Important Software

Since niri is not a complete desktop environment, you will very likely want to run the following software to make sure that other apps work fine.

Notification Daemon

Many apps need one. For example, mako works well. Use a systemd setup or spawn-at-startup.

Portals

These provide a cross-desktop API for apps to use for various things like file pickers or UI settings. Flatpak apps in particular require working portals.

Portals require running niri as a session, which means through the niri-session script or from a display manager. You will want the following portals installed:

• xdg-desktop-portal-gtk: implements most of the basic functionality, this is the "default fallback portal".
• xdg-desktop-portal-gnome: required for screencasting support.
• gnome-keyring: implements the Secret portal, required for certain apps to work.

Then systemd should start them on-demand automatically. These particular portals are configured in niri-portals.conf which must be installed in the correct location.

Since we're using xdg-desktop-portal-gnome, Flatpak apps will read the GNOME UI settings. For example, to enable the dark style, run:

dconf write /org/gnome/desktop/interface/color-scheme '"prefer-dark"'

Authentication Agent

Required when apps need to ask for root permissions. Something like plasma-polkit-agent works fine. Start it with systemd or with spawn-at-startup.

Note that to start plasma-polkit-agent with systemd on Fedora, you'll need to override its systemd service to add the correct dependency. Run:

systemctl --user edit --full plasma-polkit-agent.service

Then add After=graphical-session.target.