d77void Mango: Dux Shell Delight
d77void Mango: Dux Shell Delight
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Some distributions arrive with one carefully polished desktop. d77void arrives with an entire wardrobe. Its newest ISO, the Mango DMS edition, dresses Void Linux in a Wayland compositor called MangoWC and a shell that has only just changed its name: Dux Shell, formerly DankMaterialShell. Add the friendly Calamares installer and you get a rolling-release, runit-powered system that is far less intimidating than its pedigree suggests. Pour yourself a cuppa, because here comes the tour.
Meet Mango
d77void GNU/Linux is a respin of Void Linux, the Portugal-based project of dani-77, who signs his announcements simply as Daniel. Its original purpose was refreshingly modest: to show off what Void's own tools, void-mklive and void-packages, can do. It began on 6 January 2025 as a Fluxbox respin and then kept growing. By its first birthday it had gained Calamares, fourteen more window managers, three desktop environments, a small package repository of its own, custom wallpapers, a GRUB theme, two Plymouth themes, an adapted SDDM theme and a post-install helper called d77-welcome.
Under the bonnet it stays loyal to its parent. You get the xbps package manager, the runit init system instead of systemd, rolling-release updates and a 64-bit x86 focus. The project's GitHub repository, a heavily modified fork of void-mklive carrying ready-made configuration for a staggering number of window managers and desktops, explains that every variant introduces itself as d77void GNU/Linux through its os-release file, while an ID_LIKE=void entry quietly records the family tree.
Where does Mango fit in? MangoWC joined the catalogue on 19 January 2026 as a new Wayland compositor, initially in plain vanilla form, with a note that a shell such as DankMaterialShell or Noctalia could be added for more polished behaviour. The project now offers precisely that. SourceForge carries a Mango and Noctalia ISO dated 3 July 2026, and the star of this post, the Mango DMS ISO, dated 23 October 2026.
If those terms are new, here is the quick version. A compositor is the program that draws your windows and decides how they move, tile and animate. A shell is the layer of everyday furniture on top: the bar, launcher, notifications, settings and lock screen. Pairing a lean compositor with a rich shell gives you a tiling-capable Wayland session without having to assemble every piece yourself. That is the whole idea behind this edition.
It sits in lively company. The wider d77void family spans window managers such as Hyprland, Niri, Sway, River, Qtile, bspwm and i3, plus desktops including COSMIC, GNOME, KDE Plasma, LXQt and Xfce, and DistroWatch's list of choices runs to twenty-two entries. In June 2026 the project also began publishing musl-based ISOs in a separate folder, with a matching d77void-musl repository beside the main d77void-repo. The Mango DMS image lives in the standard glibc folder. Daniel describes the values behind these decisions as usability, aesthetics and simplicity, and the Mango edition wears all three rather well.
That brings us to the shell itself.
Inside the Shell
The shell at the heart of this edition has had quite a month. On 20 October 2026 its developers released DMS 2.0, codenamed "Heisenberg", and used the moment to rebrand. DankMaterialShell became Dux Shell, and the umbrella project Dank Linux became Dux Labs. The companions followed suit: the greeter, search service, GOP system monitor and calendar all gained the Dux prefix, and a brand-new file manager, Dux Files, joined the family. The developers stress that it is the same team and the same projects, and the command you type is still dms.
The name is a cheeky nod to Tux, the Linux penguin, and Dux is the project's mascot. Practical reasons played a part too: it is short, it does not clash with any major software project, and it starts with a D, so the binaries dms, dcal and dgop need no renaming. It also gives a friendlier vibe than "Dank" did, in the team's own words.
The shell is founded and maintained by bbedward and purian23, with a vital contribution from Huỳnh Thiện Lộc. Since version 1.6 the project has seen more than 600 commits from 65 contributors, and it is released under the MIT licence. It is also built on Quickshell, a toolkit that d77void has been using since late 2025. In December of that year Daniel added the dankmaterial-shell, noctalia-shell and matugen packages (the last generates colour schemes) to d77void-repo, so that anyone could try those shells on compositors such as Sway or labwc.
So what did 2.0 actually bring? Quite a lot, so here are the highlights.
A fresh look. Material 3 Expressive design now runs through Settings, the Control Center, Dash and the shared widgets, with reorganised settings so that things live where you would expect them. Bars have spring-like motion, flexible widgets shrink first, and whatever still does not fit tucks into an overflow menu.
Dash plugins. Dash, the pop-out hub with its overview, media, weather and wallpaper pages, can now be extended. Plugins can add a whole tab, a card in the overview, or both. The built-in media player, called Bento, also gained the Dux Lyrical Engine, which shows synced lyrics, down to word or even syllable level when the source supplies the timing, drawing on providers such as LRCLIB and YouTube Music or on lyrics stored locally.
Your lock screen, your rules. The lock screen is now built from widgets. You can add, move and resize the clock, date, notifications, status and power controls, choose a clock style and preview the result as you go.
Dux Dot and the island. Dux Dot is a dynamic-island-style hub built around a single persistent dot that morphs into your launcher, dashboard, control centre, media player and notifications. The island itself can live in a bar, float anywhere on screen, run vertically or tuck into a notch at the top of the display.
Docks and dashboards. The dock can now behave as an OmegaDock: add several, put each on any edge, choose a compact icon strip or a full-width taskbar, and enjoy hover magnification that nudges neighbouring icons aside. Digital Wellbeing arrives as a Dash tab for screen time and per-app limits, and the Control Center gains smaller half-height tiles.
A growing ecosystem. The plugin registry has passed 380 plugins and 47 themes. A Material 3 Wallpaper Generator on the Dux Labs website lets you design your own backdrops, and Settings can be driven entirely from the keyboard. Add more than ninety bug fixes and you can see why the announcement alone is a seventeen-minute read.
For our purposes, the crucial detail is compositor support. The release notes name MangoWC alongside Hyprland and Niri as beneficiaries of deeper integration. MangoWC 0.18 renamed its configuration keys to snake_case, and DMS now writes the new format. If you carry an older configuration across, the command dms config mango-migrate converts it, and dms setup can start the shell from mango-session.target. Newer additions, Aqueous and Umbriel, join a list that also includes Sway, labwc and Miracle.
Tinkerers should heed two housekeeping notes. First, the application ID changed from com.danklinux.dms to dev.duxlabs.shell. DMS updates its own window rules automatically, but any custom rules you wrote for its windows need updating. Second, the package repositories are still moving: version 2.0.1 is expected to shift installs and updates onto new Dux Labs repositories, and existing users will run dms migrate dux, though the developers advise keeping current repositories until then. Because d77void ships the shell from its own repository, the project's announcements are the place to watch. The Dux Labs documentation already lists a 2.1 branch beside 2.0, so this shell moves quickly, and the version on your ISO may differ from the one described here.
Plugin authors have a small to-do list as well: the old Dank-prefixed widget types are deprecated in favour of shorter D-prefixed names in a shared library, and the compatibility wrappers log helpful warnings in the meantime.
First Boot
Ready to try it? The Mango DMS image is d77void-live-x86_64-20261023-mango-dms.iso, weighing in at 2.6 GB, and it lives in the ISO-x86_64 folder on the project's SourceForge page. Write it to a USB stick, boot, and you land in a live session where you can explore before committing anything to disk. The project's website notes that two accounts are provided, anon and root, both using the password voidlinux. That is fine for a live session, but treat it as a public secret and set your own credentials on any real installation.
Installing with Calamares. This is where Daniel's work shines for newcomers. Calamares gives you the familiar, graphical step-by-step routine, and the d77void builds brand it with the project's logo and a four-image slideshow about d77void, Void Linux, the desktop choices and the community. The path to this happy state was bumpy. In November 2025 Void upstream discontinued several packages Calamares depended on, so Daniel updated sixteen templates himself. When Void's Qt6 jump followed, he rebuilt 218 packages to keep it alive. In May 2026, the move to the 6.18 kernel exposed an incompatibility between non-ext4 filesystems, GRUB, the kernel and Calamares: Btrfs or XFS installs completed without errors but then failed to boot.
His fix was a deep overhaul of the Calamares modules, with ext4 as the default. If you want Btrfs or XFS, choose manual partitioning and always create a 1000 MiB ext4 boot partition; how you divide the rest is up to you. The same update refreshed Calamares itself and finally made it launch properly from the menus on Wayland. There was a trade-off, too. The older text-mode d77void-installer script, based on void-installer, had to be retired because the two installers could not coexist, and Daniel chose Calamares. Do not be thrown if the project's home page or DistroWatch still mentions the text installer, because both appear to lag behind that announcement.
Finding your way around. Once the desktop appears, a handful of shortcuts, listed in the edition's own welcome notes, will carry you a long way:
Super + Space opens the application launcher.
Alt + Space opens the spotlight bar.
Super + Comma opens Settings.
Super + A opens the Control Center.
Super + T or Super + Return opens a terminal, and Super + Shift + / shows a keybinds cheat sheet.
After the install. The d77-welcome helper has grown steadily since its debut in March 2025. It can add Flatpak, Steam and an office suite, remove Calamares once you no longer need it, and enable the d77void repository, which you can also set up by hand with a small file in /etc/xbps.d/. For everything else you have xbps and Void's enormous package collection. DistroWatch lists Brave as the default browser, with Btrfs, ext4 and XFS support and English as the default language.
What's under the hood. DistroWatch's most recent package table shows Linux 6.18.55, Mesa 26.2.4, Qt 6.11.2, Wayland 1.26.0, Python 3.14.7 and Git 2.55.0. Treat these as a guide only, as the next paragraph explains.
A fair word on the sources. The official sources do not all speak with one voice, so here are the discrepancies, flagged openly. The project's home page still lists a shorter set of choices (no Mango, GNOME or KDE Plasma) even though the SourceForge announcements say otherwise. DistroWatch tracks release 20261005, with Hyprland as the default, which matches SourceForge's Hyprland DMS image from 5 October rather than the 23 October Mango build. Its package versions and ISO size therefore describe a different edition from this one, which also explains why its 2.4 to 2.5 GB figure differs from SourceForge's 2.6 GB. Nothing here is alarming; fast-moving projects simply outpace their directories.
Getting help and giving thanks. If something misbehaves, the project welcomes feedback and suggestions through its website and GitHub repository, and DistroWatch lists a community presence on Discord and Mastodon. For the shell itself, Dux Labs accepts support through Ko-fi and GitHub Sponsors, and that goodwill keeps the project going. Even a modest contribution, a bug report or a plugin upvote helps a project like this keep going.
A Brief Word to Close
The Mango DMS edition is a charming answer to a common question: how can I try a modern Wayland desktop on Void without a weekend of assembly? Daniel's polished Calamares installer lowers the drawbridge, MangoWC and Dux Shell furnish the castle, and Void's runit and xbps keep everything pleasantly lean. Whether you are a seasoned tiler or merely curious, boot it, press Super + Space and enjoy the delight.
Disclaimer: d77void, Void Linux, MangoWC, Dux Shell, DankMaterialShell, Dux Labs, Calamares, Brave, Hyprland and all other names mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners, used here for identification only. The Distrowrite Project strives for accuracy, but software changes quickly, so please verify details with the official sources before acting. Please use open-source software responsibly and legally.
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