Release Notes v3.8.1

The bar UI and font scaling system have been completely reworked in this release. You may notice slight visual shifts in widget positioning, but this overhaul ensures fonts now scale properly and homogeneously across all density settings. A new Spacious density option has been added, giving you five choices: Mini, Compact, Default, Comfortable, and Spacious. This also improves HiDpi support significantly.

✨ New Features

Launcher Overhaul - Complete visual redesign and inline calculator (no more >calc prefix needed)
Launcher Widget - New bar widget to quickly access the launcher
NScrollText Widget - New scrolling text component, now used in MediaMini and ActiveWindow
Flat Color Wallpaper - Option to use a solid color instead of an image
Bar Spacious Mode - New layout option with improved HiDpi scaling
Ethernet Panel - Full Ethernet UI with status and controls
External Process Monitor - Monitor system stats via external process
Screenshot Annotation Tool - Configurable annotation tool for clipboard history
Session Menu Single Row - New compact layout option
Workspace Icon Size Slider - Control workspace indicator icon size
Scroll Wheel Support - Added to Taskbar, ControlCenter Audio & Brightness cards

🐛 Bug Fixes

Multi-monitor panel close - Clicking any screen background now closes open panels (#1128)
Hidden desktop entries - Launcher no longer shows entries with Hidden=true (#1223)
Launcher close behavior - Closes immediately without animation to prevent keyboard/UI issues
Right-click app actions - Fixed in Taskbar and Workspace widgets
Desktop media player - Fixed hide when idle behavior

🎨 Improvements

Pixel-perfect bar centering - Improved alignment across all bar widgets
Unified bar font sizing - Consistent font usage throughout
Panel lazy loading - Memory/CPU optimizations
Bluetooth enhancements - RSSI polling (experimental), improved pairing, connection status icons
Plugin system - Version compatibility checks, collision avoidance for unofficial repos
Discord/VSCode templates - Improved hover readability and light mode support
Wallpaper panel - Image caching, rounded corners, filename hiding option
OSD - Progress bar follows corner radius setting
Container borders - Off by default with new UI setting

🌍 Translations

Kurdish translation completed
Various i18n updates and corrections

Changes since v3.8.0

Release v3.8.1 (c5805ac8) by Ly-sec
Back to -git (83c08965) by Ly-sec
Release v3.8.1 (fc959efd) by Ly-sec
Launcher: make input look nicer (edecebb6) by Ly-sec
translation (8dcb88b1) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (cc7551b5) by Lemmy
default settings (3a4982f2) by Lemmy
translations sorting (26fd9c30) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1238 from bokicoder/main (83737ff8) by Lemmy
BT List: respect the container border setting. (e43aeca0) by Lemmy
Wifi List: respect the no container border setting (8f8676a9) by Lemmy
i18n: Correct the Chinese translation (a97d667e) by wxlyyy
gitignore RELEASE.md (f517e24a) by Lemmy
Hyprland: fix keyboard focus for launcher and other panels with direct text input (dd4ebda5) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1234 from shadowe1ite/main (ba02fcbc) by Lysec
autofmt (a7ec1d5e) by Lemmy
ScrollingText: avoid up and down jitter when appearing. (bb593da7) by Lemmy
Widgets: default settings (b09eef4c) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (71fb0783) by Lemmy
PluginService: Don't offer to update a plugin if the minNoctaliaVersion is not respected. (484fece8) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (fcd4c0e0) by Ly-sec
LauncherSettings: add color option & rmb menu (e9b62039) by Ly-sec
autofmt (f5bf54d4) by Lemmy
Panel vs Launcher: closed immediately (40a9c16a) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (d65241e1) by Ly-sec
Widgets: add launcher widget (d6da536f) by Ly-sec
Launcher: use mOnPrimary on selected plugin icons (8bc6e66e) by Ly-sec
Merge pull request #1215 from JustLinuxUser/main (91143931) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1233 from lonerOrz/cc-color (e3a5faec) by Lemmy
fix: tooltip (dca1c6a2) by ALAN S
TrayDrawerPanel: properly compute trayValues (92ff36e1) by Ly-sec
Launcher: use mOnPrimary as hover font color (a507d6cb) by Ly-sec
Refactor: Move screenshot annotation settings to Launcher tab (a6b6a176) by ALAN S
Launcher: use mPrimary as hover color (5110271e) by Ly-sec
feat: add configurable screenshot annotation tool to clipboard history (c8baf781) by ALAN S
Notification: trim action names to ensure fallback to default label (55d1cb9e) by Lemmy
feat: shorthand (d6d4a405) by loner
Merge pull request #1224 from onelocked/main (792246c2) by Lemmy
Panels: Multi-Monitor, clicking in the background of any screen will close an open panel. Fix #1128 (944890fd) by Lemmy
feat: Add color selection translations for CustomButton widget (bc818c33) by loner
feat: Add color selection dropdown to CustomButton widget settings (959cdba7) by loner
DarkMode: typo fix (f2e1a582) by Lemmy
Launcher: fix gridview scrolling (4500ca26) by Ly-sec
Launcher: gridview overhaul (eb04bb62) by Ly-sec
MediaMini: Switch to NScrollText (8cbd3a27) by Andrii Dokhniak
Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (83ef7b98) by Ly-sec
ActiveWindow: Switch to NScrollText (fe041787) by Andrii Dokhniak
Feat: NScrollText widget (7c0cfcd2) by Andrii Dokhniak
Launcher: visual overhaul 2.0 (37548cbf) by Ly-sec
Container/Box Borders: off by default with a new setting to turn them on in the UI tab (830fba58) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (df8fbe57) by Lemmy
Network: moved options to appropriate network block (01c8b48b) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1232 from tuibird/vscode-template (9b0a1e17) by Lemmy
Launcher: visual overhaul (43345cd3) by Ly-sec
small change to theme an unset element in the vscode temmplate. It was particually noticaable on lightmode colourschemes. (512e972e) by tuibird
Launcher: close immediately fix (5a4f9480) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1230 from Posty2k3/improve-discord-hover-fix (de35d247) by Lemmy
Launcher: close immediately, without animation when launching apps or commands to avoid keyboard focus issues and potential left over UIs for screenshot tools, etc... (765223e9) by Lemmy
discord: better hover readability - changed template color again (9683ac95) by posty2k3
Merge pull request #1226 from Posty2k3/improve-discord-hover (3700d4d5) by Lemmy
discord: better hover readability (5d2e7aa2) by posty2k3
NSectionEditor: hover fix + drag cursor improvement (17fb1df0) by Lemmy
Launcher: fix a warning and minor cleanup (e3bcc241) by Lemmy
DesktopWidget: MediaPlayer add animation and a persistent position for play/pause (e60f7b46) by onelocked
NSlider/NValueSlider: support for enabled: false greyed out display (0a6e5430) by Lemmy
autofmt (79c3799e) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1207 from DanniSec/main (9c713a3f) by Lemmy
Shaders: improved shader compile script to also work on fedora. Recompiled all core shaders (7e7c1f4a) by Lemmy
PluginsTab: use our styles instead of hardcoded Font weights (be3160fe) by Lemmy
Fixed improper merge (af55dfc9) by danny
Merge branch 'main' into main (22d4e83f) by Danny
Merge pull request #1221 from bokicoder/main (f6c60e80) by Lemmy
Bar: better font sizing + workspace fix (9b92d675) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (04ffcc7e) by Lemmy
Font: ensure we never get a 0pt font size during init (10e1e44e) by Lemmy
Launcher: do not show hidden desktop entries if Hidden=true (fixes #1223) (90409560) by Ly-sec
Bar: simplified font size management (2db000c2) by Lemmy
formatting (153fe538) by Lemmy
Autoformatting + cleanup (1a252b30) by Lemmy
i18n update (f04f908a) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1184 from nahilrasheed/bt-icon (a0e68dbb) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1208 from DanniSec/mediamini (0e10d5b8) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1220 from onelocked/WallpaperPanelHideFilename (524f505b) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1222 from DanniSec/bluetooth-clean (72af71da) by Lemmy
Taskbar: add mousewheel support (d9036aae) by Ly-sec
Merge branch 'main' into bluetooth-clean (9e922d97) by Danny
Replace inline Bluetooth pairing script with external reusable bash script for improved maintainability and compatibility. Refactor Bluetooth panel/device logic to use adapter-based APIs. (e3fef31b) by danny
make diskPath option in ControlCenter tab work logically (987a1a0d) by wxlyyy
ColorPicker: QOL improvements (84c1cc30) by Lemmy
Overview: added support for dimmed solid color (c4f3fc4d) by Lemmy
Wallpaper: ability to set a flat color instead of an image. (adcbc2a9) by Lemmy
FontWeight: some cleanup (a4fdf259) by Lemmy
Bar: Using Style.barFontSize everywhere to fix bar's text discrepancies as much as possible. Also removing most fontWeight discrepancies. Only keeping bold for workspace numbers/names. (851c4314) by Lemmy
Add Bluetooth RSSI polling (Experimental) and CLI-based pairing helpers with code cleanup and restructurization for better maintainability (ba45c67d) by danny
SystemStatsPanel: smaller rx/tx speed font (8752f720) by Lemmy
Translations: for Hide filenames in wallpaper panel (ac62f9e0) by onelocked
WallpaperPanel: Hide Filenames as a button (ec8ee6e6) by onelocked
Added a simple bash script to export core colorschemes to a registry json (277967ae) by Lemmy
Wallpaper: Lockscreen & MediaCard now respect the wallpaper.enabled flag. (e57ead41) by Lemmy
Background: cleaned up the extra logs (2c5f7249) by Lemmy
Wallpaper: trying to figure the transitioning issue (e53dd69a) by Lemmy
Wallpaper: temp debug log (968e67e6) by Lemmy
default settings (67b5e0e5) by Lemmy
WallpaperSelector: fix assignation (7458c225) by Lemmy
WallpaperPanel: Caching, Rounded corners and better spacing (268e4951) by Lemmy
Workspace: no point forcing toOdd (38a73057) by Lemmy
Workspace: slightly smaller text (fd5cac92) by Lemmy
SetupWizard: using ImageCacheService and restored rounded corners (7b7f9dd9) by Lemmy
SetupWizard: fix property access (873e9e40) by Lemmy
Panels: memory/cpu optimizations by moving most stuff to panelContent so its only loaded on demand (3ce99677) by Lemmy
Bar: SysMon+Workspace: increase text size to be closer the original look. (6d080048) by Lemmy
BatteryPanel: fix potential warning (after resume) (3bfa185c) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (4b3d42aa) by Lemmy
SystemStatPanel: reworked the layout slightly. (715c47ee) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1203 from lonerOrz/downcs (f7d0c991) by Lysec
Merge pull request #1218 from shouya/main (7bbb19a2) by Lemmy
SchemeDownloader: use registry.json instead of fetching all themes for preview (ed35df24) by Ly-sec
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (c210c116) by Lemmy
Toast: ensure all toasts have a title and a description for a more unified look. (1fcf51ea) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1214 from singhantariksh/main (2c3b385e) by Lysec
i18n (7068275a) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (46b3601d) by Lemmy
PluginSystem+Toast: added toast actiong to go straight to the plugin tab (081bed30) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1216 from iynaix/sessionmenu-single-row (fa92c539) by Lysec
PluginSystem: skip collision check on update (7ca7c53b) by Lemmy
show load average details in popup panel (dbbc5545) by shouya
update icon (382806c9) by shouya
add translations (8835d14b) by shouya
add load average info to system monitor widget (cbe92fc2) by shouya
SessionMenu: add single row layout (416ca145) by Lin Xianyi
Merge pull request #1204 from calebperkins/main (17dd7f9a) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' into main (28779373) by Lemmy
i18n: completed Kurdish translation (b5625d6f) by Lemmy
PluginSystem: Improved to avoid collision of plugins OS by implementing a simple hash for plugins installed from any non official repo. (668e2635) by Lemmy
autofmt (89e65a55) by Lemmy
remove kurtish (0e502396) by Caleb Perkins
Launcher: fix mouse interaction in grid view (032caf5f) by Ly-sec
ScreenRecorderTab: add no audio option (2371532e) by Ly-sec
fix(flavors): updated flavor.toml for new updated yazi schema compatibility (7dd3e17f) by singhantariksh
WallhavenSettings height rounding (a6c6032a) by Lemmy
autofmt (454dbe7f) by Lemmy
WallhavenSettings: fixed screen centering. (d07f0e8a) by Lemmy
i18n: inline calc (54a183d8) by Ly-sec
Merge pull request #1197 from DuckySoLucky/feat/launcher/enable-inline-calculator-by-default (1eec17d4) by Lysec
Wizard: all images format (4b96a942) by Lemmy
Merge branch 'main' of github.com:noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell (8aa8a901) by Lemmy
WallpaperService: use proper dynamic supported image extension format (45a3ec11) by Lemmy
Migration: clear recently used emojis (30733f65) by Ly-sec
Launcher/Emoji: list emojis in recent tab by last used (18b14587) by Ly-sec
settings-widgets-default: add keyboard icon setting (f71e32ce) by Ly-sec
KeyboardLayout: add setting to hide icon (31605820) by Ly-sec
fix: revert my experimenting-, accidentally did git add . (9877e851) by DuckySoLucky
refactor: deprecate '>calc' and enable inline calculator by default (57f63e7c) by DuckySoLucky
README: add Maitreya (Max) to the supporter list <3 (47ce01be) by Ly-sec
NSectionEditor: use iRadius for widgets (48777623) by Ly-sec
DesktopMediaPlayer: fix hide when idle (6a8dd2f3) by Ly-sec
WallhavenSettingsPopup: open popup centered on screen (b98858d1) by Ly-sec
Added player selection options (8ec80b9e) by danny
Merge branch 'main' into main (4420ab94) by Danny
Moved the closed button to the Ethernet bar when Ethernet is available. (37d8c65a) by danny
Clean up (277939c1) by danny
Fixed Ethernet height calculation (7c1d1663) by danny
Updated the order of components and moved Ethernet info above Wi-Fi header. (a9087126) by danny
Add Ethernet UI and service enhancements (c3016b46) by danny
Fix typo in bar settings (fbeda060) by Caleb Perkins
Workspace: added a new slider to control icon size. (a3e277ce) by Lemmy
i18n: auto sorting (35aba10f) by Lemmy
Fix: Clean up failed downloads (6d674ee3) by loner
SysMon Panel: improved alignment (6772c5b0) by Lemmy
Taskbar+Workspace: fixed right click app actions (a07372a0) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1202 from shadowe1ite/main (e92e5b4b) by Lysec
Add recent-windows highlight colors to niri.kdl (618a5acc) by ALAN S
Merge pull request #1201 from ThatOneCalculator/feat/external-process-monitor (1d909b07) by Lemmy
i18n(ai): translate settings.system-monitor.external-monitor (58cd8b03) by Kainoa Kanter
fix: accept middle button (5766c26b) by Kainoa Kanter
LauncherTab: add option to disable mouse input (implements #1196) (90bc81cc) by Ly-sec
feat: external process monitor (77748258) by Kainoa Kanter
ActiveWindow/MediaMini: text size match clock (d4f01755) by Lemmy
Bar: smaller Sysmon and workspace (9a91ad21) by Lemmy
Bar: Spacious was bit too spacious (0f6ec12d) by Lemmy
MediaMini+ActiveWindow: smaller font (c2e7d90c) by Lemmy
Bar: Added a spacious mode and reworked a lot of the scaling stuff so it scales up better for HiDpi. (9db7c953) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1198 from elrondforwin/main (b605983b) by Lysec
Reload hyprland after applying noctalia theme (516617b8) by elrond
Merge pull request #1193 from notiant/patch-3 (226f319e) by Lemmy
Merge pull request #1195 from bokicoder/main (27c4008f) by Lemmy
feat(Launcher): ability to have calculator in inline search (15e92a27) by DuckySoLucky
WallhavenSettingsPopup: open popup above button if bar is at the bottom (015ff66f) by Ly-sec
ControlCenter: add scrollwheel support for Audio & Brightnesscard (e623698b) by Ly-sec
OSD: make progress bar follow iRadius (bc013764) by Ly-sec
BT: improve the command of BluetoothctlAgent (43df6a75) by wxlyyy
more I18n corrections (8a9f3dd6) by notiant
I18n correction (d2617826) by notiant
BluetoothPanel: fix removing wrong line in previous PR (59336850) by notiant
More pixel perfect centering: ActiveWindow, MediaMini and Tray (aa1a7b37) by Lemmy
Bar/Taskbar: pixel perfect centering (bd052127) by Lemmy
NIconButton: improve centering of icon in the container (92c17412) by Lemmy
Bar: Improve centering by computing pixel perfect coordinates. All basic widgets + workspace. (50685937) by Lemmy
Sizing: ensure bar and capsule height are always odd. (b991feaf) by Lemmy
default-settings (49f3e111) by Lemmy
Back to -git (9d8c4db7) by Ly-sec
Update Bluetooth icon in bar and controlcenter to reflect connection status (90b061a4) by nahilrasheed

noctalia-dev/noctalia-shell v3.8.1 on GitHub