Coming from Ubuntu — what's different on Hyprland¶
Ubuntu/GNOME and KDE Plasma are desktop environments: integrated stacks where the file manager, settings app, taskbar, notifications and theming all ship and update together as one product. They assume mouse-first, dock-driven interaction.
Hyprland + caelestia is a tiling window manager + custom shell: minimal by
design. Hyprland arranges windows; caelestia paints a vertical sidebar and a
launcher on top. There is no "Settings app" because there is no central
settings system — every subsystem (audio, network, bluetooth, GPU, theming)
has its own tool. The interaction model assumes keyboard-first: instead of
pinning apps to a dock you bind Super+<key> and launch with one keystroke;
instead of right-clicking icons you fuzzy-search the launcher.
That's not better or worse — it's different. This page maps the Ubuntu muscle-memory to what works here.
The "Settings app"¶
Closest equivalents:
| Tool | What it covers | Install |
|---|---|---|
systemsettings (KDE) |
display, audio, bluetooth, theming, input, keyboard shortcuts, regional. Most "Ubuntu Settings"-like; some panels assume Plasma and no-op on Hyprland. | sudo pacman -S systemsettings |
kinfocenter |
"About this system" — CPU/GPU/RAM/disks, kernel/distro, network stack | sudo pacman -S kinfocenter |
gnome-control-center |
GNOME Settings — closer to Ubuntu's exact look; bigger no-op surface on Hyprland | sudo pacman -S gnome-control-center |
| Per-area tools | nm-connection-editor (network), pavucontrol (audio), blueman-manager (bluetooth), wdisplays (monitors) |
pacman -S as needed |
systemsettings is the current pick — installed by default. Launch from a
terminal or bind a key in hypr-user.conf:
ini
bind = Super+Shift, S, exec, systemsettings
The "Files" app (Nautilus → Dolphin)¶
Ubuntu uses Nautilus (GNOME Files); this setup uses Dolphin (KDE Files). Different ecosystem, different shortcuts, but mostly the same feature set.
| Action | Nautilus (Ubuntu) | Dolphin (here) |
|---|---|---|
| Toggle hidden files | Ctrl+H |
Ctrl+H (already toggled on by default — see below) |
| Show menu bar | F10 (auto-hides) |
menu bar is disabled by default in dolphinrc; press Ctrl+M to bring it back, or use the hamburger icon top-right |
| Split view | not built-in | F3 |
| Show terminal panel | extension | F4 |
| Show preview panel | sidebar toggle | F11 (preview), F9 (places sidebar) |
| Tabs | Ctrl+T |
Ctrl+T |
| Address bar (type a path) | Ctrl+L |
Ctrl+L |
| Properties | Ctrl+I |
Alt+Enter |
Hidden files defaults: this repo's setup writes
~/.config/dolphinrc with GlobalViewProps=true and
~/.local/share/dolphin/view_properties/global/.directory with
HiddenFilesShown=true. The "global" view-property file is required because
Dolphin stores view state per-folder unless told to share globally.
If you genuinely prefer Nautilus, sudo pacman -S nautilus and set it default:
xdg-mime default org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop inode/directory.
"Pin apps to taskbar + open with keyboard shortcut"¶
In a tiling WM the keybind itself is the pin — there is no taskbar to drop an icon onto. Two ways to launch:
Bind a hotkey per app¶
Most-used apps live on single Super+<letter> by retargeting caelestia's
$browser / $editor / $fileExplorer variables in hypr-vars.conf:
Super+T → foot Super+G → Google Chrome
Super+W → Firefox Super+E → Dolphin
Super+C → VS Code
Everything else uses Super+Shift+<letter> in hypr-user.conf:
```ini bind = Super+Shift, B, exec, app2unit -- brave bind = Super+Shift, I, exec, app2unit -- systemsettings
...¶
```
See Keybinds for the full table and how to add more.
The app2unit -- wrapper (caelestia ships it) launches the app under a
systemd user unit so it gets clean process accounting; plain exec, dolphin
works too.
Use the launcher for everything else¶
Super+Space opens caelestia's launcher with fuzzy search across all installed
.desktop apps. Type a few letters, Enter. For most apps this is faster than
clicking a pinned icon — there's no aiming, no scanning.
The launcher is fuzzy-search-only — no right-click action menu. If you want a
launcher with right-click actions, app history, ssh/window/clipboard modes,
swap to rofi (most mature) or walker (newer GTK option) — set the default
in hypr-user.conf and rebind the launcher key.
"I want a horizontal taskbar at the bottom of the screen"¶
Caelestia's bar is architecturally vertical. It's a ColumnLayout in
/etc/xdg/quickshell/caelestia/modules/bar/Bar.qml:12, anchored to the left
edge in BarWrapper.qml:78-80, with the screen exclusion zone set to
anchors.left: true in drawers/Exclusions.qml:15-18, and every popout
positioned via Y-coordinate math against the vertical layout. There is no
bar.position knob in shell.json — making it horizontal at the bottom
means copying the package tree to ~/.config/quickshell/caelestia/, rewriting
those files, and re-applying after every caelestia-shell update.
Pragmatic alternative: waybar. Install it, write a config that mirrors
caelestia's colors (caelestia exposes its scheme in
~/.config/hypr/scheme/current.conf — read it from waybar's stylesheet), kill
caelestia's bar process, keep the launcher / clipboard / wallpaper / HDR
toggle / scheme manager (those are independent of the bar). Waybar gives you
horizontal bottom placement, pinned apps, right-click context menus on
modules, window taskbar — out of the box.
This isn't done yet — left as a choice point. Revisit when the vertical bar becomes a real friction point rather than a curiosity.
"Right-click an app icon to see options"¶
Three layers to this in Ubuntu — and three different equivalents here:
| Ubuntu interaction | Hyprland equivalent |
|---|---|
| Right-click pinned app in dock → "New Window", "Quit", "Pin/Unpin" | Bind a key per action: Super, W opens browser; Super+Shift+Q (or closewindow) closes |
| Right-click on desktop → background, display, terminal here | No "desktop" in tiling WMs; reach for the keybind cheat-sheet (Super, ?) |
| Right-click in launcher → app context (open with, properties, app info) | Caelestia's launcher doesn't expose this; rofi/walker do |
| Right-click in file manager → file actions | Dolphin behaves exactly like Nautilus — works as expected |
Other Ubuntu-isms and where they live¶
| Ubuntu / GNOME thing | Where here |
|---|---|
| GNOME Tweaks | gnome-tweaks (works, doesn't change WM behavior) or systemsettings |
Activities overview (Super) |
Super+Space (launcher) for apps; workspaces switch with Super+1..5 |
| Notifications shade (top of screen) | Caelestia's notifications popout (top-right by default) |
| Quick settings (top-right toggle bar) | Caelestia's control center panel |
| Snap store | None here — use pacman / paru (AUR) |
| Software Updater notification | paru -Syu (manual); auto-update isn't enabled by design |
| Startup applications GUI | exec-once = ... lines in ~/.config/hypr/hyprland/execs.conf |
| Default applications | xdg-mime default <app>.desktop <mime/type> |
| Disks utility | gnome-disk-utility (sudo pacman -S gnome-disk-utility) — works fine |
| System Monitor (Ctrl+Esc) | btop (TUI), gnome-system-monitor if you want a GUI |
When this paradigm helps you¶
After the adjustment period the keyboard-first model is faster for most
workflows. Five seconds to reach the mouse, find an icon, click it, wait for a
menu, click again — vs. one keystroke. Workspaces (Super+1..5) replace
window-shopping a taskbar full of icons. Fuzzy launcher replaces hunting
through a Start menu.
What you give up: discoverability. Nothing tells you what's possible — you
need a cheat-sheet. Open it any time with the binding documented in
keybinds.conf (commonly Super+?), or read the file directly:
~/.config/hypr/hyprland/keybinds.conf.