Arch Linux's Archinstall 4.4 Adds Dank Material Shell + Niri Desktop Option

Written by Michael Larabel in Arch Linux on 28 June 2026 at 08:41 PM EDT. 1 Comment
ARCH LINUX
Ahead of the July 2026 ISO refresh for Arch Linux, a new Archinstall 4.4 release has been tagged for this text-based and very convenient installer for Arch Linux.

Archinstall 4.4 adds a console font selection option to the Locales menu, now shows an install summary when configuration is valid, adds an IWD standalone option for the network configuration, improved color coding for the install preview text, adds a Plymouth configuration setup, and various other enhancements. Plus many bug fixes as well. A nice incremental release for this easy Arch Linux install method.

archinstall


Arguably most notable for end users with Archinstall 4.4 is adding a Niri "DankMaterialShell" profile for having the Niri Wayland compositor paired with the Dank Material Shell. The pull request argued that using Niri with the Dank Material Shell is a popular and more user-friendly out-of-the-box experience.

Dank


Those unfamiliar with the DankMaterialShell, which also works with Hyprland, Sway, Labwc, Miracle WM, and other Wayland compositors can learn more via its GitHub.

The full list of changes for Archinstall 4.4 can be found here ahead of the next monthly Arch Linux ISO refresh due out on 1 July.
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Michael Larabel is the principal author of Phoronix.com and founded the site in 2004 with a focus on enriching the Linux hardware experience. Michael has written more than 20,000 articles covering the state of Linux hardware support, Linux performance, graphics drivers, and other topics. Michael is also the lead developer of the Phoronix Test Suite, Phoromatic, and OpenBenchmarking.org automated benchmarking software. He can be followed via Twitter, LinkedIn, or contacted via MichaelLarabel.com.

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