nevaforget
8d31ff26e0
moonix switched first; this follows so the two distributions agree again and moonix can drop the two substitute derivations that were rewriting these configs at deploy time. Two things made it worth doing. gtklock's modules show an avatar, a clock and power buttons, none of which swaylock can do at all. And the old objection is gone: 4.0.0 links libgtk-session-lock.so.0, so it speaks ext-session-lock-v1 exactly like swaylock and the compositor still holds the lock if the process dies. Only the <=2.x versions used layer-shell, where a crash unlocked the screen. The config location is the real prize. gtklock searches $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS, so defaults/xdg/gtklock/config.ini rides the generic sweep and takes effect through the package alone. Everything built for swaylock in 2026-08-18 goes with it: the explicit install line in the PKGBUILD, the pre_upgrade retirement of seeded home copies, check_swaylock_config in moonarch-doctor, the comment in post-install.sh. swaylock needed all of that because its sysconfdir was not an XDG path. The blur stays baked into the wallpaper. gtklock cannot blur either — GTK3 has no filter CSS property and it takes no screenshot of the session, so there is nothing to blur at lock time. playerctl-module is deliberately not installed; it needs playerctld, which nothing here starts. The other two are named bare in modules= because gtklock's compiled-in module directory really is /usr/lib/gtklock on Arch. All three packages are in extra, so official.txt covers them. Both callers keep spawning the locker directly. There is no Wayland protocol for "lock the session" — ext-session-lock-v1 is how a client becomes the lock — and no portal either; logind's Session.Lock only emits a signal nothing here subscribes to. Routing the popout through `stasis trigger lock-screen` would name the locker once instead of twice, at the price of a Lock button that fails silently whenever stasis is down. The reason to want it does not exist: the plan continues after a manual lock anyway, because stasis takes the state from logind's LockedHint rather than from having started the locker. The PKGBUILD side of this is a separate commit in moonarch-pkgbuilds, and it carries the part that fails silently if forgotten: pre_upgrade rewrites already-seeded ~/.config/stasis/stasis.rune, which is copied once and never overwritten. Without it an existing install keeps calling a locker that is no longer there.
Moonarch
Reproducible Arch Linux desktop environment — fully automated from bare metal to a configured Niri (scrollable tiling Wayland) system with Catppuccin Mocha theming.
Moonarch combines archinstall for the base system with post-install automation that handles packages, XDG defaults, system services, greeter, idle management, and a Walker launcher with native providers and dmenu-based helper scripts. The result is a complete development/productivity desktop that can be rebuilt from scratch in minutes.
Why These Choices
| Component | Choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Compositor | Niri | Scrollable tiling — no fixed grid, infinite horizontal workspace. Purpose-built Wayland compositor, not an X11 port. |
| Greeter | greetd + ReGreet | Minimal, Wayland-native login. ReGreet is a GTK4 greeter from the official repos, running inside its own Niri instance and inheriting the system GTK theme. |
| Lock Screen | gtklock | ext-session-lock-v1 through gtk-session-lock — compositor guarantees lock on crash. PAM authentication. Modules add the avatar, clock and power buttons swaylock had no way to show. Background is a blurred copy of the default wallpaper, blurred at build time: GTK3 has no blur and gtklock takes no screenshot. |
| Power Menu | Quickshell popout (PowerPopout.qml) |
Lock, logout, hibernate, reboot, shutdown; every action except lock needs a second click. Part of the bar, so it needs no own package. |
| Idle Manager | stasis + wayland-pipewire-idle-inhibit | Separate AC/battery power plans. Brightness dimming, DPMS, lock (via gtklock), and suspend on configurable timeouts. The companion inhibitor holds a Wayland idle-inhibitor while audio plays — keeps the screen awake during windowed browser video, which stasis' pactl detection skips by design. |
| Bar | Waybar | Wayland-native, highly customizable. Niri workspace/window modules via community plugins. |
| Launcher | Walker + Elephant | Wayland-native GTK4 launcher with built-in providers for apps, bluetooth, audio, files, and calculator. Dmenu mode for custom scripts (VPN, CPU governor). |
| Terminal | Foot | Fast, minimal Wayland-native terminal. Server mode for instant window spawning. |
| Shell | Zsh | Programmable completion, FZF integration, syntax highlighting. |
| Audio | PipeWire | Drop-in replacement for PulseAudio/JACK with lower latency. RNNoise input denoising configured out of the box. |
| Display Management | kanshi + wdisplays-persistent | kanshi auto-switches output profiles on hotplug. wdisplays-persistent saves changes directly to kanshi config. |
| Notifications | swaync | GTK4 notification daemon with DND toggle, grouping, MPRIS support. Fractional scaling via native GTK4. |
| Clipboard | cliphist + quickshell | Clipboard history stored in runtime dir, wiped on session start. The quickshell bar provides the picker (Super+C) with search, image thumbnails, and per-entry delete. |
| GTK Theme | Colloid-Grey-Dark-Catppuccin | Catppuccin Mocha palette, grey accent, explicit dark variant. |
| Icons | Colloid-Grey-Catppuccin-Dark | Catppuccin-colored icon set matching the GTK theme. |
| Cursor | Sweet-cursors | Visible on dark backgrounds without clashing. |
| Font | UbuntuSans Nerd Font | Clean sans-serif with full Nerd Font glyph coverage for bar/terminal icons. |
| Wallpaper | waypaper + awww | waypaper provides GUI selection, awww handles animated transitions (60 FPS, 2s crossfade). |
| Night Light | wlsunset | Wayland-native blue light filter via wlr-gamma-control. Toggleable from Waybar brightness group. |
| Firewall | UFW | Simple deny-incoming/allow-outgoing default. Sane baseline without iptables complexity. |
| AUR Helper | paru | Rust-based, pacman-compatible. Supports the custom package repo that ships the moonarch package itself. |
Quick Start
Fresh Install (Bare Metal)
- Boot the Arch ISO and download the config:
curl -O https://gitea.moonarch.de/nevaforget/moonarch/raw/branch/main/config/user_configuration.json archinstall --config user_configuration.json - Choose disk and kernel interactively — everything else comes from the config.
- Reboot, log in, then:
/opt/moonarch/scripts/post-install.sh - Reboot again — done.
The archinstall config clones this repo to /opt/moonarch via custom-commands.
post-install.sh handles the remaining ~95 packages, all configs, themes, services,
and user setup.
Update
moonup # or: moonarch-update
Interactive updater that upgrades system and AUR packages, reconciles package lists
against what's installed, and cleans orphaned packages. Config deployment happens
automatically via the moonarch-git package on paru -Syu.
Health Check
moondoc # or: moonarch-doctor
Diagnostic tool that verifies the system state against moonarch defaults: services, configs, packages, helper scripts, firewall, shell and directory permissions. Reports pass/fail/warn per check with a summary at the end.
Project Structure
config/
user_configuration.json archinstall config (locale, audio, services, custom-commands)
packages/
official.txt Arch repo packages (~80), one per line
aur.txt AUR packages (~20), one per line
scripts/
lib.sh Shared helpers sourced by post-install.sh
post-install.sh Main automation (packages, configs, themes, services)
moonarch-update Interactive updater (deployed to /usr/bin/ as moonup)
moonarch-doctor System health checker (deployed to /usr/bin/ as moondoc)
defaults/
xdg/ System-wide XDG configs (deployed to /etc/xdg/)
niri/config.kdl Compositor: layout, keybinds, startup apps
waybar/config, style.css Bar: modules, layout, Catppuccin styling
walker/config.toml, themes/ Launcher: Walker config + moonarch theme (Catppuccin Mocha)
foot/foot.ini Terminal: font, colors, keybinds
swaync/config.json, style.css Notifications: appearance, behavior, MPRIS
kanshi/config Display profiles (empty seed, user-configured via wdisplays)
stasis/stasis.rune Idle manager: AC/battery power plans
pipewire/ Audio: RNNoise input denoising
waypaper/config.ini Wallpaper manager: backend, folder, transitions
fastfetch/config.jsonc System info display
gtk-3.0/, gtk-4.0/ GTK theme settings
bin/ Helper scripts (deployed to /usr/bin/)
moonarch-sink-switcher Audio output switcher (walker dmenu + pactl)
moonarch-vpn VPN connection manager (walker dmenu + nmcli)
moonarch-cpugov Power profile switcher (walker dmenu + powerprofilesctl)
moonarch-btnote Bluetooth device battery monitor (upower + notify-send)
moonarch-capsnote Caps Lock toggle notification
moonarch-waybar-cpugov Waybar module: CPU governor status
moonarch-waybar-gpustat Waybar module: GPU utilization
moonarch-waybar-hidpp Waybar module: Logitech HID++ device battery
moonarch-waybar-batsaver Waybar module: battery conservation mode indicator
moonarch-waybar-updates Waybar module: package update checker (repo + AUR)
moonarch-batsaver-toggle Toggle battery charge limit (80% ↔ 100%)
moonarch-nightlight Toggle wlsunset blue light filter on/off
moonarch-waybar-nightlight Waybar module: nightlight status
moonarch-camera-list List cameras with their on/off state
moonarch-camera-toggle Switch one camera on or off (via pkexec)
moonarch-camera-boot Switch all cameras off (run at boot by moonarch-camera.service)
shell/zshrc Zsh config: prompt, aliases, FZF, completion
etc/greetd/ greetd daemon, greeter Niri config, regreet config + CSS
etc/systemd/user/ Systemd user services (cliphist, kanshi, walker, nautilus)
etc/systemd/system/ System services (battery conservation restore, camera switch-off on boot)
backgrounds/wallpaper.jpg Default wallpaper (shared by desktop, greeter, lock screen)
Startup Sequence
greetd ─► niri (greeter instance) ─► regreet ─► user authenticates
│
▼
niri (user session)
│
┌──────────┬────────┬────────┬──────────┐
▼ ▼ ▼ ▼ ▼
waybar swaync foot waypaper nm-applet wlsunset
(bar) (notify) (server) (wallpaper) (VPN) (nightlight)
systemd user services (graphical-session.target):
kanshi, cliphist, walker, nautilus
Keybinds (Default)
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
Super+Return |
Open terminal (foot) |
Super+Space |
App launcher (walker) |
Super+Q |
Close window |
Super+O / Super+Tab |
Overview |
Super+F |
Maximize column |
Super+Shift+F |
Fullscreen window |
Super+V |
Toggle floating |
Super+H/J/K/L |
Focus left/down/up/right |
Super+Ctrl+H/J/K/L |
Move window |
Super+Shift+H/J/K/L |
Focus monitor |
Super+1-9 |
Switch workspace |
Super+C |
Clipboard history |
Super+E |
File manager |
Super+A |
Audio control (walker) |
Super+N |
VPN manager |
Mod+M |
Media player (Quickshell popout) |
Mod+Escape |
Session menu (Quickshell popout) |
Print |
Screenshot |
Ctrl+Print |
Screenshot screen |
Alt+Print |
Screenshot window |
Customization
All system configs live in /etc/xdg/ and can be overridden per-user in ~/.config/:
| Component | System Default | User Override |
|---|---|---|
| Niri | /etc/xdg/niri/config.kdl |
~/.config/niri/config.kdl (includes system config) |
| Waybar | /etc/xdg/waybar/ |
~/.config/waybar/ |
| Walker | /etc/xdg/walker/ |
~/.config/walker/ |
| Foot | /etc/xdg/foot/foot.ini |
~/.config/foot/foot.ini |
| swaync | /etc/xdg/swaync/ |
~/.config/swaync/ |
| kanshi | /etc/xdg/kanshi/config |
~/.config/kanshi/config |
| PipeWire | /etc/xdg/pipewire/ |
~/.config/pipewire/ |
| Zsh | /etc/zsh/zshrc.moonarch |
~/.zshrc + ~/.zshrc.d/ |
Helper scripts in /usr/bin/moonarch-* are not meant to be overridden — they
are part of the system and updated via paru -Syu.
System Services
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| greetd | Login greeter (runs regreet inside Niri) |
| NetworkManager | Network management (WiFi, VPN, Ethernet) |
| bluetooth | Bluetooth stack (bluez) |
| systemd-timesyncd | NTP time synchronization |
| ufw | Firewall (deny incoming, allow outgoing) |
| power-profiles-daemon | Power profiles over D-Bus (EPP + ACPI platform_profile) |
User Services (systemd --user)
| Service | Purpose |
|---|---|
| cliphist | Clipboard history (wipes on session start, stores in runtime dir) |
| kanshi | Dynamic display configuration (auto-switch output profiles on hotplug) |
| nautilus | File manager preload (faster first launch) |
| stasis | Idle manager (dimming, DPMS, lock, suspend on AC/battery plans) |
| wayland-pipewire-idle-inhibit | Holds a Wayland idle-inhibitor while audio plays (keeps screen awake for windowed browser video that stasis skips) |
| walker | Walker application launcher (GTK4 service mode for instant startup) |
Moonarch Ecosystem
Moonarch is the deployment and configuration layer. It no longer carries companion programs of its own — the session UI comes from the official repos or from the Quickshell config in this repository:
| Was | Now |
|---|---|
| moongreet (greetd greeter) | ReGreet, greetd-regreet |
| moonlock (screen locker) | gtklock |
| moonset (power menu) | PowerPopout.qml in the Quickshell config |
What remains in the custom package repository
is moonarch-git itself plus the cursor theme; the retired projects keep their
PKGBUILD directories there, unbuilt, so the way back stays open.
License
MIT