sysc-greet

A graphical console greeter for greetd, written in Go with the Bubble Tea framework.

Features

• 9 Themes: Dracula, Gruvbox, Material, Nord, Tokyo Night, Catppuccin, Solarized, Monochrome, TransIsHardJob
• Background Effects: Fire (DOOM PSX), Matrix rain, ASCII rain, Static patterns
• 7 Border Styles: Classic, Modern, Minimal, ASCII-1, ASCII-2, Wave, Pulse
• Screensaver: Configurable idle timeout with ASCII art cycling
• Multiple ASCII Variants: Page Up/Down navigation per session
• Video Wallpapers: Multi-monitor support via gslapper
• Session Management: Auto-detection of X11/Wayland sessions
• Preference Caching: Theme, background, border, session persistence

Installation

Arch Linux (AUR)

yay -S sysc-greet
# or
paru -S sysc-greet

Quick Install Script

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Nomadcxx/sysc-greet/master/install.sh | sudo bash

Manual Build

Requirements:

• Go 1.21+
• greetd
• niri (compositor)
• kitty (terminal)
• swww (wallpaper daemon)
• gslapper (optional, for video wallpapers)

Build and install:

git clone https://github.com/Nomadcxx/sysc-greet
cd sysc-greet
go build -o sysc-greet ./cmd/sysc-greet/
sudo install -Dm755 sysc-greet /usr/local/bin/sysc-greet

Install assets:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/share/sysc-greet/{ascii_configs,fonts,wallpapers}
sudo cp -r ascii_configs/* /usr/share/sysc-greet/ascii_configs/
sudo cp -r fonts/* /usr/share/sysc-greet/fonts/
sudo cp -r wallpapers/* /usr/share/sysc-greet/wallpapers/
sudo cp config/kitty-greeter.conf /etc/greetd/kitty.conf

Configure greetd (/etc/greetd/config.toml):

[terminal]
vt = 1

[default_session]
command = "niri -c /etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl"
user = "greeter"

Create niri greeter config (/etc/greetd/niri-greeter-config.kdl):

// SYSC-Greet Niri config for greetd greeter session
hotkey-overlay {
    skip-at-startup
}

input {
    keyboard {
        xkb {
            layout "us"
        }
        repeat-delay 400
        repeat-rate 40
    }
    touchpad {
        tap;
    }
}

layer-rule {
    match namespace="^wallpaper$"
    place-within-backdrop true
}

layout {
    gaps 0
    center-focused-column "never"
    focus-ring { off }
    border { off }
}

animations {
    off
}

window-rule {
    match app-id="kitty"
    opacity 0.90
}

spawn-at-startup "swww-daemon"
spawn-sh-at-startup "kitty --start-as=fullscreen --config=/etc/greetd/kitty.conf /usr/local/bin/sysc-greet; niri msg action quit --skip-confirmation"

binds {
}

Create greeter user:

sudo useradd -M -G video -s /usr/bin/nologin greeter
sudo mkdir -p /var/cache/sysc-greet /var/lib/greeter/Pictures/wallpapers
sudo chown -R greeter:greeter /var/cache/sysc-greet /var/lib/greeter
sudo chmod 755 /var/lib/greeter

Enable service:

sudo systemctl enable greetd.service

Configuration

For detailed configuration options, see CONFIGURATION.md

ASCII Art Format

Custom ASCII art configs in /usr/share/sysc-greet/ascii_configs/:

# mysession.conf
name=My Session

ascii_1=
  Your ASCII art here
  Line 2
  Line 3

ascii_2=
  Alternative variant
  Line 2

colors=#ff5555,#50fa7b,#bd93f9

Note: colors define theme color overrides (accent, success, info)

Usage

Key Bindings

• F2 - Settings menu (themes, borders, backgrounds)
• F3 - Session selection
• F4 - Power menu (shutdown/reboot)
• F5 - Release notes
• Page Up/Down - Cycle ASCII variants
• Tab - Navigate fields
• Enter - Submit/Continue
• Esc - Cancel/Return

Test Mode

Test the greeter without locking your session:

sysc-greet --test

# Test in fullscreen (recommended for accurate preview)
kitty --start-as=fullscreen sysc-greet --test

Additional Options

sysc-greet --theme dracula          # Start with specific theme
sysc-greet --border ascii-2         # Start with specific border
sysc-greet --screensaver            # Enable screensaver in test mode

Acknowledgements

• tuigreet by apognu - Original inspiration and base
• Bubble Tea by Charm - TUI framework
• Lipgloss by Charm - Terminal styling
• greetd by kennylevinsen - Login manager

License

MIT