Dwm Titus

dwm-titus is a complete, lightweight X11 desktop with sensible defaults, guided installation, and powerful customization. It is designed for people who want a responsive keyboard-first workflow without having to assemble every part themselves.

dwm-titus is a Fedora-only distribution. Fedora Linux is the sole supported platform for installation, runtime behavior, package resolution, testing, and release qualification. Use either the Fedora desktop image or the existing-system installer on Fedora Linux.

#What You Get

dwm-titus is an X11 desktop. A Wayland-native session is not currently part of the project scope.

#Install

Choose the path that matches your system:

For complete requirements and installation details, see the Installation Guide.

#Fedora ISO

Download the current offline images for Fedora 44 x86_64:

These stable URLs always serve the current builds. The build manifest records the version, sizes and hashes. Download a fresh checksum file with your selected ISO; restart partial downloads if the build changes. In that directory, run:

sha256sum --ignore-missing -c SHA256SUMS

Confirm your ISO reports OK. Write it as a disk image to an 8 GB or larger USB drive, boot it, choose your disk, locale and administrator account in Anaconda, then install and reboot into the dwm session. Writing the USB erases its contents; review Anaconda's disk changes before starting installation.

Packages are already included in the compressed system image. Installation needs no Internet connection or software selection. The images include Quickshell, Gear Lever, maim, region capture and clipboard tools. Internet access is needed later for updates and additional software.

See the installation guide and current build qualification for tested firmware modes and hardware limits, including NVIDIA and Secure Boot. Use the Cloudflare links above for the current offline installation images. For building images, see compressed-image builds.

#Existing System

git clone https://github.com/ChrisTitusTech/dwm-titus.git
cd dwm-titus

./install.sh --dry-run --non-interactive --profile recommended
./install.sh --profile recommended

The dry run shows the dependency and installation plan before anything changes. The installer requires Fedora, preserves existing personal configuration, and installs the managed desktop components. It accepts only Fedora's /etc/os-release identity and rejects every other operating-system identity before making changes.

maim is an optional dependency used only by the screenshot hotkeys. If it is unavailable, installation continues and reports that the screenshot hotkeys remain disabled; invoking one makes dwm-screenshot exit with dwm-screenshot: maim is not installed. xclip and xdotool remain required runtime dependencies for the X11 desktop and its other managed helpers.

#First Login

Super is the Windows key on most keyboards.

With a display manager, select the dwm session when logging in. From a TTY, start the session with:

startx

#Customize Your Desktop

Most personal settings live under:

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/dwm-titus/

Hotkeys, themes, and window rules reload when their TOML files are saved. Advanced compile-time preferences live in the user-owned config.h, which the installer and future upgrades preserve.

The installer also provides dwm-settings-display and its root-owned libexec/dwm-titus/dwm-settings-display-root persistence helper. Live display discovery and previews require xrandr; hotplug watching requires udevadm; only persistent Xorg install and rollback require pkexec. Named profiles live under the display-profiles/ directory in the XDG path above. Run dwm-display-setup detect, then dwm-display-setup, for a guided wizard that detects outputs and configures modes, positions, rotation, and the primary display with a reversible preview. Persistent generation selects compatible TearFree or NVIDIA Full Composition Pipeline behavior automatically; pass --force-full-composition-pipeline off to disable the NVIDIA default. The adjacent dwm-settings-input provider uses xinput, setxkbmap for keyboard settings, xkbset for session-wide AccessX controls, and udevadm for stable device identity and hotplug events. Kept values are stored in input-settings.conf in the same XDG directory; DWM_INPUT_SETTINGS_FILE can select another file.

The compositor settings in Settings -> Appearance -> Compositor and the CLI helper dwm-settings-picom manage window opacity and rendering backends. Sliders adjust active and inactive window opacity with live persistence in the active configuration (resolved from DWM_PICOM_CONFIG, a running Picom --config argument, or standard fallback paths ~/.config/picom.conf and ~/.config/picom/picom.conf). The automatic backend policy selects GLX for accelerated Intel/AMD graphics and falls back to XRender on NVIDIA or software rendering, with manual GLX, XRender, and EGL overrides available. Edits preserve custom comments and includes with up to ten automatic recovery backups. Cursor theme changes in Settings take effect immediately across running X11 applications via dwm-cursor-reload.

See the Configuration Guide and Theming Guide for examples and safe customization paths.

#Documentation

• Installation
• Getting Started
• Keybindings
• Configuration
• Theming
• Control Center
• Settings
• How dwm-titus Works
• Troubleshooting

The technical guide explains the project architecture, what dwm is, and how the maintained enhancements fit together. You do not need to understand or apply dwm patches to install and use the desktop.

#Troubleshooting

Settings -> System separates read-only Reload status from confirmed metadata refresh and package installation. Review all package changes, including dependency additions and removals, before confirming. PackageKit owns authorization and cancellation; closing Settings does not cancel an operation. If discovery or recovery is incomplete, reload status and follow its guidance.

The same section provides confirmed account, password, printer, and software-source tool launches. Missing tools or stale provider status disable only the affected entry. Account and repository inventories remain read-only. A successful launch does not mean administration inside the tool completed; authorize and confirm those changes in the tool itself. Enter passwords only in the terminal prompt.

For timezone or system locale, Load choices, filter and select a reported value, then Review change. Network time offers fixed enable/disable previews. Review the complete preview before Apply change: a sent regional change cannot be canceled. Cancel only dismisses the preview, and closing Settings does not undo an action. An uncertain result requires fresh status and new confirmation, not automatic retry. Locale changes apply to new sessions; log out manually when ready. Synchronization status is labeled as the last read. The panel and System Settings share one minute-level local clock. A newly reported timezone refreshes both displays without restarting Quickshell.

Start with the built-in diagnostic report:

dwm-diagnostics

You can also run Control Center -> Quick Actions -> Self-Heal to execute a configured workstation repair script (dwm-self-heal on $PATH or referenced in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/dwm-titus/self-heal.path) inside an interactive terminal with visible output and authorization prompts.

You can also open Control Center -> System Health for a graphical overview. If the session does not start, run startx from a TTY to see its error output. The Troubleshooting Guide covers common session, panel, terminal, theme, display, and NVIDIA issues.

If the problem remains, open an issue and include the relevant diagnostic output. Review it first and remove any private system information.

#Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Read CONTRIBUTING.md for the development workflow and validation requirements, and report security issues using SECURITY.md.

The main repository check uses a managed workspace under $HOME/tmp and removes it when the run finishes:

scripts/run-tests

Project requirements and active work are tracked in SPEC.md, ROADMAP.md, and TASKS.md.