Dwm

From ArchWiki

Jump to: navigation, search


Contents

[edit] Abstract

This is a howto for the dwm window manager. dwm is a dynamic window manager for X and is extremely light weight and extremely fast. Note, it is not for novice users as almost, if not, all of the extras of KDE and Gnome that you are used do not exist in dwm.

[edit] Getting Started

dwm is now available from Arch's community repository. You can install it by issuing this command: 

pacman -Sy dwm

[edit] Post Installation

After you have downloaded and installed dwm using pacman you go ahead and get started using it. It should be noted that currently dwm is configured through its source. If you simply download and install it, then you'll be given the default setup.

Fire up your favorite text editor and add dwm to your xinitrc script: 

su
nano -w /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc

Your's should look something like this: 

#!/bin/sh
# $XConsortium: xinitrc.cpp,v 1.4 91/08/22 11:41:34 rws Exp $

userresources=$HOME/.Xresources
usermodmap=$HOME/.Xmodmap
sysresources=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xresources
sysmodmap=/usr/X11R6/lib/X11/xinit/.Xmodmap

# merge in defaults and keymaps

if [ -f $sysresources ]; then
    xrdb -merge $sysresources
fi

if [ -f $sysmodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $sysmodmap
fi

if [ -f $userresources ]; then
    xrdb -merge $userresources
fi

if [ -f $usermodmap ]; then
    xmodmap $usermodmap
fi

# start some nice programs
exec dwm

When I installed it on my laptop I had to use the following line: 

DISPLAY=my_host:0 exec dwm

instead of 

exec dwm

Finally, now all you need to do is 

startx

at the command line.

Enjoy.

[edit] Using dwm with a login manager

If you are using the SLIM login manager, then there's no need to worry, as SLiM reads .xinitrc by default. For GDM, copy your .xinitrc to .Xclients and select "Run XClient Script" from the Sessions menu.

[edit] Applications On Startup

In .xinitrc replace exec dwm with exec ~/.dwm-launch

Edit ~/.dwm-launch with the programs you want to launch 

vi ~/.dwm-launch
~/.setbg&
autocutsel&
termirssi&
urxvt&
dwm

Note all programs have have & at the end, except dwm.

[edit] Clock In Statusbar

From the previous step edit ~/.dwm-launch. 

while true
do
echo `date +"[ %a %d %b ] [ %I:%M %p ]"`
sleep 2
done | dwm

Make sure there is only one dwm in the file. It should look like 

~/.setbg
autocutsel&
termirssi&
urxvt&
while true
do
echo `date +"[ %a %d %b ] [ %I:%M %p ]"`
sleep 2
done | dwm

[edit] Outside Resources

HowTo by Snake

[edit] Add more info here

Retrieved from "http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Dwm"
Personal tools