awesome

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awesome is a highly configurable, next generation, dynamic window manager for X. It is primarily targeted at power users, developers and any people dealing with every day computing tasks and who want to have fine-grained control on their graphical environment. It is extended using the Lua programming language.

Prerequisites

Services

Choose exactly one of:

elogind: Standalone logind package, extracted from the systemd project for use with OpenRC or other init systems.
systemd: Uses the session tracker part of systemd. Users of systemd do not need to take any other initiative here.

Miscellaneous

D-Bus: Enables use of the D-Bus message bus system.
polkit: Enables the polkit framework for controlling privileges for system-wide services.
udisks: Enables support for some storage related services.

X server

Follow the instructions on Xorg/Guide to set up the X environment.

Starting the X server

One of the following methods can be used to start X:

Display manager: Presents the user with a graphical login screen.
X without Display Manager: When running a single-user system, one may find display managers an unnecessary waste of resources.

Installation

USE flags

USE flags for x11-wm/awesome A dynamic floating and tiling window manager

`dbus`	Enable dbus support for anything that needs it (gpsd, gnomemeeting, etc)
`doc`	Add extra documentation (API, Javadoc, etc). It is recommended to enable per package instead of globally
`gnome`	Add GNOME support
`test`	Enable dependencies and/or preparations necessary to run tests (usually controlled by FEATURES=test but can be toggled independently)

Data provided by the Gentoo Package Database · Last update: 2024-06-28 11:12 More information about USE flags

Emerge

Install x11-wm/awesome:

root #emerge --ask x11-wm/awesome

Configuration

Starting

To start awesome, refer to Starting the X server or use the command startx.

To use startx with elogind support, setup elogind and create the following file:

FILE ~/.xinitrc

exec dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session awesome

Configuration file

The default configuration file of awesome is located in ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua. If such a directory or file does not exist then it needs to be created. A default, out of the box, configuration is distributed with awesome and can be found at /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua. Copy that configuration file to the user's home directory.

First create the awesome/ directory:

user $mkdir -p ~/.config/awesome/

Next copy the rc.lua configuration file:

user $cp /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua

If x11-terms/xterm is not installed, either install it or change the default terminal emulator to the terminal emulator available on the system. Below, the default terminal emulator is set to konsole, part of kde-apps/konsole.

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua

-- This is used later as the default terminal and editor to run.
terminal = "konsole"

After making changes it is useful to check the configuration file for errors:

user $awesome -k

✔ Configuration file syntax OK

Add wallpaper support through the media-gfx/feh package:

root #emerge --ask media-gfx/feh

For instance, to use awsetbg to set the wallpaper, edit ~/.config/awesome/theme/theme.lua:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/theme/theme.luaSetting a specific background using awsetbg

theme.wallpaper_cmd = { "awsetbg -f .config/awesome/themes/awesome-wallpaper.png" }

Or simply set the wallpaper property of the theme:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/theme/theme.luaSetting a specific background using the wallpaper property

theme.wallpaper = ".config/awesome/themes/awesome-wallpaper.png"

Tags

In awesome, tags are the name given to virtual desktops under which one or more applications are running. It is possible to assign custom symbols to these tags:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua

-- {{{ Tags
tags = {}
for s = 1, screen.count() do
    tags[s] = awful.tag({ "➊", "➋", "➌", "➍" }, s, layouts[1])
end
-- }}}

-- {{{ Menu
myawesomemenu = {
   { "manual", terminal .. " -e man awesome" },
   { "edit config", editor_cmd .. " " .. awesome.conffile },
   { "reload", awesome.restart },
   { "quit", awesome.quit },
   { "reboot", "reboot" },
   { "shutdown", "shutdown" }
}
 
appsmenu = {
   { "urxvt", "urxvt" },
   { "sakura", "sakura" },
   { "ncmpcpp", terminal .. " -e ncmpcpp" },
   { "luakit", "luakit" },
   { "uzbl", "uzbl-browser" },
   { "firefox", "firefox" },
   { "chromium", "chromium" },
   { "thunar", "thunar" },
   { "ranger", terminal .. " -e ranger" },
   { "gvim", "gvim" },
   { "leafpad", "leafpad" },
   { "htop", terminal .. " -e htop" },
   { "sysmonitor", "gnome-system-monitor" }
}
 
gamesmenu = {
   { "warsow", "warsow" },
   { "nexuiz", "nexuiz" },
   { "xonotic", "xonotic" },
   { "openarena", "openarena" },
   { "alienarena", "alienarena" },
   { "teeworlds", "teeworlds" },
   { "frozen-bubble", "frozen-bubble" },
   { "warzone2100", "warzone2100" },
   { "wesnoth", "wesnoth" },
   { "supertuxkart", "supertuxkart" },
   { "xmoto" , "xmoto" },
   { "flightgear", "flightgear" },
   { "snes9x" , "snes9x" }
}
 
mymainmenu = awful.menu({ items = { { "awesome", myawesomemenu },
                                    { "apps", appsmenu },
				    { "games", gamesmenu },
                                    { "terminal", terminal },
				    { "web browser", browser },
				    { "text editor", geditor }
                                  }
                        })
 
mylauncher = awful.widget.launcher({ image = image(beautiful.awesome_icon),
                                     menu = mymainmenu })
-- }}}

Date

Below is an example use of a custom date format. The format syntax used is %Y-%m-%d %H:%M. The second option, 60, is the update interval in seconds.

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.luaCreating a text-clock widget

-- {{{ Wibox
-- Create a text-clock widget
mytextclock = wibox.widget.textclock(" %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ", 60)
-- }}}

Note
For more information about the format options run date --help

Volume control

media-sound/volumeicon can be used to handle volume keys automatically, and to show the volume level through a tray icon.

root #emerge --ask media-sound/volumeicon

Autostart volumeicon from within ~/.xinitrc:

FILE ~/.xinitrcLaunching volumeicon in the background when starting X

volumeicon &
exec [...]

Alternatively, a lightweight method is to add volume keys straight into the awesome configuration:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.luaVolume keys

awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioLowerVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer -q sset Master 5%-") end)
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioRaiseVolume", function () awful.util.spawn("amixer -q sset Master 5%+") end)

MPD multimedia keys

Install media-sound/mpc to add multimedia key bindings for MPD:

root #emerge --ask media-sound/mpc

Next update the awesome configuration to assign the multimedia keys to the proper command:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.luaVolume key bindings

awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioNext",function () awful.util.spawn( "mpc next" ) end),
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioPrev",function () awful.util.spawn( "mpc prev" ) end),
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioPlay",function () awful.util.spawn( "mpc play" ) end),
awful.key({ }, "XF86AudioStop",function () awful.util.spawn( "mpc pause" ) end),

Removing window gaps

Gaps between windows can be visible, most noticeably between terminal windows. These can be removed by inserting the size_hints_honor = false property in the awful.rules.rules table like this:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.luaSetting size_hints_honor property

awful.rules.rules = {
    { rule = { },
      properties = { size_hints_honor = false, -- Remove gaps
                     border_width = beautiful.border_width,
                     border_color = beautiful.border_normal,
      ...

Debugging the configuration with Xephyr

Xephyr is a useful tool for debugging new configuration files as it creates an instance of an X server within a client window.

user $Xephyr -ac -nolisten tcp -br -noreset -screen 800x600 :1

This will open an 800x600 window. To run awesome within it open a new terminal and run the following:

user $DISPLAY=:1.0 awesome

This will run awesome within a window.

Keyboard shortcuts

These are the most useful default shortcuts:

Super+Mouse1 = move client with mouse
Super+Mouse2 = resize client with mouse

Super+Enter = open terminal
Super+r = run command
Super+Shift+c = kill
Super+m = maximize
Super+n = minimize
Super+Ctrl+n = restore minimized clients
Super+f = full screen
Super+Tab = switch to previous client
Super+Ctrl+Space = float

Super+j = highlight left client
Super+k = highlight right client
Super+Shift+j = move client right
Super+Shift+k = move client left

Super+l = resize tiled client
Super+h = resize tiled client

Super+left / right = change tag
Super+1-9 = change tag
Super+Shift+1-9 = send client to tag

Custom key bindings, like Alt+Tab, can be mapped to make the awesome experience even better. For instance, to use Alt+Tab to switch to the previous window:

FILE ~/.config/awesome/rc.luaAlt-TAB key binding

-- {{{ Key bindings
globalkeys = awful.util.table.join(
...
    -- alt + tab
    awful.key({ "Mod1", }, "Tab",
        function ()
            awful.client.focus.history.previous()
            if client.focus then
                client.focus:raise()
            end
        end),
-- }}}

External resources

User Configuration Files at awesome wiki (web.archive.org)
Desktop profile switching USE default to elogind