nixpkgs-wayland

overview

Automated, pre-built packages for Wayland (sway/wlroots) tools for NixOS (nixos-unstable channel).

Community chat is on Matrix: #nixpkgs-wayland:matrix.org. We are not on Libera.

• nixpkgs-wayland
  • overview
  • Usage
  • Binary Cache
  • Flake Usage
  • Install for NixOS (non-flakes, manual import)
  • Install for non-NixOS users
  • Packages
  • Tips
    • General

    • sway

    • NVIDIA Users
  • Development Guide

Usage

Binary Cache

The Cachix landing page for

nixpkgs-wayland

Packages from this overlay are regularly built against

nixos-unstable

Flake Usage

• Build and run the Wayland-fixed up version of OBS-Studio:

  nix shell "github:nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland#obs-studio" --command obs
  

• Build and run

  waybar

  :

  nix run "github:nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland#waybar"
  

• Use as an overlay or package set via flakes:

  {
    # ...
    inputs = {
      # ...
      nixpkgs-wayland  = { url = "github:nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland"; };

  # only needed if you use as a package set:
  nixpkgs-wayland.inputs.nixpkgs.follows = "cmpkgs";
  nixpkgs-wayland.inputs.master.follows = "master";
};

outputs = inputs: {
  nixosConfigurations."my-laptop-hostname" =
  let system = "x86_64-linux";
  in nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
    inherit system;
    modules = [({pkgs, config, ... }: {
      config = {
        nix = {
          # add binary caches
          binaryCachePublicKeys = [
            "cache.nixos.org-1:6NCHdD59X431o0gWypbMrAURkbJ16ZPMQFGspcDShjY="
            "nixpkgs-wayland.cachix.org-1:3lwxaILxMRkVhehr5StQprHdEo4IrE8sRho9R9HOLYA="
            # ...
          ];
          binaryCaches = [
            "https://cache.nixos.org"
            "https://nixpkgs-wayland.cachix.org"
            # ...
          ];
        };

        # use it as an overlay
        nixpkgs.overlays = [ inputs.nixpkgs-wayland.overlay ];

        # pull specific packages (built against inputs.nixpkgs, usually `nixos-unstable`)
        environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
          inputs.nixpkgs-wayland.packages.${system}.waybar
        ];
      };
    })];
  };
};
  }

Install for NixOS (non-flakes, manual import)

If you are not using Flakes, then consult the NixOS Wiki page on Overlays. Also, you can expand this section for a more literal, direct example. If you do pin, use a tool like

niv

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
let
  rev = "master"; # 'rev' could be a git rev, to pin the overlay.
  url = "https://github.com/nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland/archive/${rev}.tar.gz";
  waylandOverlay = (import "${builtins.fetchTarball url}/overlay.nix");
in
  {
    nixpkgs.overlays = [ waylandOverlay ];
    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wayvnc ];
    # ...
  }

{ config, lib, pkgs, ... }:
  {
    # ...
    imports = [
      # ...
      ./wayland.nix
    ];
  }

Install for non-NixOS users

Non-NixOS users have many options, but here are two explicitly:

1. Activate flakes mode, then just run them outright like the first example in this README.

2. See the following details block for an example of how to add

   nixpkgs-wayland

   as a user-level overlay and then install a package with

   nix-env

   .

nix-env -iA neatvnc

Packages

These packages were mostly recently built (and cached) against:

| Package | Description | | --- | --- | | aml | liberally licensed VNC server library that's intended to be fast and neat | | cage | A Wayland kiosk | | clipman | A basic clipboard manager for Wayland, with support for persisting copy buffers after an application exits | | drm_info | Small utility to dump info about DRM devices. | | dunst | Lightweight and customizable notification daemon | | gebaar-libinput | Gebaar, A Super Simple WM Independent Touchpad Gesture Daemon for libinput | | glpaper | GLPaper is a wallpaper program for wlroots based wayland compositors such as sway that allows you to render glsl shaders as your wallpaper | | grim | Grab images from a Wayland compositor | | gtk-layer-shell | A library to create panels and other desktop components for Wayland using the Layer Shell protocol | | i3status-rust | Very resource-friendly and feature-rich replacement for i3status | | imv | A command line image viewer for tiling window managers | | kanshi | Dynamic display configuration | | lavalauncher | A simple launcher for Wayland. | | libvncserver_master | VNC server library | | mako | A lightweight Wayland notification daemon | | neatvnc | liberally licensed VNC server library that's intended to be fast and neat | | nwg-launchers | GTK-based launchers: application grid, button bar, dmenu for sway and other window managers | | nwg-panel | GTK3-based panel for Sway window manager | | obs-studio | Free and open source software for video recording and live streaming | | obs-wlrobs | wlrobs is an obs-studio plugin that allows you to screen capture on wlroots based wayland compositors | | oguri | A very nice animated wallpaper tool for Wayland compositors | | rootbar | Root Bar is a bar for wlroots based wayland compositors such as sway and was designed to address the lack of good bars for wayland | | sirula | Sirula (simple rust launcher) is an app launcher for wayland | | slurp | Select a region in a Wayland compositor | | swaybg | Wallpaper tool for Wayland compositors | | swayidle | Sway's idle management daemon | | swaylock | Screen locker for Wayland | | sway-unwrapped | An i3-compatible tiling Wayland compositor | | waybar | Highly customizable Wayland bar for Sway and Wlroots based compositors | | wayfire | 3D wayland compositor | | wayland-protocols-master | Wayland protocol extensions | | waypipe | Network transparency with Wayland | | wayvnc | A VNC server for wlroots based Wayland compositors | | wdisplays | GUI display configurator for wlroots compositors | | wev | A tool for debugging events on a Wayland window, analagous to the X11 tool xev. | | wf-recorder | Utility program for screen recording of wlroots-based compositors | | wlay | Graphical output management for Wayland | | wldash | Wayland launcher/dashboard | | wlfreerdp | A Remote Desktop Protocol Client | | wlogout | A wayland based logout menu | | wlroots | A modular Wayland compositor library | | wlr-randr | An xrandr clone for wlroots compositors | | wlsunset | Day/night gamma adjustments for Wayland | | wlvncc | A Wayland Native VNC Client | | wl-clipboard | Select a region in a Wayland compositor | | wl-gammactl | Small GTK GUI application to set contrast, brightness and gamma for wayland compositors which support the wlr-gamma-control protocol extension. | | wofi | Wofi is a launcher/menu program for wlroots based wayland compositors such as sway | | wshowkeys | Displays keypresses on screen on supported Wayland compositors | | wtype | xdotool type for wayland | | xdg-desktop-portal-wlr | xdg-desktop-portal backend for wlroots | <!--pkgs-->

Tips

General

• I recommend using

  home-manager

  !
• It has modules and options for:

  • sway

  • waybar

  • obs

    and plugins!
  • more!

sway

• You will likely want a default config file to place at

  $HOME/.config/sway/config

  . You can use the upstream default as a starting point: https://github.com/swaywm/sway/blob/master/config.in
• If you start

  sway

  from a raw TTY, make sure you use

  exec sway

  so that if sway crashes, an unlocked TTY is not exposed.

NVIDIA Users

Nvidia users may wish to use

outputs.overlay-egl

outputs.ovelay

wlroots-eglstream

Non-flakes users will need to update their import statement, so that it looks more like this:

nix
let
  rev = "master";
  url = "https://github.com/nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland/archive/${rev}.tar.gz";
  waylandOverlay = (import "${builtins.fetchTarball url}/overlay.nix");
  waylandOverlayEgl = (import "${builtins.fetchTarball url}/overlay-egl.nix");
in
  {
    nixpkgs.overlays = [ waylandOverlayEgl ];
    environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [ wayvnc ];
    # ...
  }

Development Guide

• Use

  direnv

  +

  nix-direnv

  (or if you can't,

  nix develop

  , (or if you can't,

  nix-shell

  )).

• ./update.sh

  :
  • updates flake inputs
  • updates

    pkgs//metadata.nix

    with the latest commit+hash for each package
  • calls

    nix-build-uncached ... packages.nix

    to build uncached packages (see: nix-build-uncached)
  • pushes to "nixpkgs-wayland" on cachix

If for some reason the overlay isn't progressing and you want to help, just clone the repo, run

nix-shell --command ./update.sh

default.nix

wlroots

GitPod

This project can be opened and contributed to, within minutes, by using GitPod:

https://gitpod.io#https://github.com/nix-community/nixpkgs-wayland

(Note the Nix sandbox is disabled in GitPod. Some users choose not to push artifacts from this environment to production caches.)