Decided to try writing a Wayland compositor for fun.

Today I implemented most of the ext-workspace protocol [1] in niri. It lets desktop components (i.e. bars) show workspaces and do some basic operations on them.

The two bars with ext-workspace that I know of are sfwbar and xfce4-panel. Unfortunately, I seem to have surfaced several problems in their implementations. I opened issues in sfwbar; would be great if someone took a look from Xfce. Also if there are other clients I missed?

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/1800

[1]: https://wayland.app/protocols/ext-workspace-v1

#niri

Everyone who dislikes GitHub Wiki: I finally made a write-down of my requirements/wishes for a replacement. Please feel free to chime in with suggestions: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/discussions/1830

#niri

Update on ext-workspace:
- sfwbar fixed all outstanding issues!
- the waybar ext-workspace PR also fixed all issues!
- quickshell impl is on the way

#niri

Out of curiosity, I tried running Orca on niri, and apparently it sort-of works for some apps (I expected nothing to work at all; idk anything about screen readers). However, compared to GNOME Shell, there's quite a few missing or broken things. I documented what I found here: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/issues/1904

Is there some "Integrating Orca to Wayland desktops" docs? Like, what the compositor needs to do, who handles the hotkeys and how, etc.

(not actively working on this, just curious)

#niri #a11y

Should've done this a while ago, but I finally wrote contributing guidelines for niri:

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md

With many new users, the stream of issues, discussions and pull requests is quite overwhelming. You can help! And the contributing guidelines outline the various ways how.

I would especially appreciate help reviewing PRs, though I understand it's the more complex task out of these.

Big thanks to people already answering questions and helping others!

#niri

Today I implemented fetching keyboard layout options from org.freedesktop.locale1, used by things like distro installers to configure the layout:

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2052

I guess this is the closest thing to global cross-desktop keyboard layout configuration, so it should also help environments like LXQt integrating niri.

Also recently merged: niri now sets a logind session locked hint, useful for e.g. idle tools that put the PC to sleep, but only once the lockscreen is fully up.

#niri

Gathering thoughts on reconciling communities between Matrix and Discord: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/discussions/2069

This is a problem I expect we'll face reasonably soon, so if you have some ideas please write in the discussion!

#niri

About finished implementing org.fd.a11y.KeyboardMonitor in niri, necessary for correct screen reader function:

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2060

I tested it with Orca more or less, seems to work, but I'm very new to screen reader workings, so it's possible I've missed something.

This makes Orca announce keys everywhere in niri, and makes grabs work (both modifier with double-press passthrough and keystrokes). Making Orca actually say niri dialogs will be a separate effort.

#niri #a11y

We made it to 10k stars on GitHub!!!!

#niri

Finally finished making niri screencasts asynchronously wait for rendering completion before handing the buffer over to PipeWire. This fixes screencast flickering problems on NVIDIA setups.

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2175

This is not PW explicit sync; I can now finish that too (OBS and PW released their fixes), but it'll act more as an optimization on top of the current code (since only OBS can use it for now, and not on its Flathub build (PW is too old there)).

#niri

Quite comprehensive desktop shell for niri released today: https://github.com/bbedward/DankMaterialShell

Based on QuickShell; made by the same people who started the niri Discord server.

Checking it out now, looks very cool! Though not without a few rough edges to iron out of course

#niri #quickshell

today niri turns 2!

#niri

Yesterday dove into one of the older animation jank bugs in niri: quickly resizing a window back and forth would cause adjacent windows to jump. This problem is hard to trigger unless you're specifically trying to (then it's easy), but it was causing "downstream" problems for more complex actions.

The fix was simple enough, but I imagined enough "interesting" cases around it and decided to write a whole bulk of tests. Check this out, all thanks to our layout and clock code!

#niri

Merged the "window positions and sizes in IPC" PR. Please test and report if anything's broken or missing, we have time to fix it until the next release.

https://yalter.github.io/niri/niri_ipc/struct.Window.html#structfield.layout

Here's a quick quickshell test I threw together that draws floating windows as rectangles.

Thanks yrkv for getting the PR mostly complete!

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/1265

#niri

With massive thanks to cutenice, we have a new wiki site!!! With good search!

https://yalter.github.io/niri/

Make sure not to miss the new Since: annotations

The site uses Material for mkdocs, and we retained full compatibility with GitHub Wiki, meaning all existing links keep working.

Also thanks everyone for several suggestions and test wikis in the GitHub discussion!

#niri

Rearranged and expanded quite a bit the design principles page on the wiki: https://yalter.github.io/niri/Development%3A-Design-Principles.html

Give it a read if you're curious about my thinking process about various niri behaviors and such

#niri

Implemented basic AccessKit integration for niri based on @DataTriny's proof-of-concept. I have little experience with screen readers, and also had several questions, so I would appreciate more eyes and testing on the PR:

https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/pull/2273

#niri #a11y

niri v25.08 is now released with a logo, xwayland-satellite integration, basic screen reader support, NVIDIA screencast flickering fix, window positions and sizes in IPC, and many other improvements!

Read the notes here: https://github.com/YaLTeR/niri/releases/tag/v25.08

now i need at least a month off from any release notes preparation

#niri #smithay #wayland #rust

Screen reader announcement demo bc apparently you can't attach video and image at once

#niri

Fullscreen refactor pt. 1: track pending vs. current fullscreen state for columns, avoid vertical jump when waiting for window to commit a new buffer.

#niri