Installation

One script installs everything: setup. It installs the packages, copies home/ into your home and system/ into /, builds two Hyprland plugins, and sets up once what a copied file cannot hold. Nothing is linked. Every file is a copy, and setup remembers what it wrote.

Requirements

• Arch Linux, with git to clone the repository.
• Hyprland 0.56 or newer (tested on 0.56.2), configured in Lua.
• A terminal, in the Hyprland session or on a console before there is one. The plugins are built against the compositor that is running, so from a console the first session builds them.
• Your password, for sudo.

No Arch on the machine yet? A USB stick, built on one that has it, installs Arch and the desk together.

Install

1. Clone the repository and run the installer:

   git clone https://github.com/andreumassanet/impasto.git ~/impasto
   cd ~/impasto
   ./setup install

2. Answer pacman’s questions and give your password when sudo asks for it.

3. Log out and back in, or reboot after an install from a console. The shell, the wallpaper daemon and the plugins start with the session, and the login screen with the next boot.

Installed from a console, the first Hyprland session opens a terminal on ./setup plugins, which builds both plugins and asks for your password once. Cancel it and the next login asks again.

To see what would happen first, add --dry-run. It prints every package it would install and every file it would write, and changes nothing.

./setup install --dry-run

Or pick from a menu

Run ./setup with nothing after it and it asks instead, with the arrow keys: install, update, sync, uninstall, check or help. Install opens a second screen that turns the packages, the login screen, the plugins and the extras on or off, and picks yay or paru, starting on the one you have. It needs a terminal at least 76 columns wide and 20 rows tall; anywhere else it prints the help.

What it does, in order

Step	What happens
Packages	Installs whatever packages/pacman.txt lists and is missing, with sudo pacman -Syu --needed, which upgrades the system in the same step. Then the AUR half, packages/aur.txt, through yay or paru. If you have neither, it offers to build yay-bin from the AUR.
User folders	Runs xdg-user-dirs-update, which creates the folders captures and recordings land in. Existing folders are never renamed.
oh-my-zsh	Clones oh-my-zsh into ~/.oh-my-zsh, with the zsh-autosuggestions and zsh-syntax-highlighting plugins. It is cloned rather than installed with its own script, because that script replaces ~/.zshrc.
home/	Copies every file into $HOME. The first time, it also renders the terminal greeting’s scenes (if ImageMagick is installed) and a minimal impasto icon theme.
system/	Copies the login screen’s theme, the boot splash’s theme and its drop-ins, a few configuration fragments and the lock screen’s PAM service for face unlock into /, with sudo, and creates /var/lib/impasto/faces. Where no display manager is enabled yet, it enables sddm for the next boot. With ddcutil installed, it loads i2c-dev, so the brightness of external monitors works without a reboot.
Plugins	Builds and enables hypr-dynamic-cursors (shake to find) and hyprglass (refraction on the windows) with hyprpm. From a console, it leaves them to the first session.
Extras	Sets up what a copied file cannot hold: what opens which file, dark GTK windows, the vector cursor, Nautilus, VSCodium, Vesktop, Spotify, face unlock, camera effects and the boot splash.

A file of yours that is already in the way is moved to ~/.local/state/impasto/backups/ before anything is written. See Updating for how the copies are kept after that.

Flags

Flag	Effect
--skip-packages	Install nothing; copy and build only.
--skip-system	Leave / alone: no login screen, and no password for it.
--skip-plugins	Do not build the plugins: no shake to find, no refraction.
--skip-extras	Leave the extras alone: what opens which file, GTK, the cursor, Nautilus, VSCodium, Vesktop, Spotify, face unlock, camera effects and the boot splash.
--aur-helper yay or paru	Which helper installs the AUR half. The one you have is used; if you have neither, this one is built from the AUR (yay if unset).
--noconfirm	Take the default answer at every question, pacman’s and the helper’s included.
-n, --dry-run	Say what would happen, and do none of it.

What it asks for

• sudo for pacman, to install the packages.
• sudo for the copy into /, once, before the system files are written and sddm is enabled.
• sudo for hyprpm, whose plugin store is root’s, under /var/cache/hyprpm/: once for both plugins. This is why the plugins need a terminal that can ask for a password.
• Whether to build yay, only when neither yay nor paru is installed.
• Whether spicetify may patch Spotify, which makes /opt/spotify writable with sudo.
• Whether to enrol your face, only where there is an infrared camera. It installs howdy-next from the AUR first, then asks you to look at the camera.
• sudo for camera effects, only where there is a webcam: the virtual camera’s module, OpenCV and MediaPipe.
• sudo for the boot splash, to choose its theme and rebuild the initramfs.

The power button

system/ tells logind to ignore a short press of the power button, from the next boot. The shell opens its session menu instead. With the shell not running, or at the login screen, a short press does nothing. Holding the button is still the firmware’s forced power-off.

What it sets up once

The extras run once per machine. Each has a verb of its own (./setup defaults, cursors, nautilus, vscodium, vesktop, spotify, face, camera and splash), and after the first time install and update leave them alone, so what you change in those programs stays.

One that cannot run yet is skipped with the reason, and the next install or update tries again:

• A program that is open: Vesktop writes its settings back while it runs, and patching Spotify restarts it. Close it and update.
• A Spotify never started: spicetify needs the settings Spotify writes on its first start. Open it once, close it, and update.
• No network, for the cursor, VSCodium’s extensions and the camera’s models.
• Nobody at the camera: with --noconfirm, enrolling a face waits for ./setup face or the next update.

Spotify is also patched again whenever a Spotify update has taken the patch away. Every extra is in The setup script, and what each program takes from the palette is in Applications.

The login screen

install copies the SDDM theme into /usr/share/sddm/themes/impasto/ and names it in /etc/sddm.conf.d/10-impasto.conf. Where no display manager is enabled, it enables sddm, which comes up at the next boot; a machine that already starts another one keeps it. Lock and login has the rest.

The lock screen and the login screen: the same clock and pill.

The face

The picture on the lock and login screens is /var/lib/impasto/faces/<username>.face.icon; without one, both show your initials. The directory belongs to root, so copy it in with sudo:

sudo install -m 644 ~/picture.png /var/lib/impasto/faces/$USER.face.icon

setup creates the directory and never removes it, not even on uninstall.

Next: First steps.