✨ Pixie SDDM

A clean, modern, and minimal SDDM theme inspired by Google Pixel UI and Material Design 3. Supports both the latest Qt6 engine and legacy Qt5 systems.

🌟 Features

• Pixel Aesthetic: Clean typography and a unique two-tone stacked clock.
• Material You Dynamic Colors: Intelligent color extraction that samples your wallpaper for UI accents.
• Next-Gen Blur: High-performance Gaussian blur (Qt6) and custom shader blur (Qt5).
• Universal Circle Avatar: A bulletproof, anti-aliased circular profile mask that works on all systems.
• Material Design 3: Dark card UI with smooth interactions and responsive dropdowns.
• Keyboard Navigation: Full support for navigating menus with arrows and Enter.

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🛠 1. Prerequisites (Essential)

Before installing, ensure you have the required modules for your system version to avoid a black screen:

Qt6 (Default / Modern Distros)

Recommended for Fedora 40+, Arch Linux, CachyOS, NixOS.

# Arch:
sudo pacman -S qt6-declarative qt6-svg qt6-quickcontrols2

# Fedora:
sudo dnf install qt6-qtdeclarative qt6-qtsvg qt6-qtquickcontrols2

# Debian 13/Testing:
sudo apt install libqt6quick6 libqt6qml6 libqt6svg6 libqt6quickcontrols2-6

Qt5 (Legacy / Stable Distros)

Required for Ubuntu 22.04/24.04, Debian 12, Linux Mint.

# Ubuntu: sudo apt install qml-module-qtgraphicaleffects qml-module-qtquick-controls2
# Arch: sudo pacman -S qt5-graphicaleffects qt5-quickcontrols2

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📦 2. Installation

Pixie SDDM automatically detects your system and installs the correct version.

System Type	Engine	Recommended Branch
Bleeding Edge (Fedora, Arch, Nix)	Qt6	main (Default)
Stable/LTS (Ubuntu, Debian)	Qt5	qt5

Method A: Automatic Script (Recommended)

This script intelligently detects your Qt version and handles everything:

git clone https://github.com/xCaptaiN09/pixie-sddm.git
cd pixie-sddm
sudo ./install.sh

Method B: Arch Linux (AUR)

The AUR package automatically tracks the latest modern version:

yay -S pixie-sddm-git

Method C: NixOS (Flake)

The most modern and flexible way to install.

1. In your flake.nix, add the input and pass it to your modules:

{
  inputs.pixie-sddm.url = "github:xCaptaiN09/pixie-sddm";

  outputs = { self, nixpkgs, pixie-sddm, ... }@inputs: {
    nixosConfigurations.YOUR_HOSTNAME = nixpkgs.lib.nixosSystem {
      specialArgs = { inherit inputs; }; # Passes inputs to all modules
      modules = [ ./configuration.nix ];
    };
  };
}

2. In your configuration.nix, configure SDDM and apply the theme:

{ pkgs, inputs, ... }: {
  services.displayManager.sddm = {
    enable = true;
    theme = "pixie";
    wayland.enable = true; # Optional: for Wayland sessions

    # Crucial for Qt6: Use the KDE/Qt6 build of SDDM to fix missing
    # cursors and module errors.
    package = pkgs.kdePackages.sddm;

    # Required dependencies for Qt6 themes
    extraPackages = [
      pkgs.kdePackages.qtsvg
      pkgs.kdePackages.qtdeclarative
      pkgs.kdePackages.qt5compat
    ];
  };

  environment.systemPackages = [
    # Install and customize the theme. All fields are optional and will
    # fall back to theme defaults if not set.
    (inputs.pixie-sddm.packages.${pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform.system}.pixie-sddm.override {
      background = ./my-background.jpg; # Nix path or absolute path
      avatar = ./my-avatar.jpg;         # Nix path or absolute path
      primaryColor = "#B3C8FF";         # Hex color code
      accentColor = "#3F5F91";          # Hex color code
      autoColor = true;                 # true/false
      backgroundColor = "#1A1C1E";      # Hex color code
      textColor = "#E2E2E6";            # Hex color code
      fontFamily = "JetBrains Mono";    # Font family name
      fontSize = 13;                    # Font size in px
    })
  ];
}

Method D: NixOS (Legacy / Non-Flake)

Add the following to your configuration.nix. (Change rev = "main" to rev = "qt5" for legacy systems).

Note

For Qt6: If you are using the main (Qt6) branch, you must use pkgs.kdePackages.sddm to ensure the Qt6 platform plugins load correctly. Without this, your mouse cursor may not appear.

{ pkgs, ... }: {
  services.displayManager.sddm = {
    enable = true;
    theme = "pixie";
    # Crucial for Qt6: Use the KDE/Qt6 build of SDDM to fix missing cursors and module errors
    package = pkgs.kdePackages.sddm;

    # Fix for NixOS explicitly requiring a cursor theme
    settings = {
      Theme = {
        CursorTheme = "breeze_cursors"; # Change this if you use a different cursor theme (e.g., Adwaita)
      };
    };
  };

  environment.systemPackages = [
    (pkgs.stdenv.mkDerivation {
      name = "pixie-sddm";
      src = pkgs.fetchFromGitHub {
        owner = "xCaptaiN09";
        repo = "pixie-sddm";
        rev = "main";
        hash = pkgs.lib.fakeHash;
      };
      installPhase = "
        mkdir -p $out/share/sddm/themes/pixie
        cp -r * $out/share/sddm/themes/pixie/
      ";
    })
    # Correct Qt6 dependencies for NixOS
    pkgs.kdePackages.qtdeclarative
    pkgs.kdePackages.qtsvg
    pkgs.kdePackages.qt5compat # Included for wider QML component compatibility
  ];
}

Method E: Manual

1. Copy the folder to SDDM themes directory: sudo cp -r pixie-sddm /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie
2. Set the theme in /etc/sddm.conf:

   [Theme]
   Current=pixie

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🛠 Configuration & Testing

Preview Without Logging Out

Run this command to preview the theme safely:

# For Qt6 (Modern):
sddm-greeter-qt6 --test-mode --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie

# For Qt5 (Legacy):
sddm-greeter --test-mode --theme /usr/share/sddm/themes/pixie

Customization

Edit theme.conf or replace assets in assets/:

• Wallpaper: Replace assets/background.jpg.
• Avatar: Replace assets/avatar.jpg.
• Dynamic Colors:
  • autoColor=true (Default): Automatically extracts a Material You accent color from your wallpaper.
  • autoColor=false: Disables extraction and strictly uses the accentColor you set in theme.conf.
• Background Colors: Change backgroundColor in theme.conf. The login card, input fields, and borders will automatically generate lighter variants to match.
• Clock Format: Set use24HourClock=false in theme.conf to switch to a 12-hour clock, or use24HourClock=true for 24-hour.

🤝 Credits

• Author: xCaptaiN09
• Design: Inspired by Google Pixel and MD3.
• Font: Flex Rounded & Material Design Icons (included).

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Made with ❤️ for the Linux community.