As an old tester and user of Awesome WM , i want to declare there is something a bit different about this new release version 3 of Awesome WM , totally different than version 2 i used . Not the configuration using Lua scripting , which i find very handy , easy and useful to keep me around Lua which i like , but the issue which regard logout , re-login to take effects , among other issues turn over to be more like version issue .
awesome wm
In this post i’ll add the resources i found very useful to install , configure , and customize Awesome WM . but first why Awesome WM ?
Why Awesome WM ?
- Its Tiling WM :
- Easy to install ,Configure , reconfigure and customize ,
- FAST and SIMPLE ,
- well documented ,
- can be extended if you are Lua coder ,
- LESS Mouse , More keyboard .
For me : i do like to think it saves time , with easy fast shortcuts to move through windows , and open new application to use , you may add its pretty handy for me to define which screen and tag i want to run specific application .and customize shortcuts to fire up all my needed application in specific tags .
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- awesome wm
Awesome 3 WM installation :
For installation you need either to build your own or install from unofficial repositories as launchpad repertoires . but why not from the official repositories ?! , because official ubuntu reposatories have Awesome 2.1 not Awesome 3 .
Building Awesome 3 WM instructions for Ubuntu : is by Shinuza at his awesome post in Ubuntuforums.org . : HOWTO Build Awesome 3 – link .
But what about installation from the unofficial repositories ?! There are about 3-4 repositories you can add in your /etc/apt/sources.list and install different versions and snapshot releases from Awesome WM from :
Awesome 3.1 :
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/antage/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/antage/ubuntu intrepid main
More at PPA ( Ubuntu personal package archive ) at launchpad.net for awesome versions :
Awesome 3.1 , Awesome 3.1.2 , Awesome 3.3.1 , Awesome 3.3.1 with Extra ( which am using now ) .
Awesome WM Manual and keys :
After installation you may need to go through manual to see how awesome WM works especially if you have no experience with tiling window managers before ( DWM , Xmonad , or wii ) , well its kind very similar to those but far more advanced and even more customized .
To go for the official manual run your terminal with Mod1+Enter ( Mod1 is your SUPER key , or Windows key ) , and you’ll go with the terminal then write :
man awesome
This will review the Awesome official manual , with the shortcut keys you will need to deal with awesome . but of you are looking for more organized shortcuts keys manual here is an outstanding at Tuxtraining.com .
Configuration Awesome :
Awesome 3 configuration file is resting in
/etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua
all what you have to do is copying rc.lua to :
/home/yourusername/.config/awesome/rc.lua
.config/awesome is the directory which should has your own awesome configuration file rc.lua along with themes you define for awesome wm .
Words about Configurations :
all what i needed for my Awesome WM is setting up key-bindings , define my own tags and screens plus runs my application in pre-defined tags and screens .
Here is tutorials , tips and resources helped me a lot through that journey and am pretty sure they have said everything already except minor stuff :
1-Official Awesome wiki – link -
2- Arch linux wiki : Awesome 3 WM page – link -
3-an outstanding awesome page at a wiki belongs to CompSOC.. – link -
4- HOWTO: write an awesome 3 configuration file , at Ubuntuforums.org by Shearn89 – link -
5-Installing and configuring Awesome WM on Debian , Debian`s forums – link -
Customization of Awesome :
Its pretty much explained in Awesome’s Wiki and Awesome`s pages at arch linux wiki and CompSoc`s wiki .
Tricks :
1-Using Gnome Do as a an application launcher
2- If you are into panels , there are several other panels you may try ,Personally am using Tint . ( sometimes ) .
3-PcManFm : the file manager alternative for Nautilus and more faster , sometimes it does not seems to have gtk theme by default , so you need to define the themes and icons for it :
in ,gtkrc-2.0 you need to define your icons as
gtk-icon-theme-name=”gnome-brave”
or any other icon theme you have in your .icons directory .
4- I have an issue using such WMs same as blackbox , fluxbox , DWM and Xmonad . somehow i need to switch layouts to other layout am using in writing , so simple you can define key-binding for such task based on setxkbmap :
setxkbmap us
setxkbmap ara
setxkbmap de
For more additional information please comment .
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/antage/ubuntu intrepid main deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/antage/ubuntu intrepid main
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