Niri + Noctalia 5 + Noctalia-Greeter Issues that I dealt with.

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Original Post
September 29, 2026 1:23 PM · edited

Here is a summary of what I had to do to get Niri, Noctalia 5, & Noctalia Greeter fully operational. Sorry about the formatting importing .md files doesn't work.


RakuOS: Niri + Noctalia fixes and changes (summary for devs)

Collected on a RakuOS (Fedora 44 ostree overlay) system, Niri session with Noctalia Shell v5.1.0 + Noctalia Greeter 1.5.0.


1. RakuOS packaging bug: /usr/bin,/usr/lib,/usr/libexec created world-writable (0777)

Impact: Noctalia Shell daemon refused the greeter sync helper and the Sync Greeter settings section disappeared (searching “greet” found nothing).

  • The ostree overlay upper dir creates system binary prefixes as 0777:
  • Noctalia validates the helper prefix must be root-owned and non-user-writable; with 0777 it logged repeatedly: [WRN] [greeter-sync] refusing untrusted greeter sync helper '/usr/bin/noctalia-greeter-apply-appearance'
  • Working fix applied: chmod 755 /usr/bin /usr/lib /usr/libexec, then restart noctalia. Sync section returns; /usr/bin now 755 root:root.
  • Requested upstream: package these dirs as 0755 root:root, not 0777. A world-writable /usr/bin is also a general privilege-injection hazard.
  • Note: the overlay repack will reset them to 0777 again; this is a packaging defect, not a user-config issue.


2. Greeter cursor theme

  • File: /var/lib/noctalia-greeter/greeter.toml
  • Greeter now uses the shell cursor (Bibata) instead of the wlroots default.


3. Greeter auth: fingerprint disabled on the login screen, password-only

  • File: /etc/pam.d/greetd
  • Greeter PAM is a fingerprint-free password-auth substack, so login is password-only (fingerprint remains available for the desktop session/system-auth). Avoids the serialize-then-timeout fingerprint→password delay on the greeter.
  • Session/desktop sudo/fingerprint auth unchanged.


4. Greeter ↔ shell appearance sync (Noctalia Settings → Sync Now)

  • Enabled and verified: noctalia-greeter passwordless-sync active for user guru (Polkit rule allows passwordless constrained sync).
  • ~/.config/xdg-desktop-portal and the daemon host the sync path; sync writes into /var/lib/noctalia-greeter/sync.toml (scheme = "Synced", dark, palette, wallpaper per-connector), merging over declarative greeter.toml.
  • Depends on fix #1 (helper trust).


5. Portal FileChooser forced to GTK backend (Niri)

Impact: save dialogs (e.g. Chromium/Brave downloads) had the suggested filename stripped to just the extension (.rpm saved as ~/.rpm).

  • Niri’s default portal config routes org.freedesktop.impl.portal.FileChooser to the GNOME/Nautilus backend, which mis-handles current_name when a single filter is active.
  • Working fix applied via user override:
  • Verified: xdg-desktop-portal --replace --verbose shows Preferred portals for ... FileChooser: gtk; downloads save with full names.
  • Requested upstream: either honor current_name in the GNOME/Nautilus FileChooser backend or ship FileChooser=gtk for Niri in the RakuOS-provided /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal/niri-portals.conf.


6. Niri keybindings (user-level, in ~/.config/niri/)

  • Mod+T → Thunderbird (mail)
  • Mod+O → Cantata (MPD client)
  • Noctalia Shell generated bindings (Mod+Space launcher, Mod+S control-center, Mod+Shift+S settings, Mod+N notifications, Mod+V clipboard, Mod+E session, etc.); three bindings re-bound: “Open Resources” → flatpak net.nokyan.Resources, Mod+F → nautilus, Mod+Return → ghostty.


7. Session services enabled (user systemd units)

  • mpd.service and mpDris2.service enabled (enables MPRIS/D-Bus for Cantata), syncthing.service enabled for file sync.
  • Disabled user units that double up with RakuOS/desktop services: dms, dsearch, dcal (symlinked to /dev/null).


8. RakuOS Software Center tray autostart override

  • File: ~/.config/autostart/rakuos-software-tray.desktop
  • Hidden=true (+ X-systemd-skip=true), executable corrected to the real /usr/libexec/rakuos/software/rakuos-software-tray, so a duplicate/stale tray icon no longer appears. (Shell/panel fix, not strictly Niri/Noctalia.)


Open items for the RakuOS team

  • (1) overlay dir modes 0755; (5) FileChooser GTK routing for Niri; both are packaging/config defaults that users currently must fix by hand.
  • Note on (3): choose your preferred greeting-auth model; the fingerprint-free greeter stack we applied is a documented, maintained pattern.

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