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 2.1 #
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.
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
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
Substitutearm64
foramd64
in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
Update
apt
and install Regolithsudo apt update sudo apt install regolith-desktop sudo apt upgrade
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.
- 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.
The Regolith Desktop is very different from common desktop environments. By default it does not use docks, icon folders, or global drop-down menus. See the Getting Started guide for important details.
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.
Register the Regolith public key to your local
apt
:wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | sudo apt-key add -
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
Substitutearm64
foramd64
in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
Update
apt
and install Regolithsudo apt update sudo apt install regolith-desktop sudo apt upgrade
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.
- 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.
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.
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
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
Substitutearm64
foramd64
in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.
Update
apt
and install Regolithsudo apt update sudo apt install regolith-desktop sudo apt upgrade
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.
- 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.
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 overgdm3
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.
The ISO comes in two forms, a “mini” ISO which includes a paired down experience and only includes the default look. The default ISO is somewhat bigger but includes built-in support for all official Looks and comes installed with a few more status indicators.
See the Regolith 2.1 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.
To install Regolith 2 into an existing Ubuntu system that is upgrading to 22.04, follow these steps:
Upgrade the system to all the latest packages on current release (either Ubuntu 20.04 or 21.10)
Perform the Ubuntu system upgrade to 22.04, however DO NOT reboot as prompted until the following steps are completed
After the 22.04 upgrade completes, add the Regolith 2 package repository:
wget -qO - https://regolith-desktop.org/regolith.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null 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 sudo apt update
Next install the Regolith 2 desktop package:
sudo apt install regolith-desktop sudo apt dist-upgrade
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.
- Now reboot the system and select the regolith session at the login screen
Custom configurations from Regolith 1.6 will need to be manually ported to Regolith 2. In order to make this upgrade simpler, Regolith 2 uses the user config directory of ~/.config/regolith2
. It will not read files from the Regolith 1.x user config directory ~/.config/regolith
. Please refer to the configuration page for more details.
Visual Tour #







regolith-look
command. Because looks utilize the package manager, you only store theme resources that you’re using.


Interaction #
Announcements #
Discussion and Help #
- Join us on GitHub Discussions for help and discussion
- Search from existing issues or create a new issue for bugs and feature requests
Development #
- The Regolith GitHub org is where development happens.