bakawm

A Wayland compositor/window manager built with Rust and Smithay.

bakawm is an early-stage Wayland WM that uses Smithay as its compositor framework. The project is currently in active development and not yet ready for daily use.

Build Dependencies

Before building bakawm, make sure the following system libraries and tools are installed:

• Rust toolchain (1.85+)
• pkg-config
• clang
• libudev
• libdrm
• libgbm
• libinput
• libxkbcommon
• libseat (seatd)
• libdisplay-info
• wayland-server
• libEGL (Mesa)
• libx11 (optional, for X11 backend)
• libpipewire-0.3 (optional, for screen recording)
• libdbus-1 (optional, for screen recording)

On Debian/Ubuntu:

sudo apt install build-essential pkg-config clang libudev-dev libdrm-dev libgbm-dev \
    libinput-dev libxkbcommon-dev libseat-dev libdisplay-info-dev \
    wayland-protocols libegl-dev libx11-dev libx11-xcb-dev \
    libpipewire-0.3-dev libdbus-1-dev

On Fedora:

sudo dnf install gcc pkg-config clang systemd-devel libdrm-devel gbm-devel \
    libinput-devel libxkbcommon-devel libseat-devel libdisplay-info-devel \
    wayland-devel mesa-libEGL-devel libX11-devel \
    pipewire-devel dbus-devel

On Arch Linux:

sudo pacman -S base-devel pkg-config clang systemd-libs libdrm gbm libinput \
    libxkbcommon seatd libdisplay-info wayland-protocols mesa libx11 \
    pipewire dbus

On Void Linux:

sudo xbps-install base-devel clang pkg-config libudev-devel libdrm-devel \
    gbm-devel libinput-devel libxkbcommon-devel seatd-devel \
    libdisplay-info-devel wayland-devel mesa-devel libX11-devel \
    pipewire-devel dbus-devel

On Alpine Linux:

sudo apk add build-base pkgconf clang eudev-dev libdrm-dev mesa-gbm-dev \
    libinput-dev libxkbcommon-dev seatd-dev libdisplay-info-dev \
    wayland-dev mesa-dev libx11-dev \
    pipewire-dev dbus-dev

Distribution Packages

Arch Linux (AUR)

• Thanks ShinKouyo

yay -S bakawm-git

Building

cargo build --release

Feature Flags

bakawm uses Cargo features to control which backends and integrations are compiled. The default features include systemd integration. If your system does not use systemd, you need to adjust the feature flags.

Feature	Default	Description
udev	Yes	DRM/KMS backend for running on a TTY
winit	Yes	Nested window backend (X11/Wayland client)
x11	Yes	X11 backend
egl	Yes	EGL hardware acceleration
xwayland	Yes	XWayland support
libei	Yes	libei input emulation support
systemd	Yes	systemd service integration (sd-notify)
dinit	No	dinit service integration marker
xdp-gnome-screencast	Yes	Screen recording via PipeWire (org.gnome.Mutter.ScreenCast D-Bus interface)

Building without systemd

For distributions that use dinit (e.g. Artix Linux):

cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "egl,winit,x11,udev,xwayland,libei,dinit"

For distributions without any service manager (e.g. Void Linux, Alpine Linux):

cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "egl,winit,x11,udev,xwayland,libei"

Building without screen recording

To build without PipeWire/D-Bus screen recording support:

cargo build --release --no-default-features --features "egl,winit,x11,udev,xwayland,libei,systemd"

Installation

Using Makefile

The Makefile installs the binary, session script, desktop file, and portal configuration. Service files for systemd and dinit are installed separately.

Install the binary and common resources:

sudo -E make install

Install systemd service files (systemd-based distributions):

sudo -E make install-systemd

Install dinit service files (dinit-based distributions):

sudo -E make install-dinit

You can customize the installation prefix:

make install PREFIX=/usr

File Locations

File	Destination
bakawm	/usr/local/bin/
bakawm-ctl	/usr/local/bin/
bakawm-session	/usr/local/bin/
bakawm.desktop	/usr/local/share/wayland-sessions/
bakawm-portals.conf	/usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal/
bakawm.service (systemd)	/usr/local/lib/systemd/user/
bakawm-shutdown.target (systemd)	/usr/local/lib/systemd/user/
dinit/bakawm (dinit)	/usr/local/lib/dinit.d/user/
dinit/bakawm.target (dinit)	/usr/local/lib/dinit.d/user/

Uninstall

sudo -E make uninstall

Running

From a display manager (GDM, SDDM, etc.)

After installation, bakawm will appear in your display manager's session list. Select "bakawm" and log in.

From a TTY

With systemd or dinit:

bakawm-session

Without any service manager:

bakawm --session

As a nested window (for testing)

bakawm --winit

Configuration

The configuration file is located at ~/.config/bakawm/config.lua. If no config file exists, bakawm will create a default one on first launch.

The config file is watched for changes and will be automatically reloaded.

Acknowledgments

• Smithay - The Wayland compositor framework that bakawm is built upon. Neat!
• niri - A scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. bakawm references portions of niri's source code during development. Very Thanks!
• Hyprland - I like this WM's lua config file format, so I use it. Very Thanks!

License

This project is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 or later.