Installation
Noctalia Greeter is a graphical login screen for greetd. It lets you select a user and Wayland session, authenticate, and choose a color scheme using the same visual language as Noctalia.
greetd launches noctalia-greeter-session, which starts the bundled wlroots compositor and runs the greeter UI. It is a focused login environment, not a desktop shell or a general-purpose compositor.
Start here
Section titled “Start here”- Install a distribution package or configure NixOS.
- If no package is available, build the greeter from source.
- If your package or module did not configure greetd, point it at
noctalia-greeter-session. - Choose any administrator-controlled defaults, such as the initial user, session, or cursor.
- Optionally sync your Noctalia appearance to the login screen.
Guides
Section titled “Guides”| Guide | Use it for |
|---|---|
| Installation | Distribution packages, NixOS modules, greetd setup, and display-manager cutover |
| Building from source | Build dependencies and manual installation for distributions without a package |
| Configuration | Config-file precedence, remembered state, available keys, default user, and default session |
| Sync with Noctalia | Wallpapers, palette, monitor sync, Polkit, and passwordless authorization |
| Displays | Output selection, multi-monitor layout, modes, transforms, scale, and idle blanking |
| Keyboard and cursor | Keyboard navigation, XKB layout, Num Lock, and cursor themes |
| Troubleshooting | Logs and fixes for startup, login, display, sync, and input problems |
Requirements
Section titled “Requirements”The greeter requires greetd, D-Bus, and the packaged assets. Your Wayland desktop sessions are installed separately.
The following integrations are optional:
- Polkit and
pkexecfor appearance sync from Noctalia - AccountsService for user avatars
- Noctalia Shell for copying wallpaper, palette, font, and output settings
For packager-specific dependencies and filesystem layout, see the repository’s packaging guide.