Bug Report: Scheme Applies With No Error But Apps Don't Update
Checklist
Description
After a clean installation of caelestia on Arch Linux, running caelestia scheme set -n <scheme> (or selecting a scheme from the built-in launcher UI) completes silently with no error — but nothing actually changes. No apps, no bar, no terminal (foot) updates. The desktop stays at whatever default colors were set during install. It says available color schemes but doesn't show nothing after toggling, tried the color themes ,wanted to set up grayscale but didn't change , was presenting the default one after every install.
This happened consistently across multiple clean reinstalls. On one earlier attempt, a few schemes appeared to apply partially, but after fully following the install guide again, even that stopped working. The issue is fully reproducible on the same machine.
Steps to Reproduce
- Fresh Arch Linux install
- Clone repo:
git clone https://github.com/caelestia-dots/caelestia ~/.local/share/caelestia
- Run:
~/.local/share/caelestia/install.fish
- Log in (TTY / greetd + tuigreet)
- Open the launcher (
Super) → navigate to the color scheme section → select any scheme
- Observe: UI shows scheme was selected, but no colors change anywhere
- Also tried from terminal:
caelestia scheme set -n dynamic and caelestia scheme set -n <Grayscale>
- Observe: Command exits with no output and no error, but apps remain unchanged
Quit Arch cause of this as it is my fav ricing so far. Thank you
Expected Behavior
Selecting or setting a scheme should propagate new colors to: the shell/bar (quickshell), foot terminal, and all other integrated apps. Setting dynamic should pull colors from the active wallpaper via matugen.
Actual Behavior
- Scheme selection in the launcher UI does nothing visually
caelestia scheme set -n <name> exits cleanly with no output and no error- No apps update — colors stay the same
- No error in terminal output
- Possibly related:
~/.local/state/caelestia/scheme.json and/or ~/.local/state/caelestia/wallpaper/path.txt may not exist (seen in other users' shell logs as a WARN)
Debugging Attempted
- Tried scheme selection via launcher UI → no effect
- Tried
caelestia scheme set -n <name> in terminal → no effect, no error
- Tried multiple different scheme names including
dynamic
- Reinstalled caelestia cleanly multiple times — issue persists
- Verified symlinks exist under
~/.config pointing to the repo
Suspected Root Cause
Based on shell logs seen in related issue #844, the shell emits these warnings on startup:
WARN: Read of ~/.local/state/caelestia/wallpaper/path.txt failed: File does not exist
WARN: Read of ~/.local/state/caelestia/scheme.json failed: File does not exist
It seems the state directory / initial state files may not be created during install, causing the scheme pipeline to silently fail — the CLI sets the scheme, but the shell has no valid state to read from and never re-renders.
Questions
- Should
~/.local/state/caelestia/ and its files be initialized by the install script or on first launch?
- Is there a way to manually seed the state so the pipeline can start working?
- Would it be feasible to add a warning or error when
scheme.json is missing, rather than silently doing nothing?
Happy to test any fixes or provide additional logs. Would also be willing to document the fix in the README/wiki once resolved to help others hitting the same issue.
Bug Report: Scheme Applies With No Error But Apps Don't Update
Checklist
Description
After a clean installation of caelestia on Arch Linux, running
caelestia scheme set -n <scheme>(or selecting a scheme from the built-in launcher UI) completes silently with no error — but nothing actually changes. No apps, no bar, no terminal (foot) updates. The desktop stays at whatever default colors were set during install. It says available color schemes but doesn't show nothing after toggling, tried the color themes ,wanted to set up grayscale but didn't change , was presenting the default one after every install.This happened consistently across multiple clean reinstalls. On one earlier attempt, a few schemes appeared to apply partially, but after fully following the install guide again, even that stopped working. The issue is fully reproducible on the same machine.
Steps to Reproduce
git clone https://github.com/caelestia-dots/caelestia ~/.local/share/caelestia~/.local/share/caelestia/install.fishSuper) → navigate to the color scheme section → select any schemecaelestia scheme set -n dynamicandcaelestia scheme set -n <Grayscale>Quit Arch cause of this as it is my fav ricing so far. Thank you
Expected Behavior
Selecting or setting a scheme should propagate new colors to: the shell/bar (quickshell), foot terminal, and all other integrated apps. Setting
dynamicshould pull colors from the active wallpaper via matugen.Actual Behavior
caelestia scheme set -n <name>exits cleanly with no output and no error~/.local/state/caelestia/scheme.jsonand/or~/.local/state/caelestia/wallpaper/path.txtmay not exist (seen in other users' shell logs as a WARN)Debugging Attempted
caelestia scheme set -n <name>in terminal → no effect, no errordynamic~/.configpointing to the repoSuspected Root Cause
Based on shell logs seen in related issue #844, the shell emits these warnings on startup:
It seems the state directory / initial state files may not be created during install, causing the scheme pipeline to silently fail — the CLI sets the scheme, but the shell has no valid state to read from and never re-renders.
Questions
~/.local/state/caelestia/and its files be initialized by the install script or on first launch?scheme.jsonis missing, rather than silently doing nothing?Happy to test any fixes or provide additional logs. Would also be willing to document the fix in the README/wiki once resolved to help others hitting the same issue.