# Panama desktop parity
This is the living inventory for the GNOME-to-Hyprland transition. It records
real behavior, not a one-for-one count of extensions: an enabled extension with
no configured action is not treated as missing functionality.
Last live audit: 2026-08-17, Fedora 44, Hyprland 0.56.2, Quickshell 0.3.0.
## Daily desktop surfaces
| Capability | Panama implementation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| App launcher and run dialog | Vicinae; Wofi emergency fallback | Live |
| App grid | Vicinae applications provider | Live |
| Hidden applications | GNOME App Hider list in Vicinae provider config | Live |
| Tiling and dynamic workspaces | Hyprland Lua config, Forge keymap preserved | Live |
| Overview | Continuum filmstrip, large workspace preview, cross-workspace search | Live |
| Minimize | `SUPER+SHIFT+X` sends to scratchpad; `SUPER+X` restores | Live |
| Dock | Quickshell dock with GNOME favorites and intellihide | Live |
| Panel | Workspaces, CPU/RAM/GPU, clock, weather, quiet event capsule, media, clipboard, tray, status | Live |
| Clipboard history | Vicinae owns capture/storage; Quickshell provides the panel | Live |
| Notifications | Quickshell server, toasts, grouped history, DND, clear actions | Live |
| Date menu | Two-column Daybook with Agenda, Ongoing activity, Notifications, month calendar, weather, and media | Live |
| Ongoing activity | Focus, Caffeine, recording, screen sharing, camera, and microphone state with direct controls | Live |
| Calendar agenda | Existing GNOME, Google, iCloud, and Nextcloud sources through Evolution Data Server | Live |
| Control Center | Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, audio input/output, Caffeine, Night Light, Focus, Home Assistant favorites, and KDE Connect phone continuity | Live |
| Focus sessions | Persistent workspace-bound timer, DND/caffeine coordination, Signal Glass controls | Live |
| Brightness | Appears only when a backlight device exists | Live where the hardware exposes it |
| AppIndicator / tray | Native StatusNotifierItem host and themed menus | Live |
| Screenshot and recording | Quickshell picker, grim/slurp/satty/wf-recorder | Live |
| Screen text and code recognition | Local Tesseract/ZBar Read mode, selectable Prism result sheet | Live after package install |
| Lock, idle, and power | hyprlock, hypridle, login1, Quickshell power menu | Live |
| Wallpaper | hyprpaper | Live |
| Keyring and authorization | gnome-keyring and hyprpolkitagent | Live |
| Portals and screen sharing | xdg-desktop-portal-hyprland plus GTK portal | Live |
| Removable media | udiskie plus udisks notifications | Live |
| Autostart apps | Nextcloud, Bitwarden, and RustDesk system service/tray | Live |
| Printer administration | CUPS with the `system-config-printer` graphical interface | Live |
| System settings | The Settings app for display policy, appearance, desktop, sound, focus, shortcuts, and services; labeled GNOME hardware/account handoffs | Live |
| System health and recovery | Settings → System Health, `Check System Health` in Vicinae, a degraded-only bar indicator, redacted reports, and bounded Panama-owned repairs | Live |
## Portable machines
Panama was a desktop configuration until 2026-08-22, in the code as well as on
the machine: there was no reference to a battery, a lid, or a power source
anywhere in it, and `hypridle.conf` said "This is a desktop" in its own header.
| Capability | Panama implementation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Battery level | `services/Battery.qml` reads sysfs the way Vitals reads procfs; bar indicator hides entirely without a battery | Live |
| Power source | `panama-hw ac`; a machine with no mains supply reports as on wall power, so a desktop is never treated as running out | Live |
| Charge threshold | Power page control, only where the firmware exposes a ceiling; written through `panama-sudo` | Live |
| Idle timings per power source | hypridle holds one set at a time, so `panama-idle` rebuilds its config when the charger comes or goes | Live |
| Lock on lid close | hypridle's `before_sleep_cmd` already locks, so a lid-close suspend is a locked suspend | Live |
| Clamshell / docked | A logind `handle-lid-switch` inhibitor held while an external display is connected. No lid watcher, and a failure returns logind's default | Live, untested on a lid |
| Display arrangement on reconnect | `Displays.plannedRestore()` reapplies a confirmed layout, refusing when the stored mode is not offered | Live |
| Charger and low-battery notices | `StatusEvents`; the charger is ambient so DND quiets it, critical battery is not | Live |
| Hardware predicates | `panama-hw`: laptop, battery, ac, lid-closed, external-monitor, clamshell, touchpad, nvidia | Live |
The clamshell path is the one row that has not run on hardware with a lid.
Everything testable about it is tested; the end-to-end behaviour of closing a
real lid on a docked machine is not, and the helper's header says so rather
than letting silence imply otherwise.
## System health and recovery
Panama stays silent while the desktop is healthy. A compact bar indicator
appears only for actionable warnings or errors and opens the same **System
Health** page available from Settings and the Vicinae command **Check
System Health**. The terminal summary is available with:
```bash
~/.config/quickshell/scripts/panama-doctor --summary
```
The doctor reports authored, redacted observations about Panama-owned services,
tools, links, and configured integrations. It does not read secrets, clipboard
or notification contents, calendar events, SSIDs, or device addresses. Repairs
are a small allow-list: Panama user services, Panama-owned links and launcher
commands, duplicate Panama Caffeine inhibitors, and a confirmed shell restart.
They never install packages, invoke `sudo`, delete user data, or rewrite
arbitrary configuration.
Generic Fedora configuration remains with the system tools that own it. The
final System Health card hands network settings, users, sharing, color
profiles, and digital wellbeing to their exact GNOME Settings panels rather
than presenting inert Hyprland controls.
## GNOME extension migration
| GNOME extension | Result |
|---|---|
| Forge | Replaced by Hyprland tiling and the original keymap |
| Dash to Dock | Replaced by the Quickshell dock |
| AppIndicator | Replaced by the Quickshell system tray |
| Clipboard Indicator | Replaced by the bar clipboard panel and Vicinae history |
| Emoji Copy | Replaced by Vicinae emoji search on `SUPER+.` |
| Vitals | Replaced by the CPU, memory, and GPU bar readouts |
| Weather O'Clock | Replaced by bar weather and the date-menu weather card |
| Caffeine | Replaced by a real logind inhibitor in quick settings |
| Blur My Shell / Openbar / User Theme | Replaced by the Prism shell and compositor blur |
| Bluetooth Quick Connect | Replaced by the full Bluetooth picker |
| Wi-Fi QR | Replaced by an on-demand QR-code sharing flow in Control Center's Wi-Fi panel; the code is generated only while shown and written to tmpfs, never persisted |
| GSConnect | Replaced by capability-aware KDE Connect phone continuity in Control Center; the paired iPhone exposes file, clipboard, and Ring actions when reachable |
| Home Assistant | Replaced by secure favorites in Control Center; explicit private environment values take precedence over the existing GNOME extension and Secret Service setup |
| Custom Hot Corners Extended | No action was configured, so there is no behavior to port |
| App Hider | Hidden app list is now applied in Vicinae |
| Allow Locked Remote Desktop | Mutter-specific patch; RustDesk is independent, but lock-screen access needs a real remote test |
## System UI still worth adding
These are not blockers for normal use, but they are the remaining places where
a polished general-purpose desktop can go beyond the current shell.
1. A real external RustDesk test while hyprlock is active. Local process state
cannot prove what a remote client sees or whether input is accepted.
2. Closing a real lid on a docked laptop. The inhibitor, the predicates and the
decision are all tested; the physical gesture is not.
3. A keyboard-layout change notice. Hyprland reports the active keymap but not
a change event Quickshell already consumes, so this needs either polling or
new event plumbing, and a single-layout machine cannot test it.
4. Sticky keys, slow keys and bounce keys. Wayland has no protocol for these,
so each compositor implements them for itself — mutter does, which is how
GNOME has them on Wayland, and Hyprland does not. There is no XKB option to
lean on either: the accessx option group is X11-only and does not appear in
evdev.lst at all (checked, not assumed — `grep -c accessx
/usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.lst` is 0), and Hyprland will happily store
`accessx:enable` as a keyboard option that nothing ever acts on. This is a
Hyprland gap rather than a Wayland impossibility, and the Accessibility page
says so in those terms; an earlier version of this line blamed X11 and sent
anyone who needs sticky keys to the wrong conclusion about the platform.
5. An on-screen keyboard, for a touch or convertible machine.
KDE Connect, the printer UI, Tesseract, and ZBar are installed and remain
tracked in `setup/packages/hyprland-packages`.
## Global menu decision
A macOS-style global application menu is not being shipped. Quickshell can
render a `DBusMenu` that an application already exports, but it does not provide
an application-menu registrar or a reliable focused-window-to-menu association.
Hyprland has no cross-toolkit global-menu protocol, and the daily applications
audited here do not consistently export one: GTK 4/Nautilus and Electron apps
are the important failures.
That would produce a premium-looking empty strip for most windows and a working
menu for a minority, which is worse than omitting it. Relevant references:
-
-
A future focused-window menu could expose compositor actions such as float,
move, fullscreen, and close. It should not be labeled as an application menu.