Papyros Shell

Papyros Shell is the desktop shell for Papyros, an operating system based upon Linux which conforms to Google’s Material Design guidelines. The focus will be on creating a stable and easy-to-use operating system with a heavy emphasis on well-thought-out design.

Brought to you by the Papyros development team.

Implementation Details

The shell is built as a compositor for Wayland using the Green Island compositor framework and QtQuick. The goal is to develop a convergent shell that adapts to the form factor of the device it is running on, and to also support HIDPI screens.

Green Island provides the C++ code necessary to interact with Wayland, and QML Desktop provides C++ plugins for QML for the desktop indicators, so the majority of the shell is implemented in QML and Javascript.

Special thanks to Hawaii shell and its author Pier Luigi Fiorini for some of the QML backend plugins, including the hardware plugin and the original code for the app launcher model.

Installing on Arch

Papyros has an Arch repository with binary packages of Papyros shell and necessary dependencies, along with some other Material Design apps. Instructions are available here.

Dependencies

• Qt 5.5 (including QtWayland)
• Wayland
• GreenIsland
• QML Material (the develop branch).
• QT5XDG for desktop file parsing
• PAM for authentication
• Several KDE Frameworks
  • KConfig
  • KDeclarative
  • Solid
  • NetworkManagerQt
  • ModemManagerQt (optional)
• ALSA or PulseAudio for the sound indicator

Installation

Once the necessary dependencies are installed, you can build and install the Papyros shell as follows:

mkdir build; cd build
cmake .. -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DQML_INSTALL_DIR=lib/qt/qml
make && sudo make install

Running the shell

To run the shell from an existing desktop environment as a windowed shell or from a virtual terminal as a full Wayland compositor, run:

papyros-session

Using the SDDM theme

The SDDM theme for Papyros is installed along with the shell. To set it as the current theme, edit the /etc/sddm.conf file and edit the Current key under the [Theme] group to match:

[Theme]
# Current theme name
Current=papyros

Now restart your computer and enjoy the new theme!

Licensing

Papyros Shell is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.