Introduction

The Regolith Desktop Environment #

Productivity First #

Regolith runs i3: a popular, fast, and configurable tiling window manager which is great for fast keyboard-driven workflows. Regolith integrates i3 with other desktop components such as i3bar, rofication, gnome-flashback, and ilia to provide a complete desktop interface.

GNOME System Management #

By providing a gnome session with gnome-flashback, Regolith sidesteps much of the complexity of a typical gnome-shell based environment while providing simple and consistent system management capabilities.


Get Regolith 2.2 #

Regolith can be installed as system packages. This makes updating and removing easier and more consistent. The following steps describe how to configure your system to read packages from the Regolith package repository and install the desktop package.

  1. Register the Regolith public key to your local apt:

    wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | \
    gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
    
  2. Add the repository URL to your local apt:

    echo deb "[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] \
    https://regolith-desktop.org/release-ubuntu-kinetic-amd64 kinetic main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
    
  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-compositor-picom-glx
    sudo apt upgrade
    
  4. System Restart

The login manager will need to be restarted for the new desktop session to be recognized. The easiest way of restarting it is to reboot your system.

Substitute arm64 for amd64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
The regolith-desktop package installs a reasonable minimal configuration that should work on most hardware. To add additional package for a richer and more functional environment read Recommended Packages for New Users.
The regolith-compositor-picom-glx compositor should work on most computers. If you experience driver or visual issues, try another compositor.

Regolith can be installed as system packages. This makes updating and removing easier and more consistent. The following steps (also available as a downloadable script) describe how to configure your system to read packages from the Regolith package repository and install the desktop package.

  1. Register the Regolith public key to your local apt:

    wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | \
    gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
    
  2. Add the repository URL to your local apt:

    echo deb "[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] \
    https://regolith-desktop.org/release-ubuntu-jammy-amd64 jammy main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
    
  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-compositor-picom-glx
    sudo apt upgrade
    
  4. System Restart

The login manager will need to be restarted for the new desktop session to be recognized. The easiest way of restarting it is to reboot your system.

Substitute arm64 for amd64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
The regolith-desktop package installs a reasonable minimal configuration that should work on most hardware. To add additional package for a richer and more functional environment read Recommended Packages for New Users.
The regolith-compositor-picom-glx compositor should work on most computers. If you experience driver or visual issues, try another compositor.

Regolith can be installed as system packages. This makes updating and removing easier and more consistent. The following steps (also available as a downloadable script) describe how to configure your system to read packages from the Regolith package repository and install the desktop package.

  1. Register the Regolith public key to your local apt:

    wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | sudo apt-key add -
    
  2. Add the repository URL to your local apt:

    echo deb "[arch=amd64] https://regolith-desktop.org/release-ubuntu-focal-amd64 focal main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
    
  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-compositor-picom-glx
    sudo apt upgrade
    
  4. System Restart

The login manager will need to be restarted for the new desktop session to be recognized. The easiest way of restarting it is to reboot your system.

Substitute arm64 for amd64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
The regolith-desktop package installs a reasonable minimal configuration that should work on most hardware. To add additional package for a richer and more functional environment read Recommended Packages for New Users.
The regolith-compositor-picom-glx compositor should work on most computers. If you experience driver or visual issues, try another compositor.

Regolith can be installed as system packages. This makes updating and removing easier and more consistent. The following steps (also available as a downloadable script) describe how to configure your system to read packages from the Regolith package repository and install the desktop package.

  1. Register the Regolith public key to your local apt:

    wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | \
    gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
    
  2. Add the repository URL to your local apt:

    echo deb "[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] \
    https://regolith-desktop.org/release-debian-bullseye-amd64 bullseye main" | \
    sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list
    
  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
    sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-compositor-picom-glx
    sudo apt upgrade
    
  4. System Restart

The login manager will need to be restarted for the new desktop session to be recognized. The easiest way of restarting it is to reboot your system.

Substitute arm64 for amd64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
The regolith-desktop package installs a reasonable minimal configuration that should work on most hardware. To add additional package for a richer and more functional environment read Recommended Packages for New Users.
The regolith-compositor-picom-glx compositor should work on most computers. If you experience driver or visual issues, try another compositor.

Regolith Linux is the Regolith Desktop environment installed into a customized Ubuntu 22.04 installer image. It allows one to boot from a USB drive to run Regolith without having to install it. It also allows to install the system onto a computer’s drive. Regolith Linux has the following features in addition to the Regolith Desktop:

  • Regolith-branded boot and login screens
  • Uses the lightdm display manager over gdm3 to avoid unneeded dependencies
  • The following packages are not installed: gdm3, gnome-shell, ubuntu-session, evolution-data-server, snapd. These packages may be installed as needed by the user.
Download Regolith Linux 2.2

See the Regolith 2.2 release notes for more information.

The ISO can be written to a USB drive on Linux using dd, GNOME Disk Utility, or the KDE ISO Image Writer. On macOS, use Etcher. On Windows, use Rufus and write in DD mode.

Visual Tour #


Upon first login, an overlay (toggled anytime via super ?) presents the most important keybindings used with i3-wm.
For those that work in the terminal, pressing super enter is all it takes to get to business.
A single global app launcher is instantly available from anywhere to run your programs via super space.

Need more terminals? Create layouts on the fly by toggling between horizontal and vertical modes with super backspace followed by super enter. Navigate to windows positionally with super h j k l.
Toggle floating window mode with super F. Resize windows with super r and move them around with the mouse by pressing super.
Gnome Flashback provides consistent and simple system management. Tweak your UI, auto mount your USB drives, connect to wireless networks. Launch the control panel with super c.
Easily switch to Solarized or other looks with the regolith-look command. Because looks utilize the package manager, you only store theme resources that you’re using.
Got a lot going on? Quickly find the window you’re looking for via super ctrl space or navigate over workspaces with super [0 - 19].
Waste no space on frivolous UI and take advantage of every pixel without micro-managing your window layouts.
Desktop notifications do not compete for your attention, but rather can be managed via an on-screen dialog by pressing super n.

Interaction #

Discussion and Help #

Development #