Noctalia 5.5 is out for Wayland environments like Hyprland, Niri, Sway, and labwc.
This release introduces the hover-reveal Peek feature for bar widgets, window switcher views with grid and icon modes, Shift+Tab support, and a fix for PipeWire real-time crashes.
Toolbar widgets can now show just one icon and display their information when the user hovers over them. This can apply to, for example, volume, battery, network connection, and weather. The display delay and position of the icons can also be adjusted. There are also options for custom labels, evenly spaced gaps, and margins at the ends of the bar. When the bar is auto-hidden, it no longer takes up screen space until it is shown again.
New navigation and screen capture capabilities
Switching between open windows gains a grid view and an icon view. In the latter, windows appear as fixed tiles, without small previews. Reverse switching is also supported, so users can configure Shift+Tab navigation.
In the screenshot tool, the user can zoom and move the image while editing. They can also select another window or new area without closing the editor, and a shortcut has been added to select the entire desktop.
Lock screen, notifications, and connections
The lock screen now supports music controls, such as pausing, resuming, and changing tracks, without unlocking. A new setting automatically turns on Do Not Disturb while the screen is locked and restores notifications to their previous state after unlocking. Custom background colors and old-school transitions are also available.
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On computers with more than one monitor, wallpaper changes are now synchronized by default. Noctalia can even automatically change brightness based on day and night, with a separate brightness level for each monitor. Notification history is grouped by app, and users can change the position of new notifications and hide the indicators that show how much time is left before they disappear.
The release adds password or one-time password entry windows for VPN connections. These details are stored in the computer's secure password storage system. When connecting to Google Calendar, users can now choose which calendars to sync.
Bug fixes and advanced changes
The new release also includes fixes for issues specific to desktop environments, such as toolbar crashes, distorted icons, menus appearing in the wrong place, and duplicate window entries. Another issue that, in certain real-time audio settings, could cause the system kernel to terminate Noctalia has been fixed. Codes copied from code managers can now be pasted without being saved in the copy history.
Finally, the setting for coloring application icons has been moved from a global option to the individual sections. The transfer is automatic for existing settings, but those who manually maintain Nix configuration files or dotfiles may see warnings until they replace the old options.
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