Regolith Linux is a distro for people that prefer a spartan interface with polished and consistent system management. It brings together a trifecta of Ubuntu’s ubiquity, i3-wm’s efficient and productive interface, and Gnome’s system configuration features.
Regolith is visually spartan by design. It’s meant to stay out of your way to prevent distraction. There are no icons, docks, panels, menus, widgets, or advertisements taking up screen space. A small bar at the bottom of the screen shows valuable persistent information such as workspaces and volatile system status.
Despite its minimal visual design, Regolith Linux provides modern system and file management features such as external monitor and storage management, wifi and bluetooth configuration, as well as language and privacy settings.
Quickly browse, search, and launch apps from the app launcher. This modal menu can also be used to find and select windows across all of your workspaces.
Because Regolith utilizes i3-wm for window management, you get more out of every pixel on your screen. Use more of it for what you care about, rather than sharing it with advertisements or features rarely used.
Regolith is built to be customized. Color, font, and theme information is defined in a single location: Xresources. Change a color definition in one file, and have it be updated across all of your programs. Pictured here is Regolith with a user-contributed Nord color scheme and the Nordic GTK theme.
Regolith can be installed in two ways: If you already have an existing Ubuntu setup, Regolith can simply be added as another desktop session by installing the package regolith-desktop from the Regolith PPA. If you’d like to start from scratch, download the Regolith Linux ISO and simply install Regolith as you would stock Ubuntu. Both approaches are equivalent, except that the LiveCD does not contain the default Ubuntu UI.
The Ubuntu-based LiveCD can be downloaded from Source Forge. Release 1 is based on Ubuntu 18.04 and release 1.1 is based on Ubuntu 19.04, but either can be used to update to the latest updates. Write the file to a usb drive as you would any other Linux install image, and boot the drive in the PC that you wish to install to. It works exactly as the stock Ubuntu installer.
From your existing Ubuntu 18.04 (Bionic), 18.10 (Cosmic), or 19.04 (Disco) system, perform the following installation steps:
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stablesudo apt install regolith-desktopRegolith from the list, and then login.If you encounter errors, please refer to the troubleshooting page for help.
To remove the Regolith Desktop from your existing Ubuntu system, first remove the package: sudo apt remove regolith-desktop. Then remove the package archive reference: sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kgilmer/regolith-stable. After a reboot your system should be back to it’s previous state.
Have a look at the Getting Started guide to learn more about using Regolith Linux, see the latest updates, or check out the configuration page to learn about how to tweak it to your liking.
