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Aqueous Changelog

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Version v0.6.0

Aqueous — changes since v0.5.0

This update makes Dank Material Shell the default for the source packages, adds screen mirroring and more scrolling controls, and improves fullscreen transitions, multi-monitor reliability, and HDR capture support.

Desktop and shell integration

  • Source packages now default to Seafoam Labs’ dms-aqueous, including the Aqueous Settings plugin, screen-sharing chooser, Spotlight launcher, and region screenshots. The prebuilt PKGBUILD-bin retains Noctalia; the new gitNoctalia/PKGBUILD preserves a Noctalia Git package option.
  • Improved DMS settings control colors and added integration coverage for the shell, settings helper, and packaging.
  • Added persistent shell IPC through AQUEOUS_SOCKET, with capability discovery, snapshots, acknowledged state updates, and typed runtime commands. Existing aqueousctl commands remain supported. DMS adoption of the new socket is still a separate integration step.
  • Added native ext-background-effect-v1 support so compatible applications and shells can request blur for precise regions. Global blur settings and explicit rule exclusions remain authoritative.

Window management and input

  • Added open_new_windows_to_right for scrolling layouts: new windows can open immediately beside the focused column. The default remains insertion at the far right.
  • Added the scrolling_full_width window rule to open matching applications with a full-width scrolling column. Manual width changes override the rule.
  • Mouse-wheel and touchpad scrolling can now bind to built-in actions and custom commands using WheelUp, WheelDown, WheelLeft, and WheelRight. Existing viewport wheel shortcuts can be reassigned or disabled.
  • Added the optional mouse_follows_focus setting to move the pointer into a newly focused window. Pointer-driven interactions avoid triggering a warp.
  • Output focus shortcuts now move the pointer to the destination output’s center and work with empty outputs.
  • Improved fullscreen workspace slide transitions, including transparent fullscreen content, containment within the correct output, and interrupted transitions.

Displays, rendering, and reliability

  • Added screen mirroring with independent refresh rates and aspect-preserving letterboxing, configurable through mirror_of or the Displays settings page. Initial support is limited to one SDR mirror pair on the same backend/device, with normal orientation. Mirrors go black while the session is locked or the source is unavailable. See the mirroring guide.
  • Fixed cross-monitor window remapping and explicit-sync buffer release issues that could leave windows stalled after being hidden and shown again.
  • Added retries with backoff after output rendering or commit failures, allowing recovery from transient failures.
  • Preserved color-management and Auto HDR state in captured window buffers used for workspace transitions and resizing.
  • Added FIFO v1 protocol support for client presentation pacing.
  • Added an SDR screenshot conversion path for 10-bit HDR outputs, plus native 10-bit shared-memory format negotiation for ext image-copy capture. Experimental aqueous-capture-color-v1 metadata enables cooperating clients to identify the captured color encoding. Native HDR export requires client and encoder support; the synchronous conversion fallback is intended for screenshots, with continuous recording still requiring further work and validation.
  • Added regression coverage for mirroring, output recovery, fullscreen transitions, window remapping, wheel bindings, capture formats, and FIFO, plus Proton Wayland focus-stall diagnostics.

Upgrade notes

  • Window rules no longer implicitly select Game Mode. Omitting layout preserves the current layout. Add layout = "game-mode" to rules that relied on the previous behavior. An existing Game Mode workspace claim may need a manual layout selection to clear it.
  • Existing user configuration is preserved when switching to DMS source packages. Update launcher and screenshot commands in ~/.config/aqueous/wm.toml to dms ipc call spotlight toggle and dms screenshot region, including direct screenshot bindings. Compare with /usr/share/aqueous/wm.toml for the packaged defaults.
  • Remove duplicate manual shell startup entries when adopting packaged startup. GitPKGBUILD/PKGBUILD uses dms.service; remove manual enablement of the old aqueous-dms.service when switching to that variant. Other source variants use aqueous-dms.service.
  • The nested launcher is now launch_aqueous.sh, with AQUEOUS_DMS_CMD for overriding its shell command.
  • Rebuild and ship the matching patched wlroots library, then restart Aqueous for the new protocol and capture functionality. Diagnostic builds with -Dvulkan-effects=false also require this patched dependency.

Full comparison at the reviewed master commit

Full Changelog: https://github.com/Seafoam-Labs/Aqueous/compare/v0.5.0...v0.6.0

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