Getting Started
The easiest way to get niri is to install one of the distribution packages. Here are some of them: Fedora COPR and nightly COPR (which I maintain myself), NixOS Flake, and some more from repology below. See the Building section if you'd like to compile niri yourself.
After installing, start niri from your display manager like GDM. Press SuperT to run a terminal (Alacritty) and SuperD to run an application launcher (fuzzel). To exit niri, press SuperShiftE.
If you're not using a display manager, you should run niri-session (systemd/dinit) or niri --session (others) from a TTY.
The --session flag will make niri import its environment variables globally into the system manager and D-Bus, and start its D-Bus services.
The niri-session script will additionally start niri as a systemd/dinit service, which starts up a graphical session target required by some services like portals.
You can also run niri inside an existing desktop session.
Then it will open as a window, where you can give it a try.
Note that this windowed mode is mainly meant for development, so it is a bit buggy (in particular, there are issues with hotkeys).
Next, see the list of important software required for normal desktop use, like a notification daemon and portals. Also, check the configuration overview page to get started configuring niri. There you can find links to other pages containing thorough documentation and examples for all options. Finally, the Xwayland page explains how to run X11 applications on niri.
NVIDIA GPUs can have problems running niri (for example, the screen remains black upon starting from a TTY). Sometimes, the problems can be fixed. You can try the following:
- Update NVIDIA drivers. You need a GPU and drivers recent enough to support GBM.
- Make sure kernel modesetting is enabled. This usually involves adding
nvidia-drm.modeset=1to the kernel command line. Find and follow a guide for your distribution. Guides from other Wayland compositors can help.
On some of these systems, niri fails to correctly detect the primary render device. If you're getting a black screen when starting niri on a TTY, you can try to set the device manually.
First, find which devices you have:
$ ls -l /dev/dri/
drwxr-xr-x@ - root 14 мая 07:07 by-path
crw-rw----@ 226,0 root 14 мая 07:07 card0
crw-rw----@ 226,1 root 14 мая 07:07 card1
crw-rw-rw-@ 226,128 root 14 мая 07:07 renderD128
crw-rw-rw-@ 226,129 root 14 мая 07:07 renderD129
You will likely have one render device and two card devices.
Open the niri config file at ~/.config/niri/config.kdl and put your render device path like this:
debug {
render-drm-device "/dev/dri/renderD128"
}
Save, then try to start niri again.
If you still get a black screen, try using each of the card devices.
There's a common problem of mesa drivers going out of sync with niri, so make sure your system mesa version matches the niri mesa version. When this happens, you usually see a black screen when trying to start niri from a TTY.
Also, on Intel graphics, you may need a workaround described here.
To run niri in a VM, make sure to enable 3D acceleration.
When running on a TTY, the Mod key is Super. When running in a window, the Mod key is Alt.
The general system is: if a hotkey switches somewhere, then adding Ctrl will move the focused window or column there.
| Hotkey | Description |
|---|---|
| ModShift/ | Show a list of important niri hotkeys |
| ModT | Spawn alacritty (terminal) |
| ModD | Spawn fuzzel (application launcher) |
| SuperAltL | Spawn swaylock (screen locker) |
| ModQ | Close the focused window |
| ModH or Mod← | Focus the column to the left |
| ModL or Mod→ | Focus the column to the right |
| ModJ or Mod↓ | Focus the window below in a column |
| ModK or Mod↑ | Focus the window above in a column |
| ModCtrlH or ModCtrl← | Move the focused column to the left |
| ModCtrlL or ModCtrl→ | Move the focused column to the right |
| ModCtrlJ or ModCtrl↓ | Move the focused window below in a column |
| ModCtrlK or ModCtrl↑ | Move the focused window above in a column |
| ModShiftHJKL or ModShift←↓↑→ | Focus the monitor to the side |
| ModCtrlShiftHJKL or ModCtrlShift←↓↑→ | Move the focused column to the monitor to the side |
| ModU or ModPageDown | Switch to the workspace below |
| ModI or ModPageUp | Switch to the workspace above |
| ModCtrlU or ModCtrlPageDown | Move the focused column to the workspace below |
| ModCtrlI or ModCtrlPageUp | Move the focused column to the workspace above |
| ModShiftU or ModShiftPageDown | Move the focused workspace down |
| ModShiftI or ModShiftPageUp | Move the focused workspace up |
| Mod, | Consume the window to the right into the focused column |
| Mod. | Expel the bottom window in the focused column into its own column |
| Mod[ | Consume or expel the focused window to the left |
| Mod] | Consume or expel the focused window to the right |
| ModR | Toggle between preset column widths |
| ModShiftR | Toggle between preset column heights |
| ModF | Maximize column |
| ModC | Center column within view |
| Mod- | Decrease column width by 10% |
| Mod= | Increase column width by 10% |
| ModShift- | Decrease window height by 10% |
| ModShift= | Increase window height by 10% |
| ModCtrlR | Reset window height back to automatic |
| ModShiftF | Toggle full-screen on the focused window |
| ModV | Move the focused window between the floating and the tiling layout |
| ModShiftV | Switch focus between the floating and the tiling layout |
| PrtSc | Take an area screenshot. Select the area to screenshot with mouse, then press Space to save the screenshot, or Escape to cancel |
| AltPrtSc | Take a screenshot of the focused window to clipboard and to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/
|
| CtrlPrtSc | Take a screenshot of the focused monitor to clipboard and to ~/Pictures/Screenshots/
|
| ModShiftE or CtrlAltDelete | Exit niri |
First, install the dependencies for your distribution.
-
Ubuntu 24.04:
sudo apt-get install -y gcc clang libudev-dev libgbm-dev libxkbcommon-dev libegl1-mesa-dev libwayland-dev libinput-dev libdbus-1-dev libsystemd-dev libseat-dev libpipewire-0.3-dev libpango1.0-dev libdisplay-info-dev
-
Fedora:
sudo dnf install gcc libudev-devel libgbm-devel libxkbcommon-devel wayland-devel libinput-devel dbus-devel systemd-devel libseat-devel pipewire-devel pango-devel cairo-gobject-devel clang libdisplay-info-devel
Next, get latest stable Rust: https://rustup.rs/
Then, build niri with cargo build --release.
Check Cargo.toml for a list of build features.
For example, you can replace systemd integration with dinit integration using cargo build --release --no-default-features --features dinit,dbus,xdp-gnome-screencast.
Warning
Do NOT build with --all-features!
Some features are meant only for development use. For example, one of the features enables collection of profiling data into a memory buffer that will grow indefinitely until you run out of memory.
We have a community-maintained flake which provides a devshell with required dependencies. Use nix build to build niri, and then run ./results/bin/niri.
If you're not on NixOS, you may need NixGL to run the resulting binary:
nix run --impure github:guibou/nixGL -- ./results/bin/niri
The recommended way to package niri is so that it runs as a standalone desktop session. To do that, put files into the correct directories according to this table.
| File | Destination |
|---|---|
target/release/niri |
/usr/bin/ |
resources/niri-session |
/usr/bin/ |
resources/niri.desktop |
/usr/share/wayland-sessions/ |
resources/niri-portals.conf |
/usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/ |
resources/niri.service (systemd) |
/usr/lib/systemd/user/ |
resources/niri-shutdown.target (systemd) |
/usr/lib/systemd/user/ |
resources/dinit/niri (dinit) |
/usr/lib/dinit.d/user/ |
resources/dinit/niri-shutdown (dinit) |
/usr/lib/dinit.d/user/ |
Doing this will make niri appear in GDM and other display managers.
If installing directly without a package, the recommended file destinations are slightly different. In this case, put the files in the directories indicated in the table below. These may vary depending on your distribution.
| File | Destination |
|---|---|
target/release/niri |
/usr/local/bin/ |
resources/niri-session |
/usr/local/bin/ |
resources/niri.desktop |
/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/ |
resources/niri-portals.conf |
/usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal/ |
resources/niri.service (systemd) |
/etc/systemd/user/ |
resources/niri-shutdown.target (systemd) |
/etc/systemd/user/ |
resources/dinit/niri (dinit) |
/etc/dinit.d/user/ |
resources/dinit/niri-shutdown (dinit) |
/etc/dinit.d/user/ |