Running Noctalia

This is the recommended method for launching noctalia, as it integrates with your window manager.

For the Niri compositor, add the following line to the end of your configuration file, typically located at ~/.config/niri/config.kdl

spawn-at-startup "noctalia"

For the Hyprland compositor, append this line to your configuration file, typically located at ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf

exec-once = noctalia

If your compositor expects startup commands to return after the shell has initialized, run Noctalia in daemon mode:

noctalia --daemon

Daemon mode returns after the shell has initialized. The optional polkit authentication agent starts asynchronously after the UI is up.

The most direct way to run Noctalia for testing or debugging. Open a terminal and execute:

noctalia