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 and the Packaging niri page if you want to package niri.

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 introduction 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

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:

1. Update NVIDIA drivers. You need a GPU and drivers recent enough to support GBM.
2. Make sure kernel modesetting is enabled. This usually involves adding nvidia-drm.modeset=1 to the kernel command line. Find and follow a guide for your distribution. Guides from other Wayland compositors can help.

Asahi, ARM, and other kmsro devices

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.

Nix/NixOS

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.

Virtual Machines

To run niri in a VM, make sure to enable 3D acceleration.

Main Default Hotkeys

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.

Building

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.

NixOS/Nix

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

Manual Installation

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.

Don't forget to make sure that the path to niri in niri.service is correct. This defaults to /usr/bin/niri.