COSMIC DE for Debian testing distribution

This repository provides Debian Linux packages for the full COSMIC Desktop Environment. Each release corresponds to an official COSMIC Epoch release.

These packages are built via GitHub Actions on Debian testing distribution (current version forky/sid) for amd64 architecture only. They probably also work on unstable distribution (not tested).

Main GitHub repository of COSMIC DE https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic-epoch/

Installation

[!IMPORTANT] Backup your system before installing COSMIC using this repository. Or install it on a disposable Debian testing installation used for conducting tests.

By default, a display manager (LightDM, GDM, SDDM...) is configured and invoked to start an X11 or Wayland session. To disable it and log-in in console using your username and password, run the commands below.

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

Reboot again and Debian boots to console mode.

Note If you want to undo this change and get your Debian system to boot to the default graphical mode use the terminal command below.

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

Download `install.sh` script shell

$ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/lcheylus/cosmic-debian/refs/heads/main/install.sh

$ chmod +x install.sh

The install.sh script shell allows to install all components and apps for COSMIC DE + additional packages not available in official APT Debian repository:

download every .deb file for COSMIC components and apps from the latest release available in this repository
checks downloaded COSMIC .deb files with SHA256 checksums
download every .deb file for additional packages from this repository
checks these downloaded .deb files with SHA256 checksums
install Debian packages needed by COSMIC DE with apt install
install additional packages with dpkg -i command.
install packages for all COSMIC components and apps with dpkg -i command.

The install.sh script has 2 optional integer variables (value = 0 or 1) that you could use to set options:

INSTALL_APPS: install COSMIC applications (1 by default).
KEEP: keep downloaded .deb files after installation (0 by default => files are removed after install).

Run `install.sh` script to install COSMIC DE

[!CAUTION] The install.sh script must be executed using sudo to allow installation of Debian packages.

sudo ./install.sh

Start COSMIC DE

From your console, run command to start COSMIC DE:

$ start-cosmic

Update previous COSMIC installation

The install.sh script allows also to update a previous COSMIC installation to the latest release published in this repository. During its execution, it downloads the latest available version of Debian packages and install them via dpkg command.

Components of COSMIC Desktop

Each component has a debian directory in its sources tree with files to build the corresponding Debian package.

List of all components necessary to install COSMIC Desktop Environment:

cosmic-applets - COSMIC Applets
cosmic-app-library - COSMIC App Library
cosmic-bg - COSMIC Background
cosmic-comp - Wayland compositor for COSMIC
cosmic-greeter - COSMIC Greeter and daemon
cosmic-icons - COSMIC Icons
cosmic-idle - COSMIC idle daemon
cosmic-initial-setup - COSMIC Initial Setup
cosmic-launcher - COSMIC Launcher
cosmic-notifications - COSMIC Notifications
cosmic-osd - COSMIC OSD
cosmic-panel - XDG Shell Wrapper Panel for COSMIC
cosmic-randr - Display and configure Wayland display outputs
cosmic-screenshot - COSMIC Screenshot Utility
cosmic-session - The session for the COSMIC desktop
cosmic-settings - Settings application for the COSMIC desktop environment
cosmic-settings-daemon - COSMIC settings daemon
cosmic-wallpapers - COSMIC Wallpapers
cosmic-workspaces - COSMIC Workspaces
pop-launcher - Modular IPC-based desktop launcher service
xdg-desktop-portal-cosmic - COSMIC backend for xdg-desktop-portal

cosmic-sound-theme is not needed to install COSMIC DE and is not packaged.

List of COSMIC Apps, also available as Debian package but installation is optional.

cosmic-edit - Text Editor
cosmic-files - Files Manager
cosmic-monitor - System Monitor
cosmic-player - Media Player
cosmic-store - Apps Store
cosmic-term - Terminal

Some components require additional dependencies. For example, cosmic-icons component needs pop-icon-theme package built from icon-theme repository.

List of additional packages: "Depends" to install COSMIC components/apps not available as official Debian packages.

Package	Description	Needed by
adw-gtk3	libadwaita theme ported to GTK3	cosmic-settings-daemon
appstream-data-pop	AppStream data for Pop!_OS	cosmic-initial-setup cosmic-store
pop-fonts	Pop fonts	cosmic-session
pop-icon-theme	Pop icons	cosmic-icons
pop-sound-theme	Pop sound theme	cosmic-settings-daemon

How to publish a new Release

TODO