DankMaterialShell/backend/README.md

dms CLI & Backend + dankinstall

---

A monorepo for dankinstall and dms (cli+go backend), a modern desktop suite for Wayland compositors.

Full documentation →

• dms DankMaterialShell (cli + go backend)
  • The backend side of dms, provides APIs for the desktop and a management CLI.
  • Shared dbus connection for networking (NetworkManager, iwd), loginctl, accountsservice, cups, and other interfaces.
  • Implements wayland protocols
    • wlr-gamma-control-unstable-v1 (for night mode/gamma control)
    • dwl-ipc-unstable-v2 (for dwl/MangoWC integration)
    • ext-workspace-v1 (for workspace integrations)
    • wlr-output-management-unstable-v1
  • Exposes a json API over unix socket for interaction with these interfaces
  • Provides plugin management APIs for the shell
  • CUPS integration for printer management
  • ddc/ci protocol implementation
    • Allows controlling brightness of external monitors, like ddcutil
  • backlight + led control integration
    • Allows controlling backlight of integrated displays, or LED devices
    • Uses login1 when available, else falls back to sysfs writes.
  • Optionally provides update interface - depending on build inputs.
    • This is intended to be disabled when packaged as part of distribution packages.
• dankinstall Installs the Dank Linux suite for niri and/or Hyprland
  • Features the DankMaterialShell
    • Which features a complete desktop experience with wallpapers, auto theming, notifications, lock screen, etc.
  • Offers up solid out of the box configurations as usable, featured starting points.
  • Can be installed if you already have niri/Hyprland configured
    • Will allow you to keep your existing config, or replace with Dank ones (existing configs always backed up though)

dms cli & backend

Written in Go, provides a suite of APIs over unix socket via godbus and Wayland protocols. All features listed above are exposed over the socket API.

Run dms debug-srv to start the socket service in standalone mode and see available APIs

CLI Commands:

• dms run [-d] - Start shell (optionally as daemon)
• dms restart / dms kill - Manage running processes
• dms ipc <command> - Send IPC commands (toggle launcher, notifications, etc.)
• dms plugins [install|browse|search] - Plugin management
• dms brightness [list|set] - Control display/monitor brightness
• dms update - Update DMS and dependencies (disabled in distro packages)
• dms greeter install - Install greetd greeter (disabled in distro packages)

Build & Install

To build the dms CLI (Requires Go 1.24+):

For distribution package maintainers

This produces a build without the update or greeter functionality, which are intended for manual installation.

make dist

Produces bin/dms-linux-amd64 and bin/dms-linux-arm64

Manual Install

# Installs to /usr/local/bin/dms
make && sudo make install

Wayland Protocol Bindings

The gamma control functionality uses Wayland protocol bindings generated from the protocol XML definition. To regenerate the Go bindings from internal/proto/xml/wlr-gamma-control-unstable-v1.xml:

go install github.com/rajveermalviya/go-wayland/cmd/go-wayland-scanner@latest
go-wayland-scanner -i internal/proto/xml/wlr-gamma-control-unstable-v1.xml \
  -pkg wlr_gamma_control -o internal/proto/wlr_gamma_control/gamma_control.go

This is only needed if modifying the protocol or updating to a newer version.

Dank Linux/dankinstall

Installs compositor, dms, terminal, and some optional dependencies - along with a default compositor & terminal configuration.

Quickstart

curl -fsSL https://install.danklinux.com | sh

Alternatively, download the latest release

Supported Distributions

Note on Greeter: dankinstall does not install a greeter automatically.

• To install the dms greeter, run dms greeter install after installation.
• Then you can disable any existing greeter, if present, and run sudo systemctl enable --now greetd

Arch Linux & Derivatives

Supported: Arch, ArchARM, Archcraft, CachyOS, EndeavourOS, Manjaro

Special Notes:

• Uses native pacman for system packages
• AUR packages are built manually using makepkg (no AUR helper dependency)
• Recommendations
  • Use NetworkManager to manage networking
  • If using archinstall, you can choose minimal for profile, and NetworkManager under networking.

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages (git, jq, etc.)	Official repos	Via pacman
quickshell	AUR	Built from source
matugen	AUR (matugen-bin)	Pre-compiled binary
dgop	Official repos	Available in Extra repository
niri	Official repos (niri)	Latest niri
hyprland	Official repos	Available in Extra repository
DankMaterialShell	Manual	Git clone to ~/.config/quickshell/dms

Fedora & Derivatives

Supported: Fedora, Nobara, Fedora Asahi Remix

Special Notes:

• Requires dnf-plugins-core for COPR repository support
• Automatically enables required COPR repositories
• All COPR repos are enabled with automatic acceptance
• Editions dankinstall is tested on "Workstation Edition", but probably works fine on any fedora flavor. Report issues if anything doesn't work.
• Fedora Asahi Remix hasn't been tested, but presumably it should work fine as all of the dependencies should provide arm64 variants.

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages	Official repos	Via dnf
quickshell	COPR	avengemedia/danklinux
matugen	COPR	avengemedia/danklinux
dgop	Manual	Built from source with Go
cliphist	COPR	avengemedia/danklinux
ghostty	COPR	avengemedia/danklinux
hyprland	COPR	solopasha/hyprland
niri	COPR	yalter/niri
DankMaterialShell	COPR	avengemedia/dms

Ubuntu

Supported: Ubuntu 25.04+

Special Notes:

• Requires PPA support via software-properties-common
• Go installed from PPA for building manual packages
• Most packages require manual building due to limited repository availability
  • This means the install can be quite slow, as many need to be compiled from source.
  • niri is packages as a .deb so it can be managed via apt
• Automatic PPA repository addition and package list updates

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages	Official repos	Via apt
quickshell	Manual	Built from source with cmake
matugen	Manual	Built from source with Go
dgop	Manual	Built from source with Go
hyprland	PPA	ppa:cppiber/hyprland
hyprpicker	PPA	ppa:cppiber/hyprland
niri	Manual	Built from source with Rust
Go compiler	PPA	ppa:longsleep/golang-backports
DankMaterialShell	Manual	Git clone to ~/.config/quickshell/dms

Debian

Supported: Debian 13+ (Trixie)

Special Notes:

• niri only - Debian does not support Hyprland currently, only niri.
• Most packages require manual building due to limited repository availability
  • This means the install can be quite slow, as many need to be compiled from source.
  • niri is packages as a .deb so it can be managed via apt

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages	Official repos	Via apt
quickshell	Manual	Built from source with cmake
matugen	Manual	Built from source with Go
dgop	Manual	Built from source with Go
niri	Manual	Built from source with Rust
DankMaterialShell	Manual	Git clone to ~/.config/quickshell/dms

openSUSE Tumbleweed

Special Notes:

• Most packages available in standard repos, minimal manual building required
• quickshell and matugen require building from source

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages (git, jq, etc.)	Official repos	Via zypper
hyprland	Official repos	Available in standard repos
niri	Official repos	Available in standard repos
xwayland-satellite	Official repos	For niri X11 app support
ghostty	Official repos	Latest terminal emulator
kitty, alacritty	Official repos	Alternative terminals
grim, slurp, hyprpicker	Official repos	Wayland screenshot utilities
wl-clipboard	Official repos	Via wl-clipboard package
cliphist	Official repos	Clipboard manager
quickshell	Manual	Built from source with cmake + openSUSE flags
matugen	Manual	Built from source with Rust
dgop	Manual	Built from source with Go
DankMaterialShell	Manual	Git clone to ~/.config/quickshell/dms

Gentoo

Special Notes:

• Gentoo installs are highly variable and user-specific, success is not guaranteed.
  • dankinstall is most likely to succeed on a fresh stage3/systemd system
• Uses Portage package manager with GURU overlay for additional packages
• Automatically configures global USE flags in /etc/portage/make.conf
  • Will create or append to your existing USE flags.
• Automatically configures package-specific USE flags in /etc/portage/package.use/danklinux
• Unmasks packages as-needed with architecture keywords in /etc/portage/package.accept_keywords/danklinux
• Supports both amd64 and arm64 architectures dynamically
• If not using bin packages, prepare for long compilation times
• Ghostty is removed from the options, due to extremely long compilation time of its

Package Sources:

Package	Source	Notes
System packages (git, etc.)	Official repos	Via emerge
niri	GURU overlay	With dbus and screencast USE flags
hyprland	Official repos (GURU for -git)	Depends on variant selection, with X USE flag
quickshell	GURU overlay	Always uses live ebuild (** keywords), full feature set
matugen	GURU overlay	Color generation tool
cliphist	GURU overlay	Clipboard manager
hyprpicker	GURU overlay	Color picker for Hyprland
xdg-desktop-portal-gtk	Official repos	With wayland and X USE flags
mate-polkit	Official repos	PolicyKit authentication agent
accountsservice	Official repos	User account management
dgop	Manual	Built from source with Go
xwayland-satellite	Manual	For niri X11 app support
grimblast	Manual	For Hyprland screenshot utility
DankMaterialShell	Manual	Git clone to ~/.config/quickshell/dms

Global USE Flags: X dbus udev alsa policykit jpeg png webp gif tiff svg brotli gdbm accessibility gtk qt6 egl gbm

Package-Specific USE Flags:

• sys-apps/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk: wayland X
• gui-wm/niri: dbus screencast
• gui-wm/hyprland: X
• dev-qt/qtbase: wayland opengl vulkan widgets
• dev-qt/qtdeclarative: opengl vulkan
• media-libs/mesa: opengl vulkan
• gui-apps/quickshell: breakpad jemalloc sockets wayland layer-shell session-lock toplevel-management screencopy X pipewire tray mpris pam hyprland hyprland-global-shortcuts hyprland-focus-grab i3 i3-ipc bluetooth

NixOS (Not supported by Dank Linux, but with Flake)

NixOS users should use the dms flake

Manual Package Building

The installer handles manual package building for packages not available in repositories:

quickshell (Ubuntu, Debian, openSUSE)

• Built from source using cmake
• Requires Qt6 development libraries
• Automatically handles build dependencies
• openSUSE: Uses special CFLAGS with rpm optflags and wayland include path

matugen (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, openSUSE)

• Built from Rust source
• Requires cargo and rust toolchain
• Installed to /usr/local/bin

dgop (All distros)

• Built from Go source
• Simple dependency-free build
• Installed to /usr/local/bin

niri (Ubuntu, Debian)

• Built from Rust source
• Requires cargo and rust toolchain
• Complex build with multiple dependencies

Commands

dankinstall

Main installer with interactive TUI for initial setup

dms

Management interface for DankMaterialShell:

• dms - Interactive management TUI
• dms run - Start interactive shell
• dms run -d - Start shell as daemon
• dms restart - Restart running DMS shell
• dms kill - Kill running DMS shell processes
• dms ipc <command> - Send IPC commands to running shell