Invalid configuration currently prevents login. Ferese now starts with built-in defaults and shows a notification when the shell is ready, leaving the file untouched. Loading and validation belong to the config module, while the theme module resolves appearance. Validation remains strict, and failed live reloads keep the active settings.
The native Morph regression checks the animated input region and idle frame scheduling while its backing surface stays allocated.
Validation: workspace and Python tests, formatting, Clippy, release build, and isolated Wayland startup/reload and panel-motion tests. Native CI includes the startup regression.
Related: #28.
Panel appearance now applies to the whole panel, with seven styles: Floating, Capsules, Notch, Edge to edge, Fused islands, Adaptive and Morph.
- Share composition, geometry, and motion through the renderer-independent `ferese-panel` crate, including native materials, input regions, and Settings previews.
- Add the Morph hub with media, calendar, notifications, controls, workspace previews, hover feedback, and attached mode. Keep recording and low-battery status visible and respect window clearance.
- Cache workspace preview geometry, draw thumbnails directly, centralize Morph transitions, and keep rendering settings local to each shell instance.
- Put Record Screen in the Morph header and show the display control only when an external monitor is connected. Update panel documentation, the desktop screenshot, and native check style names.
Local validation included 660 compositor tests, 191 shell tests, isolated preview-cache checks, GPU Morph captures at 1×/1.25×/1.5×, formatting, and Clippy with warnings denied. The final header change passed all 23 Morph tests. Release workflow jobs are skipped for this PR.
* Coordinate config writes and gate releases on desktop validation
* Use toolkit rc.2 with painting and session lock fixes
* Ignore retired desktop widget settings in existing configs
Repeated panel updates rebuilt unchanged controls and SVG artwork, cloned composition data, and kept unused workspace icon resources. This reuses controls when their layout stays the same, bounds the SVG cache, removes temporary layout allocations, and releases icon resources when apps close or the workspace style changes.
Rapidly closing a modal could also leave a native surface behind when its asynchronous creation finished after the close. Late openings now get destroyed when their owner is gone. Ferese uses the published `ferese-v0.1.2` Iced/libcosmic fixes so a temporary software buffer/viewport size mismatch retries the frame instead of crashing.
Two runs per version of the same workspace/overview/reload workload measured **26% fewer allocated bytes and 23% fewer allocation calls**. A separate 1,800-cycle notification/modal stress run retained about **40 MiB less shell memory**, including shared-buffer retention falling from 28.2 MiB to 272 KiB. These are measured workload results, not an overall desktop speedup claim.
Validation:
- 1,350 workspace tests passed, including GPU Settings text rendering (50 optional tests ignored); formatting and Clippy passed.
- Native continuous/island panel tests passed rapid notification resizing, modal cancellation, and live material/input-region changes.
- A Wayland lifetime trace confirmed all 280 created modal surfaces were destroyed; longer DHAT traces and Intel GPU memory measurements were checked separately.
- All installation binaries rebuilt and the installation bundle passed inventory and checksum verification.
* Integrate panel composition, adaptive sizing, and overflow
* Add instance editing controls to panel settings
* Add panel group editing and measured composition preview
* Reorganize panel settings and add drag-and-drop item editing
* Simplify panel settings and place inspectors beside the editor
* Refine Panel & Shell settings, previews, and panel rendering
* Organize settings navigation and modernize packaged panel config
* Support top and bottom panels and refine shell surfaces
Add edge-aware settings, previews, popup placement, notifications, margins, and corner rendering. Preserve translucency in notification and dialog controls, and tighten spacing around the clock and display-mode icon.
* Add workspace styles and fix Settings text rendering
* Make panel allocation independent of measurement order
* Normalize panel item settings and visibility
* Move shell geometry into each panel
* Add independent group surfaces and finalize panel configuration
* Keep panel fit checks and restoration consistent with allocation
* Reject unknown panel item options and namespace metadata
* Reject invalid shell startup configuration and remove old radius fields
* Discover workspace application icons in a background task
* Remove the panel architecture document and improve reference prose
* Let panel media fill available space and improve Settings scrolling
* Preserve panel labels across clipped GPU rendering
* Use matching alpine lake wallpapers for light and dark modes
* Fix panel accessibility and popup lifecycle
Apply Reduce Transparency to panel opacity in the shell, compositor, and
Settings preview. Reject unknown theme tokens before snapshot substitution
and validate the current geometry fields in both consumers.
Dismiss popovers and workspace tooltips after panel layout changes. Handle
bar pointer exits directly and recover workspace hover after reentry without
repeated motion updates. Cover the transitions with regression tests and
update the wallpaper dimensions check for the bundled lake defaults.
* Use tagged Ferese toolkit fixes
* Fix center-only panel spacing and headless text rendering
* Bundle native 4K abstract wallpapers for both appearances
* Dismiss workspace tooltips before captured pointer dispatch
* Verify installed JPEG wallpapers when replacing a release
Group workspaces with Overview and status controls with the clock. Keep themed backgrounds and borders around each island, with click-through gaps and configurable side padding defaulting to 4 px.
Capture blur within each panel region and update material and input regions when island bounds change. Cover layout reloads and padding changes with widget and native shell tests.
Queue popup, modal and notification material geometry and opacity until the matching content buffer commits. Remove event-handler opacity writes that could present material state ahead of content, while preserving compositor dismissal ownership.
Add pending-presentation regression coverage and update the nested shell lifecycle check.
Share window geometry across overview, resize snapshots and retained closes. Advance close handoffs and group retained rendering by stacking position.
Drive shell motion from surface frames, reuse settled widget content, and synchronize notification materials with each card's fade. Replace physical config keys with duration and bounce, and update documentation and regression coverage.
Samuel Onoja