nevaforget
e9e12cc280
swaylock reads ~/.swaylock/config, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/swaylock/config and SYSCONFDIR/swaylock/config — never /etc/xdg/, where the generic XDG sweep put it. The config was made effective by seeding it into user homes, but both seeds are conditional, so a machine that pulled no moonarch-git update since swaylock arrived ran with no config at all: no wallpaper, no Catppuccin ring. The config now lives in defaults/etc/swaylock/config and is owned at /etc/swaylock/config, which the package alone makes effective. Home copies still win by search order, so the .install hook retires the pristine ones; an edited copy stays. Upstream swaylock has no blur (effect-blur is swaylock-effects only), so the blur is baked into a second image: wallpaper-blur.jpg, generated with downsample-blur-upsample. Regenerate it when the wallpaper changes. moonarch-doctor gains check_swaylock_config, which names the config file that actually wins and fails when none exists.
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 | swaylock | ext-session-lock-v1 protocol — compositor guarantees lock on crash. PAM authentication, one Wayland protocol, no toolkit. Background is a blurred copy of the default wallpaper, blurred at build time because upstream swaylock has no blur effect. |
| 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 swaylock), 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 CPU governor switcher (walker dmenu + auto-cpufreq)
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+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) |
| auto-cpufreq | CPU frequency scaling (AC: performance, battery: powersave) |
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) | swaylock |
| 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