Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

shot-in-the-head · 2015-11-23 19:44:17

@Snap I also wasn't into tilers but after trying DWM for a week I couldn't go back! since then I tried others and ended up using Bspwm.
I wouldn't like to use a non tiler now. Even though I don't tile much! I only have a small laptop so most of my workspaces are set to monocle mode (one app takes the whole screen)

PackRat · 2015-11-23 20:23:50

^ have you tried a tabbing/grouping window manager like i3, fluxbox, or pekwm? They're great if you're mostly in monocle mode.

and thanks for the script; I was in the process of doing the same thing. You may have saved me a couple hours 8o

Last edited by PackRat (2015-11-23 20:24:54)

shot-in-the-head · 2015-11-24 08:30:15

Yes I think I've tried em all
I just like the smaller tilers as they do all I want and use few resources.

I am just running bspwm from .xinitrc
in my bspwmrc it runs my barscript
/home/dka/.config/bspwm/barscript &

This is so bspwm can find it's config file(put in .profile or .xinitrc)
XDG_CONFIG_HOME="$HOME/.config"
export XDG_CONFIG_HOME

one mention abt if you find resizing windows with the mouse slow then start sxhkd with the -f switch
because the refresh rate of some modern mice is crazy high
sxhkd -f 100 &

Snap · 2015-11-24 09:35:19

^ thanks again

have you tried a tabbing/grouping window manager like i3, fluxbox, or pekwm? They're great if you're mostly in monocle mode.

This. (particularly Fluxbox for me)

olminator · 2015-11-29 11:46:17

Thanks @Head_on_a_Stick for this guide! I've been wanting to try a tiling wm for some time now but never took the time. I must say I'm quite impressed with the bspwm and sxhkd combo, configuration went so smooth! My setup is just the example config with a few minor changes. You can find the bspwm config here and the sxhkd config.

I did tweak the panel from the examples quite a bit, though. You can find it here. It has some dependencies that might upset some people (yes I'm talking about you, PulseAudio ). You can change the functions in

volume-widget

to use the audio system you use.

It uses a custom font to draw some icons you can find here. Put it in (a subdirectory of)

~/.local/share/fonts

then run

fc-cache -fv

To be able to use .ttf fonts in lemonbar, I use krypt-n's xft patched version of lemonbar: https://github.com/krypt-n/bar

PS: Oh, I use zsh, so it may not be fully compatible with bash and other shells...

Last edited by olminator (2016-02-13 17:49:36)

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-03-21 23:05:01

BUMP!

Updated the OP with new .debs for amd64 systems, i386 to follow soon.

It's the latest version from git but it seems OK.

I may update it to the stable version instead if I can figure out how to git clone a tagged release...
8)

o9000 · 2016-03-22 05:24:51

git checkout the_tag

usually works.

o9000 · 2016-03-22 11:35:30

By the way, over the years I wrote a git cheat sheet which I have now uploaded here: https://gitlab.com/snippets/16784

damo · 2016-03-22 11:51:40

^ Nice

Much better than my textfiles collection of snippets!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-03-22 19:08:14

Fantastic, thanks o9000!

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-03-23 18:56:51

I have changed all the packages to their stable release versions.

bspwm is now at version 0.9.1, just like in Arch 8)

OP updated, I will attempt to keep on updating the .debs as the programs are developed.

Snap · 2016-03-24 07:03:41

Forgot about bspwm! I'm playing with wmfs2 and frankenwm in my WM testing system lately. I should add this one to the tilers party as well. Thanks for the reminder and the good job, HoaS.

Snap · 2016-03-25 10:09:30

Noob questions:

1) Is it possible get focus by hovering the mouse pointer like in wmfs2? If the setting for this is this line in bspwmrc:

bspc config focus_follows_pointer true

I cannot make it work for some reason. (I know, I know, a proper tiler lover should use the keyboard for this).

2) If I got it right cycling desktops should be this in sxhkdrc, isn't it?

# focus the next/previous desktop
super + bracket{left,right}
	bspc desktop -f {prev,next}

Brackets for the es keyboard layouts are a no go. They already need a modifier. I tried to change the keystrokes but got no success with the syntax. Any tips?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by Snap (2016-03-25 10:11:12)

Snap · 2016-03-25 10:36:10

Wait, wait... As for the first question, it now works! But still one question, can compton shade/dim the unfocused window/node? This part is still not working, if it compton can do anything here, of course.

EDIT: Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. It might be a conflict with compton. If the hovering works, then compton doesn't. If compton works (and effectively shades the inactive nodes) hovering stops working.

Any ideas about this issue?

Last edited by Snap (2016-03-25 10:52:06)

Snap · 2016-03-26 05:23:33

Yet one more question. How to float X11 apps? This doesn't seem to work:

bspc rule -a xclock state=floating
bspc rule -a xcalc state=floating

Those fixed sized programs look all crap if tiled, and for some reason they don't float.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-03-26 11:08:07

Snap wrote:

How to float X11 apps? This doesn't seem to work:
bspc rule -a xclock state=floating
bspc rule -a xcalc state=floating

bspc is fussy about the capitalisation.

For lxappearance, Lxappearance must be used even though lxappearance is listed first in the "WM_CLASS(STRING)" line of the xprop(1) output for that window.

Snap · 2016-03-26 19:04:08

Yup, I got it! It needs the class, not the window name. My fault. xprop came to the rescue.

xprop | grep WM_CLASS
WM_CLASS(STRING) = "xcalc", "XCalc"

The first name in the output is the window name, the second one is the window class. So it works like this:

bspc rule -a XClock state=floating
bspc rule -a XCalc state=floating

The same for urxvt. It didn't floated. The class is URxvt, though I made urxvt the scratchpad so in the end I didn't needded to use that class.

Thanks, HoaS.

For the first question before:

super + bracket{left,right}
	bspc desktop -f {prev,next}

left & right just doesn't work. I used many different keys replacing bracket before them and nothing worked. Made totally different keystrokes without left & right. Works fine now.

Still no idea why stealing focus while hovering a la wmfs2 stopped working either. Haven't solved this one yet. Aside of that, sxhkd is ok for now. I'm working in a nice set of dmenu scripts and customizing the bar. This is fun!

Snap · 2016-03-28 20:07:50

Silly me... It was as simple as this:

super + bracket{Left,Light}
	bspc desktop -f {prev,next}

Capital L and R. The strange thing is that this piece of code belongs to the default sxhkdrc example file provided by the developer. Does it work for anyone or is it just here? Just curious.

Found another weird thing (just in case it helps anyone). I launch tmux like this:

alt + F5
        urxvtc -e tmuxattach; \
        bspc node -d '^10' && bspc desktop -f '^10'

But using the same method to launch Firefox on desktop 2 doesn't work. It launches the program but only focus the desktop 2 after closing Firefox. Then it jumps. After trying differnt things I reverted the commands and voila.

alt + w
        bspc desktop -f '^2'; \
        x-www-browser

The weirdest thing is that it works for urxvt both ways, but for this app it needs to be in that specific order. First focus, then launch. Perhaps because it's darn slow at launch (urxvt/tmux is instant), or because it's GTK... Gonna try other GTK apps and report back if I find anything relevant.

Last edited by Snap (2016-03-28 20:11:43)

Snap · 2016-03-28 21:16:43

Yup, for GTK apps focus the desktop and then launch. It doesn't work the other way around. It should be a good practice to arrange all the same way for syntax consistency.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-03-29 01:17:08

Great stuff Snap, thanks for posting all your work

#21 2015-11-23 19:44:17

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#22 2015-11-23 20:23:50

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#23 2015-11-24 08:30:15

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#24 2015-11-24 09:35:19

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#25 2015-11-29 11:46:17

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#26 2016-03-21 23:05:01

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#27 2016-03-22 05:24:51

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#28 2016-03-22 11:35:30

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#29 2016-03-22 11:51:40

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#30 2016-03-22 19:08:14

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#31 2016-03-23 18:56:51

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#32 2016-03-24 07:03:41

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#33 2016-03-25 10:09:30

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#34 2016-03-25 10:36:10

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#35 2016-03-26 05:23:33

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#36 2016-03-26 11:08:07

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#37 2016-03-26 19:04:08

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#38 2016-03-28 20:07:50

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#39 2016-03-28 21:16:43

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

#40 2016-03-29 01:17:08

Re: Tiling the Lab: bspwm in BunsenLabs

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