Dynamic Glacier

Dynamic Glacier is a native QML/Quickshell island widget for Hyprland.

It is built for Linux desktops that want a compact, OLED-friendly top-center surface without Electron, webviews, AGS, EWW, or a JS/HTML/CSS UI stack. The idle state is a small black handle; it expands on hover, click, or useful desktop activity.

Install

Arch Linux / AUR

Install from the AUR:

paru -S dynamic-glacier-git

Run it:

dynamic-glacier

For Hyprland autostart, add this to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

exec-once = dynamic-glacier

Fedora / COPR

Quickshell is in the Fedora repositories (Fedora 44 ships 0.2.1), so only this project's COPR is needed:

sudo dnf copr enable mavxa/dynamic-glacier
sudo dnf install dynamic-glacier

On older Fedora releases without a quickshell package, enable the Quickshell COPR first:

sudo dnf copr enable errornointernet/quickshell

Hyprland itself is not in the Fedora repositories, so it is only a weak dependency here. Install it from a COPR such as sachesi/hyprland if you do not have it yet.

Run it:

dynamic-glacier

The packaged launcher registers autostart on first run: it appends exec-once = dynamic-glacier to ~/.config/hypr/custom/execs.conf when that file exists (end-4 dots layout), otherwise to ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf. It only does this once, tracked by ~/.local/state/dynamic-glacier/autostart-done.

Material Symbols has no Fedora package, and the media controls use it for icons. Install the variable font per-user:

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
curl -Lo ~/.local/share/fonts/MaterialSymbolsRounded.ttf \
  https://github.com/google/material-design-icons/raw/master/variablefont/MaterialSymbolsRounded%5BFILL%2CGRAD%2Copsz%2Cwght%5D.ttf
fc-cache -f

To build the RPM yourself instead:

sudo dnf install rpm-build rpmdevtools
rpmdev-setuptree
spectool -g -R rpm/dynamic-glacier.spec
rpmbuild -bb rpm/dynamic-glacier.spec

Manual install

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/mavxa/DynamicGlacier.git
cd DynamicGlacier

Run the installer:

bash install.sh

The installer:

• installs runtime dependencies on Arch (pacman + AUR helper), Fedora (dnf + Quickshell COPR), and Debian/Ubuntu (apt)
• refreshes the font cache so Noto Sans is available
• installs the config into ~/.config/quickshell/DynamicGlacier
• installs a launcher into ~/.local/bin/dynamic-glacier
• registers exec-once = ~/.local/bin/dynamic-glacier in ~/.config/hypr/custom/execs.conf when that file exists (end-4 dots layout), otherwise in ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf

Useful installer options:

bash install.sh --symlink
bash install.sh --skip-deps
bash install.sh --no-autostart
bash install.sh --doctor

If your Hyprland config is not at the default path:

bash install.sh --hyprland-conf /path/to/hyprland.conf

Uninstall

For the AUR package:

paru -Rns dynamic-glacier-git

For the Fedora package:

sudo dnf remove dynamic-glacier

Packaged installs leave the exec-once = dynamic-glacier line in your Hyprland config; remove it by hand.

For a manual install:

bash uninstall.sh

Non-interactive manual removal:

bash uninstall.sh --yes

Preview

Screenshots

Features

Current features

• Pure-black top-center island for Hyprland.
• OLED-friendly idle handle with bump and barely visible strip modes.
• Anti-corner notch smoothly merging island into screen edge.
• Hover expansion that can overlap windows instead of constantly resizing the Hyprland layout.
• Small constant reserved zone, so normal windows do not jump around.
• Focused-monitor placement through Hyprland.
• MPRIS media player with artwork, title, artist, position, timeline, seek, previous, play/pause, next, shuffle, repeat, and favorite controls (Material Symbols icons).
• Paused tracks stay in the media state instead of immediately collapsing to idle.
• Collapsed bump can show current time plus track artwork/play indicator when media is active.
• Tray indicators: circular battery charging chip, cava-style audio bars.
• Subtle open U-shaped trace for volume and brightness changes.
• WiFi status (signal strength + SSID) and Bluetooth (device name + battery %) in idle mode.
• Click WiFi/BT to open settings (nmtui / bluedevil-wizard).
• Battery icon + percentage on hover through UPower.
• Microphone and camera privacy dots with separate colors and non-overlapping layout.
• PipeWire privacy detection plus local fallbacks for pactl microphone streams and /dev/video* camera users.
• Minimalist pill toggle for bump/strip mode switching.
• IPC commands for manual testing and integration scripts.

Customization

All customizable properties live in quickshell/modules/dynamicGlacier/DynamicGlacier.qml. You can change these without breaking anything:

Property	Default	Description
handleStyle	"bump"	Idle handle mode: "bump" (pill) or "strip" (thin line)
liveLinksEnabled	true	Enable live MPRIS, volume, brightness, privacy detection
fontFamily	"Noto Sans"	Font used across the widget
bumpWidth	104	Width of the idle bump handle (px)
bumpHeight	24	Height of the idle bump handle (px)
stripWidth	98	Width of the idle strip handle (px)
stripHeight	4	Height of the idle strip handle (px)
peekWidth	340	Width when hovering idle (expanded peek)
peekHeight	132	Height when hovering idle
notifyWidth	438	Width of notification state
notifyHeight	74	Height of notification state
mediaWidth	380	Width of media player state
mediaHeight	132	Height of media player state
reservedZone	24 (bump) / 0 (strip)	Top exclusive zone reserved for the island
windowHeight	136	Total window height for the layer surface

Colors are defined inline in IslandSurface.qml and IslandContent.qml:

• surfaceColor: island background (#000000 bump, #0c0c0c strip)
• primaryText: main text color (#f7f7f7)
• secondaryText: dimmed text (#7f7f7f)
• microphoneIndicatorColor: mic privacy dot (#ff9f1a)
• cameraIndicatorColor: camera privacy dot (#35ff72)

To change the WiFi/BT settings apps, edit these lines in DynamicGlacier.qml:

onWifiSettingsRequested: wifiSettingsProc.exec(["sh", "-c", "kitty --title 'WiFi Settings' nmtui-connect &"])
onBtSettingsRequested: btSettingsProc.exec(["sh", "-c", "bluedevil-wizard &"])

Planned / possible later

• Notification bridge that does not fight existing end-4 notification services.
• User config file for sizes, colors, modules, and timeout behavior.
• More detailed privacy labels for active microphone/camera clients.
• Long-running progress state for commands, downloads, and file operations.
• VPN/network, DND, timer, and calendar activity states.
• Optional tighter integration with end-4 dots while keeping standalone usage clean.

end-4 Friendly

How it fits next to end-4 dots

Dynamic Glacier is designed to run nicely next to end-4/dots-hyprland.

It deliberately avoids owning global desktop services that end-4 already handles well. For example, it does not register a standalone notification daemon by default, and volume feedback is only a subtle trace around the island instead of a second full volume OSD.

The goal is to be an optional companion widget for end-4 style Hyprland setups: minimal, black, Quickshell-native, and easy to wire into an existing dotfiles tree.

Development

Run from the repo

From the repo root:

quickshell --path quickshell

Trigger states from another terminal:

quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier demo
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier notify "Build finished" "Dynamic Glacier is alive" "Hello"
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier media "Night Drive" "Glacier FM" true ""
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier volume 72 false
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier brightness 83
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier privacy true false
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier privacy false true
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier privacy true true
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier privacyLive
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier toggleHandle
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier live true
quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier idle

Toggle the looping demo:

quickshell ipc --path quickshell call dynamicGlacier demoLoop

More developer notes are in docs/development.md.

Verify manual install

Run doctor mode:

bash install.sh --doctor

It checks quickshell, the installed config, launcher, Noto Sans, Material Symbols, helper commands (playerctl, upower, pactl, fuser), and whether the Hyprland autostart entry is present.

References

Links

• AUR package: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/dynamic-glacier-git
• Fedora COPR: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/mavxa/dynamic-glacier/
• Quickshell COPR: https://copr.fedorainfracloud.org/coprs/errornointernet/quickshell/
• end-4 dots: https://github.com/end-4/dots-hyprland
• Quickshell docs: https://quickshell.outfoxxed.me/docs/
• Quickshell install/setup: https://quickshell.outfoxxed.me/docs/guide/install-setup/
• Quickshell distribution paths: https://quickshell.outfoxxed.me/docs/guide/distribution/