Vault/linux/current_hyprland_installation.md

Introduction

This is a readme(more of a diary) for the current hyprland setup for my personal computer, how it was made, and what I have learned

Base install

Use Archinstall, with default hyprland profile, it should come with qt5 and qt6, gtk3 and gtk4 is needed for a desktop environment, but not sure it is installed by default

kitty for the terminal emulator, ly for login manager(to avoid wallet problems later on, session manager is preffered to be installed here)

pipewire for audio server

For convenience, since I use Nvidia cards, the archinstall uses dkms drivers when using the proprietary settings, however the setup might be scuffed, so there is a need to check for the following post install

uvsm is currently scuffed in my current setup, so I do not know of a solution yet, but it is preinstalled with the Hyprland profile, just select the default hyprland session in ly instead of uvsm

Post Install

Nvidia

First thing to check after archinstall is if Hyprland can be started, if it does, then check the following for nvidia

• /etc/mkinitcpio.conf
  • MODULES=() containing:
    • nvidia
    • nvidia_modeset
    • nvidia_uvm
    • nvidia_drm
  • HOOKS=() removing: -kms
• /home/user_name/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf
  • env = LIBVA_DRIVER_NAME,nvidia
  • env = __GLX_VENDOR_LIBRARY_NAME,nvidia

I would also uninstall the dkms driver and replace it with the normal nvidia driver, after that, install the following:

install nvidia-utils and egl-wayland

install lib32-nvidia-utils if gaming, after allowing multilib repository

Package manager

install yay, because I use yay

multilib repository should be enabled during archinstall

add a pacman hook by creating a new file /etc/pacman.d/hooks/nvidia.hook with the following code:

[Trigger]
Operation=Install
Operation=Upgrade
Operation=Remove
Type=Package
# You can remove package(s) that don't apply to your config, e.g. if you only use nvidia-open you can remove nvidia-lts as a Target
Target=nvidia
Target=nvidia-open
Target=nvidia-lts
# If running a different kernel, modify below to match
Target=linux

[Action]
Description=Updating NVIDIA module in initcpio
Depends=mkinitcpio
When=PostTransaction
NeedsTargets
Exec=/bin/sh -c 'while read -r trg; do case $trg in linux*) exit 0; esac; done; /usr/bin/mkinitcpio -P'

run full system update and restart pc while doing this

Custom Hyprland Config Setup

First create a config file in the desired directory, simply copy and paste from the default config file under .config/hypr/hyprland.conf

With ly, it is most likely that it is using a .desktop file to execute hyprland by default, so we go to /usr/share/wayland-sessions/hyprland.desktop and edit the Exec line as such:

Exec=Hyprland -c /yourcustomdirectory/hypr/hyprland.conf

Restart the PC and the new config file will be used

Hyprland Components

• notification daemon = mako
• desktop portal = xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland
• xwayland screensharing compat = xwaylandvideobridge
• auth-agent = hyprpolkitagent
• qt-libraries = qt5-wayland, qt6-wayland
• gtk-libraries = gtk3, gtk4
• status-bars = waybar, need to install otf-font-awesome as well for logos
• wallpaper daemon = swww
• wallpaper manager = waypaper
• app launcher = wofi
• clipboard manager = clipse
• network manager = nmtui
• file manager = dolphin
• text editor = nvim
• browser = chromium with vimium
• screenshot = hyprshot
• idle daemon = hypridle
• screenlock = hyprlock
• status bar = waybar-cava

need to add to hyprland.conf:

exec-once = waypaper --restore # to allow for the wallpaper to exist after restart 
exec-once = mako
exec-once = systemctl --user start hyprpolkitagent
exec-once = waybar
exec-once = swww
exec-once = clipse -listen
exec-once = hypridle

need to create the following files:

• ~/.config/hypr/hyprlock.conf
• ~/.config/hypr/hypridle.conf

fonts

after downloading otf-font-awesome you might see that your fonts are fucked,you can use this opportunity to download a new font and use it:

• yay -S ttf-fira-code
• yay -S fontconfig
• mkdir ~/.config/fontconfig
• touch fonts.conf
• with the following code:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <match>
    <edit name="pixelsize"><double>10</double></edit>
  </match>
	<alias>
		<family>monospace</family>
		<prefer><family>firacode</family></prefer>
	</alias>
</fontconfig>

Some apps need manual changes to adjust their fonts such as:

• chromium/google-chrome
• Dolphin

Chinese-Japanese-Korean(cjk) fonts

yay -S adobe-source-han-sans-otc-fonts

Docker

yay -S docker

sudo systemctl enable docker.server

sudo usermod -aG docker $USER

Git

just for automatic credential storing when not using ssh:

git config credential.helper store
git push

Waybar

yay -S waybar-cava, not waybar. it still uses waybar when calling or exec-once

the config file might not be initialised, therefore we can just start by copy and pasting the default config file from /etc/xdg/waybar to ~/.config by creating a new folder called waybar. There should be two files called config.jsonc and style.css

Once the files are copied, you can use it after restarting waybar. It should automatically detect the new config files under ~/.config/waybar

There is a nifty little command to run for resetting waybar if you are tweaking the configs: pkill waybar && hyprctl dispatch exec waybar