Regolith Desktop

Regolith Desktop is a Linux desktop environment that provides an Xorg and Wayland session for Debian Linux and Ubuntu distributions.

Each desktop session provides a keyboard focused tiling window manager, i3 for Xorg and Sway for Wayland.

Regolith has excellent defaults so its very quick to get started and customisation is via a simple ~/.config/regolith3/Xresources file.

Install Guide Basic Use Configuration guide

Install

Use a Reglolith ISO image if installing the Operating System anew.

Or add the Regolith public key and package repository to an existing Ubuntu or Debian Linux operating system.

Install Guide

Debian Linux

An additional package source is currently required to support Debian Linux Trixie (the current testing version).

NOTE: A change to the xorg approach to looking up a session binary broke Regolith (and other sessions).

Update apt sources to include the unstable archive for Regolith Desktop

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list

deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/testing testing main
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/unstable testing main

Apt sources list for Debian Linux

New style apt configuration

/etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.sources

Types: deb
URIs: https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/testing/
Suites: testing
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg

Types: deb
URIs: https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/unstable
Suites: testing
Components: main
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg

Post Install

Regolith Configuration guide

Edit ~/.config/regolith3/Xresources to customise Regolith

Practicalli Xresources configuration

!! Postion of status bar
wm.bar.position: top

!! Theme
gnome.wm.theme: Gruvbox

!! Workspace Icons
!! Icons to represent purpose of each workspace:
!! issues, terminal, Clojure, db, chat, settings, music, meetings/screencats, browser
wm.workspace.01.name: 1:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>1 </span><span foreground='#4455ff'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.02.name: 2:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>2 </span><span foreground='#F7F7F7'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.03.name: 3:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>3 </span><span foreground='#339e35'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.04.name: 4:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>4 </span><span foreground='#f99b11'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.05.name: 5:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>5 </span><span foreground='#bf1e0f'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.06.name: 6:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>6 </span><span foreground='#79ace6'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.07.name: 7:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>7 </span><span foreground='#d489ff'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.08.name: 8:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>8 </span><span foreground='#F7F7F7'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.09.name: 9:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>9 </span><span foreground='#F7F7F7'></span><span> </span>
wm.workspace.10.name: 10:<span> </span><span font_desc='FontAwesome 14'>10 </span><span foreground='#ee8424'></span><span> </span>

Default terminal

Set the default terminal to run when pressing Super Enter

Open a terminal and use the update-alternatives command to list the available terminal programms. Install the terminal app if not listed.

Adminstrator access required to set default terminal

sudo is used as adminstrator rights are required to change the default terminal. The list of available terminals can be seen without admin rights, although cannot be changed.

sudo update-alternatives --config x-terminal-emulator

Press the corresponding number key to select the desired terminal, e.g. 2 to select Kitty terminal

There are 3 choices for the alternative x-terminal-emulator (providing /usr/bin/x-terminal-emulator).

  Selection    Path                             Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
* 0            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        auto mode
  1            /usr/bin/gnome-terminal.wrapper   40        manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/kitty                    20        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/urxvt                    20        manual mode

Practicalli recommends Kitty

Kitty terminal is a very easy to use and configure terminal application with great support for running Neovim and other terminal applications.

Theme

List the available Regolith look packages to see the available themes

apt list | grep regolith-look-

Install the desired theme using the regolith-look command

regolith-look set grubox

Regolith Desktop should update with the new theme settings. Use regolith-look refresh to force an update to the new theme settings or if further changes are made to the configuration.

Background

Use the Settings app to select from the available backgrounds (if the theme doent set the desired wallpaper)