bspwm. Installation and configuration. Artix

Bspwm is a minimalistic, fast and highly configurable tiling window manager that represents windows as layers of a binary tree. Multiple monitors supported. Has a simple setup.

As a quick installation solution, you can use my installation script.

What will be used:

• bspwm – Tiling window manager.

• sxhkd – Hot key daemon for X.

• dmenu – Dynamic menu for X.

• polybar – A tool for creating status bars.

• picom – Window composer for X.

These components are light and fast, contain a small number of dependencies.

You can easily replace some of the components with more beautiful ones:

• Instead of dmenu you can use Rofi, but you should take into account the power of your machine. on a weak machine, this menu may open for several seconds.

• Instead of picom, you can use its fork picom-jonaburg-git from AUR. It adds a blur effect, rounded edges.

Note. This guide will not cover “beautiful” system design. Wallpapers, icons, fonts you can put yourself.

Installation

All components are configured in config files located in the user’s home directory. That’s why don’t use root user, but create a new one. Otherwise, you may encounter problems such as running applications in sandbox mode (browsers, applications on electron).

User creation

We create a user. Replace “user_name” with your desired username.

useradd -m -G wheel user_name

The -G wheel switch means that the user will be a member of the wheel group. This is necessary to execute commands as the superuser (sudo).

Set a password for the user:

passwd user_name

In order for the group to have the right to execute commands as the superuser, you need to change the /etc/sudoers file:

nano /etc/sudoers

Find and uncomment the line:

# %wheel ALL=(ALL:ALL) ALL

Packages and programs

Basic packages to install:

pacman -S bspwm sxhkd dmenu polybar picom

You also need to download a terminal emulator. My choice fell on lightweight xfce4-terminal:

pacman -S xfce4-terminal

For convenience, download the browser. As a browser I use qutebrowser. It is designed to be used without a mouse. If you need a regular browser, then download firefox.

pacman -S qutebrowser

Xorg

pacman -S xorg xorg-xinit

The xorg group contains a large number of packages and fonts inside.

If you want an easier installation, then it is worth downloading certain packages:

• xorg-server – Xorg x server

• xorg-xinit – For using xinit and startx.

• xorg-xset – User settings utility.

• xorg-xsetroot – Set the background of the root window to the given pattern or color.

• xorg-xrandr – A utility for setting up RandR (configuring monitors).

• xorg-xrdb – Database utility for xorg server

pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-xset xorg-xsetroot xorg-xrandr xorg-xrdb

xorg-server and xorg-xinit must be downloaded

Since the fonts are not installed, install gnu free fonts:

pacman -S gnu-free-fonts

Video driver

• xf86-video-amdgpu is a new, free driver for AMD video cards.

• xf86-video-ati is an old free driver for AMD.

• xf86-video-intel – Driver for Intel integrated graphics.

• xf86-video-nouveau is a free driver for NVIDIA cards.

• xf86-video-vesa is a free driver that supports all cards, limited functionality. For a virtual machine.

• xf86-video-qxl – free virtual video card driver, limited functionality. For a virtual machine. (Not available in Artix packages)

• nvidia is a proprietary driver for NVIDIA.

In this case, you need to look at your machine and the manufacturer of the video card.

Since I’m using a virtual machine, I install xf86-video-vesa:

pacman -S xf86-video-vesa

Configuration

I will perform all operations with configs not from the root user. The “~” symbol in a file\directory path means /home/{user} (home directory). If you need to install config files for a specific user, replace “~” with the desired user’s home directory.

Some config files will be stored in ~/.config. If this directory does not exist, then create it:

mkdir ~/.config

bspwm

Let’s create a folder for the local config:

mkdir ~/.config/bspwm

Copy the config file to your home directory:

cp /usr/share/doc/bspwm/examples/bspwmrc ~/.config/bspwm

Now let’s open it and change it:

nano ~/.config/bspwm/bspwmrc

A little about application rules. The rule itself looks something like this:

bspc rule -a qutebrowser desktop='^2'

Using such a rule, you can explicitly specify on which desktop to run the application or its initial state

Work tables

This line specifies 10 desktops on the main monitor:

bspc monitor -d I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

If you are the owner of several monitors, then you can distribute desktops across them.

First, find out the names of the monitors in the system:

xrandr

Now we can add a desktop setting for a specific monitor:

bspc monitor {Монитор} -d {Рабочие столы}

It might turn out something like this:

bspc monitor DVI-I-1 -d I II III IVbspc monitor DVI-I-2 -d V VI VIIbspc monitor DP-1 -d VIII IX X

Colors, borders, padding

Borders and padding:

bspc config border_width         2
bspc config window_gap          12

Frame color in different states:

bspc config normal_border_color "#0A1F32"
bspc config active_border_color "#2D384A"
bspc config focused_border_color "#344756"

Space color when selecting new window position:

bspc config presel_feedback_color "#595B82"

Window focus hover:

bspc config focus_follows_pointer true
bspc config pointer_modifier    super

Split ratio. What percentage will remain of the parent window when a new one is opened.

bspc config split_ratio          0.52

Padding and borders when one window is open:

bspc config borderless_monocle   true
bspc config gapless_monocle      true

Sxhkd

Let’s create a folder for the local config:

mkdir ~/.config/sxhkd

Copy the config file to your home directory:

cp /usr/share/doc/bspwm/examples/sxhkdrc ~/.config/sxhkd

Now let’s open it and change it:

nano ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc

All that is minimally needed to be done is to change the launch of the terminal to the desired one:

super + Return    
  xfce4-terminal

You can add hotkeys yourself according to this syntax:

Клавиша_Модификатор + Клавиша
  Команда

If you need to execute a command with different arguments, then we use the following syntax:

Клавиша_Модификатор + {Клавиша1, Клавиша2} 
  Команда {Аргумент1, Аргумент2}

In this case, “Key1” corresponds to “Argument1”, and so on.

Polybar

Let’s create a folder for the local config:

mkdir ~/.config/polybar

Copy the config file to your home directory:

cp /usr/share/doc/polybar/examples/config.ini ~/.config/polybar/config

Now let’s create a boot script:

nano ~/.config/polybar/launch.sh

In this file we write:

killall -q polybar # Отключение бара, если он включен
echo "---" | tee -a /tmp/example_bar.log # Просмотр логов
polybar example >> /tmp/example_bar.log # Запуск бара example и запись его лога

The name of the bar is written in the config file

To make the bar automatically start, add this line to end file ~/.config/bspwm:

$HOME/.config/polybar/launch.sh

Note. You can put autorun in different places, for example in xinitrc, but for me, somehow, polybar breaks bspwm with this approach.

Colors

At the beginning of the configuration, a description of the color of the bar is usually placed:

[colors]
background = #222
background-alt = #444
foreground = #dfdfdf
foreground-alt = #f0f0f0
primary = #646464
secondary = #646464
alert = #646464
underline = #c0c0c0

in this case, these are neutral dark colors

bar

The first line should be the heading bar/Name

[bar/base]

Optional binding to a specific monitor (this way you can put different bars on each monitor):

monitor = ${env:MONITOR:HDMI-1}

Size setting:

width = 100%
height = 27
;offset-x = 1%
;offset-y = 1%
radius = 8.0
fixed-center = true

Colors:

background = ${colors.background}
foreground = ${colors.foreground}

Line setting:

line-size = 2
line-color = #f00

Frame setting:

border-size = 4
border-color = #00000000

Fonts:

font-0 = fixed:pixelsize=10;1
font-1 = unifont:fontformat=truetype:size=8:antialias=false;0
font-2 = siji:pixelsize=10;1

Indents:

padding-left = 0
padding-right = 5
module-margin-left = 1
module-margin-right = 2

Location of modules:

modules-left = bspwm 
modules-center = xwindow
modules-right =  pulseaudio eth wlan xkeyboard date

Modules

Polybar supports additional modules that you can make yourself in any interpreted language.

The syntax of a module is based on the header, type, launch location, and settings. For example kernel version module:

[module/info-kernel]
type = custom/script
exec = uname -r
interval = 1024

The community has written many modules. Repository with modules.

Choose any you like and download. For example:

~/.config/polybar

Make the file executable:

chmod +x ~/.config/polybar/script.sh

Add your module to the polybar config:

[module/{ИМЯ}]
type = custom/script
exec = ~/.config/polybar/script.sh

Switching between bars:

If you do not want to overload one bar with many modules, then in the polybar configuration file create 2 bar settings (you can simply copy and change the name with a set of modules):

[bar/base]
modules-left = bspwm
modules-center = xwindow
modules-right =  pulseaudio eth wlan xkeyboard date
; ОСТАЛЬНЫЕ НАСТРОЙКИ

[bar/additional]
modules-left = info-kernel
modules-center = 
modules-right = filesystem memory cpu
; ОСТАЛЬНЫЕ НАСТРОЙКИ

Now create 2 scripts to launch the bars:

# ~/.config/launch.sh
killall -q polybar
echo "---" | tee -a /tmp/polybar-base.log
polybar base >>/tmp/polybar-base.log

# ~/.config/launch-additional.sh
killall -q polybar
echo "---" | tee -a /tmp/polybar-additional.log
polybar additional >>/tmp/polybar-additional.log

Let’s make them executable:

chmod +x ~/.config/launch.sh
chmod +x ~/.config/launch-additional.sh

Now let’s add hotkeys for switching bars to the sxhkd configuration:

# base bar
super + F1    
  $HOME/.config/polybar/launch.sh 

# additional bar
super + F2    
  $HOME/.config/polybar/launch-additional.sh

You can read more about configuration in wiki.

xinitrc

Copy the config file to your home directory:

cp /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc ~/.xinitrc

Now let’s open it and change it:

nano ~/.xinitrc

Delete everything after the line “fi” at the end of the file. In my case it is:

# twm &
# xclock -geometry 50x50-1+1 &
# xterm -geometry 80x50+494_51 &
# xterm -geometry 80x20+494-0 &
# exec xterm -geometry 80x66+0+0 -name login

We replace these commands with:

setxkbmap -option grp:alt_shift_toggle us,ru    # Смена языка. Такой подход не совсем "правильный"
picom -f &                                      # Запуск picom
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr                  # Установка стандартного курсора
exec bspwm                                      # Запуск bspwm

After changing the xinitrc configuration, you can try starting the environment with:

startx

To exit the environment press super+alt+q.

Monitor setup

In order for monitors to display correctly, you need to specify their configuration for xrandr. There are two variations on how to do this.

Arandr

An easy option is to download Arandr, it is designed to provide a simple visual interface for XRandR.

pacman -S arandr

Since the program is graphical, we launch it.

Approximately such an interface will be displayed. You can adjust the position of the monitors with the mouse. If you right-click on the monitor, a menu will appear where there are additional settings. We can set the orientation, resolution for each monitor, and also make one of the monitors the main one.

After configuration, you need to save the script. Click on Layout > Save as. We give the name of the file, for example, display.sh.

Making the file executable:

chmod +x .screenlayout/display.sh

Manual setting

If you do not want to install unnecessary applications, then you can do everything “manually”.

We display a list of monitors:

xrandr

In addition to the list of monitors, information is displayed about what resolutions monitors can have, their orientation, hertz, etc.

# Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 1280 x960, maximum 8192 x 8192
# Virtual-1 connected primary 1280x960+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 0mm x 0mm
#   800x600     60.00 + 60.32
#   2560x1600   59.99
#   2560x1440   59.95
#   1920x1440   60.00
#   1856x1392   60.00
#   1792x1344   60.00
#   1920x1200   59.88
#   1920x1080   59.96
#   1600x1200   60.00
#   1680x1050   59.95
#   1400x1050   59.98
#   1280x960    60.00*
#   1360x768    60.02
#   1280x800    59.81
#   1152x864    75.00
#   1280x768    59.87
#   1280x720    59.86
#   1024x768    60.00
#   640x480     59.94
# Virtual-2 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-3 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-4 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-5 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-6 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-7 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
# Virtual-8 disconnected 

Now you can configure monitors with the command:

xrandr --output {Монитор} --mode {Разрешение}  

In my case it looks like this:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --mode 1280x960

The auto argument allows you to automatically set the permission:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --auto

If there are multiple refresh rates in the list, they can be changed using the rate argument:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --auto --rate 60

To make the monitor the primary one, use the primary argument:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --auto --primary

If you need to change the monitor orientation, then use the rotate argument:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --auto --rotate normal

It is not necessary to set up multiple monitors with different commands, xrandr supports setting up multiple monitors with a single command:

xrandr --output Virtual-1 --auto --output Virtual-2 --auto

You can turn off the monitor with the off argument:

xrandr --output HDMI-1 --off --output HDMI-2 --auto

If you have decided on the setting, then save the command to a file.

Create a .screenlayout directory if it’s not present:

mkdir ~/.screenlayout

Now let’s write the configuration command to the display.sh file. In my case it looks like this:

echo "xrandr --output Virtual-1 --primary --mode 1280x960 --rotate normal" >> .screenlayout/display.sh

Making the file executable:

chmod +x .screenlayout/display.sh

autorun

Autostart will be done using xinit. Add the line to the .xinitrc file:

$HOME/.screenlayout/display.sh  # Куда-нибудь сюда
picom -f &                      
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
exec bspwm                      

Betterlockscreen

This component is optional, but it is useful if you need to lock the system with a keyboard shortcut.

Installation

Betterlockscreen is installed from the AUR, if you don’t have yay installed then you need to install it.

Download yay from the repository:

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay.git 

Go to the installed directory:

cd yay 

Assembling the package:

makepkg -si 

Now install betterlockscreen itself with yay:

yay -S betterlockscreen

Setting

If you run betterlockscreen with no arguments, it will print a description of all the arguments. Let’s consider some:

Adding an image:

The -u –update argument adds the wallpaper to the lock screen. Wallpaper I downloaded to ~/.config/betterlockscreen/

betterlockscreen -u ~/.config/betterlockscreen/wallpaper.jpg

You can also further customize the display of effects:

• –dim Dim the image in percentage (0-100)

• –blur Image blur amount (0.0-1.0)

• –color Fill background color with HEX palette

For example:

betterlockscreen -u ~/.config/betterlockscreen/wallpaper.jpg --dim 20 --blur 0.5

It is now possible to launch a lock screen with various effects using the -l –lock argument:

betterlockscreen -l blur 

You can also set the image as desktop wallpaper:

betterlockscreen -u ~/downloads/wallpaper.jpg
betterlockscreen -w

Let’s add a hotkey to launch the lock screen to the sxhkd configuration:

alt + shift + x    
  betterlockscreen -l blur

Launch and control

Since I am not considering solutions using a display manager, the launch will be done from the console:

startx

This command launches our graphical environment on X. At work it looks like this:

Standard sxhkd hotkeys: