Installation

This guide explains how to install LWE and what you need before the first launch.

Prerequisites

LWE works with Wallpaper Engine content from Steam Workshop. Before using Workshop-related features, make sure that:

• your Steam account owns Wallpaper Engine;
• the Steam client is installed and signed in on the Linux desktop;
• Wallpaper Engine is installed in Steam;
• the desktop session supports the runtime path you want to test.

The currently verified desktop environment is a Wayland session with niri. Other compositors or desktop environments may work, but they should be treated as unverified until tested.

You can open LWE before installing Steam or downloading wallpapers. An empty Library is a normal first-launch state: subscribe to Wallpaper Engine items in Steam, wait for Steam to download them, then refresh the Library. On X11 or without niri, Library and Workshop browsing remain available while wallpaper playback requires the supported desktop session.

Arch Linux AUR

Two AUR packages are published:

Package	Channel	Use when
lwe	Stable	You want the latest stable release.
lwe-git	Prerelease/development	You want newer builds from the active development branch.

Install the stable package with an AUR helper such as yay:

yay -S lwe

Install the development package when you intentionally want prerelease changes:

yay -S lwe-git

GitHub Releases

Stable and prerelease builds publish Linux artifacts from GitHub Actions. Download the package that matches your distribution from the repository Releases page.

Published artifact types include:

• .deb
• .rpm
• .AppImage

Use your distribution's normal package tooling for .deb or .rpm files. For AppImage builds, mark the file executable before launching it.

chmod +x lwe_*.AppImage
./lwe_*.AppImage

Build from source

Use this path when contributing or when you need to validate a local change.

Required tooling:

• Node.js 24, matching CI
• pnpm 11.1.3, pinned in package.json
• Rust 1.99.0, selected by rust-toolchain.toml
• Tauri 2 build dependencies for your distribution

The minimum supported Rust version is declared separately in Cargo.toml. Desktop builds use the exact Cargo Tauri CLI from .tauri-cli-version; the shared installer verifies or installs it.

Install JavaScript dependencies:

pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm exec svelte-kit sync
./scripts/ensure-tauri-cli.sh
export PATH="$PWD/target/tauri-cli/bin:$PATH"

Run frontend checks:

pnpm check
pnpm test

Run Rust checks:

cargo check --workspace

Start local desktop development with pnpm tauri:dev. The active desktop app path is src-tauri with the frontend under src; pnpm dev alone runs only the frontend. For package builds and acceptance checks, follow the contributor guide.

After installation

Continue with Quick start to configure the Steam Web API key and apply your first wallpaper.