xmonad: a tiling window manager

by | Mar 13, 2010 | IT, Linux, Software, Ubuntu | 2 comments

Have you ever felt that it is just annoying to use your mouse with a ? or that resizing manually windows as you need to see more? If yes is for you. It is based on haskell.

It was quite easy to implement and replace metacity under .

It is not so difficult to make it happen.

Here are the steps:
First we need to tell to gnome-session to use xmonad instead of metacity.

desktop ~/ $
gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager xmonad --type string

You need a file applications/xmonad.desktop to start xmonad at login.

desktop ~/ $  cat /usr/share/applications/xmonad.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xmonad
Exec=xmonad
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-WMName=Xmonad
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=WindowManager
X-GNOME-Provides=windowmanager
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=true

Next to your gnome-session you need to run a separate xmonad session. For this you need a xsessions/xmonad.desktop

desktop ~/ $ cat /usr/share/xsessions/xmonad.desktop 
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=XMonad
Comment=Lightweight tiling window manager
Exec=xmonad
Icon=xmonad.png
Type=XSession

Than edit you X settings to run the ~/.xsession

desktop ~ $ cat /etc/X11/sessions/Xsessions.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Xsession
Comment=This runs ~/.xsession
Exec=/etc/X11/Xsession

Than edit the ~/.xsession

desktop ~ $ cat ~/.xsession
export WINDOW_MANAGER="/usr/bin/xmonad"
exec gnome-session

That's all. Enjoy.

Everything can be customised to give you and idea here are my config files. inspired by the code of Øyvind ‘Mr.Elendig' Heggstad
Here is my ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

desktop ~/.xmonad $
{- xmonad.hs
 - Author: dexter
 -}
 
-- Imports --
import XMonad
import qualified XMonad.StackSet as W
import qualified Data.Map as M
import System.Exit
import Graphics.X11.Xlib
import IO (Handle, hPutStrLn) 
 
-- utils
import XMonad.Util.Run (spawnPipe)
 
-- hooks
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
 
-- layouts
import XMonad.Layout.NoBorders
import XMonad.Layout.ResizableTile
 
-- Main --
main = do
       h <- spawnPipe "/usr/bin/xmobar"
       xmonad $ defaultConfig
              { workspaces = workspaces'
              , modMask = modMask'
              , borderWidth = borderWidth'
              , normalBorderColor = normalBorderColor'
              , focusedBorderColor = focusedBorderColor'
              , terminal = terminal'
              , keys = keys'
              , logHook = logHook' h
              , layoutHook = layoutHook'
              , manageHook = manageHook'
              }
 
-- Hooks --
manageHook' :: ManageHook
manageHook' = (doF W.swapDown) <+> manageHook defaultConfig <+> manageDocks
 
logHook' :: Handle ->  X ()
-- logHook' h = dynamicLogWithPP $ customPP { ppOutput = hPutStrLn h }
logHook' h = dynamicLogWithPP $ customPP 
 
layoutHook' = customLayout
 
-- Looks --
-- bar
customPP :: PP
customPP = defaultPP { ppCurrent = xmobarColor "$AFAF87" "" . wrap "<" ">"
                     , ppTitle =  shorten 80
                     , ppSep =  " | "
                     , ppHiddenNoWindows = xmobarColor "$AFAF87" ""
                     , ppUrgent = xmobarColor "$FFFFAF" "" . wrap "[" "]"
                     }
 
-- borders
borderWidth' :: Dimension
borderWidth' = 1
 
normalBorderColor', focusedBorderColor' :: String
normalBorderColor'  = "$333333"
focusedBorderColor' = "$FF0000"
 
-- workspaces
workspaces' :: [WorkspaceId]
workspaces' = ["1-main", "2-SKYPE", "3-web", "4-icst", "5-rackspace", "6-dev", "7", "8", "9-mail"]
 
-- layouts
customLayout = avoidStruts $ smartBorders tiled ||| smartBorders (Mirror tiled)  ||| noBorders Full
  where
    tiled = ResizableTall 1 (2/100) (1/2) []
 
-- Terminal --
terminal' :: String
terminal' = "gnome-terminal"
 
-- Keys/Button bindings --
-- modmask
modMask' :: KeyMask
modMask' = mod4Mask
 
-- keys
keys' :: XConfig Layout -> M.Map (KeyMask, KeySym) (X ())
keys' conf@(XConfig {XMonad.modMask = modMask}) = M.fromList $
    -- launching and killing programs
    [ ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_Return), spawn $ XMonad.terminal conf)
    , ((modMask,               xK_p     ), spawn "exe=`dmenu_path | dmenu` &amp;&amp; eval \"exec $exe\"")
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_p     ), spawn "gmrun")
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_c     ), kill)
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_m     ), spawn "claws-mail")
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_e     ), spawn "emacs")
 
    -- layouts
    , ((modMask,               xK_space ), sendMessage NextLayout)
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_space ), setLayout $ XMonad.layoutHook conf)
    , ((modMask,               xK_b     ), sendMessage ToggleStruts)
 
    -- floating layer stuff
    , ((modMask,               xK_t     ), withFocused $ windows . W.sink)
 
    -- refresh
    , ((modMask,               xK_n     ), refresh)
 
    -- focus
    , ((modMask,               xK_Tab   ), windows W.focusDown)
    , ((modMask,               xK_j     ), windows W.focusDown)
    , ((modMask,               xK_k     ), windows W.focusUp)
    , ((modMask,               xK_m     ), windows W.focusMaster)
 
    -- swapping
    , ((modMask,		xK_Return), windows W.swapMaster)
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_j     ), windows W.swapDown  )
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_k     ), windows W.swapUp    )
 
    -- increase or decrease number of windows in the master area
    , ((modMask              , xK_comma ), sendMessage (IncMasterN 1))
    , ((modMask              , xK_period), sendMessage (IncMasterN (-1)))
 
    -- resizing
    , ((modMask,               xK_h     ), sendMessage Shrink)
    , ((modMask,               xK_l     ), sendMessage Expand)
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_h     ), sendMessage MirrorShrink)
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_l     ), sendMessage MirrorExpand)
 
    -- quit, or restart
    , ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_q     ), io (exitWith ExitSuccess))
    , ((modMask              , xK_q     ), restart "xmonad" True)
    -- shutdown
    , ((modMask              , xK_F12    ), spawn "sudo halt")
    , ((modMask .|. controlMask, xK_F11   ), spawn "gnome-screensaver-command -l")
 
    ]
    ++
    -- mod-[1..9] %! Switch to workspace N
    -- mod-shift-[1..9] %! Move client to workspace N
    [((m .|. modMask, k), windows $ f i)
        | (i, k) <- zip (XMonad.workspaces conf) [xK_1 .. xK_9]
        , (f, m) <- [(W.greedyView, 0), (W.shift, shiftMask)]]

as you can see I have a xmobar, here is my ~/.xmobarrc

desktop ~/ $
Config { font = "-*-Fixed-Bold-R-Normal-*-13-*-*-*-*-*-*-*"
       , bgColor = "black"
       , fgColor = "grey"
       , position = Bottom
       , lowerOnStart = False
       , commands = [ Run Weather "LIPB" ["-t",": C","-L","18","-H","25","--normal","green","--high","red","--low","lightblue"] 36000
                    , Run Network "eth0" ["-L","0","-H","32","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
                    , Run Network "wlan0" ["-L","0","-H","32","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
                    , Run Cpu ["-L","3","-H","50","--normal","green","--high","red"] 10
                    , Run Memory ["-t","Mem: %"] 54
                    , Run Swap [] 10
                    , Run Com "uname" ["-s","-r"] "" 36000
                    , Run Date "%a %b %_d %Y %H:%M:%S" "date" 10
		    , Run Battery ["-t","Batt: ","-L","10","--low","red"] 10
		    , Run Com "uname" ["-s","-r"] "" 36000
		    , Run StdinReader
                    ]
       , sepChar = "%"
       , alignSep = "}{"
       , template = "%cpu% | %memory% * %swap% | %eth0% - %wlan0% | %battery%} { %date% | %uname%"
       }

And finally a screenshot to have an idea.

2 Comments

  1. soderstrom
    soderstrom on 2010/08/31 at 11:27:12

    thanks for providing the guide, it was very useful! Do you have any new xmonad.hs configuration to share? Are you still using xmonad or find a better alternative? I tried awesome window manager for a while, but prefere xmonad for now.

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