It lets desktop components (i.e. bars) show workspaces and do some basic operations on them.
The two bars with ext-workspace that I know of are sfwbar and xfce4-panel. Unfortunately, I seem to have surfaced several problems in their implementations. I opened issues in sfwbar; would be great if someone took a look from Xfce. Also if there are other clients I missed?
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/1800
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Everyone who dislikes GitHub Wiki: I finally made a write-down of my requirements/wishes for a replacement. Please feel free to chime in with suggestions: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/discussions/1830
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Update on ext-workspace:
- sfwbar fixed all outstanding issues!
- the waybar ext-workspace PR also fixed all issues!
- quickshell impl is on the wayOut of curiosity, I tried running Orca on niri, and apparently it sort-of works for some apps (I expected nothing to work at all; idk anything about screen readers). However, compared to GNOME Shell, there's quite a few missing or broken things. I documented what I found here: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/issues/1904
Is there some "Integrating Orca to Wayland desktops" docs? Like, what the compositor needs to do, who handles the hotkeys and how, etc.
(not actively working on this, just curious)
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Out of curiosity, I tried running Orca on niri, and apparently it sort-of works for some apps (I expected nothing to work at all; idk anything about screen readers). However, compared to GNOME Shell, there's quite a few missing or broken things. I documented what I found here: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/issues/1904
Is there some "Integrating Orca to Wayland desktops" docs? Like, what the compositor needs to do, who handles the hotkeys and how, etc.
(not actively working on this, just curious)
Should've done this a while ago, but I finally wrote contributing guidelines for niri:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
With many new users, the stream of issues, discussions and pull requests is quite overwhelming.
You can help! And the contributing guidelines outline the various ways how.I would especially appreciate help reviewing PRs, though I understand it's the more complex task out of these.
Big thanks to people already answering questions and helping others!
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Should've done this a while ago, but I finally wrote contributing guidelines for niri:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md
With many new users, the stream of issues, discussions and pull requests is quite overwhelming.
You can help! And the contributing guidelines outline the various ways how.I would especially appreciate help reviewing PRs, though I understand it's the more complex task out of these.
Big thanks to people already answering questions and helping others!
Today I implemented fetching keyboard layout options from org.freedesktop.locale1, used by things like distro installers to configure the layout:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2052
I guess this is the closest thing to global cross-desktop keyboard layout configuration, so it should also help environments like LXQt integrating niri.
Also recently merged: niri now sets a logind session locked hint, useful for e.g. idle tools that put the PC to sleep, but only once the lockscreen is fully up.
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Today I implemented fetching keyboard layout options from org.freedesktop.locale1, used by things like distro installers to configure the layout:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2052
I guess this is the closest thing to global cross-desktop keyboard layout configuration, so it should also help environments like LXQt integrating niri.
Also recently merged: niri now sets a logind session locked hint, useful for e.g. idle tools that put the PC to sleep, but only once the lockscreen is fully up.
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Gathering thoughts on reconciling communities between Matrix and Discord: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/discussions/2069
This is a problem I expect we'll face reasonably soon, so if you have some ideas please write in the discussion!
About finished implementing org.fd.a11y.KeyboardMonitor in niri, necessary for correct screen reader function:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2060
I tested it with Orca more or less, seems to work, but I'm very new to screen reader workings, so it's possible I've missed something.
This makes Orca announce keys everywhere in niri, and makes grabs work (both modifier with double-press passthrough and keystrokes). Making Orca actually say niri dialogs will be a separate effort.
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About finished implementing org.fd.a11y.KeyboardMonitor in niri, necessary for correct screen reader function:
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2060
I tested it with Orca more or less, seems to work, but I'm very new to screen reader workings, so it's possible I've missed something.
This makes Orca announce keys everywhere in niri, and makes grabs work (both modifier with double-press passthrough and keystrokes). Making Orca actually say niri dialogs will be a separate effort.
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Finally finished making niri screencasts asynchronously wait for rendering completion before handing the buffer over to PipeWire. This fixes screencast flickering problems on NVIDIA setups.
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2175
This is not PW explicit sync; I can now finish that too (OBS and PW released their fixes), but it'll act more as an optimization on top of the current code (since only OBS can use it for now, and not on its Flathub build (PW is too old there)).
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Finally finished making niri screencasts asynchronously wait for rendering completion before handing the buffer over to PipeWire. This fixes screencast flickering problems on NVIDIA setups.
https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2175
This is not PW explicit sync; I can now finish that too (OBS and PW released their fixes), but it'll act more as an optimization on top of the current code (since only OBS can use it for now, and not on its Flathub build (PW is too old there)).
Quite comprehensive desktop shell for niri released today: https://github.com/bbedward/DankMaterialShell
Based on QuickShell; made by the same people who started the niri Discord server.
Checking it out now, looks very cool! Though not without a few rough edges to iron out of course
