Installation

One-liner (any supported distro)

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Neftedollar/WTF/master/scripts/get-wtf.sh | bash

get-wtf.sh detects your architecture and package manager, resolves the latest release, and runs the exact same steps as the manual paths below (.deb via apt on Debian/Ubuntu; tarball + atomic install elsewhere). Nothing hidden — read it first if you prefer.

Prebuilt packages (fastest — no toolchain)

Every release ships prebuilt artifacts for x86_64 and aarch64. They are built on Ubuntu 24.04 (glibc 2.39), so they run on Debian 13+, Ubuntu 24.04+, and current Fedora/Arch/openSUSE — no .NET SDK, no meson, no compiler on your machine.

.deb (Debian 13+ / Ubuntu 24.04+; package name wtf-wm):

sudo apt install ./wtf-wm_0.1.1_amd64.deb    # apt resolves the runtime deps

The .deb installs under /usr and registers the login session. It does not seed ~/.config/wtf/config.fsx — run wtf-edit once before your first login to seed it from the packaged template (otherwise the built-in defaults apply, which assume kitty and wofi).

Tarball (Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, or anything else):

tar xf wtf-0.1.1-linux-x64.tar.gz && cd wtf-0.1.1
sudo bash scripts/install-deps.sh     # system runtime libraries (once)
bash scripts/install-stage.sh stage   # preflight check + atomic install into /usr/local

install-stage.sh runs an ldd preflight of the bundled libraries (so a missing system library fails loudly now, with package hints — not at first login), then installs atomically and seeds your config.fsx. (install-deps.sh is shared with source builds, so it also pulls build tools — more than the prebuilt strictly needs, but it is the supported path.)

Then skip ahead to First login — or try it risk-free first: run wtf from a terminal inside your current desktop session and WTF opens nested as a regular window.

Requirements (source build)

• Linux with a GPU that does GLES2 (any Mesa driver; llvmpipe works for VMs)
• Stable system libraries only: libinput, libdrm, libseat, libxkbcommon, Mesa, pixman — wlroots and scenefx are bundled (pinned versions built by the installer), so no specific distro wlroots package is required
• The .NET 10 SDK (build machine only — the installed WM is self-contained and needs no .NET on the target; install-deps.sh installs the SDK automatically if missing)
• meson + ninja + a C compiler (for the compositor shim + bundled libs)
• Optional: libheif for dynamic .heic wallpapers (degrades gracefully without it), Xwayland for X11 apps, xdg-desktop-portal-wlr + xdg-desktop-portal-gtk for screenshots/screencast/file pickers

One script installs everything on Debian/Ubuntu (apt), Fedora (dnf), Arch (pacman), and openSUSE (zypper) — including the .NET SDK when absent:

sudo bash scripts/install-deps.sh

The installer additionally verifies at install time that every bundled library resolves on your machine and fails loudly with hints if something is missing — you will not discover a missing library at first login. Every supported distro is exercised in CI: full build → install → headless boot of the real compositor → IPC smoke test.

Build & install from source

git clone https://github.com/Neftedollar/WTF.git && cd WTF
bash scripts/install.sh

Run it as a regular user (it refuses root); sudo is invoked internally for exactly one step — copying the staged tree into /usr/local. The script:

1. builds scenefx (pinned 0.4.1) and the C shim,
2. publishes the self-contained host + wtfctl + bar + omnibox for your architecture (x86_64 and aarch64 supported),
3. assembles everything under build/stage/,
4. copies it into / atomically, per file — safe to run over a live WTF session (the running session keeps the old binaries until you log out),
5. seeds ~/.config/wtf/config.fsx if you don't have one.

Installed layout:

First login

Log out and pick WTF in your display manager's session list (GDM: the gear icon on the password screen; SDDM: the session dropdown).

Alternatives:

• Nested, zero risk: run wtf from a terminal inside your current desktop session — WTF opens as a regular window with a full compositor in it. Close the window (or Super+Shift+q) when done; nothing else is touched.
• From a free TTY: run wtf-session (recommended — you get the restart loop and logging) or plain wtf.
• DRM smoke test without logging in: wtf-smoke-drm from a TTY.

If anything goes wrong at startup, the session wrapper writes a full log to ~/.local/state/wtf/session-<timestamp>.log and escalates through restarts → safe mode → back to the greeter. See Troubleshooting.

Updating

Pull and re-run bash scripts/install.sh. Installing over a running WTF session is safe (atomic per-file rename); the live session keeps running the old build until you log out and back in. Super+Shift+r reloads only your config, not binaries.

Uninstall

There is no uninstall script yet. Remove /usr/local/lib/wtf, /usr/local/bin/{wtf,wtf-session,wtfctl,wtf-bar,wtf-omnibox,wtf-edit,wtf-smoke-drm}, /usr/share/wayland-sessions/wtf.desktop, and (optionally) ~/.config/wtf.

Found a problem on this page? Edit it on GitHub — the site rebuilds from docs/ automatically.