Ly - a TUI display manager

Ly is a lightweight TUI (ncurses-like) display manager for Linux and BSD.

Dependencies

• a C99 compiler (tested with tcc and gcc)
• a C standard library
• GNU make
• pam
• xcb
• xorg
• xorg-xauth
• mcookie
• tput
• shutdown

On Debian-based distros running apt install build-essential libpam0g-dev libxcb-xkb-dev as root should install all the dependencies for you.

Support

The following desktop environments were tested with success

• bspwm
• budgie
• cinnamon
• deepin
• dwm
• enlightenment
• gnome
• i3
• kde
• lxde
• lxqt
• mate
• qtile
• sway
• xfce
• xmonad
• pantheon
• maxx
• windowmaker
• spectrwm

Ly should work with any X desktop environment, and provides basic wayland support (sway works very well, for example).

systemd?

Unlike what you may have heard, Ly does not require systemd, and was even specifically designed not to depend on logind. You should be able to make it work easily with a better init, changing the source code won't be necessary :)

Cloning and Compiling

Clone the repository

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/nullgemm/ly

Change the directory to ly

cd ly

Compile

make

Test in the configured tty (tty2 by default) or a terminal emulator (but desktop environments won't start)

sudo make run

Install Ly and the provided systemd service file

sudo make install

Enable the service

sudo systemctl enable ly.service

If you need to switch between ttys after Ly's start you also have to disable getty on Ly's tty to prevent "login" from spawning on top of it

sudo systemctl disable getty@tty2.service

Arch Linux Installation

From AUR:

yay -S ly

Configuration

You can find all the configuration in /etc/ly/config.ini. The file is commented, and includes the default values. The fg and bg color settings take a digit 0-8 corresponding to

#define TB_DEFAULT 0x00
#define TB_BLACK   0x01
#define TB_RED     0x02
#define TB_GREEN   0x03
#define TB_YELLOW  0x04
#define TB_BLUE    0x05
#define TB_MAGENTA 0x06
#define TB_CYAN    0x07
#define TB_WHITE   0x08

Setting both to zero makes bg black and fg white. To set the actual color palette you are encouraged to use another tool such as mkinitcpio-colors. Note that the color palette defined with mkinitcpio-colors takes 16 colors (0-15), only values 0-8 are valid for ly config and these values do not correspond exactly. For instance, in defining palettes with mkinitcpio-colors the order is black, dark red, dark green, brown, dark blue, dark purple, dark cyan, light gray, dark gray, bright red, bright green, yellow, bright blue, bright purple, bright cyan, and white, indexed in that order 0 through 15. For example, the color defined for white (indexed at 15 in the mkinitcpio config)will be used by ly for fg = 8.

Controls

Use the up and down arrow keys to change the current field, and the left and right arrow keys to change the target desktop environment while on the desktop field (above the login field).

.xinitrc

If your .xinitrc doesn't work make sure it is executable and includes a shebang. This file is supposed to be a shell script! Quoting from xinit's man page:

If no specific client program is given on the command line, xinit will look for
a file in the user's home directory called .xinitrc to run as a shell script to
start up client programs.

On ArchLinux, the example .xinitrc (/etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc) starts like this:

#!/bin/sh

Tips

The numlock and capslock state is printed in the top-right corner. Use the F1 and F2 keys to respectively shutdown and reboot. Take a look at your .xsession if X doesn't start, as it can interfere (this file is launched with X to configure the display properly).

PSX DOOM fire animation

To enable the famous PSX DOOM fire described by Fabien Sanglard, just uncomment animate = true in /etc/ly/config.ini. You may also disable the main box borders with hide_borders = true.

Additional Information

The name "Ly" is a tribute to the fairy from the game Rayman. Ly was tested by oxodao, who is some seriously awesome dude.