Install glimpse

glimpse needs GTK 4.22 and libadwaita 1.9 or newer. That rules out older distribution releases; the packages below target the first releases that ship both.

Install the package

Arch Linux

yay -S glimpse-desktop-bin

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/alex-oleshkevich/glimpse/master/install.sh | bash

NixOS

{
  inputs.glimpse.url = "github:alex-oleshkevich/glimpse";
  outputs = { nixpkgs, glimpse, ... }: {
    nixosConfigurations.host = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      modules = [ glimpse.nixosModules.default { services.glimpse.enable = true; } ];
    };
  };
}

From source

git clone https://github.com/alex-oleshkevich/glimpse
cd glimpse
just build-release-binaries build-translations
sudo GLIMPSE_BINARIES="$(just --evaluate binaries)" scripts/install.sh

Arch Linux

glimpse-desktop-bin is in the AUR. Use your AUR helper, or build it with makepkg. Some applets and features need extra packages:

Install	For
networkmanager	the network applet
bluez	the Bluetooth applet
upower	battery level and the charge of connected devices
power-profiles-daemon	power modes in the battery popover
udisks2	the removable media applet
cups	the printing applet
kdeconnect	the phone applet
ddcutil	brightness control for external monitors
xdg-desktop-portal	letting apps hold off the idle timers
xdg-desktop-portal, a settings backend such as xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, and dconf	switching the desktop between light and dark mode

Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE

The packages target Debian 14 (forky), Ubuntu 26.04, Fedora 44 and openSUSE Tumbleweed. The install script downloads the latest release as a .deb or .rpm, checks it against the published checksums and installs it with your package manager, so it asks for your sudo password.

On other distributions the script unpacks the binary tarball into / as root, asking for sudo. The .deb and .rpm packages are the supported route. On Arch Linux it prints the AUR command without installing; on NixOS it refuses and points you to the flake module.

If you would rather not pipe a script into a shell, download the package for your distribution from the releases page and install it yourself.

NixOS

Add the flake input and enable the module as shown above. The module installs the package, its systemd units and D-Bus services, the PAM entry for the lock screen, and a GeoClue policy for the night light and weather. Rebuild with nixos-rebuild switch. The module does not enable glimpse-session.target, so start the target from your compositor's startup commands as described below instead of enabling it.

From source

You need Rust 1.95 or newer, just, blueprint-compiler, gettext, clang, ripgrep and python3, plus the development files for GTK4, libadwaita, gtk4-layer-shell, PulseAudio, PipeWire, PAM and udev. The install copies files under /usr and /etc, so it needs root. Build glimpse from source lists the packages for Debian, Ubuntu and Arch and the exact commands.

Start the shell

glimpse runs as systemd user services grouped under glimpse-session.target, which starts and stops with graphical-session.target.

If your session starts graphical-session.target, as a uwsm session does, enable the target once from a terminal inside your Wayland session. It then starts and stops with every graphical session:

systemctl --user enable --now glimpse-session.target

If your session does not start graphical-session.target, or you are on NixOS, start the target when the compositor starts and stop it when the compositor exits. Otherwise it outlives the compositor while your user manager runs:

hyprland.lua

hl.on("hyprland.start", function()
    hl.exec_cmd("systemctl --user start glimpse-session.target")
end)
hl.on("hyprland.shutdown", function()
    hl.exec_cmd("systemctl --user stop glimpse-session.target")
end)

hyprland.conf

exec-once = systemctl --user start glimpse-session.target
exec-shutdown = systemctl --user stop glimpse-session.target

The panel should appear within a second or two.

Check the install

glimpsectl doctor

doctor checks each part of glimpse and the services it depends on, and tells you what is missing. It exits with status 1 if anything is wrong.

Continue with your first session.