XMonad Starter Kit

Highlights

M- for Super/Win, S- for Shift, C- for Control.

• Panel for multiple displays. Desktop info is only shown on current screen.

• Dynamic workspace creation

  • M-n: jump to create new workspace. S-<Enter> to force creating new window.
  • M-S-n: move window to select workspace, S-<Enter> to force creating new window.
  • M-C-S-n: rename workspace
  • M-C-S-<Backspace>: delete current workspace if it is empty

• Shortcuts help extracted from source: M-c h

• Urgency window notification through libnotify

• Switch workspace and toggle layouts using mouse.

• Select layout by prompt: M-S-\

• Multi toggle:

  • M-f: toggle fullscreen
  • M-<Escape>: toggle fullscreen, where hide panel in fullscreen.
  • M-d: zoom in active window
  • M-s: Make master window as sidebar. M-S-: can promote a window as master window.

• Carefully configured layouts:

  • cols: number of windows in each column can be changed using M-C-[ and M-C-].
  • two: Only show two windows. M-a and M-S-a are useful in this layout.
  • rows: Like cols but arrange windows into rows
  • tab: Like fullscreen but with a tab bar showing window names.
  • grid
  • big: the master window occupy most space.

• M-g, M-b switch window using fuzzy matching

Install

• See prerequisites and optional tools below. For Arch Linuxer:

  yaourt -S ghc xmonad xmonad-contrib \
    zsh dzen2-xft-xpm-xinerama-svn dmenu-xft \
    rxvt-unicode pcmanfm-mod scrot nitrogen \
    xscreensaver gmrun xdotool wmctrl \
    gsimplecal gpicker \
    wqy-microhei-nightly_build \
    trayer libnotify
  

• Add path to bin to PATH.

• Copy or link xmonad.hs to ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs.

For startx and slim, copy or link following files to home directory (backup your own first):

_xinitrc -> ~/.xinitrc
_xsession -> ~/.xsession
_xsessionrc -> ~/.xsessionrc

• See _xsessionrc about how to setup multiple displays using xrandr.
• Add auto start applications in bin/xmonad.autostart, such as starting trayer.

TODO: How to start session in other session manager? I'm not sure whether ~/.xsession really works for xdm/gdm/kdm.

Prerequisites

XMonad

ghc, and xmonad-0.10 xmonad-contrib-0.10

In Arch Linux:

yaourt -S ghc xmonad xmonad-contrib

Or install using cabal:

yaourt -S cabal
cabal install xmonad xmonad-contrib

Cabal install packages into ~/.cabal, add ~/.cabal/bin to PATH.

Panel

zsh

Install latest zsh (mine is 4.3.17). Panel is written in zsh using zselect.

dzen2

Must enable xft, xpm and xinerama. in Arch Linux, just install from aur:

yaourt -S dzen2-xft-xpm-xinerama-svn

Other system can compile from svn truck http://dzen.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/ Edit config.mk enable Option 7.

dmenu

Version 4.5 with xft patch. Arch Linuxer can install dmenu-xft.

yaourt -S dmenu-xft

Or compile source after applying dmenu-4.5-xft.diff

Optional Tools

• urxvt: terminal, update myTerminal and myTerminalClass in xmonad.hs to use other terminals.

• libnotify: urgency notification

• pcmanfm: lightweight file browser, Arch can install pcmanfm-mod:

  yaourt -S pcmanfm-mod
  

• scrot: snapshot of whole screen M-<PrintScreen>, snapshot of selection: M-C-<PrintScreen>.

• nitrogen: set desktop background image.

• xscreensaver: screen saver

• gmrun: Launcher for M-<Enter>.

• xdotool: switch layouts using mouse

• wmctrl: switch layouts using mouse

• gsimplecal: calendar widget

• gpicker: goto/bring window

• font WenQuanYi MicroHei (for Chinese), or replace myFont and myMonoFont in xmonad.hs.

• trayer: trayer for daemon icons