Pre-release 2026-10A Linux desktop on Arch

Simple to start. Powerful when you want it.

Hyprnux is a free, open source Linux desktop on Arch: windows, a bar, a launcher and one Settings app that covers most of the daily things. The terminal and your own files are still there when you want more.

Install See the features

Installs with pacman, the Arch package manager · builds from source on other distributions

The Hyprnux desktop with the default bar style: separate glass pills floating at the top edge, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth among their items, over windows on a mountain wallpaper.

The same desktop with one full-width bar along the top edge.

The same desktop with one bar inset from the edges of the screen, with rounded corners.

The same desktop with a frame running around the screen, the bar being one side of it.

The same desktop with the bar along the left edge.

Separate pieces floating at the edge: the default.Your desktop, your bar: choose the layout, the side and the items in Settings.One bar from edge to edge.Your desktop, your bar: choose the layout, the side and the items in Settings.One bar inset from the edges, with rounded corners.Your desktop, your bar: choose the layout, the side and the items in Settings.A frame around the whole screen, with the bar as one side.Your desktop, your bar: choose the layout, the side and the items in Settings.Top, bottom, left or right: the bar goes where you want it.Your desktop, your bar: choose the layout, the side and the items in Settings.

Why Hyprnux

Simple for a beginner, powerful for a professional.

The same system, whatever you know. Most things are done through interfaces, and the terminal and your files stay open.

On day one

On a computer installed from the Hyprnux installer image, an assistant guides you from an empty machine to your desktop, with nothing to edit and no command to type.

The assistant asks the language, the keyboard, the time zone and the computer name.
It asks you to replace the installer’s temporary disk passphrase with your own when the disk is encrypted, then creates your account.
A welcome card at your first login shows the launcher, the shortcuts, the Control Center and Settings. The Hyprnux menu opens it again.

About the first start

Every day

Most of what you do every day needs no terminal.

The launcher finds apps, does sums, finds emoji and searches your clipboard history.
Wi-Fi, VPN, screens, accounts, language and shortcuts are pages in Settings.
The Control Center, the notifications history and screenshots with annotation are built in.
The Store finds, installs and updates apps, and says what will change first.

About Settings About the Store

To go further

The terminal and your files stay open, and your own configuration is never replaced.

A real Arch Linux: pacman, its package manager, and the terminal are fully available.
Settings keeps its values in plain, documented JSON that you can edit, version or script.
Your own custom.lua, a file in ~/.config/hypr/, is loaded last, so it always wins.

See a settings page file

The Store

Find, install and update apps from one window.

Search by name or browse the categories. The Store says what will change before it does anything, and keeps fonts, drivers and libraries apart from your apps.

The Store open on Discover over a file manager: a search field and the categories on the left, a featured app and a row of apps on the right.

Apps, not packagesSearch, or browse ten categories. Fonts, drivers and libraries stay apart, under System components.
A review before every changeA screen says what will be installed, how much is downloaded and whether a password or a restart is needed. Advanced settings add the exact commands.
Updates in one placeThe system update with its size and one button, and Update everything: the system first, then each community app.

In development: not in the Hyprnux repository. Apps install with pacman, as on any Arch Linux.

About the Store Use the Store

Appearance

From the bar to the last setting.

The look

One theme, one accent and the same look for the bar, the launcher, the notifications and every Hyprnux app.

How the look works

The Appearance page of Settings: the corner roundness, the shortcuts, the icons and cursor, and the windows of the apps, each option in its card.

The settings

One app for most of the desktop. Search finds every option, even the advanced ones, and a Settings page is a plain file.

About Settings

The first-start assistant asking for the language of the computer.

The login screen

The optional login screen has the look you choose. The optional first-start assistant takes a new computer to its first account.

About the login screen

Dark and light

Light or dark, with the accent you choose.

Choose light or dark, with one accent color for every Hyprnux app. The bar and the panels get a glass effect that blurs what is behind them. Without Hyprglass, the glass effects plugin, panels are plain and solid.

The Control Center in dark mode, a glass panel with quick switches and sliders over an open window. — **Dark**The Control Center over an open window.

The same Control Center in light mode. — **Light**The same panel, the other theme.

Four transparency levels

Settings, Theme, Transparency level: Highest, High, Standard or Low. Highest also removes the blur, so it is the one that looks different. The pictures show Highest and Standard.

The Control Center at the highest transparency level, over open windows. — **Highest**

The Control Center at the standard transparency level, over open windows. — **Standard**

On black, on white, on a picture

The glass blurs what is really behind it and, by default, the bar and the panels adjust so that their text stays readable over it.

The Control Center over a black wallpaper. — **Black**

The Control Center over a white wallpaper. — **White**

The Control Center over a picture wallpaper. — **A picture**

Built to stay calm

The protections that are on by default.

On a machine set up from the Hyprnux installer image, every edition includes them. On your own Arch you get the signed packages and set up the rest yourself.

Encrypted disk The system and its swap are encrypted with LUKS, the standard Linux disk encryption, in every edition. The installer’s temporary passphrase is replaced by yours at first start, unless you keep it.
Firewall on Incoming connections are refused, except answers to ones your machine opened and a few basic network services.
Signed packages Hyprnux packages come from a signed repository, and pacman refuses unsigned ones.
Secure time The clock is set over NTS, time servers that prove their answers are genuine, with ordinary ones as a fallback.
Your session stays open If you use the optional login screen, updating it never restarts it, so an update cannot end the session you are in. The lock screen stays locked when the desktop restarts.
Settings checks before it writes It refuses to overwrite a file it cannot read back, and a change to the system asks for the administrator password once.

Your own files

Add your own page with one file.

The person who looks after your machines can add a page for your own tool. A Settings page is a short JSON file, saved as ~/.config/hyprnux/settings.d/hello/page.json. Settings draws it, searches it, translates it and saves its values, and a page is data that cannot run code. The guide takes about ten minutes.

Write your first page

{
  "id": "hello",
  "name": "Hello",
  "icon": "smiley",
  "category": "Desktop",
  "order": 90,
  "configFile": "~/.config/hyprnux/hello/hello.json",
  "configFormat": "json",
  "sections": [
    {
      "title": "Greeting",
      "controls": [
        { "type": "toggle", "key": "enabled", "label": "Say hello" }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Shortcuts

The essentials are a key away.

Super is the key with the Windows logo (the Command key on a Mac keyboard). Every shortcut has a default and can be changed in Settings.

SuperSpaceThe launcher: apps, sums, commands.
SuperVClipboard history.
SuperCtrlSpaceEmoji picker.
SuperTabOverview of every workspace.
SuperCControl Center.
SuperLLock the screen.

The overview: every workspace and its windows as tiles, with the bar above.

Editions

The same desktop, three ways to take updates.

Community and Pro are free and open source. Enterprise is paid, on request. The hold-back is a delay before Arch updates are installed. It is off by default, so today every edition takes Arch updates as soon as they ship. Only Community can be installed today.

Free, open source

Community

The latest software: Community gets Arch’s packages as soon as they are published.

The base of every edition.

Free, open source

Pro

For work machines that should change less often. The edition is designed to hold Arch updates back 7 days; you switch the setting on.

Everything in Community, plus an optional password rule.

Paid, on request

Enterprise

For organizations. It is designed to hold updates back 30 days, a setting you switch on.

Everything in Pro, plus an audit trail and tools built with your organization. Contact us about Enterprise

Compare the editions

Is it for you?

Know before you choose.

Two roles: the person who installs it needs Arch and a terminal; the people who use it every day need neither.

Yes, if

You want a desktop that is simple every day, with room to go further. It runs on Arch Linux, or builds from source on another distribution.
You already have a hyprland.lua, the file that sets up Hyprland (the window manager). It stays yours: add two lines to load the desktop and Hyprglass, or take only one part, such as Settings.
You run many machines and want an audit trail and updates you can hold back. See Enterprise.

Maybe not for you, if

You want a ready-made package for apt or dnf: only pacman packages are published. From the sources, the parts also build on other distributions.
You want everything in one hand-written config file and no Settings app: Hyprnux puts Settings first, and your own files still win.
You need software that only runs on Windows or macOS.
You have never installed Linux: today Hyprnux installs on an Arch Linux you already have.
You want to update Hyprland the day it ships: Hyprglass is built for one Hyprland version, so you rebuild and reinstall it with each update.

What you get today

In the 2026-10 pre-release: the desktop shell (the bar, the launcher and the panels), Settings, the Hyprland configuration and the Hyprglass plugin, as pacman packages for Arch Linux. The login screen and the first-start assistant are optional. The Store is in development. English and French only. The installer image is not published: you install on an Arch Linux you already have.

How it differs

Against Ubuntu or Fedora: a rolling Arch base, with pacman, and a Hyprland desktop instead of GNOME or KDE.
Against plain Arch: the same Arch, with one Settings app, a ready Hyprland setup and, on a machine installed from the image, a first-start assistant.
Against Hyprland alone: the same Hyprland, with a bar, a launcher, one Settings app and a ready configuration. Your own hyprland.lua stays yours.
Against a pack of Hyprland configuration files (dotfiles): a packaged desktop that installs with pacman, with pages in Settings for the options, and your own custom.lua always wins.
Against an all-in-one desktop: every part installs on its own, so you can take only Settings.

Questions before you start? Read the documentation.

Questions

Quick answers.

What is Hyprnux?

A free Linux desktop on Arch Linux: windows, a bar, a launcher and one Settings app, with a ready Hyprland setup. It is open source.

Does it replace Arch?

No. It is Arch Linux with a desktop on top. pacman works as usual, and you install Hyprnux from its own pacman repository.

How is it different from Hyprland on its own?

Hyprnux is built on Hyprland, the window manager. It adds a bar, a launcher, one Settings app and a ready configuration. If you already have your own hyprland.lua, you keep it and add a few lines.

Which edition should I pick?

Community for the newest software. Pro for work machines that should change less often. Enterprise if an organization needs an audit trail and tools built with it; it is paid, on request. All three give the same desktop.

How do I install apps?

As on any Arch Linux: with pacman, in a terminal. The Hyprnux Store, a window that finds, installs and updates apps and says what will change first, is in development.

Can I leave?

Yes. Your own hyprland.lua is never replaced and the settings are plain JSON files. Each part is a pacman package, so you can remove it with pacman.

Who is it not for?

Anyone who wants a ready-made package for apt or dnf, has never installed Linux (today Hyprnux installs on an Arch Linux you already have), or needs software that only runs on Windows or macOS.

Install

Install with pacman.

Add the Hyprnux repository once, then install the parts you want. Each part installs on its own. The packages install with pacman, the software installer of Arch Linux.

You need an x86_64 PC, Arch Linux, hyprland 0.56 or newer (the window manager) and quickshell 0.3 or newer (the toolkit the bar is drawn with), both from the Arch repositories. The glass effects need the Hyprglass plugin.

Install Read the documentation

See every part: Products.

1 · Get the key and check it

curl -fsSLO https://www.hyprnux.org/hyprnux.gpg
gpg --show-keys hyprnux.gpg

Check that the line under pub reads BF3FA18AE63F226028A83A2E3DA59F85B9821E2C If it does, the install page shows how to trust the key and add the repository; then install the parts below.

2 · Install the parts you want, once the repository is added

sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S hyprnux-keyring hyprnux-shell \
  hyprnux-settings hyprglass hyprnux-hyprland

The command installs the shell, Settings, Hyprglass and the Hyprland configuration. The login screen and the first-start assistant are optional and are in the install guide. To try the desktop, log out and choose the Hyprland session on your login screen. To remove it, see “Remove” on the install page. Settings alone is one package: hyprnux-settings.

Releases

2026-10Hyprnux 2026-10 is a pre-release. The desktop (bar, launcher and panels), Settings, the Hyprland configuration and Hyprglass are in this release, with the optional login screen.Read the release notes