Install

Release builds are on the releases page: a Debian package, an RPM and a tarball for x86_64 and aarch64, with a SHA256SUMS file. The Nix flake builds from source for both, and CI builds and tests both. There is no apt or dnf repository, so packages do not update themselves.

Every install gets the lys-wm and lys-wmctl binaries, the lys-wm session for display managers, the lys-wm-session.target user unit and the lys-wm-portals.conf portal routing.

NixOS

Add the flake as an input and enable the module:

{
  inputs.lys-wm.url = "github:stubbedev/lys-wm";
  outputs = {nixpkgs, lys-wm, ...}: {
    nixosConfigurations.host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [
        lys-wm.nixosModules.default
        {programs.lys-wm.enable = true;}
      ];
    };
  };
}

programs.lys-wm.enable installs lys-wm, offers it as a session to display managers such as greetd (lys-wm --systemd), enables the portals that lys-wm-portals.conf falls back to, polkit, foot for the built-in SUPER + Return bind and the rest of a Wayland session; set programs.foot.enable = false to leave it out. lys-shell, which the portal config prefers, is yours to add. GPU drivers come from /run/opengl-driver, as for every NixOS compositor. programs.lys-wm.package picks another build.

Nix on another distribution

With standalone home-manager, import lys-wm.homeManagerModules.default and set programs.lys-wm.enable = true. It installs lys-wm and foot (set programs.foot.enable = false to leave it out), and links lys-wm-session.target into ~/.config/systemd/user, because the user manager there does not search the Nix profile for units. The display manager, portals and GPU drivers stay the host's, so point the host's display manager at lys-wm --systemd yourself.

To try lys-wm nested in the Wayland session you are in, without installing it:

nix run github:stubbedev/lys-wm

If it cannot use your GPU driver from there, it says so; render in software with nix run github:stubbedev/lys-wm -- --renderer soft.

Debian and Ubuntu

sudo apt install ./lys-wm_<version>_amd64.deb

On aarch64 the file ends in _arm64.deb.

The package depends on libegl1, libgles2, libgbm1, libinput10, xkb-data, hwdata and fonts-dejavu-core. It recommends xwayland, xdg-desktop-portal, xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, lys-shell, foot, libvulkan1 and mesa-vulkan-drivers. CI installs and runs it on ubuntu-latest.

lys-shell is not in the distribution's archive: take its package from its releases. Without it, xdg-desktop-portal-wlr serves screen sharing and screenshots and xdg-desktop-portal-gtk the other portals.

Fedora

sudo dnf install ./lys-wm-<version>-1.fc<release>.x86_64.rpm

On aarch64 the file ends in .aarch64.rpm.

The package requires libglvnd-egl, libglvnd-gles, mesa-libgbm, libinput, xkeyboard-config, hwdata and dejavu-sans-fonts. It recommends xorg-x11-server-Xwayland, xdg-desktop-portal, xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, lys-shell, foot, vulkan-loader and mesa-vulkan-drivers. It is built, installed and run on fedora:latest, and the file name carries that release. What the Debian section says about lys-shell and the portal backends holds here too.

Other distributions

There is no package for other distributions. The tarball holds the two binaries, the session file, the user unit, the portal config and the licences. <arch> is x86_64 or aarch64:

tar xzf lys-wm-<version>-<arch>-linux.tar.gz
cd lys-wm-<version>-<arch>-linux
sudo install -m 0755 lys-wm lys-wmctl /usr/bin/
sudo install -Dm 0644 lys-wm-session.target /usr/lib/systemd/user/lys-wm-session.target
sudo install -Dm 0644 lys-wm-portals.conf /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/lys-wm-portals.conf
sudo install -Dm 0644 lys-wm.desktop /usr/share/wayland-sessions/lys-wm.desktop

The binaries need the platform's glibc loader (/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 or /lib/ld-linux-aarch64.so.1), and these from your distribution:

What	Where lys-wm looks	Override
EGL	libEGL.so.1	LYS_WM_LIBEGL
GLES2	libGLESv2.so.2	LYS_WM_LIBGLESV2
GBM	libgbm.so.1	LYS_WM_LIBGBM
libinput	libinput.so.10	LYS_WM_LIBINPUT
xkeyboard-config	/usr/share/X11/xkb	XKB_CONFIG_ROOT
PNP IDs, from hwdata	/usr/share/hwdata/pnp.ids	LYS_PNP_IDS
Tab font	/usr/share/lys-wm/DejaVuSans.ttf	tabs.font in the config, or LYS_WM_FONT
Xwayland, for X11 programs	Xwayland on PATH	LYS_WM_XWAYLAND
Vulkan, for --renderer vulkan	libvulkan.so.1	LYS_LIBVULKAN

The packages link the tab font to the distribution's DejaVu Sans, so do the same or name another font. The overrides work on every install.

Check it

lys-wm -backend none     # prints: unknown backend "none" (available: drm, nested, headless)
lys-wmctl                # prints an error: no command

Both exit 1. That is the smoke test CI runs on the packages, and it shows that the binaries load. Then start a session.