I recently installed CachyOS on my older laptop and decided to give Niri a go again. However, I was not a fan of the setup that CachyOS created. I also did not want to hand configure everything when I may not keep it. With that, I decided to install Niri on CachyOS with DankMaterialShell, because Dank does a lot of the heavy lifting. Yes, I am lazy…
What is Niri?
Niri is a scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor.
What is DankMaterialShell?
DankMaterialShell is a complete desktop shell. It can be setup on Hyperland, Niri, and other compositors. It basically gives you a theme-able desktop environment without having to install all the various components that make a functional desktop yourself.
Post-Install Issues (CachyOS related)
Since I installed all the optional Niri components during the CachyOS install, like waybar, etc. I had to remove them. Dank had a few issues because of that. Mostly the problems arise with the Cachy Niri settings centered around theming and some minor configurations. After removing those I had a fairly clean Niri environment.
I did have an issue with some windows not honoring dark mode, mostly the CachyOS tools apps and Software Center. The fix for some of those programs was to install darkman and use it to set dark mode, nothing else worked. Yeah, a hack. The rest of the theming and configuration I completed within the Dank settings panel and worked flawlessly. I think a clean install of Niri without installing all the optional software and configs offered by CachyOS would get rid of this issue.
Note: Not only can you select a desktop to install, you can also choose various elements for the WM from the CachyOS installer. I just happened to select everything when I installed Niri.
Setting Up
After that tiny bit of clean up, all I have to say is wow! What a great experience. Runs great, looks awesome, and the desktop is fluid. Beyond adding my wallpaper, a bit of theming of the top bar, and some configurations you’d do in any desktop, I really didn’t have to do much.
In DankMaterialShell I kept the default key-binds as they are sane. However, I have added my own to make quick work of opening apps I use often. The only other thing I may do is add a nicer icon set. As far as plugins and widgets, I have not added any since my usual additions are weather and system monitoring, which are included by default.
Note: You can view and install plugins from Niri’s settings. They reside on the internet so they are not taking up space.
Issues?
With all the good there has to be some bad, right? Well, not so much bad as missed. The lack of calendar event integration into the drop down calendar is something I would like to see. Addition of astrological and holiday events, like KDE, would be cool. Currently you need to sync with Khal in order to get events in the calendar. From what I read it looks like Dank will replace that calendar at some point.
One issue I have noticed is that the WiFi icon will show as not connected when it is in fact connected. This can happen when the machine sleeps or updates.
The only other thing would be with the slide out notes. The note tab will lose the delete button. If you delete the file from the directory, the note sticks around until you logout, which will then recreate the file when you log on. The only way to get the button back is to create a new note. It is still nice to have for quickly writing things down, but I will likely not save any files using it since I have a note app I use anyway.
Note: DankMaterialShell pulls colors from the wallpaper.
Conclusion
Omarchy was really nice, Hyperland was fun to configure and rice, but Niri + DankMaterialShell is near perfection. The difference between Niri and Omarchy? Niri isn’t deciding on
software or configs outside of the desktop. Anyway…
In my opinion, if you want a solid tiling window manager with a desktop that is beautiful, easy to configure, that also includes great default features, look no further than Niri with DankMaterialShell.
Note: You can also find other shells with similar features, I have not tried them.
Screenshots
