Build from Source

Sweets builds with Cargo and stable Rust. The build produces two binaries: sweets, the compositor, and sweets-session, the native login-session launcher.

Sweets is Linux-only, Wayland-only, and pre-release. Test the nested backend first, and keep a second login session or SSH access available before you start the native backend.

Requirements

Rust 1.85 or newer, Cargo, Git, a C compiler, and pkg-config, plus the development files for these libraries:

Library	Used for
DRM, GBM, EGL	Display access and rendering
libinput (1.21 or newer), libudev	Input and device discovery
libseat	Seat acquisition and VT switching
Wayland	Server and nested backend
libxkbcommon	Keyboard keymaps
Pango, Cairo	Config-error bar text

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S --needed base-devel git rustup pkgconf libdrm mesa libinput \
  libseat systemd-libs wayland libxkbcommon pango cairo
rustup default stable

Add seatd if the native session will not use systemd-logind.

Fedora

sudo dnf install gcc git rust cargo pkgconf-pkg-config libdrm-devel \
  mesa-libEGL-devel libgbm-devel libinput-devel libseat-devel \
  libudev-devel wayland-devel libxkbcommon-devel pango-devel cairo-devel

Debian and Ubuntu

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential git pkg-config libdrm-dev libegl1-mesa-dev \
  libgbm-dev libinput-dev libseat-dev libudev-dev libwayland-dev \
  libxkbcommon-dev libpango1.0-dev libcairo2-dev

Use rustup if your distribution ships a Rust older than 1.85.

Optional runtime packages

Package	Enables
systemd-logind or seatd	Native backend (required)
`foot`	The built-in `Super+Return` binding
Xwayland 24.1.0 or newer	X11 applications
`xdg-desktop-portal`, `xdg-desktop-portal-wlr`, `xdg-desktop-portal-gtk`, PipeWire, WirePlumber	Screen sharing

Build

git clone https://github.com/naurissteins/Sweets.git
cd Sweets
cargo build --release --locked --workspace --all-features

The binaries are target/release/sweets and target/release/sweets-session. Verify the build and the default configuration:

./target/release/sweets --version
./target/release/sweets --check-config config/sweets.lua

Test the nested backend

Run Sweets in a window inside your current Wayland session:

install -Dm644 config/sweets.lua target/share/sweets/sweets.lua
SWEETS_BACKEND=nested ./target/release/sweets

Super+Return opens Foot. Super+Shift+Q exits. A user configuration at ~/.config/sweets/sweets.lua is applied over the staged defaults.

For more log output:

RUST_LOG=sweets=debug SWEETS_BACKEND=nested ./target/release/sweets

Install system-wide

sudo install -Dm755 target/release/sweets /usr/local/bin/sweets
sudo install -Dm755 target/release/sweets-session /usr/local/bin/sweets-session
sudo install -Dm644 config/sweets.lua /usr/local/share/sweets/sweets.lua
sudo install -Dm644 packaging/sweets.desktop \
  /usr/share/wayland-sessions/sweets.desktop

The default configuration path follows the binary path. A compositor at /usr/local/bin/sweets reads its defaults from /usr/local/share/sweets/sweets.lua.

systemd user target

Install this only on a system with a systemd user manager:

sudo install -Dm644 packaging/systemd/sweets-session.target \
  /usr/local/lib/systemd/user/sweets-session.target
systemctl --user daemon-reload

Portal preference

Selects the wlr backend for Screenshot and ScreenCast, and the GTK backend for the other portal interfaces:

sudo install -Dm644 packaging/xdg-desktop-portal/sweets-portals.conf \
  /usr/local/share/xdg-desktop-portal/sweets-portals.conf

Start a native session

Log out and select Sweets in your display manager.

Never start the native backend from a terminal inside another graphical session. It takes over the seat and displays.

Session logs

tail -f "${XDG_STATE_HOME:-$HOME/.local/state}/sweets/sweets.log"

The newest ten session logs are kept in the same directory under sessions/. Set SWEETS_SESSION_LOG to an absolute path to use one custom log instead.

Next steps

Configuration — create a personal Lua override
Key bindings — review the default keyboard workflow
Desktop portals — configure save dialogs, screen sharing, and keyring access

Build from Source

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