Installing another DE/WM using CachyOS Settings

Things to consider before installing another desktop environment

• Having multiple DEs/WMs installed can lead to conflicts, especially with settings managers, default applications, and appearance configurations such as themes and icons in GTK or QT apps.
• The two worst offenders when it comes to conflicts are GNOME and KDE Plasma because they use two completely different toolkits (GTK and QT respectively) and have a lot of background services running that can interfere with other DEs/WMs.
  • This fact does not mean that you cannot have them installed together, just be aware that you might run into some issues.
• Package bloat: Mainstream DEs such as GNOME and KDE Plasma could come with hundreds of packages that you might not need or want.
• You can mix many Window Managers with different DEs without much trouble. For example, you can have KDE Plasma and Hyprland installed together and choose which one to use at login.
• CachyOS offered DEs/WMs contain their own respective -settings package. For example: cachyos-i3wm-settings
  • What does this mean? If you wish to install another DE/WM and want to have the same appearance or set of changes we provide, you should install the corresponding -settings package.
  • These packages place configuration files in /etc/skel/, which serves as a template for new user accounts.
  • Important: For existing users, these settings are NOT applied automatically to prevent overwriting your personal configurations.

How to install another DE/WM with CachyOS settings

Note

You have two choices when installing another DE or WM:

1. Keep your current configuration files and manually adjust or copy files from /etc/skel as needed.

• For example: if you only want the i3wm configuration files but want to keep your current GTK theme, you can just copy the i3wm related files from /etc/skel/.config/i3 to your home directory.

2. Overwrite your current configuration files with the new ones from /etc/skel/

• This gives you the complete CachyOS experience but will replace your current settings.

Tip

Take advantage of the Arch Wiki for the respective DE or WM for more in depth information.

1. Create a backup of your current configuration files in your home directory:

   mkdir -p ~/config-backup
   cp -r ~/.config ~/config-backup/
   cp -r ~/.local ~/config-backup/

2. Uninstall the current -settings package if you have one installed. For example, if you are using KDE, run:

   sudo pacman -R cachyos-kde-settings

   Note

   Removing this package does not remove any of your current DE/WM configurations. It only removes the files stored in /etc/skel

3. Install the new DE/WM along with its corresponding -settings package. For example, to install i3wm:

   sudo pacman -Syu i3wm cachyos-i3wm-settings

   Tip

   You can check the list of available DEs/WMs and their corresponding -settings packages in the CachyOS PKGBUILDs GitHub repository

   Or by using your file manager of choice.
4. Copy the new configuration files from /etc/skel to your home directory:
   • For example: The cachyos-i3wm-settings package contains configuration for Kvantum, dunst, GTK, i3, polybar, QT5 and rofi.
   • Here is how to do it using a file manager:
     1. Open your file manager (Dolphin, Nautilus, Thunar, etc.)
     2. Enable viewing hidden files:
        • Most file managers: Ctrl+H or via a menu: View → Show Hidden Files
     3. Navigate to /etc/skel in the file manager.
     4. Select all files and folders (Ctrl+A)
     5. Copy them (Ctrl+C)
     6. Navigate to your home directory
     7. Paste the files (Ctrl+V)
     8. When prompted about overwriting, choose:
        • “Merge” or “Apply to All” for folders
        • “Replace” for individual files you want to update

        Caution

        Be careful when replacing files. This will overwrite your current configurations!

     • Or just use a terminal if you’re familiar with it.

After installing the new DE/WM and copying the configuration files, log out of your current session. At the login screen, select the newly installed DE/WM from the session options before logging back in.

FAQ

How to revert back to my previous DE/WM configuration?

• Restore from the backup you created:

  cp -r ~/config-backup/.config/* ~/.config/
  cp -r ~/config-backup/.local/* ~/.local/

  Or by using a file manager.

What about new updates to the -settings package?

• When a -settings package updates, the new files are placed in /etc/skel/, but your user configuration in /home/ remains unchanged. To apply updates, you’ll need to manually copy the updated files from /etc/skel/ again.

You’ll have to keep an eye on the GitHub repository of the respective DE/WM for any changes.

Here is a list of all the repositories of different DEs and WMs maintained by CachyOS:

• KDE Plasma
• Niri
• i3
• Qtile
• Wayfire

All the other DE and WMs we offer when installing CachyOS don’t have their own -settings package at the moment. meaning they’re just the vanilla versions.

Can I keep multiple DE/WM settings packages installed?

• Yes and no. You can have multiple DEs/WMs installed, but it’s recommended to only have one -settings package installed at a time to avoid conflicts in /etc/skel/. Otherwise pacman might complain about file conflicts when trying to install another -settings package.

What are “CachyOS Settings”?

“CachyOS Settings” are convenient configuration packages for various desktop environments and window managers. They provide pre-configured settings, themes, and tweaks depending on the DE/WM you choose.

When you install one of these packages . It will also automatically install extra dependencies that are not part of the vanilla DE/WM, such as themes, icons, wallpapers and additional applications. For example in cachyos-i3wm-settings we install rofi, dunst, picom, lxappearance and more.