Unable to install the dotfiles

[DylanBolin42]

No detailed and accurate installation steps were found. The command executed in the system install section fails to launch the Niri desktop.

[MLuc24]

Two things are missing from the picture, and neither is a step you skipped.

The command that section ends with, key shell, is not built or installed by this repository. It comes from key-cli, which is a separate project — the table further up the README lists it as owning the "key command, shell IPC/lifecycle, recording and clipboard integration", with its own repo at StatIndet/key-cli. So sudo cmake --install build here installs the Clavis QML shell and its native modules, and then tells you to run a binary that nothing has put on your system yet. Installing key-cli (and keytop, which Clavis reads metrics from) is the missing half.

The other thing is what key shell would do even once it exists: it starts Clavis, not a desktop session. Clavis is described as a desktop shell for niri — it draws the bar, lock screen and widgets inside a niri session that is already running. It does not install, configure or launch the compositor. So niri itself has to be installed and started as your session first, by whatever means you normally start a Wayland compositor, and Clavis comes up within it.

If niri is already your session and key-cli is installed, then the remaining thing to look at is how your niri config picks up what Clavis writes: the README notes that Clavis-managed niri fragments land in ~/.config/niri/clavis/, separate from your own config file.

[StatIndet]

Huge thanks to @MLuc24 — that answer is spot on.

I did move some of the more self-contained functionality into separate repositories, and there’s a reason for that: it means that if one of my C++ plugins breaks or fails to compile, at least it won’t take my entire desktop down with it.

The bad news is that, starting today, I’m going to treat this project for what it really is: a toy project that I happen to keep open source. I just don’t have the time or energy to maintain it like a serious desktop shell or distro.

This repository changes almost every day, and sometimes implementing a random feature can easily result in thousands of lines of diff. Anything I write in the README can become outdated almost immediately, so I don’t plan to keep constantly maintaining and updating it anymore.

There are still plenty of things waiting for me in real life, and I don’t want to turn this project into another burden I have to carry. Sorry about that. I think I need to slow down a little, and that’s probably better for my mental health too.