Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

DeepDayze · 2019-04-27 15:53:53

Nice writeup and I may give Awesome a whirl one of these days. How lightweight can you go with a WM?

PackRat · 2019-04-27 17:06:04

DeepDayze wrote:

How lightweight can you go with a WM?

In general? Pretty low, but you start to lose basic features. Scroll down for a comparison - window manager comparison

Awesome is similar to openbox, i3, and fluxbox once you start running some widgets with it.

17.9 MiB +   3.8 MiB =  21.7 MiB       awesome

Last edited by PackRat (2019-04-27 22:45:08)

DeepDayze · 2019-04-27 23:43:30

PackRat wrote:

DeepDayze wrote:
How lightweight can you go with a WM?
In general? Pretty low, but you start to lose basic features. Scroll down for a comparison - window manager comparison
Awesome is similar to openbox, i3, and fluxbox once you start running some widgets with it.
17.9 MiB +   3.8 MiB =  21.7 MiB       awesome

Cool, and from the screenshot that Triple H posted it looks close to openbox with the background and the layout. Can Tint2 be used with Awesome?

PackRat · 2019-04-28 02:20:55

Can Tint2 be used with Awesome?

Not very well (if at all); that may have changed, I haven't tried tint2 with awesome in about a year. Awesome is not fully EWMH compliant. What were you needing from tint2? The default configuration for awesome includes a panel (wibar) that includes tag list, iconbar, systemtray and clock. Better aesthetics with tint2, but there are enough 3rd party widgets available to replicate tint2 and conky functionality on the wibar.

xfce-panel works better, and no problems with polybar.

Last edited by PackRat (2019-04-28 02:31:34)

DeepDayze · 2019-04-28 02:33:26

PackRat wrote:

Can Tint2 be used with Awesome?
Not very well (if at all); that may have changed, I haven't tried tint2 with awesome in about a year. Awesome is not fully EWMH compliant. What were you needing from tint2? The default configuration for awesome includes a panel (wibar) that includes tag list, iconbar, systemtray and clock. Better aesthetics with tint2, but there are enough 3rd party widgets available to replicate tint2 and conky functionality on the wibar.
xfce-panel works better, and no problems with polybar.

OK great tip and I'll give the wibar a spin and see how closely I can replicate in wibar as in Tint2/xfce-panel. For tint2 be using the default BL config and will it work?

PackRat · 2019-04-28 02:44:28

DeepDayze wrote:

PackRat wrote:
Can Tint2 be used with Awesome?
Not very well (if at all); that may have changed, I haven't tried tint2 with awesome in about a year. Awesome is not fully EWMH compliant. What were you needing from tint2? The default configuration for awesome includes a panel (wibar) that includes tag list, iconbar, systemtray and clock. Better aesthetics with tint2, but there are enough 3rd party widgets available to replicate tint2 and conky functionality on the wibar.
xfce-panel works better, and no problems with polybar.
OK great tip and I'll give the wibar a spin and see how closely I can replicate in wibar as in Tint2/xfce-panel. For tint2 be using the default BL config and will it work?

You posted before I could edit - From the Arch Forum - you get the idea about using 3rd part panels with tint2, hasn't changed much since that thread.

It will take some scripting, but I think the default BL tint2 layout can be replicated in the awesome wibar. I know the launchers can be created as widgets, and the system tray and clock are available OOTB. I've don't recall seeing the tasklist widget laid out in multi-desk pager mode. That would need some scripting.

DeepDayze · 2019-04-28 03:06:32

PackRat wrote:

DeepDayze wrote:
PackRat wrote:
Not very well (if at all); that may have changed, I haven't tried tint2 with awesome in about a year. Awesome is not fully EWMH compliant. What were you needing from tint2? The default configuration for awesome includes a panel (wibar) that includes tag list, iconbar, systemtray and clock. Better aesthetics with tint2, but there are enough 3rd party widgets available to replicate tint2 and conky functionality on the wibar.
xfce-panel works better, and no problems with polybar.
OK great tip and I'll give the wibar a spin and see how closely I can replicate in wibar as in Tint2/xfce-panel. For tint2 be using the default BL config and will it work?
You posted before I could edit - From the Arch Forum - you get the idea about using 3rd part panels with tint2, hasn't changed much since that thread.
It will take some scripting, but I think the default BL tint2 layout can be replicated in the awesome wibar. I know the launchers can be created as widgets, and the system tray and clock are available OOTB. I've don't recall seeing the tasklist widget laid out in multi-desk pager mode. That would need some scripting.

Guess I was too fast posting smile

Got a lot to learn about scripting to be able to replicate the BL setup in wibar. Awesome looks nice and I plan to spend some time playing with it with a VM install of BL.

hhh · 2019-04-28 05:00:19

PackRat wrote:

Curse you for getting me started on this

It's a curse I'll just have to bear. smile I'm loving this awesome session.

re: RAM, the awesome config in this guide uses most of the same daemons and programs as BL Openbox (power manager, network manager, pnmixer, compton, gnome-daemon gets started, polkit gets started...) so the result is almost identical RAM usage. About ~280M during desktop idle once thunar has been opened, which starts tumblerd and more gvfs processes like Trash. That's on the 64bit version with 3G of RAM installed.

hhh · 2019-04-28 08:12:27

As PackRat said, tint2 with awesome sucks. The placement is all wonky,for one thing.

xfce4-panel works great, though...

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/aw … th_awesome

So if you're using this tutorial and you've installed xfce4-panel, you can add that to your autorun.sh and then comment out the following block in rc.lua that starts around line #230, thusly...

--[[
    -- Create the wibox
    s.mywibox = awful.wibar({ position = "top", screen = s })

--!Panel widgets
    -- Add widgets to the wibox
    s.mywibox:setup {
        layout = wibox.layout.align.horizontal,
        { -- Left widgets
            layout = wibox.layout.fixed.horizontal,
--!            mylauncher,
            s.mytaglist,
            s.mypromptbox,
        },
        s.mytasklist, -- Middle widget
        { -- Right widgets
            layout = wibox.layout.fixed.horizontal,
--!            mykeyboardlayout,
            wibox.widget.systray(),
            mytextclock,
--!            s.mylayoutbox,
        },
    }
--]]
end)
-- }}}

And at line #202...[code]    -- Each screen has its own tag table.
--!    awful.tag({ "1", "2", "3", "4", "5" }, s, awful.layout.layouts[1])

    awful.tag({ "1", "2" }, s, awful.layout.layouts[1])[/code]

-- {{{ Mouse bindings

And pic or it didn't happen...

Last edited by hhh (2019-04-28 08:13:23)

PackRat · 2019-04-28 12:43:05

^ looks good; if you open some windows can you control them (focus, minimize etc ...) from the xfce4-panel window buttons? I can in Void and ArchLabs. I suspect Debian Stable will be as functional.

If a user really needs the bells and whistles, awesome can be used as the window manager in xfce4 desktop (not the subject for a beginner's tutorial though):

hhh · 2019-04-28 13:36:59

^Yes, the taksbar icons work as expected (-edit- Wrong. Clicking a running app's panel icon isn't minimizing, but right-click and choose the menu item does. Clicking the icon restores it as expected). It takes a few seconds to open, and Conky is causing problems, it's appearing above opened windows. If I restart conky everything behaves normally.

How do I add a sleep time to the autorun? 'run (sleep 20 && bl-conky-session)' doesn't work.

PackRat · 2019-04-28 14:02:55

I think you need to specify the time units -

sleep 2s && conky-script <-- that "s" for seconds is required, I believe.

For conky, you can also use the -p flag in your script/command.

For that conky clock, you may just want to go with "own_window = false" and let it draw directly to the desktop.

hhh · 2019-04-28 14:36:08

PackRat wrote:

^ looks good; if you open some windows can you control them (focus, minimize etc ...) from the xfce4-panel window buttons? I can in Void and ArchLabs. I suspect Debian Stable will be as functional.
If a user really needs the bells and whistles, awesome can be used as the window manager in xfce4 desktop (not the subject for a beginner's tutorial though):
https://cdn.scrot.moe/images/2019/03/01/2019-03-01-04-51-03.th.png
https://cdn.scrot.moe/images/2019/03/01/2019-03-01-04-52-00.th.png

Lovely. What's the code to keep the window-list in the panel @ ~200px like you have it? Is it possible to just display icons with no title text?

Also, I can't get window active-border-highlight colors to work, the option in theme.lua isn't working, either.

PackRat · 2019-04-28 23:12:17

Lovely. What's the code to keep the window-list in the panel @ ~200px like you have it? Is it possible to just display icons with no title text?

That's xfce4-panel; so unchecking the "show labels" for the window button item will show icons only. The button width is in the gtk theme isn't it? User should be able to use tint2 instead if desired.

PackRat · 2019-04-28 23:17:46

Also, I can't get window active-border-highlight colors to work, the option in theme.lua isn't working, either.

What code are you using?

Something like this not working?

theme.border_focus  = "#478061"

I think the theme is read top down; you have that line later in the theme.lua messing you up?

hhh · 2019-04-29 05:09:50

PackRat wrote:

Lovely. What's the code to keep the window-list in the panel @ ~200px like you have it? Is it possible to just display icons with no title text?
That's xfce4-panel; so unchecking the "show labels" for the window button item will show icons only. The button width is in the gtk theme isn't it? User should be able to use tint2 instead if desired.

Lol, nice config. I thought it was tint2. big_smile

I'll troubleshoot later, tough day at the office. Thanks for the suggestions!

hhh · 2019-04-29 05:22:24

PackRat wrote:

For that conky clock, you may just want to go with "own_window = false" and let it draw directly to the desktop.

Cannot recommend, both awesome and openbox WMs went all Five-0 with the blinking and the flashing, I had to drop to the console to fix it.

PackRat · 2019-04-29 12:09:36

Lovely. What's the code to keep the window-list in the panel @ ~200px like you have it? Is it possible to just display icons with no title text?

Regular tint2 taskbar button configuration.

If a user runs awesome as the window manager for xfce4 desktop enironment, the default BL tint2 should work out of the box.
No, tint2 location still messed up.

Last edited by PackRat (2019-04-29 13:39:17)

bigbenaugust · 2019-04-29 16:05:32

I use awesome, but have stuck with the Debian defaults, only changing the font to Terminus-12, adding Alt+Win+L to lock, and disabling a few of the tiling options (but not all of them like upthread).

wrobat · 2019-06-26 01:57:00

I just installed awesome and was able to login but after I made the 3 config files I get kicked back to the login. I did a copy and paste on the files and made sure the names are correct. Once I remove the files I can login again. I feel like I did something really stupid.
I appreciate all your help. Thank you.

deanr72 · 2021-03-28 08:22:35

This is great.

I've been playing with awesomewm over the last month or so and there's something about it I really like. I'm only on #3 of your thread so far but wanted to say here and now that I really appreciate the time and effort you've put into this.

Much obliged.

Last edited by deanr72 (2021-03-28 08:23:19)

sleekmason · 2021-03-28 22:27:36

deanr72 wrote:

This is great.
I've been playing with awesomewm over the last month or so and there's something about it I really like. I'm only on #3 of your thread so far but wanted to say here and now that I really appreciate the time and effort you've put into this.
Much obliged.

Thank you for finding this! @hhh this looks . . . great:) Bookmarked.

PackRat · 2021-03-29 00:08:44

wrobat wrote:

I just installed awesome and was able to login but after I made the 3 config files I get kicked back to the login. I did a copy and paste on the files and made sure the names are correct. Once I remove the files I can login again. I feel like I did something really stupid.
I appreciate all your help. Thank you.

@wrobat - did you ever figure out what the error was that caused this?

DeepDayze · 2021-03-29 01:25:01

PackRat wrote:

hhh wrote:
PackRat wrote:
Users need to keep in mind that lua (and therefore awesome) is not always backwards compatible
Just erring on the side of caution. I originally mentioned jessie as a marginal case, anyway.
lua code is also not necessarily compatible from one rc.lua to another even though the versions of awesome/lua are the same. I'm finding that out right now trying to port some keybindings for window movement over from the ArchLabs config to my own config. Can't bring the bindings and helper function over directly; going to need to translate some additional lua to get them working.
Curse you for getting me started on this

Even different versions of Lua will trip you up.

#26 2019-04-27 15:53:53

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#27 2019-04-27 17:06:04

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#28 2019-04-27 23:43:30

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#29 2019-04-28 02:20:55

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#30 2019-04-28 02:33:26

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#31 2019-04-28 02:44:28

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#32 2019-04-28 03:06:32

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#33 2019-04-28 05:00:19

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#34 2019-04-28 08:12:27

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#35 2019-04-28 12:43:05

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#36 2019-04-28 13:36:59

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#37 2019-04-28 14:02:55

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#38 2019-04-28 14:36:08

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#39 2019-04-28 23:12:17

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#40 2019-04-28 23:17:46

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#41 2019-04-29 05:09:50

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#42 2019-04-29 05:22:24

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#43 2019-04-29 12:09:36

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#44 2019-04-29 16:05:32

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#45 2019-06-26 01:57:00

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#46 2021-03-28 08:22:35

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#47 2021-03-28 22:27:36

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#48 2021-03-29 00:08:44

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

#49 2021-03-29 01:25:01

Re: Beginner tutorial: Awesome WM, a tiling window manager

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