Documentation
Using Regolith
Install

Install

Upgrading to 3.x

If you’re upgrading from an earlier version of Regolith, you may be interested in reading the release notes and if coming from 2.x, the migration guide.

Supported Operating Systems

Ubuntu

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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/ubuntu/stable noble v3.2" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list

  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-flashback regolith-look-lascaille

  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.

Replace amd64 with arm64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.

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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/ubuntu/stable jammy v3.2" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list

  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-flashback regolith-look-lascaille

  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.

Replace amd64 with arm64 in the two places in the above line to install on ARM-based systems.

Debian

For Debian users that use the “Testing” release, Regolith can be installed, however there is no “release” version due to the nature of Debian Testing. In order to install Regolith into a Debian Testing instance, the apt line contains testing instead of a release string. For example:

echo deb "[arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/regolith-archive-keyring.gpg] \
https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/testing testing main" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list

Otherwise the installation steps are the same as an official Debian release. Note that broken dependencies or components will occur from time to time. If stability is important, consider installing into an officially released version of Debian or Ubuntu.

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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/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://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/stable bookworm v3.2" | \
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/regolith.list

  3. Update apt and install Regolith

    sudo apt update
sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-flashback regolith-look-lascaille

  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.

Replace amd64 with arm64 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.

Packages Specified at Install Time

Starting with Regolith 3.0 it is now possible to select from multiple sessions (X11: regolith-session-flashback, Wayland: regolith-session-sway). Due to this, when installing Regolith 3.2 also specify one or both sessions that you wish to use. Additionally, it’s now possible to specify the Regolith Look at install time, which saves a setup of having to configure it later. Here is the recommended base install for X11 on Debian-based systems:

sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-flashback regolith-look-lascaille
#                ^-- base package ^-- session                ^ -- look
  • For the session, you may chose one or both of: regolith-session-flashback (X11), regolith-session-sway (Wayland)
  • For the look, you may chose one from any available look package:
regolith-look-ayu-dark
regolith-look-ayu-mirage
regolith-look-ayu
regolith-look-blackhole
regolith-look-default-loader
regolith-look-default
regolith-look-dracula
regolith-look-gruvbox
regolith-look-i3-default
regolith-look-lascaille
regolith-look-nevil
regolith-look-nord
regolith-look-solarized-dark

An an example and alternative to the recommendation above, here is the apt line to install the Sway session with the Nord Look:

sudo apt install regolith-desktop regolith-session-sway regolith-look-nord

Anatomy of the Regolith apt Config Line 

deb [arch=amd64] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/ubuntu/unstable noble main
          |                                           |      |        |     |
          |                                           |      |        |     * Repo Component
          |                                           |      |        * Distro Version/Codename
          |                                           |      * Repo Suite
          |                                           * Distro Name
          * Architecture

Architecture

NameDescription
amd64The 64-bit x86 architecture
arm64The 64-bit Arm architecture

Distro Names

NameDescription
ubuntuThe Ubuntu Linux Distribution
debianThe Debian Linux Distribution

Repo Suites and Components

Regolith StageRepo SuiteRepo ComponentDescription
ExperimentalexperimentalmainStage for testing experiments
UnstableunstablemainStage for early development testing
TestingtestingmainStage for late development testing
Release X.YstablevX.YStage for specific official release
Current ReleasestablemainStage for latest release (floating from release to release)

Distro Version/Codename

These labels are determined by their respective upstream communities. Examples are noble, bookworm, focal.

Examples

DescriptionAPT Line
The 3.2 release of Regolith on Ubuntu Jammy for amd64deb [arch=amd64] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/ubuntu/stable jammy v3.2
The latest release of Regolith on Debian Bookworm for amd64deb [arch=amd64] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/stable bookworm main
Testing repo for Regolith on Debian Testing for arm64deb [arch=arm64] https://archive.regolith-desktop.com/debian/testing testing main

Release Change Policy

From Regolith 3.0 to 3.2 (inclusive), all releases will use unique names in the package repo URL. This means that users will be in full control of when they wish to upgrade to a new release. Users wishing to have their package manager always install the latest version, a special stage called release-current is provided.

From Regolith 3.3 onward, all releases will be published in the common archive repository separated by a high level distro (e.g. debian, ubuntu) folder and corresponding codename subfolders. The structure is split furthermore into different suites and components. As such, users wishing to have their package manager always install the latest version, they should use main component of stable suite. Otherwise a fixed version component (for example v3.3, v3.2, etc) can be used alongside stable component.

Note that experimental, unstable, and testing suites only have main component.

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