Desktop Getting Started

Knave is in active development. Choose a path below depending on whether you want to try the desktop or explore the UI toolkit.

Try the desktop

To install the desktop, clone the four component repositories: Knave, Villain, Knave Shell, and the Knave portal backend. Build and install the first three system-wide, then install the portal backend for your user. The system installers may ask for your password through sudo.

Run the following from a directory where you want to keep the four checkouts. It requires Git, Rust and Cargo, Python 3, and the components’ build dependencies. The directory names must not already exist.

git clone https://github.com/knave-de/knave.git &&
git clone https://github.com/knave-de/villain.git &&
git clone https://github.com/knave-de/knaveshell.git &&
git clone https://github.com/knave-de/xdg-desktop-portal-knave.git &&
(cd knave && ./scripts/install.sh --system) &&
(cd villain && ./scripts/install.sh --system) &&
(cd knaveshell && ./scripts/install.sh --system) &&
(cd xdg-desktop-portal-knave && ./scripts/install.py --user)

The system installers place the desktop binaries in /usr/local/bin; the portal installer adds the backend and its activation files for your user. Start a fresh Knave session to activate portal routing. For coordinated source revisions and development testing, see the development workflow.

For configuration, see Desktop configuration.

Explore Knave UI

Knave UI is a Rust toolkit that can run independently of Knave’s desktop. To explore its widgets on an existing Wayland or X11 desktop, clone Knave UI, enter the checkout, and run:

cargo run -p knave-app --example widget-gallery --locked

The gallery lets you explore widgets and their states. Continue with the Knave UI overview and CSS reference.