Dux Labs has announced the release of DMS 2.1, codenamed “Stormborn,” for its customizable desktop shell for Linux Wayland compositors, including Hyprland, Niri, and Mangowm.
First, a clarification regarding the project’s naming. Originally known as DankMaterialShell, it was renamed Dux Shell with version 2.0. Now, with 2.1, DMS officially stands for Dux Modular Shell. The existing dms command, configuration paths, plugins, and IPC interfaces remain unchanged.
One of the most visible additions is a new interface density setting allowing users to choose between Spacious, Comfortable, Compact, and Dense layouts. There’s also a new DMS Classic style, which replaces the rounded, expressive controls with more traditional shapes and consistent corner radii.
Another improvement is the completely reworked system monitor. It now organizes information into Processes, Performance, Disks, and System sections with expanded process management controls, live performance graphs, and disk health monitoring with SMART information. Users can also export system summaries as Markdown reports without including personally identifiable system details.
DMS 2.1 also introduces video wallpaper support. Users can select MP4, WebM, MKV, MOV, M4V, and AVI files as desktop backgrounds. Playback pauses automatically when the screen is locked, a fullscreen application is active on the affected display, or the display is turned off.
The media player has been redesigned with improvements to its Bento layout, new album artwork styles, and enhanced synchronized lyrics. Lyrics can now appear within the desktop island’s media area, while playback controls offer additional customization options.
Dux Files also receives several improvements, including customizable folder colors, icons, and badges; full-window previews for images and PDFs; and game library integration. Plus, network support has been expanded with better SMB share discovery, device detection, and WebDAV mounting.
Other applications in the Dux suite have also been updated. Dux Calendar includes Google Calendar and CalDAV synchronization fixes, while Dux Greeter now remembers each account’s last session and improves multi-monitor login behavior.
On the compositor side, DMS 2.1 improves integration with Niri, including preliminary support for features planned for its next stable release. Hyprland support now relies exclusively on Lua configuration files, dropping compatibility with the older hyprland.conf format and requiring Hyprland 0.55 or newer.
Another addition is Fedora Atomic support in the Dux installer. This includes Silverblue, Kinoite, Bazzite, Bluefin, Aurora, and other Fedora-based rpm-ostree and bootc images. The installer identifies missing packages and provides the necessary installation commands rather than modifying the immutable system directly.
The release introduces new on-screen indicators for keyboard layouts, Num Lock, and Fcitx5 input methods along with dashboard improvements, additional customization settings, and performance optimizations.
Finally, users upgrading from previous packaged releases should note that DMS has moved to the new Dux Labs repositories, replacing the older AvengeMedia and DankLinux sources. Most affected installations can migrate using dms migrate dux, while Arch users should follow the package replacement instructions specific to their installation.
For more information, see the announcement.
Image credits: DMS
