Skip to main content
Already running Arch? You do not need the ISO. One command converts your machine into a Ryoku box in place — and the same tool undoes it. Everything it touches is backed up first, your desktops and files stay put, and Ryoku is layered on top rather than installed over you.
Starting from a clean disk or a new machine instead? Boot the signed ISO — see Install Ryoku.

​
The one-liner

Run this as your normal user — not root. The script calls sudo only when it actually needs elevation.
install.sh is a deliberately dumb bootstrap: it checks the machine is Arch-based and x86_64, downloads the ryoku-shell-install binary, SHA256-verifies it against a committed checksum, and hands it your terminal. Every real decision lives in that interactive installer. Curious about the verification path first? See Verifying downloads.

​
Flags and options

To convert interactively, just pipe the script to bash. To pass options through to the installer, add them after bash -s --: For example, a full dry run that touches nothing:
To fetch the installer and its config payload from a specific git ref instead of main, set RYOKU_SHELL_REF:
Non-systemd systems (Artix and friends) are refused. On Manjaro the installer demands a typed acknowledgement and refuses --yes unless RYOKU_ALLOW_MANJARO=1 is set — the [ryoku] repo tracks Arch current, which Manjaro stable trails. With Secure Boot enforcing, the NVIDIA toggle is forced off and locked (Arch kernels reject unsigned DKMS modules); sign with sbctl or disable Secure Boot, then re-run.

​
What it does

The installer is a TUI that shares the ISO installer’s visual language. It works in three acts — scan, review, install — and writes nothing until you confirm.
1

Verify prerequisites

Confirms an Arch-based system (pacman present), x86_64, curl, and a non-root user, then downloads the ryoku-shell-install binary and SHA256-verifies it against its committed checksum before running it.
2

Scan your machine

Detects your GPU and Secure Boot state, the display manager and network stack, installed desktops (GNOME/KDE/Cinnamon/Xfce), rival Quickshell shells (Noctalia, DankMaterialShell, Caelestia, iNiR), known Hyprland rices (ML4W, HyDE, JaKooLit, end-4), conflicting user daemons (dunst, mako, waybar, swww), any plain Hyprland/niri/sway to migrate from, an Omarchy install to retire, your keyboard layout and btrfs — plus an interrupted previous run to resume.
3

Review the plan

Every decision is a toggle you approve before anything runs: NVIDIA proprietary drivers, switch the login screen to SDDM, point it at the Ryoku greeter, switch to NetworkManager, remove rival shells, disable conflicting daemons, retire an Omarchy repo, carry over your monitor and keyboard layout, AUR extras, a developer toolchain, and fish as your login shell. Nothing is forced; the list groups under section headers once it gets long.
4

Back up everything it will touch

Before the first change, every config the plan touches is copied to ~/.local/state/ryoku/shell-install/backup-<timestamp>/, alongside a generated restore.sh. That script grows a line per saved item, so a kill at any moment still leaves a script that undoes exactly what happened so far.
5

Add the [ryoku] repo and install

Retires any legacy repo, runs pacman -Syu, clones the config payload, trusts the [ryoku] repository and keyring, removes anything you toggled, installs the Ryoku desktop packages and your GPU drivers, then wires up SDDM, the greeter, and NetworkManager.
6

Materialize and self-check

Runs ryoku materialize to lay down your ~/.config (salvaging your monitor and keyboard layout from the old setup), installs any AUR extras, then runs ryoku doctor and verifies. Interrupted? Re-run — completed steps are recorded in ~/.local/state/ryoku/shell-install-state.json, so it resumes from where it stopped and continues the same backup.
When it finishes, reboot to land in the Ryoku greeter and your new session. From there it is an ordinary Ryoku box: ryoku update keeps it current and ryoku doctor heals it. Continue with First boot for the first keys worth pressing.

​
Reversible

The conversion is fully undoable. The reliable way to reverse it is to re-run the one-liner with --uninstall:
If the ryoku-shell-install binary is still on your PATH, ryoku-shell-install --uninstall does the same thing. The bootstrap above always works because it re-fetches the installer for you.
Uninstall walks the exact inverse of the conversion:
  1. Removes the Ryoku packages in one pacman -R transaction (ryoku-desktop depends on the rest, so pacman orders the removal itself).
  2. Drops the [ryoku] stanza from /etc/pacman.conf, keeping the original beside it.
  3. Walks the backup chain newest to oldest, running each restore.sh with a confirmation prompt — putting every saved config back and re-enabling the services and display manager that run disabled. (Decline one and the walk stops there: the chain only makes sense in order.)
Session packages (SDDM, PipeWire, NetworkManager, …) are left installed — they may predate Ryoku, and removing them can lock you out of a login. Your backup directories are kept too; delete them once you are sure.
To roll back only the most recent conversion rather than the whole chain, run that run’s own restore script directly: bash ~/.local/state/ryoku/shell-install/backup-<timestamp>/restore.sh.

​
What is touched vs left alone

The conversion is additive by design. It layers Ryoku on top of your system and records how to peel it back off. Every config the installer touches is copied, never deleted — originals for system files are kept as *.pre-ryoku, and per-run copies live in the backup directory with their restore.sh. Your monitor layout and keyboard intent are salvaged from your existing setup (Hyprland first, then niri, sway, KDE, GNOME, finally localectl) so your screens and keys come back the way you had them.

​
Next steps

Install from the ISO

Prefer a clean disk? Boot and install the signed Ryoku ISO instead.

First boot

What you see after login, and the first keys worth pressing.
Last modified on July 4, 2026