Installation

There are two ways to get ML4W OS:

1. Installation on top of your existing distribution (recommended) with the ML4W Dotfiles Installer. Arch Linux and Arch-based distributions are recommended.
2. Test (and install) with the ML4W OS Live ISO (beta).

Installation on your Distribution (recommended)

BEFORE YOU START

Please back up your existing ~/.config folder with your dotfiles before starting the scripts for initial installation.

IMPORTANT

The installation is based on the new script based ML4W Dotfiles Installer. The Dotfiles Installer Flatpak is still available but not supported anymore. You can uninstall the Dotfiles Installer with flatpak uninstall com.ml4w.dotfilesinstaller.

The recommended way is to install ML4W OS Hyprland on top of your existing distribution. Copy one of the following commands into a terminal to start the installation:

Stable Release

bash <(curl -s https://ml4w.com/os/stable)

Rolling Release

bash <(curl -s https://ml4w.com/os/rolling)

Fish Shell

# Switch to bash first with
bash
# Then run one of the installation commands

Setup scripts to install the required dependencies are included for:

Distribution	Package manager	Status
Arch Linux and Arch-based distributions (EndeavourOS, CachyOS, Manjaro, Garuda, ...)	pacman	Recommended
Fedora	dnf	Supported
Ubuntu and other apt-based distributions	apt	Supported
openSUSE Tumbleweed	zypper	Supported(*)

RECOMMENDATION

Arch Linux or an Arch-based distribution is recommended for the best experience. Hyprland is developed and tested on Arch, and the latest versions of all required packages are available there.

IMPORTANT

Cachy OS is using the fish shell. Please use the fish shell installation commands. You can ignore the fish shell error messages at the end of the installation procedure.

IMPORTANT

(*) There are currently issues on openSuse Tumbleweed to install quickshell. If the installation of Quickshell fails, try to install it manually as described here: https://quickshell.org/docs/v0.3.0/guide/install-setup/#opensuse--debian

From Hyprland Wiki: We officially run and test Hyprland on Arch and NixOS, and we guarantee Hyprland will work there. For any other distro (not based on Arch/Nix) you might have varying amounts of success. However, since Hyprland is extremely bleeding-edge, point release distros like Pop!_OS, Fedora, Ubuntu, etc. will have major issues running Hyprland. Rolling release distros like openSUSE, Solus ,etc. will likely be fine.

The installation of dependencies can take between 5 to 15 minutes depending on your internet connection and system performance.

The Dotfiles will be installed into the folder ~/.mydotfiles with symbolic links into ~/.config.

Test and Install (BETA) with the ML4W OS Live ISO

You can test the ML4W OS without risk with the ML4W OS Live ISO. For a permanent setup, the installation on top of your existing distribution (see above) is recommended.

Download ML4W OS Live ISO

IMPORTANT

The ML4W OS will be started automatically with the user 'liveuser' and password 'liveuser'.

Real Hardware

If you want to try ML4W OS on a real hardware, please prepare a bootable USB Stick (e.g. with Balena Etcher or Rufus on Windows).

Insert the USB Stick and select it from your BIOS Boot Manager. The system will boot up directly into ML4W OS.

Virtual Machine (KVM/Qemu)

Create a Virtual Machine in Virt Manager, select the stick, set the possible RAM and CPUs and select min. 10 GB harddisc.

Select UEFI and enable 3D acceleration.

Click on Begin Installation to boot up the System into ML4W OS.

IMPORTANT

You can change the screen resolution from the Welcome App: Settings/Monitors. Then Logout from the Power Button in the status bar and login again with liveuser (no password).

Install the Live ISO (BETA)

You can install the Live ISO to your hard drive by opening a terminal and enter:

sudo install-ml4w-os

IMPORTANT

Enter password 'liveuser'.

Please select your hard drive (all data will be erased!) and follow the instructions. The system will format your hard drive with btrfs and will create standard subvolumes compatible for snapshots with snapper or timeshift.

Please wait until the installation is done and reboot your system.

Installation in a Virtual Machine (KVM)

In virt-manager please make sure that 3D acceleration is enabled in Video Virtio and the Listen type is set to None in Display Spice.

Keybind	Action
SUPER + CTRL + S	Open Hyprland Settings
(Inside Settings → Environments)	Select kvm.conf for better VM support