Awesome

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Contents

[edit] Introduction

From the awesome website:

awesome is a floating and tiling window manager initially based on a dwm code rewriting. It's extremely fast, small, dynamic and awesome.

[edit] Installation

[edit] Standard Method

Awesome is available in the standard repositories (community): 

# pacman -S awesome

[edit] Development Snapshots

Git-based development versions are available from the AUR, such as awesome-git and awesome3-git, the latter of which is a cutting-edge version of the next major release.

If you're not sure which version is right for you, go with the standard installation mentioned above.

[edit] Getting Started

[edit] Using awesome

To start awesome from a login manager, see this article. SLiM is a popular lightweight login manager and comes highly recommended.

To run awesome without a login manager, simply add exec awesome to the startup script of your choice (e.g. ~/.xinitrc.)

[edit] Configuration

Awesome includes some good default settings right out of the box, but sooner or later you'll want to change something. Fortunately, awesome uses the standard dot-file configuration, in this case ~/.awesomerc.

[edit] Creating an .awesomerc file

Whenever compiled, awesome will attempt to use whatever custom settings are contained in ~/.awesomerc. This file is not created by default, so we must copy the template file first: 

$ cp /usr/share/awesome/awesomerc ~/.awesomerc

For more information about configuring awesome, check out the awesome wiki or run the following command: 

$ man awesomerc

[edit] Validating your .awesomerc file

It is good practice to validate the syntax of your .awesomerc configuration file whenever you make changes to it, to ensure that no errors exist. This is done easily by running the following command in a terminal: 

$ awesome -k

Assuming there are no issues with the config file, you'll see something like this: 

[user@host] $ awesome -k
Configuration file OK.

[edit] More configuration resources

Some good examples of .awesomerc would be (note that the awesomerc syntax changes regularly, so you will likely have to modify any configuration file you download):

[edit] Tips & Tricks

Feel free to add any tips or tricks that you would like to pass on to other awesome users.

[edit] Using awesome for the first time

Starting a new window manager for the first time, especially one without a built-in menu system can be daunting. Opening your awesomerc in a virtual console that you can then switch to to look at key-bindings is almost a necessity on your first launch.

[edit] Editing and validating config files

I use two terminals to edit .awesomerc. In the first I edit .awesomerc file, then save it. In the second one I run: 

$ awesome -k

to check config file for mistakes before I do "Mod4 + Ctrl+ r" to restart awesome/reload config. You can also do: 

$ echo 0 exec awesome | awesome-client

for the same thing.

[edit] Troubleshooting

[edit] Mod4 key

Alias the Win key. Somehow, my Mod4 key isn't mapped by default. If that's your case too, you can check the keycode of your Mod4 key with 

$ xev

It should be 115 for the left one. Then add this to your ~/.xinitrc 

xmodmap -e "keycode 115 = Super_L" -e "add mod4 = Super_L"
exec awesome

[edit] Additional Resources

Retrieved from "http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Awesome"
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