NOTE:
Please do not give advice about whether I “should” or “shouldn’t” use Caelestia Shell or switch to Linux, or comment on how easy or difficult it is. I’m a beginner in Linux but fully capable of making my own decisions and understanding the implications of switching from Windows. I’m looking only for answers relevant to the actual topic: compatibility of Caelestia Shell with Garuda Linux, or alternative options. You don’t need to worry about my time or sanity—thank you for understanding!
Hi everyone!
I’m planning to switch from Windows 11 to Linux, and Garuda Linux caught my eye because I want to use my Linux system for gaming without building everything from scratch. I’m fairly new to Linux, so I’m still learning the basics.
I’m really interested in using Caelestia Shell / Caelestia-dots on Garuda. I understand it’s officially designed for Arch-based systems, but I’m not sure if it works smoothly on Garuda, or if there are any known issues I should be aware of.
I’d love some guidance on whether Caelestia Shell is compatible with Garuda Linux, and if anyone has experience setting it up here. Any tips for a beginner-friendly approach to getting it running would be super helpful!
Hi there, welcome to the forum!
As you’ve probably already seen from their GitHub site, Caelestia-shell is based on the Hyprland Window Manager, so the Garuda Hyprland Edition is definitely the best way to start with. It is also based on fish, as we do, so why not give it a try!
As you might be aware of, Garuda Hyprland is “for advanced users”, i.e. support might be not always provided, and you’re expected to “study” on your own (it has a noticeable learning curve, especially from Windows, being a “tiling” window manager and requiring lots of configs from terminal, but it should be fun). But this doesn’t seem to be an issue according to your post.
I just made a very quick try, using a recent Hyprland VM at my disposal, and the AUR package installed with no issues.
To take full advantage of that test, I decided to try the complete dot files, then it looked much better.
In that second step, you’ll see that some default Garuda Hyprland configurations will be overwritten, so, once again, you’ll be on your own, for troubleshooting (and possible conflicts during future updates).
But, hey, it looked nice!
Again, no more a Garuda Hyprland anyway.
