My Arch + Hyprland Dotfiles (And How to Install Them)
Thought i’d post my dotfiles on here and give a brief explanation as to what dotfiles actually are, and how you’re meant to install them. Especially since I myself messed up quite a few installs because I had no idea what I was doing. To install my dotfiles, check my github repo.
Preview
First and foremost heres a preview of what my Arch + Hyprland setup is looking like at this point in time:
- OS: Arch Linux
- WM: Hyprland
- Terminal: Kitty
- Application Launcher: rofi
- Status Bar: waybar
- Notificaton Daemon: swaync
- Shell: Zsh
What Are Dotfiles, And How Do I Install Them?
So why are they called “Dotfiles”? Simply put, most configuration settings on linux systems are configured within files that that begin with ., like .config, .zshrc, .bash_profile, etc…
So in most cases, getting your system to look like someone elses is as simple as installing the associated programs, and then typically replacing your .config with theirs. Some people will include install.sh files which will typically do all of this for you, from installing the programs needed, the dotfiles, and whatever other configuration changes to get everything working.
Of course you don’t have to copy all aspects of someone’s setup. If you like a certain aspect, say the color scheme, or the status bar, or whatever, once you’re familiar with .config files, its as simple as installing just that associated programs configuration file as opposed to all the config files.
So for example if I you like someones status bar, and they use waybar as their status bar program, you can just install the ~/.config/waybar dotfile onto your own system, and then make any necessary changes for it to run on startup. Typically on Hyprland you can just edit ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf and add a exec-once waybar anywhere in the file, and it should now run on startup.
And so this process is basically the same with installing any config files. Just note that some configuration files might have some dependencies to make it work properly.
Like for my color schemes to all match depending on the wallpaper, I use a tool called pywal16. This tool essentially generates a ton of .css/.conf files when I change my wallpaper, which contain variables for certain colors depending on the color scheme of my wallpaper. With those .css/.conf files, many tools nowadays that are designed to be highly customizable will allow you import/source those files within its own configuration file, and it’ll now use those colors instead, just as is seen within the screenshot above, where I sourced ~/.cache/wal/colors-hyprland.conf.
Overall, making sure you understand what each program is supposed to do and how to configure it is the most important part (always read the tools documentation, it’ll make you’re life so much easier). Understanding that will make troubleshooting and customization much easier, allowing you to tailor your setup precisely to how you like it.