CachyOS Install Noctalia Shell on CachyOS
A sleek and minimal desktop shell thoughtfully crafted for Wayland, built with Quickshell.
From the official CachyOS repo. Install with pacman, no AUR helper needed.
Reviewed Nov 2, 2026 · independent guide
How do I install Noctalia Shell on CachyOS?
Run this in a terminal:
sudo pacman -S noctalia-shellnoctalia-shell is in the cachyos repo, the CachyOS project's own package repository, so pacman installs it directly with no AUR helper and no build script. The package is signed with the CachyOS repository key, and pacman checks the signature before it installs.
What should I do after installing Noctalia Shell?
- Run pacman -Ql noctalia-shell to see every file it installed.
- Run pacman -Qi noctalia-shell to see the installed version and the optional dependencies.
How do I update or remove Noctalia Shell?
Update:
sudo pacman -SyuRemove:
sudo pacman -Rns noctalia-shellWhat is Noctalia Shell?
A sleek, customizable desktop shell crafted for Wayland.
Package description: A sleek and minimal desktop shell thoughtfully crafted for Wayland, built with Quickshell.
Reviews of Noctalia Shell on CachyOS
No reviews yet. Be the first to review Noctalia Shell.
From GitHub
noctalia-dev/noctalia · ★ 11,756 stars · last commit Nov 1, 2026 · latest release Oct 29, 2026
Real issues opened by users on the project's GitHub, shown as written with a link to each one. 10 most reacted issues opened in the last two years plus the 5 newest issues, bots, pull requests, non English and political posts skipped, capped at 15 per repo. Fetched Nov 1, 2026.
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I am running noctalia shell as a systemd user unit with niri as a systemd user unit on nixos 25.11 with noctalia and niri configured using home manager. When resuming after suspend the lock screen showed and then crashed and I recovered by relaunching the the lock screen. This…
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New functionality Add a screenshot-window, screenshot-window pick... to the shell commands I (and so do other people i guess ?) want to screenshot a specific window/application. Screenshot region works well enough most of the time but being able to directly take the focused…
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When I press the power button or close my laptop lid, the laptop goes on sleep but does not lock the screen. Opening the lid or pressing a key gives the previous unlocked session 1. Go to Settings > Lock Screen > Behaviour 2. Turn on 'Lock on suspend' 3. Suspend the computer 4.…
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Add a configurable grace period for the lock screen, similar to hyprlock's --grace option. When the lock screen activates due to idle timeout, users often want a brief window (e.g., 30 seconds) where they can dismiss the lock screen with any input (mouse movement, keypress)…
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XEmbed / appindicator tray icons should appear in the system tray alongside StatusNotifierItem icons Some apps do not yet support StatusNotifierItem icons. Wine for example falls back to creating a tray window for every application open, which is a quite messy experience…
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Configuration / customization Improved configuration of these Control Center cards Lack of customisation for the control center. Currently the userCard, mediaCard and dateTimeCard cards, shown in the screenshot above, are not configurable in any way. I think the following aspects…
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Configuration / customization It would be very helpful for noctalia to provide a default lockscreen configuration that can be used instead of manually configuring all the modules. Either a single, v4-like widget setup, or a few curated widget setups to select from would be…
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Support for keyboard-based navigation/interaction in all noctalia dialogs/UI For people who like working mouse-free. e.g. I am a Niri user; I have keybinds to almost all of the noctalia dialogs in my Niri keybinds, but once I bring up a Noctalia dialog (e.g. control center,…
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New functionality Add a Default Applications section to Noctalia Settings. Allow users to easily change default apps without terminal commands or KDE/GNOME settings. Add GUI options for browser, text editor, file manager, PDF viewer, image/video viewer, etc.
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Configuration / customization Currently in the Noctalia settings for Idle behaviour there is no way to have different settings for when "on AC Power" and "on battery". Most other desktop environments/shells I've used have separate settings for these since many people would want…
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Configuration / customization An optional decorative image on notification toasts, drawn behind the text and anchored to one edge of the card, set by a [notification] config key so a theme can provide it. My desktop themes has a small mascot image in notification message.…
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When hovering of an app icon that has multiple instances open, the count badge will be cut off when the icon is magnified and is positioned at the dock's edge. 1. Open multiple instances of an app 2. Hover over it while having dock magnification and instance counts enabled The…
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The icons in the taskbar widget no longer open in order. Newly launched apps can have their icon open in the left or in the middle of the taskbar instead of to the right as before. Open a few applications. Notice where their icons appear in the taskbar widget. Icons should appear…
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UI / visual improvement wallpaper should be dimmed by noctalia when it considered as a bright wallpaper under dark mode Because I like this wallpaper 👍 When users in darkmode, and noctalia detects the "brightness" of the wallpaper. If it's bright enough, dim it down. I hope…
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I came up with this idea when I using my iPad. I found that when I use bright wallpaper like this: I'm having hard time to look at my screen. But on my iPad, it doesn't let my eye hurt although with the same wallpaper When users in darkmode, and noctalia detects the "brightness"…
Noctalia Shell on CachyOS: questions
Is Noctalia Shell in the official CachyOS repo?
Yes. The noctalia-shell package is in the cachyos repo, version 5.4.1-1, built 2026-10-31. Install it with sudo pacman -S noctalia-shell.
Do I need an AUR helper for Noctalia Shell?
No. It comes from the cachyos repo, so plain pacman installs and updates it, and sudo pacman -Syu keeps it current.