Setup ･ Wiki ･ Gallery

Thanks for dropping by!

This is my personal collection of configuration files that forms the desktop you see on the right.

Here are some details about my current setup:

• OS: Gentoo
• Window Manager / Compositor: SwayFX
• Widgets: Eww
• Notifications: dunst
• Shell: zsh
• Terminal: kitty
• Editor: Neovim
• File Manager: nnn and Nemo
• Launcher: rofi
• Browser: Firefox

Philosophy

This is not a traditional desktop in any sense. It is highly opinionated, consists of what works for me and looks good for me and frequently disregards traditional desktop conventions and expectations. It has been evolving for about 8 years, spanning across several window managers and a migration from X11 to Wayland.

This desktop is:

• Mouse-friendly but keyboard-loving, particularly when it comes to Vi keys
• Dark and cozy, with vibrant colors and a sprinkle of kawaii-ness

Latest iteration: Aphelion

Features:

• A sidebar widget with 3 pages:
  1. Clock, date, weather, system info
  2. Calendar and agenda
  3. Media info and controls
• Network widget integrated with iwd
• Agenda widget integrated with .org files
• Quick alarm widget
• 2-in-1 powermenu and lockscreen widget
• A simple dock widget, compatible with sway
• Bunny headpats

All interactive widgets can be controlled both with the mouse and the keyboard.

🎬 45 second showcase (YouTube)

Setup

1. Install dependencies

   The following packages need to be installed for all desktop functionality to work.

   Package	Purpose
   swayfx	Window manager / compositor
   i3ipc	Sway-related scripts
   eww	Widgets
   bash	Various scripts
   python	Various scripts
   rofi	Launchers and menus
   dunst	Notification daemon
   libnotify	Notification creation with notify-send
   notify-send.sh	notify-send wrapper for notification replacement
   jq	json parsing in various scripts
   inotify-tools	Reaction to file changes in various scripts
   light	Brightness control
   wget	Making HTTP requests in various scripts
   acpid	Battery charger state information
   swaybg	Wallpaper tool (Wayland)
   slurp	Screen region selection (Wayland)
   grim	Screenshot tool (Wayland)
   grimshot	grim and slurp wrapper
   playerctl	Media info
   imagemagick	Media art cropping
   gammastep	Screen color temperature tool
   kdeconnect	Phone battery information
   kitty	Terminal emulator
   iproute2	Network events information
   iwd	Wireless daemon

[!WARNING] iwd: If you already have a different wireless daemon installed, do not install and enable iwd. Having more than one wireless daemon running at the same time might disconnect your current wireless connection or cause other network issues. Note that iwd can be used as a backend for NetworkManager.

[!NOTE] Depending on your distribution, the names of the above packages may slightly differ. Also, some of the packages might not be available in your distribution's repositories so you might have to build them from source.

2. Install fonts

   The current setup uses the following fonts:

   • Baro
   • Kyok
   • BattleAndy
   • My custom build of Iosevka
   • Icomoon
   • Material Design Icons

   To save you time hunting for them online, I have uploaded a .zip file to Dropbox. Download the .zip and then:

   # Assuming the .zip was saved in ~/Downloads
   unzip -d ~/.local/share/fonts ~/Downloads/elenapan-dotfiles-fonts.zip
   fc-cache -v
   

3. Install dotfiles

   Backup first:

   mkdir ~/config-backup
   cp -r ~/.config/{sway,eww,dunst,fontconfig,kitty,rofi} ~/config-backup
   

   Then clone the repo and install the relevant dotfiles:

   git clone https://github.com/elenapan/dotfiles
   cd dotfiles
   cp -r config/{sway,eww,dunst,fontconfig,kitty,rofi} ~/.config
   

4. Tweak the last few settings

   • Set wallpaper:

     cp /path/to/your/wallpaper ~/.local/share/wallpaper
     

   • Set location for the weather information widget:

     Edit ~/.config/eww/scripts/daemons/weather.sh and set the location variable. For example:

     location="Moscow,Russia"
     

   • Set lockscreen widget password:

     Edit ~/.config/eww/globals.yuck and set the screen-lock-password variable. For example:

     (defvar screen-lock-password "hunter2")
     

   • Set agenda widget .org files to watch:

     Edit ~/.config/eww/scripts/daemons/agenda.sh and set the org_files variable. For example:

     org_files=("$HOME/notes/todo.org" "$HOME/notes/birthdays.org" "$HOME/notes/finance.org")
     

Login

To start the desktop, you may follow the steps in the "Starting" section of the Sway article in the Arch Wiki

[!NOTE] SwayFX is essentially Sway with extra features, which means Sway-related and i3-related resources also apply to SwayFX.

Usage

All keybinds are declared in the sway configuration directory in the following files:

• Global keybinds: keys

• Binding modes: modes

• Widget keybinds: eww

  These keybinds, implemented using binding modes, are only active when the respective widget is visible.

Contributing

• Bugs: This desktop has only one consistent user (me) and there could be bugs I haven't run into yet. If you have the time to report a bug, please do so in the repository's issues.
• Pull requests: Pull requests for bug fixes or README improvements are welcome. However, before starting work on a pull request for a new feature, please open an issue so we can discuss about it first.

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