fedora-niri-dms

An installer script that turns a minimal, terminal-only Fedora install into a complete niri + DankMaterialShell desktop, with the DMS login screen.

Quick start

Install Fedora from the Everything netinstall ISO and choose Fedora Custom Operating System under Software Selection. Create a user with administrative privileges.
Boot to the text login, sign in, and run:

curl -fsSL https://gitea.schantli.ca/jschantli/fedora-niri-dms/raw/branch/main/fedora-niri-dms-setup.sh -o setup.sh
bash setup.sh

Run it as your normal user, not root. It uses sudo when it needs to.

Answer the optional questions at the start. The rest runs unattended.
Reboot, pick the niri session at the login screen, and sign in.

Press Super+Shift+/ after logging in to see every keybind.

What it installs

Area	Packages / changes
dnf	Parallel downloads, `dnf5-plugins`, full system update
Repos	RPM Fusion (free + non-free), Cisco OpenH264, `avengemedia/dms` COPR
Graphics	Mesa + Vulkan, plus VA-API drivers for AMD, Intel or NVIDIA (auto-detected)
Codecs	Full `ffmpeg` and the multimedia group
Audio	PipeWire, WirePlumber, SOF firmware
Hardware	Bluetooth, `tuned-ppd` power profiles, `fwupd` firmware updates
Desktop	niri, DankMaterialShell, `xwayland-satellite`
niri config	Waybar autostart disabled; DMS keybinds and Ptyxis added through an included `dms-setup.kdl`
Snapshots	snapper + Btrfs Assistant, with a before/after snapshot around every dnf transaction
Removed	Waybar, mako, fuzzel, swaybg, swayidle, swaylock, Alacritty (DMS replaces them)
Login screen	DMS greeter (greetd), graphical boot target
Essentials	Ptyxis, Nautilus, Firefox, desktop portals, GNOME Keyring, Noto fonts, Flatpak + Flathub, fastfetch
Shell	zsh (set as default) with autosuggestions and syntax highlighting, Starship prompt, eza, bat, fzf, zoxide, JetBrains Mono Nerd Font

Shell shortcuts

Type	Does
→ (right arrow)	Accepts the grey autosuggestion
Tab	Menu-style completion
Up / Down	Searches history for what you've typed so far
Ctrl+R / Ctrl+T	Fuzzy-search history / files (fzf)
`z <name>`	Jumps to your most-used matching folder
`ls`, `ll`, `la`, `tree`	Colourful listings with icons and git status (eza)
`cat`	Syntax-highlighted output (bat)

Your own zsh additions go in ~/.zshrc.local. The script owns ~/.zshrc and overwrites it on re-runs; any ~/.zshrc that was already there is backed up to ~/.zshrc.bak first.

Optional (asked at the start)

Steam and gamescope
NetworkManager OpenVPN support (for PIA or other .ovpn configs)
Fingerprint reader setup (Framework laptops)
EasyEffects (for Framework's speaker profile)

Keybinds added

These live in ~/.config/niri/dms-setup.kdl, included at the end of config.kdl so they override niri's defaults. To change one, add your own bind in config.kdl after the include line; the script overwrites dms-setup.kdl on re-runs.

Keys	Does
Super+T	Ptyxis
Super+D	DMS app launcher
Super+Alt+L	Lock screen
Super+Alt+V	Clipboard history
Super+Alt+N	Notifications
Super+Alt+C	Control centre
Super+Alt+S	DMS settings

Snapshots and rollback

On a Btrfs install (Fedora's default), the script sets up snapper:

Every dnf install, update or removal takes a pre and post snapshot of the root filesystem.
The finished setup is saved as an "important" snapshot called fedora-niri-dms-setup baseline.
The 10 newest snapshot pairs are kept and older ones are cleaned up automatically.

To undo a bad update, open Btrfs Assistant → Snapper, pick the snapshot from before the update, and restore it. From a terminal, snapper -c root list shows them all.

Snapshots cover dnf only. Flatpak updates aren't captured, and booting straight into a snapshot from GRUB would need grub-btrfs, which isn't in Fedora's repos.

Requirements

Fedora 43 or newer, installed as Fedora Custom Operating System
An internet connection
A GPU with working acceleration

Testing in a VM

niri needs 3D acceleration, or you'll get a black screen after reboot. Turn it on before rebooting:

Proxmox: Display → VirGL GPU (host needs apt install libgl1 libegl1)
virt-manager / GNOME Boxes: Virtio video with 3D acceleration, Spice with OpenGL
VirtualBox: VMSVGA with Enable 3D Acceleration
VMware: Accelerate 3D graphics

Troubleshooting

Problem	Fix
Black screen after reboot	Ctrl+Alt+F2, log in, then run `niri-session` or `dms greeter status`
DMS bar doesn't appear	Run `dms run` to see the error; check `systemctl --user status dms`
No sound	`systemctl --user status pipewire wireplumber`, then `wpctl status`
Screen sharing shows nothing	Check `xdg-desktop-portal-gnome` is installed, then log out and back in
Keyring asks for a password every login	`sudo authselect enable-feature with-pam-gnome-keyring` and reboot

Notes

The script is safe to re-run; each step checks before changing anything.
Steam menu fix: xwayland-satellite 0.8.2 and older make X11 popup menus (like Steam's) flicker and vanish. If Fedora's package is affected, the script builds the fixed upstream commit (add2795) into /usr/local/bin. A boot-time check (xwls-git-check.service) deletes that build, and then itself, once Fedora ships a newer version.
Your original niri config is saved as ~/.config/niri/config.kdl.orig before it's edited.
No HDR yet: niri doesn't support it. HDR gaming needs a separate gamescope session.
DMS comes from the stable avengemedia/dms COPR, not the faster-moving dms-git.

Development

Every push and pull request runs .gitea/workflows/shellcheck.yml, which syntax-checks and ShellChecks every .sh file in the repo. It needs Actions enabled on the repo (Settings → Repository → Enable Repository Actions) and an act_runner registered with the ubuntu-latest label.

fedora-niri-dms/
├── fedora-niri-dms-setup.sh
├── README.md
├── LICENSE
└── .gitea/
    └── workflows/
        └── shellcheck.yml

License

MIT

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