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8 min readBy Vinay Yadav

The Complete Guide to Ricing Linux: From Noob to r/unixporn

LinuxCustomizationDotfilesHyprlandTiling Managersunixporn

You've seen those insane Linux setups on r/unixporn. Smooth animations, perfectly color-matched terminals, status bars that look futuristic, and workflows so efficient they make your current setup look ancient.

You want that. I'm going to show you exactly how to get there.

This is the complete blueprint—from choosing a tiling window manager to mastering color theory, from basic dotfiles to advanced scripting. By the end, you'll have a setup that makes people ask "What distro is that?" even though it's just Arch with customization.

What is Ricing?

Ricing = Customizing your Linux desktop to be uniquely yours—aesthetically beautiful, functionally superior, and keyboard-driven.

Why Rice?

  • Efficiency: Keyboard workflows are objectively faster
  • Productivity: Optimized environment, zero distractions
  • Learning: Deep Linux understanding
  • Aesthetic: Because staring at default GNOME sucks
  • Flex: Showing off your setup feels good
  • Community: r/unixporn, dotfiles sharing, helping others

Philosophy of Good Ricing

  1. Function over form (but achieve both)
  2. Consistency (color scheme everywhere)
  3. Minimalism (remove bloat)
  4. Keyboard-first (mouse is optional)
  5. Reproducibility (portable dotfiles)

Choosing Your Tiling Window Manager

This is the most important decision. Your WM defines your workflow.

The Contenders

i3wm - The Gateway Drug

Pros: Easy to learn, stable, huge community, works everywhere Cons: X11 only, no fancy animations

sudo pacman -S i3-wm i3status i3lock dmenu

Best for: Beginners to tiling WMs

Hyprland - The Eye Candy King

Pros: Wayland, gorgeous animations, modern, active development Cons: Needs decent GPU, newer

yay -S hyprland-git

Best for: Modern ricing, r/unixporn content, animation lovers

bspwm - The Minimalist

Pros: Extremely minimal, flexible, fast Cons: Steeper learning curve, requires sxhkd

sudo pacman -S bspwm sxhkd

Best for: Complete control freaks

Sway - i3 for Wayland

Pros: Drop-in i3 replacement, Wayland benefits Cons: Less fancy than Hyprland

sudo pacman -S sway

Best for: i3 users wanting Wayland

dwm - The Suckless Way

Pros: Ultra lightweight, you edit source code Cons: Need to recompile for changes

Best for: Programmers wanting ultimate control

My Recommendation

  • Starting out? → i3wm
  • Want eye candy? → Hyprland
  • Minimalist? → bspwm
  • Need stability? → Sway

The Perfect Rice Stack

Here's what you need for a killer setup:

# Window Manager
yay -S hyprland-git xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland-git

# Terminal
sudo pacman -S kitty

# Shell & Prompt
sudo pacman -S zsh
curl -sS https://starship.rs/install.sh | sh

# Status Bar
yay -S waybar-hyprland-git

# Launcher
sudo pacman -S rofi-wayland

# Notifications
sudo pacman -S dunst

# Wallpaper
sudo pacman -S swaybg

# File Manager
sudo pacman -S yazi nautilus

# Screenshots
sudo pacman -S grim slurp

# Lock Screen
yay -S swaylock-effects-git

# Essential Tools
sudo pacman -S btop neofetch cava

# Fonts
sudo pacman -S ttf-jetbrains-mono-nerd ttf-font-awesome noto-fonts-emoji

Hyprland Configuration

Create ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

# Monitor
monitor=,preferred,auto,1

# Auto-start
exec-once = waybar &
exec-once = dunst &
exec-once = swaybg -i ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg &

# Input
input {
    kb_layout = us
    follow_mouse = 1
    touchpad {
        natural_scroll = true
    }
}

# Appearance
general {
    gaps_in = 5
    gaps_out = 10
    border_size = 2
    col.active_border = rgba(33ccffee) rgba(00ff99ee) 45deg
    col.inactive_border = rgba(595959aa)
    layout = dwindle
}

# Decorations
decoration {
    rounding = 10
    blur {
        enabled = true
        size = 8
        passes = 3
    }
    drop_shadow = true
}

# Animations
animations {
    enabled = true
    bezier = myBezier, 0.05, 0.9, 0.1, 1.05
    animation = windows, 1, 7, myBezier
    animation = fade, 1, 7, default
    animation = workspaces, 1, 6, default
}

# Keybindings
$mod = SUPER

bind = $mod, RETURN, exec, kitty
bind = $mod, Q, killactive
bind = $mod, M, exit
bind = $mod, V, togglefloating
bind = $mod, D, exec, rofi -show drun
bind = $mod, F, fullscreen

# Focus
bind = $mod, h, movefocus, l
bind = $mod, l, movefocus, r
bind = $mod, k, movefocus, u
bind = $mod, j, movefocus, d

# Workspaces
bind = $mod, 1, workspace, 1
bind = $mod, 2, workspace, 2
bind = $mod, 3, workspace, 3
bind = $mod, 4, workspace, 4
bind = $mod, 5, workspace, 5

# Move to workspace
bind = $mod SHIFT, 1, movetoworkspace, 1
bind = $mod SHIFT, 2, movetoworkspace, 2
bind = $mod SHIFT, 3, movetoworkspace, 3
bind = $mod SHIFT, 4, movetoworkspace, 4
bind = $mod SHIFT, 5, movetoworkspace, 5

# Mouse bindings
bindm = $mod, mouse:272, movewindow
bindm = $mod, mouse:273, resizewindow

# Screenshots
bind = , PRINT, exec, grim -g "$(slurp)" - | wl-copy

Terminal Setup (Kitty)

~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf:

# Font
font_family JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
font_size 12.0

# Cursor
cursor_shape block
cursor_blink_interval 0

# Window
window_padding_width 10
background_opacity 0.95

# Soft Black & White Theme
foreground #f5f5f5
background #0a0a0a

# Black
color0 #0a0a0a
color8 #404040

# Red (Gray)
color1 #808080
color9 #a0a0a0

# Green (Dark Gray)
color2 #606060
color10 #808080

# Yellow (Light Gray)
color3 #c0c0c0
color11 #e0e0e0

# Blue (Medium Gray)
color4 #a0a0a0
color12 #c0c0c0

# Magenta (White)
color5 #e0e0e0
color13 #f5f5f5

# Cyan (Light)
color6 #b0b0b0
color14 #d0d0d0

# White
color7 #f5f5f5
color15 #ffffff

Waybar Configuration

~/.config/waybar/config:

{
    "layer": "top",
    "position": "top",
    "height": 35,
    "modules-left": ["hyprland/workspaces", "hyprland/window"],
    "modules-center": ["clock"],
    "modules-right": ["pulseaudio", "network", "cpu", "memory", "battery"],
    
    "hyprland/workspaces": {
        "format": "{icon}",
        "format-icons": {
            "1": "",
            "2": "",
            "3": "",
            "4": "",
            "5": ""
        }
    },
    
    "clock": {
        "format": " {:%H:%M   %d %b}"
    },
    
    "cpu": {
        "format": " {usage}%"
    },
    
    "memory": {
        "format": " {}%"
    },
    
    "battery": {
        "format": "{icon} {capacity}%",
        "format-icons": ["", "", "", "", ""]
    },
    
    "network": {
        "format-wifi": " {essid}",
        "format-ethernet": " Wired"
    },
    
    "pulseaudio": {
        "format": "{icon} {volume}%",
        "format-icons": ["", "", ""]
    }
}

~/.config/waybar/style.css:

* {
    font-family: "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font";
    font-size: 13px;
}

window#waybar {
    background: rgba(10, 10, 10, 0.95);
    color: #f5f5f5;
    border-bottom: 2px solid #404040;
}

#workspaces button {
    padding: 0 10px;
    color: #808080;
}

#workspaces button.active {
    color: #ffffff;
    background: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.15);
}

#clock {
    color: #e0e0e0;
    padding: 0 15px;
}

#cpu, #memory, #battery, #network, #pulseaudio {
    padding: 0 10px;
    margin: 0 2px;
    background: rgba(49, 116, 143, 0.2);
    border-radius: 5px;
}

Rofi Launcher

~/.config/rofi/config.rasi:

configuration {
    modi: "drun,run,window";
    show-icons: true;
    font: "JetBrainsMono Nerd Font 12";
}

* {
    bg: #0a0a0a;
    fg: #f5f5f5;
    accent: #ffffff;
    background-color: @bg;
    text-color: @fg;
}

window {
    width: 600px;
    border: 2px;
    border-color: @accent;
    border-radius: 10px;
    padding: 20px;
}

element selected {
    background-color: @accent;
    text-color: @bg;
}

Color Schemes

Popular Palettes

  • Monochrome: Pure black & white, timeless, professional
  • Soft Black & White: Easy on eyes, modern minimalism
  • Catppuccin: Pastel, modern, trendy
  • Dracula: Bold, high contrast
  • Gruvbox: Retro, comfortable
  • Nord: Cool, minimal, professional
  • Tokyo Night: Dark, vibrant

Using Pywal (Auto Theme Generator)

yay -S python-pywal

# Generate from wallpaper
wal -i ~/Pictures/wallpaper.jpg

# Auto-apply on startup
echo "(cat ~/.cache/wal/sequences &)" >> ~/.zshrc

Dotfiles Management

Git Bare Repository Method

# Initialize
git init --bare $HOME/.dotfiles

# Alias
echo "alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'" >> ~/.zshrc

# Configure
dotfiles config --local status.showUntrackedFiles no

# Add files
dotfiles add ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf
dotfiles add ~/.config/waybar/config
dotfiles add ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf
dotfiles add ~/.zshrc

# Commit and push
dotfiles commit -m "Initial dotfiles"
dotfiles remote add origin git@github.com:yourusername/dotfiles.git
dotfiles push -u origin main

Restore on New Machine

git clone --bare git@github.com:yourusername/dotfiles.git $HOME/.dotfiles
alias dotfiles='/usr/bin/git --git-dir=$HOME/.dotfiles/ --work-tree=$HOME'
dotfiles checkout

Becoming r/unixporn Worthy

What Makes a Good Post

  1. Consistency: Colors match everywhere
  2. Originality: Not just default themes
  3. Details: Custom scripts, unique features
  4. Screenshots: High quality, show workflow
  5. Dotfiles: Share on GitHub

Screenshot Essentials

# Perfect screenshot setup:
# Terminal 1: neofetch
# Terminal 2: cava (music visualizer)
# Terminal 3: btop (system monitor)
# Terminal 4: actual code/work

Must-Have for Screenshots

sudo pacman -S neofetch btop cava

Advanced Neofetch Config

~/.config/neofetch/config.conf:

print_info() {
    info title
    info underline
    info "OS" distro
    info "Kernel" kernel
    info "WM" wm
    info "Shell" shell
    info "Terminal" term
    info "CPU" cpu
    info "Memory" memory
    info cols
}

image_backend="kitty"
image_size="250px"

Advanced Tips

Window Rules (Hyprland)

# Floating windows
windowrule = float, ^(pavucontrol)$
windowrule = opacity 0.9, ^(kitty)$

# Workspace assignment
windowrule = workspace 2, ^(firefox)$
windowrule = workspace 3, ^(code)$

Custom Scripts

Lock screen script:

#!/bin/bash
swaylock --screenshots --clock --effect-blur 7x5

Screenshot script:

#!/bin/bash
grim -g "$(slurp)" ~/Pictures/screenshot-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).png

Performance Optimization

# Enable parallel downloads
sudo nano /etc/pacman.conf
# Uncomment: ParallelDownloads = 5

# SSD optimization
sudo systemctl enable fstrim.timer

# Reduce swappiness
echo "vm.swappiness=10" | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.d/99-swappiness.conf

Publishing Your Rice

Create a README for your dotfiles:

# My Arch Rice 🌸

## Details
- **OS**: Arch Linux
- **WM**: Hyprland
- **Bar**: Waybar
- **Terminal**: Kitty
- **Theme**: Soft Black & White

## Installation
git clone https://github.com/yourusername/dotfiles
cd dotfiles
./install.sh

## Features
- Smooth animations
- Color-matched everything
- Keyboard-driven workflow

Final Thoughts

You now have everything needed to create a setup worthy of r/unixporn. Remember:

Golden Rules:

  1. Consistency is key
  2. Function over form
  3. Iterate constantly
  4. Share your work
  5. Backup your dotfiles
  6. Have fun

Resources:

  • r/unixporn - Inspiration
  • dotfiles.github.io - Examples
  • Arch Wiki - Documentation

Now go make something beautiful. Your Linux box is a canvas.

Time to rice. 🎨

Check out my dotfiles at github.com/vinayydv3695/HollowDots for my complete Hyprland setup.

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