Late alpha · 0.9.1

Emaki

A complete desktop built around niri, the scrollable-tiling Wayland compositor. Set up once at installation, never touched again.

Download Emaki

Installs 0.9.0, updates to 0.9.1
4.7 GiB · x86_64 · UEFI

Emaki 0.9.1 in use: the terminal, Programs & Updates, Files, and a new accent colour from Settings
Emaki 0.9.1 in use

  • Ready on first start

    Bar, launcher, dock, lock screen and keys are set up.

  • Your files stay yours

    We never write to your files after installation.

  • Updates you can undo

    On btrfs, a snapshot before every package change.

  • Secure Boot

    Starts with Secure Boot on. Enrol our key once.

Programs & Updates

Programs install with one button: find one and press Install. No terminal.

Updates are in the same window, and on btrfs so is the way back to the system from before an update.

Updating and going back

Programs & Updates: programs picked by Emaki, popular and new ones, each with an Install button; tabs for installed programs and updates
Programs & Updates

Install in 4 steps

You need a USB stick of 8 GB or more and a UEFI computer.

  1. 1

    Write to a USB stick

    Everything on the stick is erased. On Linux:

    sudo dd if=emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso of=/dev/sdX bs=4M oflag=sync status=progress

    On Windows or macOS: balenaEtcher, or Rufus in DD Image mode.

  2. 2

    Start from the stick

    Choose the stick in your computer's boot menu. Emaki needs a UEFI computer. Secure Boot can stay on.

    The stick starts a full Emaki desktop. Try it before installing: you see how Emaki runs on your computer before anything is written to the disk. On NVIDIA the stick uses the open driver, the installed system NVIDIA's own.

  3. 3

    Enrol the key once

    On “Security Violation” choose OK. In the blue MokManager screen press any key within 10 seconds, then Enroll key from disk → EMAKI → emaki.cer. View key, compare the SHA‑1 fingerprint, then Continue → Yes → Reboot. With Secure Boot off this step does not appear.

    1. Blue screen: Press any key to perform MOK managementPress any key
    2. MokManager menu: Continue boot, Enroll key from disk, Enroll hash from diskEnroll key from disk
    3. Enroll MOK: View key 0, ContinueView key, Continue
    4. Enroll the key(s)? No, YesYes, then Reboot
  4. 4

    Install

    The live session opens the installer by itself. Pick your disk, btrfs or ext4, and press Install. To open it again: Install Emaki in the launcher.

Key fingerprint, SHA-1 (shown by MokManager)
D5:69:0F:44:91:14:4D:FF:EC:8B:F6:77:CC:BE:06:0A:39:5F:2F:26
SHA-256 of emaki.cer
0E:BC:6E:A4:01:CF:16:0C:76:32:E3:4F:54:BD:F7:B8:9E:60:BB:E3:24:DE:10:B2:E4:AE:06:27:A8:96:D5:D6

Verify the download

A checksum shows that the image arrived whole; the signature shows that we made it.

SHA-256 of emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso

58795e17cae51df16692278b8934591a025bada4de29423b16f62fde181f2ad0

Checksum

Download the .sha256 file next to the image, then:

Linux
sha256sum -c emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso.sha256
macOS
shasum -a 256 -c emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso.sha256
Windows
Get-FileHash .\emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso -Algorithm SHA256

Signature

Optional and stronger: the .sig file and the signing key.

gpg --show-keys emaki-signing-key.asc
  6685 6995 6D2D 7478 47D8  7D01 F626 80BE 5833 63AC
gpg --import emaki-signing-key.asc
gpg --verify emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso.sig emaki-0.9.0-x86_64.iso

Expect “Good signature from Emaki Package Signing <packages@emaki.sh>”.

Sources Next to the image, SOURCES-ISO.txt links the source of every Emaki package in it. Emaki's own code is on GitHub; the release page also carries emaki.cer.

New in 0.9.1

  • Moving saved passwords to the new wallet no longer stops at a key without an application name.
  • The launcher shows the Emaki pixel mark.
  • The lock and login screens use your current wallpaper.
  • Dolphin uses the Emaki colours.

Earlier in 0.9: Secure Boot from the first start, the light theme with the Rose accent, the Welcome tour, window pictures on Alt+Tab, and a time zone map and partitioning in the installer.

Full release notes

Two terminals stacked in one column beside the desktop
Two terminals in one column
The Welcome to Emaki tour, first page
The Welcome tour

What we tested

Emaki is a late alpha. Every release is installed and updated in virtual machines at several screen sizes and on two real computers: an AMD laptop and a MacBook.

Not tested yet: NVIDIA graphics on real hardware, and Windows with BitLocker beside Emaki. If your computer is like that, try the stick first and tell us how it went.

Known problems are listed in the 0.9.1 release notes on GitHub.

About

What Emaki is

A complete niri desktop that sets up your config once, at installation, and never touches it again. The decisions are already made — bar, launcher, dock, lock screen, keybindings, the lot — so you install it and start working instead of reading twelve wikis.

  • Your files stay yours

    Our defaults are a separate file; yours overrides it.

  • Updates you can undo

    btrfs snapshots and a way back from the boot menu.

  • Arch underneath

    No fork, no held-back packages. Our part is the desktop.

The Welcome to Emaki tour: a ready-to-use desktop where your windows sit side by side on one long strip
The tour on first start

A look around

The overview: the terminal, Programs & Updates and Files side by side on one strip, the next strip below
The overview, Super O
Settings, Appearance: the Violet accent chosen, beside Files
A new accent in Settings
The lock screen over a blurred wallpaper
The lock screen

Principles

Four rules behind every decision in Emaki.

Your changes are yours

Our defaults ship as a separate file that belongs to the package. Your changes go in your own file, which includes ours and overrides it where niri lets a later setting win: key bindings, gaps, the keyboard and touchpad blocks. We never write to your file; you never have to edit ours. Updates therefore cannot conflict with your customisations.

Your disk, your call

The filesystem is yours to choose. If you pick btrfs at install time, Emaki sets up the snapshot tooling for you: a snapshot before every package change, and a way back from the boot menu. If you pick ext4, you get ext4. Nothing here is forced on you.

Arch underneath

Emaki is Arch underneath. We do not fork it, we do not hold packages back, we do not pretend rolling release is something else. When Arch breaks, Arch breaks. Everything else is Arch, and we say so out loud.

Made to be read

One setting lives in one place. Nothing is regenerated behind your back. Every piece of state can be queried from the terminal, and every setting can be changed from it.

Licence and source

Emaki is free software: you can use, study, share and change it.

GPL-3.0-or-later

Copyright © 2026 Artur Yakymenko. Patches to other projects keep those projects' licences: the niri patches are GPL-3.0-or-later like niri itself. Software included in the image ships with its own licence and copyright notices; Settings › About shows where the full texts are installed.

Source code

The Emaki repository is on GitHub. Next to each image, SOURCES-ISO.txt links the source archive of every Emaki package in it.

This site

Pixel type: Departure Mono by Helena Zhang. Text: Noto Sans by the Noto Project Authors. Both under the SIL Open Font License 1.1 (1, 2).

Docs

How to use Emaki

Everything you need after the first start, on four short pages.

  1. 02niri for normal peopleWindows side by side on one long strip.
  2. 03KeysThe shortcuts you use every day.
  3. 04Updating and going backOne command; snapshots when something breaks.
  4. 05FAQSecure Boot, Windows, NVIDIA, your config.

niri for normal people

Most desktops squeeze windows into the screen. niri does not. Your windows sit side by side on one long strip, and the screen is a view onto part of it. A new window opens to the right of the current one; nothing else gets smaller.

Move along the strip with Super ← / →. Windows that do not fit peek in at the edge, so you always see that there is more.

Strips are stacked like floors: Super ↑ / ↓ moves between them. Super O zooms out and shows all of them at once.

A window's width is yours: Super R cycles a third, a half and two thirds of the screen. This site works the same way: it flows to the right, and the button in the top-left corner zooms out.

Two terminals stacked in one column; the desktop continues to the right
One column with two windows

Keys

Super is the key with the Windows logo. Super / searches all of them.

Super Enter
Terminal
Super D
Launcher
Super E
Files
Super Q
Close window
Super V
Clipboard history
Super L
Lock screen
Super ← →
Next column
Super ↑ ↓
Window or strip
Super Shift ←
Move column
Super O
Overview
Super R
Column width
Super F
Fullscreen
Alt Tab
Switch windows
Super Shift F
Float or tile
Super Shift S
Screenshot
Super Alt R
Record screen
Super Esc
Power menu
Super /
Search all keys

Updating and going back

Emaki's packages come from the signed [emaki] repository; everything else comes from Arch as usual.

One command

sudo emaki-update

Type your password, read the list, and press Enter at each question. Plain sudo pacman -Syu still works. Before downloading, the command checks that there is enough free space, and stops if there is not.

The update window

The desktop checks once a day and shows an indicator on the bar. Select it, or open Programs & Updates from the launcher. It lists updates by source with their sizes, and warns about Arch news that asks for manual steps. After a kernel update, restart the computer.

Going back on btrfs

Every package change takes a snapshot first. If an update breaks something, restart; in the boot menu open Emaki snapshots and pick the snapshot taken before the update. The desktop then offers Keep this state. Files in your home are on their own subvolume and are not rolled back.

Going back on ext4

There are no snapshots. If a new kernel is the problem, choose the linux-lts entry in the boot menu. Otherwise reinstall the previous package from the cache with sudo pacman -U. If the desktop does not start, Ctrl Alt F3 opens a text console.

FAQ

Does it work with Secure Boot?

Yes. A new installation sets it up when Secure Boot is on; you enrol Emaki's key once.

Can it live beside Windows?

Yes, with its own startup partition. Keep your BitLocker recovery key outside the computer: Windows with BitLocker and Secure Boot was not tried on a real PC yet.

NVIDIA?

Not tested on real hardware with Secure Boot yet.

Will an update overwrite my config?

No. Your file includes ours and overrides it; we never write to yours.

Hibernation?

Please do not use it yet. The installer does not set it up.

More?

Coming soon. Until then, ask on GitHub.

Report and help

Reports from real computers help most right now.

Report a problem

Open an issue on GitHub. Check the known problems in the release notes first. A good report says:

  • the Emaki version (Settings › About) and your computer's model;
  • whether Secure Boot is on;
  • what you did, what you expected, and what happened;
  • a photo of the screen, if the problem is on screen.

Before you post Never post passwords, keys or recovery codes.

Security problems go to security@emaki.sh, not to public issues. Conduct concerns: conduct@emaki.sh.

It did not start?

Start from the stick again and tell us on Discord or in a GitHub issue what you saw. A photo of the screen helps.

Help the project

Try it on real hardware

An installation report from a computer we could not test: NVIDIA graphics with Secure Boot, or Windows with BitLocker beside Emaki. Tell us what worked and what did not.

Tell people

Share a screenshot of your desktop on r/emaki.

Fix a word

A text that is unclear is a bug too. Report it on GitHub.