I decided to dive heads first into window managers and need your input for your guidance. I’m absolutely not a Linux-pro. I basically never use the terminal, just started using Github, and only used Gnome (+ KDE for 1/8th the time) for now.

I already informed myself in the last months a bit in what mess I will jump into, but that didn’t prepare me at all… Or at least not as much as I would have liked.
I find it a bit hard to get content for this topic. For Gnome or KDE for example exist trillions of videos and guides, and all TWM-content is only from and for hardcore enthusiasts who are already neck deep into that topic for decades.

One thing I already noticed is that everything is very technical. Everything is in a text file and accessed via terminal. I like that, but it’s just different.
Also, there’s no way to just learn one thing, no. You have to work yourself into many tools all at once, which is super frightening, but interesting.

First off all, I need your choice of packages to make it a fully functional desktop.

Right now, I use Niri, for now in a VM, which comes with a few basic things out of the box, like portals, and additional stuff, like some packages from Sway.
But basically everything else, like bars, decoration, and more, is not preinstalled.
When you use it the first time, it’s very barebones and no eye candy by default.

I would like to hear what “essential” stuff, and what “Because I like it”-stuff you suggest.
Maybe differentiate it with “I personally use it” and “You and everyone else should use that, it should be a default.”

Personally, I would like to have:

^(£ = nice to have; ¥ = basic functionality)

  • ¥ A bar, like waybar
  • £ KDE-Connect: does that work on TWMs? Is there a good implementation? Can I use GSConnect elsewhere too?
  • ¥ A good global search tool like KRunner or the one from Gnome
  • ¥ Clipboard manager
  • £ Wallpaper switcher
  • £ Eye candy in general, e.g. dotfiles (those are the settings for each element, like the bar, right?)
  • More things will be added later :)

Also, do you have any tips for a total noob in that topic? Any things you regretted when you started and now wish others to avoid?
General usage tips for someone who only used full fletched DEs until now?

And, most importantly, do you have any resources where I can read/ watch more into for the future?
Sure, the readme.md on the projects’ page is the best information for that specifically, especially technical stuff, but I don’t know where to get more general information, like discussions, comparisons, and more. The only example I can think of is !unixporn@lemmy.ml for inspiration, but not much more. Do you have any blogs or threads you can recommend?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I plan to post a “My Linux week”-report very soon, since there has been a lot happening in the last days. I literally just “discovered” Github for example 🫠

  • pathief@lemmy.world
    7·
    9 months ago

    From my personal experience, Tiling WM managers are a lot of work to setup. It’s not difficult to configure them, but they just come with REALLY barebones and honestly unusable defaults. There’s a lot to configure, which means a lot of documentation to learn. It doesn’t “just works”, you have to spend several hours to find out what works for you and figure how to make it work. That said, I had never tried a tiling WM before and managed to make it work just fine. It’s not hard, it’s just work.

    The easiest and fastest way to do this is start with someone else’s configuration. I started with Zaney’s dotfiles as they provided some good and USABLE defaults.

    Packages that I’m using:

    • Hyprland - my WM of choice, mostly because it’s pretty and very easy to configure

    • Waybar - You mentioned “like waybar”, I’m not sure you have anything against it or not. I really like waybar because configuration is a basic json file and styling is a basic CSS file. It’s very easy to work with, very easy to create your own customization. A few waybar “modules” that I recommend

      • nm_applet - A “system tray” network applet which integrates very easily and nicely to waybar. It allows you to configure your wi-fi/network without the command line.

      • swaync - Hyprland does not have a notification system, you need to install one. swaync is very nice and integrates perfectly into waybar

    • For a KRunner like tool, I use Tofi. Zaney recommended it, I don’t know many alternatives. Like many of these applications, the default aesthetics are really bad. Tofi in particular has atrocious defaults. Absolutely awful. The software itself runs quite well, it’s fast and can have a lot more useful applications than just running tools. Not sure why they don’t have a decent theme out of the box, it’s not that hard.

    • I have wl-clipboard installed. Not really a clipboard manager but sometimes I have troubles where some xwayland apps don’t have access to my clipboard. It’s weird. wl-paste | xclip -selection clipboard solves it.

    • For managing wallpapers I use swww. I don’t look at my wallpaper all that much, so I don’t have anything too fancy. I don’t change them often, this tool is more than enough for me. An overkill for my use-case.

    • I suggest you use nerd-fonts, whatever one you like. Personally I really like the JetBrains Mono Nerd Font.

    • pathief@lemmy.world
      2·
      9 months ago

      My system:

      My waybar dotfiles. You can create/edit these files with whatever text editor you like, you don’t need the terminal. Please note that for some reason Lemmy screws up the “&” when pasting code… Please replace all “&” with “&”.

      ~/.config/waybar/config (note: remove custom/gpu-util if you don’t have a nvidia video card, or change the command to whatever is the AMD equivalent)

      {
    "layer": "top",
    "position": "top",
    "modules-left": [
        "hyprland/workspaces"
    ],
    "modules-center": [
        "hyprland/window"
    ],
    "modules-right": [
        "cpu",
        "custom/gpu-util",
        "network#wifi",
        "pulseaudio",
        "clock",
        "tray",
        "custom/notification"
    ],
    "hyprland/workspaces": {
        "format": "{id}",
        "on-click": "activate",
        "sort-by": "number",
        "persistent-workspaces": {
            "*": 3
        },
        "all-outputs": false
    },
    "clock": {
        "format": "{:<span></span> %I:%M %p, %a %d}",
        "format-alt": "{:📅 %B %d, %Y}",
        "actions": {
            "on-click": "mode"
        },
        "tooltip": false
    },
    "cpu": {
        "interval": 5,
        "format": "<span>󰍛</span> {usage:2}%",
        "tooltip": false
    },
    "custom/gpu-util": {
        "exec": "echo $(nvidia-smi --query-gpu=utilization.gpu --format=csv,noheader,nounits)",
        "format": "<span>󰘚</span> {}%",
        "interval": 5,
        "tooltip": false
    },
    "network#wifi": {
        "interval": 1,
        "interface": "wlan0",
        "format-icons": [
            "󰤯",
            "󰤟",
            "󰤢",
            "󰤥",
            "󰤨"
        ],
        "format-wifi": "<span>{icon}</span> {signalStrength}%",
        "format-ethernet": "󰈀",
        "format-disconnected": "<span>󰤮 </span>",
        "tooltip": true,
        "tooltip-format-wifi": "<span>{icon}</span> {essid} ({signalStrength}%)"
    },
    "tray": {
        "spacing": 12
    },
    "pulseaudio": {
        "format": "<span>{icon}</span> {volume}%  {format_source}",
        "format-bluetooth": "<span>{icon}</span> {volume}%  {format_source}",
        "format-bluetooth-muted": "<span>󰖁</span>  {format_source}",
        "format-muted": "<span>󰖁</span>  {format_source}",
        "format-source": "<span></span> {volume}%",
        "format-source-muted": "<span></span>",
        "format-icons": {
            "headphone": "",
            "phone": "",
            "portable": "",
            "default": [
                "",
                "",
                ""
            ]
        },
        "on-click": "pavucontrol",
        "input": true
    },
    "custom/notification": {
        "tooltip": false,
        "format": "{icon} {}",
        "format-icons": {
            "notification": "<span></span><span><sup></sup></span>",
            "none": "",
            "dnd-notification": "<span></span><span><sup></sup></span>",
            "dnd-none": "",
            "inhibited-notification": "<span></span><span><sup></sup></span>",
            "inhibited-none": "",
            "dnd-inhibited-notification": "<span></span><span><sup></sup></span>",
            "dnd-inhibited-none": ""
        },
        "return-type": "json",
        "exec-if": "which swaync-client",
        "exec": "swaync-client -swb",
        "on-click": "sleep 0.1 &amp;&amp; swaync-client -t -sw",
        "escape": true
    },
    "hyprland/window": {
        "separate-outputs": true,
        "max-length": 100
    }
}

      ~/.config/waybar/style.css

      /**
 * Global Colors
 */
@define-color bg #434C5E;
@define-color bg_lighter #546484;
@define-color fg #D8DEE9;
@define-color red_warn #BF616A;


/**
 * Global style
 */
* {
	font-size: 14px;
	font-family: JetBrains Mono Nerd Font, Font Awesome, sans-serif;
    font-weight: bold;
    border-radius: 5px;
    color: @fg;
    border: 0px;
}


/**
 *  Bar
 */
#waybar {
	background-color: rgba(46, 52, 64, 0.6);
    border-radius: 0;
}

/**
 * Default module styles
 */
#window,
#custom-packages,
#memory,
#clock,
#custom-gpu-util,
#cpu,
#gpu-util
#disk,
#battery,
#network,
#tray,
#pulseaudio,
#custom-notification {
    background: @bg;
    margin: 5px;
    padding: 2px 10px;
}


/**
 * WORKSPACES module specific style
 */
#workspaces {
	background: @bg;
    margin: 5px 3px 5px 12px;
    padding: 0px 2px;
    font-style: normal;
}

#workspaces button {
    padding: 0px 8px;
    margin: 4px;
    background-color: @bg_lighter;
    opacity: 0.7;
    transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;
}

#workspaces button.active {
    background: @red_warn;
    min-width: 40px;
    transition: all 0.3s ease-in-out;
    opacity: 1.0;
}

#workspaces button:hover {
    background: @red_warn;
    opacity: 1.0;
}


/**
 * Tooltip style
 */
tooltip {
  background: @bg;
  border: 1px solid @bg_lighter;
  opacity: 0.9;
}

tooltip label {
  color: @fg;
}
    • Petter1@lemm.ee
      1·
      9 months ago

      Is it possible to install hyprland side by side with GNOME so that I can choose in the login phase which I want to use? (Arch)

      • pathief@lemmy.world
        2·
        9 months ago

        In the documentation, Hyprland states login managers are not officially supported. However, I’ve always launch it from the SDDM login manager and it has worked flawlessly. I still have KDE installed and occasionally check it out, no issues.

        I can’t comment on other login managers but SDDM works perfectly.