Install Hyprland + Caelestia Shell (Complete Guide)

Technological concepts & stack (what’s being installed)

• KWin “Easter show”: a set of KWin Shell configurations that provide visual desktop components such as the taskbar, app launcher, notifications, etc.
• KWin Shell: described as a toolkit for building desktop elements (status bars, widgets, lock screens, launcher/notifications).
• Hyprland: a dynamic tiling Wayland compositor (window manager controlling tiling/arrangement and animations).
• Universal Wayland Session Manager (“UWaSM”): recommended so Hyprland sessions “work better” and smoother with the setup.
• The speaker frames KWin Easter as largely being “dotfiles” (plain config files published online), allowing others to recreate the same setup.

Requirements / constraints (important setup notes)

• The guide stresses that a fresh install is required to avoid dependency conflicts.
• This walkthrough targets Arch or Arch-based distros only (it mentions NixOS on the official GitHub page, but doesn’t cover it in detail).
• Not considered beginner-friendly (even if it’s not “hard”), because users should understand basic system configuration concepts.
• Recommendation: install a full desktop environment (GNOME or KDE Plasma) first, then layer Hyprland + KWin on top to have a fallback login session.

Installation / setup guide (step-by-step flow)

1. Update system (example: sudo pacman -Syu).
2. Install an AUR helper: Paru (preferred) or Yay.
3. Install Hyprland:
   • Follow Hyprland’s official install instructions for Arch, then run a Hyprland installer command.
   • After Hyprland is installed, run a “Hyprland dotfiles installer” command.
4. Hyprland dotfiles installer:
   • Installs dependencies and config files.
   • Prompts to backup config directory.
   • Asks which components/apps to enable (examples mentioned: Spotify, VS Code, Discord, Zen, UWaSM, etc.).
   • Ends with instructions to reboot, plus commands to edit configs and update later.

Post-install actions

• Reboot is recommended so changes take effect.
• Customize behavior by editing config files in specific directories, such as:
  • Default apps, keybinds
  • Monitor layout and other Hyprland settings
• Run an update command (e.g., “update”) to pull the latest dotfiles/configs.
• If you run into issues, join the Hyprland Discord for community/dev support.

Desktop configuration & UI management tools

“Hypermod” (GUI configuration)

• Introduced as a tool to change Hyprland settings via GUI instead of editing config files for common tasks.
• Example features shown:
  • Monitors / resolution (edit and save; then resolution updates)
  • Gaps and border size
  • Keyboard layout (add layout)
  • Mouse sensitivity
  • Decoration settings (including wallpaper handling)
  • Wallpaper changes using a file selector, with a note:
    • Wallpapers should be placed in Pictures → wallpapers folder (exact naming matters).
    • If the wallpaper selector doesn’t show files, you may need to log out and back in.

“Kaleestia” / Kaleestia Shell customization walkthrough

Kaleestia configuration panel (mouse corner button)

A control panel for toggling and configuring:

• Transparency and dark theme
• Panels/sections, including:
  • weather (can disable)
  • taskbar/launcher/sidebar, etc.
• Default apps (example: Kitty; other app mappings mentioned)
• Audio/media player mapping (example: VLC; mentions MPV as a possible default)
• File manager
• System settings:
  • language/region
  • time/date formats
  • units
• Network and Bluetooth controls
• Battery status on laptops
• Toggles like:
  • keep screen always on
  • don’t disturb
• Screen recorder (noted as already used)
• Visual/UX options:
  • theme scheme behavior
  • widgets
• Tray behavior and quick-access controls (log out/power/restart/hibernate mentioned)

Dynamic color schemes tied to wallpaper

• Uses a command/menu to select a dynamic scheme so changing wallpaper updates UI colors automatically.
• Options for dark/light mode and variants (example variant: “rainbow”).

Theme/parameter changes via config files

• To change default browser/terminal, edit hypervars.lua.
• Cursor customization:
  • Download a cursor theme from releases
  • Extract and place under ~/.local/share/icons
  • Edit the cursor theme name in a config file
  • Requires a session restart to apply (demonstrated)

Deep customization using JSON (“shell.json” / “child.json”)

• Fully customizing Kaleestia may require editing a JSON config file.
• If child.json doesn’t exist, it can be generated by making changes in the Kaleestia UI.
• Warning: avoid copying entire example configs because updates could break the file.
• Example update:
  • Weather location (e.g., “New York”); leaving it empty can trigger automatic lookup.

Accessing Hyprland config

• Main Hyprland config is located at:
  • ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.lua
• Keyboard layout can be changed in an additional input file:
  • ~/.config/hypr/hyprland/input.lua
• Example includes using a Brazilian Portuguese keyboard layout (abnt2) and variant settings.

Main speakers / sources (end of subtitles)

• Primary speaker: the video author/host (name not explicitly stated in the subtitles).
• Primary referenced sources:
  • Hyprland official website / GitHub
  • Hyprland dotfiles installer (referenced from Hyprland resources)
  • KWin Shell / KWin “Easter” GitHub page (described as configuration “dotfiles”)
  • UWaSM (Universal Wayland Session Manager)
  • Hypermod
  • Hyprland Discord community/server
  • Wallhaven (for downloading wallpaper images)
• Mentions of thanked channel members:
  • Finley, Tacto Jay, Kuba, Snighty27, Ser Diego, Procurador 1337, The Sum Max.