[BUG] Unable to start Caelestia after update. Quickshell versions issus?

[JeLuTr]

Step 1. Before you submit

• I have read the above instructions and am sure that this is supposed to be posted here.
• I've successfully updated to the latest versions following the updating guide.
• I've successfully updated the system packages to the latest.
• I've ticked the checkboxes without reading their contents

Step 2. Version info

◄ 0s ◎ caelestia -v ⌂ 13:44
Packages:
caelestia-shell 1.6.2-1
caelestia-cli 1.0.7-1
caelestia-meta r183.cf94e7f-1

Caelestia:
Last commit: 0283b44
Commit message: hypr: remove vfr setting vfr has been moved in hyprland git to debug, and we don't actually need it anyways since it is the default

Shell:
caelestia-shell 1.6.2, revision b033f0d12c8a9c76b85df8943e2448c03ec0815c, distributed by: AUR (package: caelestia-shell)

Quickshell:
Quickshell 0.2.1 (revision 08058326f04e9b5e55c903b3702405a8d3556ac6, distributed by AUR (package: quickshell-git))

Local copy of shell found:
Unable to determine last merged upstream commit.
fatal: not a git repository: '/home/jlt/.config/quickshell/caelestia/.git'
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/bin/caelestia", line 8, in
sys.exit(main())
~~~~^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/caelestia/init.py", line 8, in main
print_version()
~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/site-packages/caelestia/utils/version.py", line 72, in print_version
shell_ver = subprocess.check_output(
["git", "--git-dir", local_shell_dir / ".git", "rev-list", "--format=%B", "--max-count=1", "HEAD"],
text=True,
)
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/subprocess.py", line 473, in check_output
return run(*popenargs, stdout=PIPE, timeout=timeout, check=True,
~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
**kwargs).stdout
^^^^^^^^^
File "/usr/lib/python3.14/subprocess.py", line 578, in run
raise CalledProcessError(retcode, process.args,
output=stdout, stderr=stderr)
subprocess.CalledProcessError: Command '['git', '--git-dir', PosixPath('/home/jlt/.config/quickshell/caelestia/.git'), 'rev-list', '--format=%B', '--max-count=1', 'HEAD']' returned non-zero exit status 128.

◄ 0s ○

Step 3. Describe the issue

Summary for GitHub issue (Caelestia Shell)

Title: Caelestia Shell fails to start due to Quickshell pragma incompatibility (CachyOS / quickshell-git mismatch)

Description:

Caelestia Shell (v1.6.2 from AUR) fails to launch on my system after a recent update. The issue appears to be related to incompatibility between Caelestia and the installed Quickshell version provided by CachyOS.

System details

• OS: CachyOS (Arch-based)
• Desktop: Hyprland
• Shell: Caelestia Shell 1.6.2 (AUR)
• Quickshell: quickshell-git 0.2.0.r110.g0805832-1 (CachyOS repo build, reported as Quickshell 0.2.1 revision 0805832)

Problem

When launching Caelestia:

caelestia shell -d

I get the following error:

ERROR: Unrecognized pragma "DefaultEnv QS_NO_RELOAD_POPUP=1"

Observations

• The installed Quickshell binary reports version 0.2.1 (git revision 0805832)
• However, the package version is quickshell-git 0.2.0.r110 from CachyOS repositories
• Caelestia requires a Quickshell build that supports the DefaultEnv pragma
• This pragma is not recognized in the current build

What I already tried

• Full removal of Caelestia and Quickshell packages
• Reinstalling Caelestia via AUR (caelestia-shell)
• Switching between quickshell and quickshell-git
• Snapper rollback to previous system snapshots
• Clean reinstall of dependencies

Result

The issue persists regardless of rollback or reinstall. The mismatch seems tied to the specific Quickshell build provided by CachyOS, which differs from the expected upstream behavior.

Suspected cause

A compatibility issue between:

• Caelestia Shell 1.6.2 (AUR)
• CachyOS fork of quickshell-git (0.2.0.r110)

The Caelestia configuration uses a QML pragma:

pragma DefaultEnv QS_NO_RELOAD_POPUP=1

which is not recognized by the current Quickshell build.

Request

Is Caelestia Shell 1.6.2 still compatible with the current Quickshell upstream version?
Or is there a specific Quickshell commit/version required for proper support of the DefaultEnv pragma?

Any guidance on the correct Quickshell version or recommended setup would be appreciated.

Reminder

• I agree that it's usually impossible for others to help me without my logs.

[ReFleXzZ]

Exactly the same problem here. I also tried using the git and normal packages of caelestia, so I guess is a change in quickshell package. This error happened to me after updating today

[soramanew]

You need to update your quickshell-git package. The version you are using is too old.

[soramanew]

Do NOT use the quickshell-git package from the cachy repos, it is out of date and we do not support it.

[JeLuTr]

I resolved the issue. The problem was caused by using the outdated quickshell-git package from the CachyOS repositories, which is not compatible with the current version of Caelestia Shell.

Steps that fixed it:

1. Remove the existing packages:
   sudo pacman -Rns caelestia-meta caelestia-shell quickshell-git

2. Install the official AUR version of Quickshell (important: force AUR so it does not install the CachyOS repo package):
   paru -S --aur quickshell-git

3. Reinstall Caelestia Shell:
   paru -S --aur caelestia-shell

4. Prevent Pacman from replacing the AUR version with the outdated CachyOS package by adding this line to:
   /etc/pacman.conf: IgnorePkg = quickshell-git

   This one I'm not sure. I don't want to be stock with an outdate version of quickshell-git.

After doing this, Caelestia starts correctly.

Do I miss something?

Does it seen right to you?

Thank for all

[StarTwi]

The current 'quickshell-git' package on aur has the version- 0.2.0.r1.g783b971-1

but running 'caelestia -v' on the latest version returns

Packages: caelestia-shell 1.6.2-1 caelestia-cli 1.0.7-1 caelestia-meta r183.cf94e7f-1
Caelestia: Last commit: 0283b44 Commit message: hypr: remove vfr setting vfr has been moved in hyprland git to debug, and we don't actually need it anyways since it is the default Shell: caelestia-shell 1.6.2, revision b033f0d12c8a9c76b85df8943e2448c03ec0815c, distributed by: AUR (package: caelestia-shell)
Quickshell: Quickshell 0.2.1 (revision 08058326f04e9b5e55c903b3702405a8d3556ac6, distributed by AUR (package: quickshell-git))

temporary solution i did was downgrade the 'caelestia-shell' pkg to 1.6.1

[Vei1x]

I resolved the issue. The problem was caused by using the outdated quickshell-git package from the CachyOS repositories, which is not compatible with the current version of Caelestia Shell.

Steps that fixed it:

1. Remove the existing packages:
   sudo pacman -Rns caelestia-meta caelestia-shell quickshell-git

2. Install the official AUR version of Quickshell (important: force AUR so it does not install the CachyOS repo package):
   paru -S --aur quickshell-git

3. Reinstall Caelestia Shell:
   paru -S --aur caelestia-shell

4. Prevent Pacman from replacing the AUR version with the outdated CachyOS package by adding this line to:
   /etc/pacman.conf: IgnorePkg = quickshell-git

   This one I'm not sure. I don't want to be stock with an outdate version of quickshell-git.

After doing this, Caelestia starts correctly.

Do I miss something?

Does it seen right to you?

Thank for all

Faced the same issue, thanks for solving. But i guess this one is only temporarily solution to lunch caelestia?

[joshriz]

Faced the same issue, I fixed this issue by manually updating quickshell-git instead of the repo. I couldn't yay to stop pulling the package from the cachyos repo.

You can update it manually by running:
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/quickshell-git.git
cd quickshell-git
makepkg -si

After manually updating I ran "caelestia shell -d" and it went back to normal.

[LeafyBeans]

This worked for me:

yay -S quickshell-git --aur --devel && begin; caelestia shell -k 2>/dev/null; caelestia shell -d; end

The --devel flag is to ensure we synchronize with the latest commits regardless of the version number (which may be outdated and cause yay to skip).

The --aur flag is there so yay does not pull from the cachyos repository.

[jmora052]

For anybody experiencing this issue, using the AUR "quickshell-git" package does not resolve it either, as the AUR package is out of date as well. I suggest using the solutions proposed above to update your quickshell to the latest.