feresaria/docs/installation.md

Installation

Ferese runs on Linux as its own Wayland session, alongside your existing desktop, and you can launch it from a login manager, a command-based greeter or a local TTY.

Requirements

For a full session, you’ll need a Wayland-capable graphics driver and a local user session with seat access through logind or seatd, while a nested preview runs inside the Wayland desktop you already use.

To build Ferese, install Rust 1.95 or newer, a C/C++ toolchain, CMake, pkg-config and the libraries below. The installer builds the Ferese components once those system packages are in place.

Fedora

sudo dnf install git curl gcc gcc-c++ make cmake pkgconf-pkg-config \
  wayland-devel libxkbcommon-devel libinput-devel systemd-devel libseat-devel \
  mesa-libgbm-devel mesa-libEGL-devel libdrm-devel fontconfig-devel \
  freetype-devel expat-devel dbus-daemon dbus-tools desktop-file-utils foot pam \
  clang clang-devel pipewire-devel pipewire wireplumber polkit polkit-libs \
  xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk \
  gstreamer1-devel gstreamer1-plugins-base gstreamer1-plugins-good pipewire-gstreamer

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git curl cmake pkgconf wayland libxkbcommon \
  libinput systemd seatd mesa libdrm fontconfig freetype2 expat dbus \
  desktop-file-utils foot pam clang pipewire libpipewire wireplumber polkit \
  xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk \
  gstreamer gst-plugins-base gst-plugins-good gst-plugin-pipewire

Debian and Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential git curl cmake pkg-config libwayland-dev \
  libxkbcommon-dev libinput-dev libudev-dev libseat-dev libgbm-dev libegl-dev \
  libdrm-dev libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype-dev libexpat1-dev dbus-bin \
  dbus-user-session desktop-file-utils foot libpam0g clang libclang-dev \
  libpipewire-0.3-dev libspa-0.2-dev pipewire wireplumber polkitd libpolkit-agent-1-0 \
  xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-gtk \
  libgstreamer1.0-dev gstreamer1.0-pipewire gstreamer1.0-plugins-base \
  gstreamer1.0-plugins-good

Fedora is the tested installation path, and package names or versions may differ on other distributions, where the Smithay dependencies can help you find equivalent libraries.

Rust toolchain

Check your toolchain:

rustc --version
cargo --version

If you don’t have Rust yet, follow the instructions at rustup.rs and reopen your terminal, then select the required toolchain for this checkout after cloning:

rustup toolchain install 1.95.0
rustup override set 1.95.0

Build and install

Run these commands as your normal user:

git clone https://github.com/ferese-wm/ferese.git
cd ferese
./scripts/install.sh

The script builds locked release binaries as your normal user and then asks for administrator access through sudo or pkexec to install them, so leave the build itself unprivileged. The first build needs network access to fetch Rust dependencies.

Installation brings together the session launcher, desktop tools, portal backend, login entry, icons, default wallpaper and example config. Releases live under /usr/local/lib/ferese/releases/ and commands under /usr/local/bin/, with current and previous links for switching between releases during updates and rollback.

Your configuration, other desktop sessions and existing PAM policy stay in place, while Ferese starts its authentication agent and portal services together with the session. The authentication agent registers for the login session, so requests from desktop apps use the Ferese dialog. Remove other polkit agents from your Ferese autostart configuration to avoid competing session registrations.

Initial configuration

You can start with Ferese’s built-in defaults, or copy the example config if you’d like a file to customize:

mkdir -p "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/ferese"
if [ ! -e "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/ferese/config.kdl" ]; then
  cp /usr/local/lib/ferese/current/config.example.kdl \
    "${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/ferese/config.kdl"
fi

After login, open Control Center → Settings or run ferese-settings to shape your desktop, using Configuration for themes, displays, shortcuts and startup apps. The default terminal is foot, which you can replace with your preferred terminal command in Settings.

Start a session

Graphical login managers

Save your work and log out, then open your login screen’s session selector, choose Ferese and sign in. Login managers that support Wayland sessions can discover the installed entry in /usr/share/wayland-sessions/.

If Ferese is missing, confirm that the session entry exists and its launcher is executable:

ls -l /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ferese.desktop
test -x /usr/local/bin/ferese-session && echo "Session launcher is ready"
desktop-file-validate /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ferese.desktop

If the entry still doesn’t appear, check your login manager’s documentation for Wayland session discovery, or use a Wayland-capable greeter or the TTY method below if your manager only launches X11 sessions.

Command-based greeters

If your greeter asks for a session command instead of reading desktop files, use:

/usr/local/bin/ferese-session

For greetd, set this as the session command after authentication using the greetd documentation, and the launcher will start the compositor, shell and session services together.

From a TTY

Log out of your graphical session and switch to a local console with Ctrl+Alt+F2, or another available function key, then sign in as your normal user and run:

/usr/local/bin/ferese-session

Your login needs to provide XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and access to the active seat through logind or seatd; if either is missing, fix your distribution’s login and session setup rather than running Ferese as root or making device nodes writable. On non-systemd systems, follow the distribution’s seatd and user-session instructions, and use a nested preview whenever you’re already inside a graphical session.

Optional desktop tools

Install these through your distribution when you want the corresponding features:

Feature	Tools or services
Wallpaper file picker	zenity
Screenshots and editing	slurp, satty, wl-clipboard, Python 3
Idle locking	swayidle with the included ferese-lock
Network controls	NetworkManager and its running service
Audio controls	PipeWire, WirePlumber, and wpctl
Bluetooth controls	BlueZ, bluetoothctl, and its running service

Package names and availability vary by distribution, so use Satty’s upstream instructions if it isn’t in your repositories. Ferese leaves service setup to you and preserves your existing service configuration during installation.

Use Print Screen to capture the active monitor, Super+Shift+S to select an area, or ferese-screenshot --all to capture all monitors in one image.

The native locker follows your shell theme and can be personalized in Settings → Lock Screen, with ferese-lock --preview opening an ordinary preview window. Before enabling automatic locking, test real unlocking and read Native locker for authentication, idle locking and limits.

Preview and logs

To preview a source build before installing, run these commands from the checkout inside an existing Wayland desktop:

cargo build --release --locked -p ferese -p ferese-shell -p ferese-settings -p feresectl -p ferese-lock -p xdg-desktop-portal-ferese
FERESE_ENABLE_SCREENCOPY=1 target/release/ferese --backend nested \
  --grant-effects --grant-shell-control -- \
  target/release/ferese-shell

After installation, the equivalent launcher is:

ferese-session --nested

The session launcher saves logs in ${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/ferese/, while a source build launched directly writes to its terminal. Keep another desktop available when testing scaling, monitor hotplug, suspend or locking so you have a way back if something goes wrong.

The launcher enables screencopy for screenshot tools, allowing Wayland clients to capture the unlocked desktop and making feresectl screenshot available. Set FERESE_ENABLE_SCREENCOPY=0 in the session environment to disable every screen-reading path, including the built-in screenshot command, at your next login; capture is always blocked while the session is locked.

When you launch the compositor directly, set FERESE_ENABLE_SCREENCOPY=1 to enable screenshots, since that variable is otherwise unset and screen capture stays disabled.

Updating

From your existing checkout, with any local edits saved:

git pull --ff-only
./scripts/install.sh

Log out and back in to start using the new release, as a running session keeps its existing processes and release paths until it restarts.

Each release records the portal configuration it ships so later upgrades can identify it, and installation stops if it encounters modified or untracked administrator files. To replace Ferese portal configuration from an earlier development install, build first and run ./scripts/install.sh --skip-build --replace-portal-config, which backs up the existing files in the new release’s portal-config.previous/ directory.

Installer options:

./scripts/install.sh --dry-run
./scripts/install.sh --offline --release-id my-build
./scripts/install.sh --resize-metrics
./scripts/install.sh --skip-build

Use --dry-run to see the planned commands, --offline when dependencies are already cached, or --skip-build after building every component from the revision you want to install. The latter uses binaries already in target/release/, and ./scripts/install.sh --help lists all available options.

Use --resize-metrics to enable resize-barrier counters and duration histograms in the release build. Ferese prints the measurements to its session log on normal exit. This option requires building and cannot be combined with --skip-build.

Logout and recovery

Save your work before leaving: Super+Shift+E and feresectl request-logout ask for confirmation, while feresectl exit ends the session immediately. If Ferese freezes, switch to another TTY with Ctrl+Alt+F1–F12, sign in and find the affected compositor process:

pgrep -a -u "$USER" -x ferese

Replace PID with the affected session’s process ID and use kill PID to end it, bearing in mind that its applications will close and unsaved work may be lost. You can then choose another desktop at the next login.

Roll back a release

While Ferese is stopped, inspect the retained releases:

readlink /usr/local/lib/ferese/current
readlink /usr/local/lib/ferese/previous
ls /usr/local/lib/ferese/releases/

If previous exists and points to the release you want, switch back:

sudo sh -eu -c '
  cd /usr/local/lib/ferese
  previous_release=$(readlink previous)
  test -x "$previous_release/ferese-session"
  ln -sfn -- "$previous_release" current-rollback
  mv -Tf -- current-rollback current
'

Log in again to use the selected binaries, with your config and PAM policy still in place. If you also need to recover a configuration edit, Settings keeps a backup when saving, as described in Saving and validation.

Remove the login option

To hide Ferese from login managers while keeping its releases and your config:

sudo mv /usr/share/wayland-sessions/ferese.desktop \
  /usr/local/lib/ferese/ferese.desktop.disabled

For a command-based greeter, remove Ferese from its session choices in the greeter’s configuration; reinstalling Ferese restores the desktop session entry.

Screen sharing and recording

Ferese’s native ScreenCast portal is included in the installation, which backs up the old user service override pointing to ~/.local/libexec/ferese so new sessions use the installed release. Custom overrides are preserved and reported before building, and Screen sharing covers consent, PipeWire setup, supported sources and recording limits.