There's been a long-standing request to add config includes to niri. They're useful for config organization, but also for custom desktop shells to be able to change colors without having to edit the main user's config.

Today I finished the first step towards this: a many-days-long refactor that makes the main config part, layout, mergeable, i.e., able to be combined from multiple parts. And building on this, per-output/workspace overrides.

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2449

Testing wanted here!

#niri

Our config system is declarative, rather than command-like, which means that we parse the config into a tree of data types instead of reading lines and applying them one-by-one. This design requires a lot of work to properly support includes, but in turn we get atomic and selective reloading (if output part of the config didn't change, we don't override your transient output adjustments), better error messages and no problems with things like "spawn-at-startup" that should only work once.

#niri

After several more days of work, I fully finished config includes. All config sections merge together, live-reloading watches all included files (even if they fail to parse), error messages work across files, documentation is written.

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2482

Once again, this needs testing! There must be NO breakage to existing configs, so if something breaks, I want to know about it to fix it.

#niri

I merged config includes, along with per-output and per-workspace layout config overrides. Play around with them at your nearest niri-git package.

- https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Include.html
- https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Outputs.html#layout-config-overrides
- https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Named-Workspaces.html#layout-config-overrides

Also merged ignore-drm-device which should let you passthrough a GPU to VMs: https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Debug-Options.html#ignore-drm-device

#niri

After a detour to config includes and, again, several days/weeks of work implementing all edge cases and expected behaviors, true window maximize is ready and merged to main. Tricky cases like: windows requesting fullscreen and maximize after opening; windows failing to match the full maximized size; transparent windows with the niri border behind them.

https://yalter.github.io/niri/Fullscreen-and-Maximize.html

Give it a try! Ngl I mostly switched to maximize just because I'm too lazy to reach the keyboard for Mod+F.

#niri

One cool thing I noticed about true maximize is that apps like GIMP or Inkscape or Blender, that really want all available space, maximize themselves at startup, so you don't have to window-rule them manually in your config

#niri

microsoft niri

#niri

Small change on niri-git for people using the foot terminal with CSD, or other apps that constrain their sizes to a grid: niri will now match the default column width to a preset width when a window opens. So opening foot sized "proportion 0.5" and then pressing Mod+R will switch you to the next preset width, even if foot actually opened slightly smaller to match its terminal grid. Before the change, the first Mod+R would pick the same "proportion 0.5" in this case and "do nothing".

#niri

Also, experimenting with this interaction tweak on a branch: what if dragging tiled windows horizontally scrolled the view instead of dragging them "out"? This makes it possible to scroll the view mouse-only without going through the Overview (the zooming gets quite tiring when it's frequent), and makes it possible to scroll the view touch-only. To drag the window out of the layout, you can still drag it downward.

#niri

Added a small "Quick Start" to the niri docs that gets you going with niri + DMS in three commands:

https://yalter.github.io/niri/Getting-Started.html#quick-start

Tested the Fedora ones on a fresh VM, worked out nicely, getting me into a session with a very functional desktop shell.

#niri

Currently in the middle of finishing up the Alt-Tab PR for niri: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/1704

Got most things working as I'd like, though still plenty of fixes and clean-ups left. Fully live window previews with block-out-from support and fading title labels.

There's some interesting design differences compared to other desktops: on niri I expect it's common to have multiple terminals open, so Alt-Tab must go by windows (not by apps) and must show previews big enough to pick the right one.

#niri

We've hit 15k stars on the niri repo!!   

#niri

Just merged Alt-Tab to main, shortly arriving at your nearest niri-git. Comes with plenty of ways to tweak it if you want [1], and a focus timestamp in the IPC [2] that lets shell devs make their own recent windows switchers.

[1]: https://yalter.github.io/niri/Configuration%3A-Recent-Windows.html
[2]: https://yalter.github.io/niri/niri_ipc/struct.Window.html#structfield.focus_timestamp

#niri

Did some work on the TTY backend in niri over the past few days. Merged PR for DisplayLink dock support, added "panel orientation" property read, and, based on cosmic-comp code, implemented the necessary logic to avoid screen blanking. Finally, both at niri startup and when switching TTYs, your screen won't flicker, as long as resolution/refresh rate stay the same.

Even when the screen does blank, it'll go faster, as there's now just one modeset instead of two (clear then draw frame).

#niri

Took some fighting but I think I've managed to teach the new Alt-Tab to speak to the screen reader

#niri

I finished and merged the horizontal drag interaction tweak from a previous post. It's very handy but can also be annoying when you want to move windows across monitors, so on mouse I restricted it to headerbar dragging (so, not Mod+LMB and not in the overview).

On touch however, it works for both headerbar dragging, and for Mod+Touch, so you can now easily scroll the view around.

I also added the thing where you can touch with another finger to switch between floating and tiling.

#niri

DankMaterialShell folks set up builds for Debian, Ubuntu and OpenSUSE, so now it's super easy to try niri & DMS on those systems.

I added Ubuntu commands to the niri quick start guide: https://yalter.github.io/niri/Getting-Started.html

Debian and OpenSUSE here: https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/home:AvengeMedia:danklinux

#niri

Today I'm releasing niri v25.11 with long-awaited config includes, Alt-Tab, true maximize, custom modes, and a bunch of other improvements!    Enjoy the release notes :)

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/releases/tag/v25.11

#niri #smithay #wayland #rust

Congrats sternenseemann on the nixpkgs niri any% WR at 3 h 20 min

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/466213

#niri

funny how while working on alt-tab i discovered that mouse scrolling on top of the DMS bar switches workspaces, which completely replaced any need i had for alt-tab, so i ended up never using it

this DMS bar scrolling feature also removed one of my main usecases for the overview

and then the new horizontal window drag gesture removed my other main usecase for the overview, so now i'm opening the overview quite rarely too

(both have their uses; just curious to watch my own habits shift)

#niri

I've had one of those sessions today where I worked with a ton of random windows on a long workspace, while preparing slides for a uni scientific presentation. All kinds of various PDFs, file managers, InkScape, GIMP and so on.

Horizontal mouse headerbar drag to scroll the view was a lifesaver. Definitely a good choice adding this. Along with scrolling the view on DnD near the screen edge. Going through the overview, or always through the keyboard, would be very annoying.

#niri

yuxqiu just improved the default GPU detection logic in Smithay, so niri-git now works out of the box on Asahi and Pinephone devices, without having to manually configure render-drm-device!

#niri

i added the pointer warping thing from blender to when you drag the view around in niri with the mouse

hf with this new way to pass time during boring meetings

(on a more serious note this helps when you need to scroll further than the edge of your monitor allows)

also unrelated: merged optional config includes earlier today

#niri

on niri-git, the nautilus rename popup now works properly with IMEs running

(and generally popups with text fields should work now)

#niri

Experimenting with a restructure of the niri rendering code to uncurse it somewhat by getting rid of all complex impl Iterator chains and lifetimes, which also lets me remove some intermediate small Vecs. In essence, going from pull to push iteration.

I'm surprised that the result is consistently 2-3x faster than before. Wonder if it's the Vecs, or if inverting (massive) codegen'd iterators into a normal call stack passing a closure arg, providing the main benefit

#niri

Finished the push-based rendering refactor, made a write-up here for the curious: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/3113

It even ended up with a negative delta (+762 -780) which is always a W.

Btw I ran the comparison on my Eee PC and there the difference is even more extreme, like 8x faster rendering list construction (which is once again only a part of the total rendering time, and notably doesn't include actual rendering, but still nice).

#niri

biblically accurate window management

#niri

i'm reviving the PR integrating Tracy GPU profiling into Smithay. Here are two test captures from niri: one for normal + screencast rendering, one for iGPU + dGPU monitor rendering

#niri

Looking for ideas on how to go about translating niri (the binary, and the wiki). If you have experience doing this with other FOSS projects, please share:

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/discussions/3135

#niri

Is there any good way of moving a process into a systemd StartTransientScope together with its children?

In niri we put spawned processes into scopes, so oomd and other stuff can work properly. Usually you do it by putting yourself into a scope, then exec-ing the target program. But that's a 7 ms toll on startup time, so in niri we spawn the program right away, and then put it into a scope. However, if the program forks fast enough, that child doesn't go into the scope..

#niri #linux #systemd

Turns out GNOME Shell has the same problem: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/6565

I also wrote it down in a more detailed form on the niri issues for future reference: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/issues/3201

niri can now include the mouse pointer on window screenshots, a feature that had several more edge cases than I thought before starting to work on it (and it's likely not the ones you think, those ones were easy)

#niri

Merged another long time overdue niri PR: mouse cursor via metadata in PipeWire screencasts (lets you toggle Show Cursor on/off in OBS), and full mouse cursor support in window casts.

The cursor is visible only when the window is receiving mouse events—if you're moving the mouse on top of something else covering the target window, the cursor won't be (unintentionally) painted.

Thanks @abmantis for driving this, including debugging a memory bug in PW!

#niri

Working on a screencast IPC for niri. The idea is to give info to desktop bars to be able to add a screencast indicator whenever something is recording the screen.

Got it hooked up for both PipeWire (obviously) and wlr-screencopy. For the latter there's no good way to tell if something is a screencast so I went with some heuristics.

Here's the icon working on the DMS bar, as well as a popup with the full available info I made for debugging.  

#niri

Oh right, for PipeWire I can send the node ID, which DMS can then use to fetch the consumer application name!

#niri

The screencast IPC is now merged: https://yalter.github.io/niri/niri_ipc/struct.Cast.html

#niri

Also added niri msg action stop-cast to force-stop a PipeWire screencast

#niri

working on my new visual style

#niri

So yeah, I'm working on blur for niri. I'm doing "xray blur" first where the idea is that you only include background surfaces, so you pretty much never have to redo the blur—next to zero perf impact unless you have a video wallpaper or smth.

Turns out that it's quite tricky to do well, especially with our Overview. I'm like on my third refactor attempt now but I think I've got a good approach.

During this video there's no reblurring whatsoever, all just drawing cached static textures.

#niri

Added non-xray blur, based on @drakulix's Smithay/COSMIC implementation.

Keep in mind this blur work is still extremely WIP and with many issues (some visible on the video). It's also still not entirely clear to me how to best structure the code around it in niri. We'll see

#niri