Installation and Configuration Guide for Hyprland

Here is a complete, master installation and configuration guide for Hyprland, specifically tailored to include crucial extras (like the Polkit agent fix) and standard performance components for an Arch/CachyOS system.

Core Ecosystem Components:

  • hyprland: The core Wayland compositor.
  • rofi-wayland: The application launcher menu.
  • waybar: The customizable status bar at the top/bottom of the screen.
  • swaybg: Handles rendering desktop wallpaper backgrounds.
  • dunst: Light-weight on-screen system notifications.
  • polkit-kde-agent-1: The security authentication agent (allows apps to ask for root passwords).
  • xorg-xwayland: A compatibility bridge allowing older X11 apps to run inside Wayland.

Fixing the “Root Application / GParted” Crash Quirk

By default, Wayland blocks applications running with root privileges (like GParted or Timeshift) from displaying windows on a standard user screen. Additionally, standalone compositors do not start a password prompt engine automatically.

Step A: Enable the Password Prompt Pop-up

Open your main Hyprland configuration file (~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf) and add this line under your autostart (exec-once) section:

exec-once = /usr/lib/polkit-kde-agent-1

Step B: How to Launch Graphical Root Applications

When you need to run a graphical tool with administrative privileges from the terminal, use the pkexec wrapper instead of raw sudo. For example:

pkexec gparted