Troubleshooting

The desktop won't start

• Log in on a console (Ctrl+Alt+F2) and run domicile there. It prints which config it used, and why it stops.
• Check your config: domicile check-config ~/.config/domicile/domicile.json.
• On Ubuntu 24.04+, the package's AppArmor profile must be loaded for the browser engine to start. Reinstall the package if it is missing.

The screen won't unlock

The system's domicile login service is missing. See If it won't unlock.

It stutters while the machine is busy

Domicile asks rtkit to give its drawing work priority. rtkit comes with most desktops that use PipeWire. If it still stutters:

• Make sure rtkit is installed.
• Join the domicile group and log in again: sudo usermod -aG domicile "$USER". On NixOS, add users.users.<you>.extraGroups = ["domicile"] to your system configuration.

No battery, sound or network in the bar

• Battery needs UPower.
• Sound needs PipeWire or PulseAudio, and pactl.
• Network needs NetworkManager, iwd or wpa_supplicant.

The packages recommend these; on NixOS the module turns on UPower.

The screen stays on

Something is keeping it awake: a playing video, the eye in the top bar, or a cast. See IDLE.md.

The touchpad ignores me while I type

That stops a palm moving the pointer. For games, turn it off until the desktop restarts: domicile disable-while-typing off.

Graphics problems

See GPU and display issues: how to get your old desktop back, find where it fails, and report it.

Still stuck

Open an issue with what you saw, your distribution and your graphics card.