Switched to Arch Hyprland: I Built HyprLTM-Net, a Rofi-Based Network Management GUI

Remember the days when installing Arch Linux felt like the ultimate challenge for testing your skills? Today, things are a bit more accessible, and tools like archinstall make getting started much faster. Seeking a fresh challenge, I decided to build my own custom Hyprland ecosystem called HyprLTM.

The first major piece of this setup is HyprLTM-Net, a sleek, open source network management graphical user interface powered by Rofi and NetworkManager (nmcli). It is published on GitHub under the GNU GPL v3.0 license.

What Makes HyprLTM-Net Different?

When building tools for Arch and Hyprland, the philosophy always comes down to simplicity, functionality, and aesthetics. HyprLTM-Net was designed with zero background process overhead, meaning it runs only when you trigger it rather than consuming system resources in the background.

Here are the core features included in the release:

• Interactive Prompts: Secure password entry with hidden characters and a toggle to show or hide the key.
• LTMNight Themed: Inherits system colors via the ltmnight.rasi palette, maintaining a dark theme with clean icons.
• Comprehensive Wi-Fi and Wired Control: Scan for nearby networks, connect to new SSIDs, switch Ethernet profiles, or manage existing connections.
• Modular VPN Support: Built-in support for Wireguard and OpenVPN, including direct profile file imports.
• Status Readout: Instant view of connection details, local and public IP addresses, and DNS information.
• Profile Management: Easily edit passwords, rename connections, or forget old profiles.

Quick Installation & Setup

If you are running Arch Linux and Hyprland, getting started is straightforward.

First, make sure you have the core dependencies installed on your system:

• networkmanager
• rofi-wayland
• Nerd Fonts (such as JetBrainsMono Nerd Font)
• libnotify

Clone the repository and move the script into your local scripts directory:

git clone https://github.com/hyprltm/hyprltm-net.git && cd hyprltm-net
mkdir -p ~/scripts && mv hyprltm-net.sh ~/scripts/ && chmod +x ~/scripts/hyprltm-net.sh
mkdir -p ~/.config/rofi/themes/ && cp *.rasi ~/.config/rofi/themes/

Configuring Keybindings or Waybar

You can launch HyprLTM-Net via a keyboard shortcut by adding this line to your ~/.config/hypr/hyprland.conf:

bind = SUPER, N, exec, ~/scripts/hyprltm-net.sh

Or integrate it directly into Waybar by updating your ~/.config/waybar/config.jsonc:

"network": {
    "on-click": "~/scripts/hyprltm-net.sh"
}

Wrapping Up

Building HyprLTM-Net has been an awesome coding challenge and a core building block for my evolving HyprLTM desktop environment. You can check out the source code, report bugs, or contribute on the HyprLTM-Net GitHub Repository, and you can read the full technical write-up over on LinuxTechMore.

Let me know what you think of the setup or how you handle network management in your own tiling window manager workflows!