Glassy Niri + Noctalia Setup

This repository contains my personal Niri Wayland + Noctalia Shell configuration, extended with a glassy / translucent aesthetic layer and an optional interactive setup script.

It serves both as:

• a daily-driver environment
• a reference for building a minimal, keyboard-first Wayland setup

This is not intended to be a universal, one-command desktop replacement.

What’s Included

• Glassy / blurred UI (Niri + Kitty + Noctalia)
• Custom Fastfetch configuration and ASCII
• Obsidian transparency snippets
• Zen Browser styling (extensions + mods)
• Interactive setup script (backup + dry run support)

Disclaimer

This setup is hardware-specific and opinionated.

It assumes:

• familiarity with Wayland
• comfort debugging broken sessions
• willingness to read configuration files before applying them

Do not blindly run things and expect everything to work perfectly.

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Important Before Installing

0. Niri (IMPORTANT! Git Version Required)

This setup uses niri-git instead of the stable niri package (for blur and newer features).

• On CachyOS:

  sudo pacman -S niri-git
  

• On Arch Linux: Install via an AUR helper (e.g. yay, paru):

  yay -S niri-git
  

1. Font Requirement

This setup uses JetBrains Mono Nerd Font.

Install it before proceeding:

# Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd

Or install it manually from Nerd Fonts.

2. Display Configuration (Critical)

The Niri configuration is tuned for a high-DPI display (2560×1600 at scale 1.5).

If your display differs, you must adjust it.

Run:

niri msg outputs

Then edit:

~/.config/niri/config.kdl

Update:

• resolution
• refresh rate
• scale

Example:

output "eDP-2" {
    mode "2560x1600@60.002"
    scale 1.5
}

If your display is below 2K, set:

scale 1

If you skip this step, the layout WILL break.

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Prerequisites

CachyOS (or any other Arch-based) is recommended.

Install required packages:

niri-git
noctalia-shell
kitty
vicinae
neovim
zathura
zsh
starship
zen-browser
yazi
eza

---

Setup (Recommended)

An interactive setup script is included:

chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

Features:

• selective module installation
• automatic backups (.bak.timestamp)
• dry-run preview mode
• uninstall (restore) support

NOTE: You are still expected to review what the script does before running it.

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Stack Overview

Core

• Compositor / WM: niri
• Shell UI: noctalia-shell
• Display Server: Wayland
• Login Manager: SDDM (not included in the dots)

Applications

• Terminal: kitty
• Editor: Neovim
• Launcher: Vicinae
• File Manager: yazi
• Browser: Zen Browser
• Notes: Obsidian
• Music: kew
• PDF Viewer: zathura
• Prompt: starship
• Shell: zsh

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Post Installation Setup for Zen Browser & Obsidian

This setup includes additional visual customization:

Obsidian

After applying custom CSS snippets (obsidian-snippets/), you may proceed this way:

• Install Zen theme
• Allow community plugins and install style settings
• Open up style settings and tweak Zen theme this way:
  • Window Settings -> Brightness = 1.0
  • Editor Settings -> Hide heading prompt & hide bottom line & text justification= on, width of editor = 750
  • Windows/Linux -> Transparency for windows = 0, adjust colors to be '#FFFFFF0D' for both light and dark

Zen Browser

For Zen-Browser's Transparency install:

• Zen Internet extension
• Transparent Zen mod

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Repository Structure

glassy-dots/
├── config/
├── obsidian-snippets/
├── wallpapers/
├── setup.sh
└── README.md

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Notes

Obsidian snippets must be placed inside your vault manually or via script. Zen Browser configuration is manual and done via extension and mods. Output configuration is always device-specific.

If something does not work:

• check your display configuration
• verify dependencies
• read the configs

If it still does not work, there is a high probability that something important was skipped earlier.

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Status

Stable. Actively used. Changes will be incremental with time.