Devices & Input

Find these controls under System > Devices & Input or the corresponding bar icons. The Control Center provides their everyday toggles and sliders too.

Audio and microphone

Volume selects the default output and controls both master volume and playback applications. Microphone selects the default input, gain and mute. The mic panel's live level meter runs only while that panel is open; it writes no audio to disk. Opening other settings does not start microphone monitoring.

Sliders adjust to 100%; an existing higher value is not changed until moved. Changing your default audio device can affect a call: do it deliberately. Media playback controls are separate from default device selection.

Display and brightness

The Display panel lists active monitors. Click one to open its settings inside its card; click it again to close them. The Main display holds the bar, panels and notifications: turn on Main display in another monitor's settings to move them there. If the main monitor disconnects, another display shows as Main and takes the bar until it returns; your choice is kept.

A monitor's settings are its resolution, refresh rate, scale and, with more than one monitor, its position beside another or mirroring. The main display stays where it is and the others are placed around it, so its Position just says so; a monitor can be placed beside any display except one already placed beside it.

Each setting is one row showing its current value; click it to see the choices. Position, alignment, scale, mirroring and the main display apply and are saved at once. A new resolution or refresh rate could leave a screen black, so for those the panel asks Keep these settings? at its bottom edge: without Keep within 15 seconds it goes back by itself, even if the panel is closed. Settings are saved for this computer in ~/.config/hypr/displays.json.

Any number of monitors can be arranged this way: place each one left of, right of, above or below another, then align it with that monitor's top, middle or bottom (left, center or right when stacked). The arrangement is remembered, so when a monitor changes resolution or scale, the ones beside it move with it. A choice that would make two monitors overlap is refused with a message. Every connected monitor is given its exact place, so changing one never makes Hyprland move the others.

Edit layout by hand opens ~/.config/hypr/local.lua for what the panel does not cover, such as rotated screens or workspaces pinned to a monitor. A new file starts with commented examples (three monitors, portrait, stacked, mirroring, a docked laptop); nothing changes until you uncomment one and run hyprctl reload. Monitors set there take precedence over the panel; remove them to manage those monitors here again.

Brightness prefers a usable native backlight; otherwise it tries an external monitor through DDC. DDC availability depends on the monitor and permissions. Night Light has a manual switch and an optional schedule with editable times.

Keyboard

Select an installed XKB layout or Add Layout to search languages/variants. Alt + Shift cycles configured layouts. Up to four layouts are supported; duplicates are rejected. Remove with the row's delete button; at least one layout must remain. A keyboard layout is not the system language or locale.

The desktop starts with the keyboard you chose in the installer. Choosing US gives both US and US International, so accents are one Alt + Shift away.

Optional Caps Lock navigation

The optional keyd configuration in distro/keyd/navigation.conf.example makes Caps Lock send Escape when tapped. Hold Caps Lock and press H/J/K/L for Left/Down/Up/Right. Other keys keep their normal behavior.

To restore this preference after reinstalling, install that example as /etc/keyd/navigation.conf and enable keyd.service. It applies to all keyboards, including outside Hyprland, and is not enabled by default. To undo it, remove that configuration and reload keyd; disable the service if no other mappings use it. Keyboard language/layout selection remains separate.

Laptop power and battery

Battery and power-profile controls appear only when a system battery exists, not merely a wireless headset or mouse. Power Saver/Balanced/Performance need power-profiles-daemon; unsupported profiles stay unavailable. Battery estimates and health appear only when supplied by hardware.

Battery Charge Limit requires a supported firmware sysfs interface and typed confirmation. Off allows charging to 100%. Do not assume every laptop supports it.

A notification warns at 10% battery and again, urgently, at 5%, once each time the battery runs down. On laptops the installer also adds the audio firmware most recent laptops need (sof-firmware) and, on Intel laptops, thermald to manage heat.

These laptop features are experimental until early users confirm them on real laptops: the keyboard backlight keys, and closing the lid while an external monitor is connected, which turns the laptop screen off so the desktop moves to the monitor (opening it brings the screen back). Without an external monitor, closing the lid suspends as usual. Hibernation is not set up automatically.