Omarchy: a real desktop OS in a VM

Omarchy (4.0.4) is an opinionated Arch Linux setup around the Hyprland Wayland compositor, with its own installer ISO. It's a desktop people choose as their daily driver, which was the point.

Installing an OS unattended in KubeVirt

Normally you'd click through an installer. We used Omarchy's unattended install support:

• The ISO looks for a drive labeled cidata containing answer files, and installs without prompts:
  • user_configuration.json — the archinstall-style config: wipe /dev/vda, a 2 GiB EFI boot partition + a main partition, Limine bootloader, linux-omarchy kernel, PipeWire audio, mode: full_disk
  • user_credentials.json — the omarchy user (sudo) with a hashed password (openssl passwd -6)
  • user_full_name.txt, user_email_address.txt, user_encrypt_installation.txt (false), authorized_keys (our SSH public key)
• In KubeVirt, a ConfigMap can be attached as a disk with a volume label: { name: cidata, configMap: { name: omarchy-cidata, volumeLabel: cidata } }. We attached it on the USB bus.

The VM spec (copy in labs/.secrets/vm.yaml):

yamldataVolumeTemplates:
  - omarchy-iso:  source http https://iso.omarchy.org/omarchy-4.0.4.iso   (8Gi)   # CDI downloads the ISO
  - omarchy-root: source blank                                           (60Gi)  # empty disk to install onto
domain:
  firmware: { bootloader: { efi: { secureBoot: false } } }   # UEFI boot (Omarchy's ISO/Limine expect UEFI)
  cpu: { cores: 4, model: host-passthrough }                  # expose the real CPU model to the guest
  memory: { guest: 8Gi }
  devices:
    video: { type: virtio }                                   # virtual GPU (no 3D acceleration)
    inputs: [ { type: tablet, bus: usb } ]                    # absolute pointer, so VNC clicks land where you click
    disks:
      - root  bootOrder 1 (virtio)                            # empty on first boot → falls through to…
      - iso   bootOrder 2 (cdrom, sata)                       # …the installer. After install, root boots.
      - cidata (usb)                                          # the answer files

The boot-order trick: on first boot the root disk is empty, so firmware boots the ISO; the installer writes to root; on reboot, root is bootable and wins.

How we knew it finished: SSH answering wasn't enough (the live ISO also runs sshd — a false positive we hit). The done-signal became: log in as omarchy with our key and read the hostname omarchy. We reach guest SSH through kubectl port-forward <launcher-pod> 2223:22 (the omarchy_ssh helper in labs/env.sh).

Install time: ~5.5 min on AWS (faster than Hetzner).

Making it stream

Steps done inside the installed Omarchy (all over SSH):

1. Selkies: install the Arch package selkies-2.0.0-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst with pacman -U.
2. Auto-login so there's always a Hyprland session to stream: /etc/sddm.conf.d/50-autologin.conf with User=omarchy, Session=hyprland-uwsm.desktop, Relogin=true. (SDDM is the graphical login manager; uwsm is the Wayland session manager that exports WAYLAND_DISPLAY to user services.)
3. Selkies user service attached to Hyprland (--wayland-host-display="$WAYLAND_DISPLAY"), with CSS scaling and manual 1920×1080.
4. Firewall: Omarchy enables ufw, which blocked 8080 → ufw allow 8080/tcp. (Only reachable through port-forward anyway.)
5. Fixed resolution: Hyprland's monitor set to 1920x1080@60 in ~/.config/hypr/monitors.lua. With preferred mode, Selkies' resize requests and Hyprland's monitor changes fought each other in a loop.
6. Readability & responsiveness (in ~/.config/hypr/looknfeel.lua / monitors.lua):
   • scale = 1.25 → bigger, still-sharp text
   • cursor.invisible = true → no double cursor
   • animations.enabled = false, decoration.blur.enabled = false, decoration.shadow.enabled = false → every frame is drawn on the CPU (no GPU), so skip expensive effects

Omarchy's Hyprland config is Lua (hyprland.lua loads Omarchy defaults, then your override files). Options are set with hl.config({ section = { key = value } }); hyprctl reload applies them and hyprctl getoption cursor:invisible checks them.

How the Omarchy VM appears in Canine

It was created by hand, so we inserted an AgentComputer row pointing at it (desktop: "selkies", namespace patched to omarchy-spike). The proxy only needs a namespace and a VM name to find the launcher pod, so the connect page just works. Records: id 11 (Hetzner, cluster 33), id 12 (AWS, cluster 34).

Passwords: the Omarchy login password is in labs/.secrets/password.txt (you'll need it for the lock screen and sudo).

✅ Check yourself: How does the installer find its answer files? Why does the ISO boot on the first start but the installed OS on the second, with the same VM spec? Why did Selkies need --wayland-host-display here but not on the Ubuntu image?