Install with cpak

cpak provides an official experimental package for running Singularity as a complete Wayland session on another Linux distribution. The package contains the project build and a focused runtime, while the host continues to provide its kernel, graphics drivers and display manager.

Public alpha

Both Singularity and cpak session support are still under active testing. Start on a spare machine or virtual machine and keep another working login session available.

Install cpak

Follow the official cpak installation guide, then check whether the host provides the kernel and session features required by the runtime:

cpak doctor

Resolve any failed checks before continuing. Optional hardening warnings do not prevent the package from starting, while a failed required capability does.

Install Singularity

Install the package from its GitHub origin:

cpak install github.com/singularityos-lab/singularity-desktop

The installation pulls the Singularity Runtime dependency and the current desktop image, then prepares their shared OCI layers in the local cpak store. Personal state remains in a separate writable profile and is not replaced by an image update.

Check the session exported by the installed package:

cpak session list github.com/singularityos-lab/singularity-desktop

Add the login session

Install the cpak system authority once, then register Singularity:

cpak system setup
cpak system status
cpak session enable github.com/singularityos-lab/singularity-desktop dev.sinty.singularity

cpak shows the session permissions before asking Polkit to authorize the root-owned login entry. Log out when registration finishes, choose Singularity from the session menu in the display manager and log back in.

GDM reads the local session directory directly. The system setup configures SDDM and LightDM when required, while greetd depends on the selected greeter. The cpak session documentation covers each display manager and the shared kiosk-session mechanism.

Update

Update the package and its runtime dependency with:

cpak update github.com/singularityos-lab/singularity-desktop

The new image becomes active only after its manifest, layers and permissions have been prepared. The writable profile remains in place. Log out of the active Singularity session before applying an update that changes the compositor or shell.

Disable or remove

Remove the login entry without uninstalling the package:

cpak session disable dev.sinty.singularity

Remove the package and its registered session with:

cpak remove github.com/singularityos-lab/singularity-desktop

Run cpak gc to preview unreferenced data and cpak gc --apply when you also want to reclaim the unused layers.