CWM Inquiry

stratact

Hi folks,

One of the things I was thinking of doing in my NetBSD journey, was selecting an alternative WM/GUI that is available in NetBSD/PkgSrc. Currently I'm using KDE Plasma 5, however I'm keeping an open mind with my current choices. I decided to choose CWM and I did actually use it before in FreeBSD. Tbh, I vaguely recall running into some bugs that deter me away from it originally but I'm hoping they got solved. I do like it's no-titlebar border-with-color aesthetic and it's no-nonsense style of configuration.

The point of this discussion is for CWM-related information to help me configure it in style I'm currently used to in KDE. I'm also open to different ideas that help promote productivity within a CWM environment, if people have stuff to share.

To start off, I want to set up an XDG popup menu as the left-click mouse button on the root window. Can you awesome folks show me how?

Plasma 5 is available in pkgsrc-wip. You could add the wip-repo and build it from source.
...now, I have no clue how well it works to be honest. I'm a simple tiling wm user that stays away from floating 😱 ...windows 😱 ...

stratact I do like it's no-titlebar border-with-color aesthetic

Could I suggest spectrwm than? 🤣

JuvenalUrbino

stratact The point of this discussion is for CWM-related information to help me configure it in style I'm currently used to in KDE. I'm also open to different ideas that help promote productivity within a CWM environment, if people have stuff to share.

I don't have the impertinence to state you asked in right place (😛), but I do have something to share, namely my ~/.cwmrc, which you might want to take some cue from:

## Application menu
    command dmenu "dmenu_run -p '>>' -fn 'Iosevka Term:pixelsize=11' -nb '#0a0f14' -sb '#0a0f14' -nf grey90 -sf '#edb54b'"
    command urxvt "urxvt"
    command vi "urxvtc -title vi -e vi"
    command nnn "urxvtc -g 75x25 -title nnn -e nnn" 
    command irssi "urxvtc -title irssi -e irssi"
    command mutt "urxvtc -title mutt -e env MAIL=$HOME/Mail neomutt -F ~/.mutt/qmailrc"
    command slrn "urxvtc -title slrn -e slrn -i ~/.slrnrc -f ~/.newsrc"
    command w3m "urxvtc -title w3m -e w3m -s -cookie -F -graph https://www.duckduckgo.com/"
    command ncmpc "urxvtc -title ncmpc -e ncmpc"
    command snownews "urxvtc -title snownews -e snownews"
    command calcurse "urxvtc -title calcurse -e calcurse"
    command htop "urxvtc -title htop -e htop"
    command xman "xman"
    command xclipboard "xclipboard"
    command xkill "xkill"
    command xlock "xlock -name $HOME/.Xresources"

## WM Appearence:
    borderwidth 2 
    moveamount  5
    fontname    "Iosevka Term:pixelsize=11"
    snapdist    4 
    sticky      no 
    color activeborder    "#195465" 
    color inactiveborder  slategrey
    color menubg 	  "#0a0f14"
    color menufg	  "#d26939" 
    color font            grey90
    color selfont	  "#0a0f14"
    color groupborder     "#c33027" 
    gap   3 3 3 3         #[T,B,L,R] 

## Ignore programs; no borders
    ignore xclock
    ignore dclock 
    ignore menu
    ignore xbiff
    ignore xmessage
    ignore xsm
    ignore xload
    ignore xosview

## Predefined groups
    autogroup 1 "urxvt"
    autogroup 1 "xterm"
    autogroup 2 "seamonkey"
    autogroup 2 "dillo"
    autogroup 2 "lftp"
    autogroup 2 "xmftp"
    autogroup 2 "hexchat"
    autogroup 3 "claws-mail"
    autogroup 3 "mpv"
    autogroup 3 "xmms"
    autogroup 3 "easytag"
    autogroup 3 "xcdroast"
    autogroup 3 "mps-youtube"
    autogroup 4 "xedit"
    autogroup 4 "nedit"
    autogroup 4 "leafpad"  	
    autogroup 4 "vim"
    autogroup 4 "xournal"
    autogroup 5 "gv"
    autogroup 5 "zathura"
    autogroup 5 "geomview"
    autogroup 5 "xfig"
    autogroup 5 "mupdf"
    autogroup 5 "fbreader"
    autogroup 5 "ddd"
    autogroup 5 "texstudio"
    autogroup 5 "libreoffice"
    autogroup 5 "abiword"
    autogroup 5 "chemtool"
    autogroup 6 "gimp"
    autogroup 6 "xpaint"
    autogroup 6 "xv"
    autogroup 6 "feh"
    autogroup 6 "dia"
    autogroup 6 "viewnior"
    autogroup 7 "pcmanfm"
    autogroup 7 "xfontsel"
    autogroup 7 "nnn"
    autogroup 7 "gpa"
    autogroup 7 "xcalc"
    autogrpup 7 "xclipboard"
    autogroup 7 "htop"
    autogroup 7 "xarchiver"
    autogroup 7 "tkdiff"
    autogroup 7 "xephem"
    autogroup 8 "lxinput"
    autogroup 8 "lxappearance"
    autogroup 8 "xman"
    autogroup 8 "lxrandr"
    autogroup 8 "xvdi" 
 
## KeyBindings 
# no defaults
   unbind-key all   
# session
    bind-key M-Return    terminal
    bind-key MS-F11      lock
    bind-key M-w	 menu-window-hidden
    bind-key M-e         menu-exec
    bind-key M-s	 menu-ssh
    bind-key CM-r	 restart
    bind-key CM-q 	 quit
# window-ops   
    bind-key M-x	 window-delete
    bind-key M-Down      window-lower
    bind-key M-Up        window-raise
    bind-key M-b         window-maximize
    bind-key M-z         window-hide
    bind-key M-v         window-freeze
    bind-key M-c         window-sticky
    bind-key M-n         window-menu-label    

    bind-key M-g         window-group
    bind-key M-m         window-fullscreen 
# window navigation 
    bind-key M-Right       window-cycle
    bind-key M-Left        window-rcycle
    bind-key MS-Right      group-cycle 
    bind-key MS-Left       group-rcycle 
    bind-key M-0           group-toggle-all 
    bind-key M-1 	   group-only-1
    bind-key M-2           group-only-2
    bind-key M-3           group-only-3
    bind-key M-4 	   group-only-4
    bind-key M-5	   group-only-5
    bind-key M-6	   group-only-6
    bind-key M-7           group-only-7
    bind-key MS-1          window-movetogroup-1
    bind-key MS-2          window-movetogroup-2
    bind-key MS-3          window-movetogroup-3 
    bind-key MS-4          window-movetogroup-4
    bind-key MS-5          window-movetogroup-5
    bind-key MS-6          window-movetogroup-6
    bind-key MS-7          window-movetogroup-7
# window tiling
    bind-key 4-b 	window-htile
    bind-key 4-v        window-vtile	
    bind-key 4-h 	window-snap-left
    bind-key 4-j	window-snap-down
    bind-key 4-k	window-snap-up
    bind-key 4-l 	window-snap-right
    bind-key 4S-h	window-snap-up-left
    bind-key 4S-j	window-snap-up-right 
    bind-key 4S-k	window-snap-down-right
    bind-key 4S-l	window-snap-down-left 
# pointer movement 
    bind-key CS-j pointer-move-down-big
    bind-key CS-k pointer-move-up-big 
    bind-key CS-h pointer-move-left-big 
    bind-key CS-l pointer-move-right-big 
# window movement 
    bind-key M-h window-move-left-big
    bind-key M-j window-move-down-big
    bind-key M-k window-move-up-big 
    bind-key M-l window-move-right-big 
# window Resizing
    bind-key CM-h window-resize-left-big
    bind-key CM-j window-resize-down-big
    bind-key CM-k window-resize-up-big
    bind-key CM-l window-resize-right-big
    bind-key M-v  window-vmaximize 	
    bind-key M-b  window-hmaximize
# mouse-bindings
    unbind-mouse CM-M1
    unbind-mouse M-M2
    unbind-mouse M-M3
    unbind-mouse CMS-M
    bind-mouse C-3	  window-menu-label
    bind-mouse M-1        window-move
    bind-mouse M-2        window-lower
    bind-mouse M-3        window-resize
    bind-mouse 4S-1       window-maximize
    bind-mouse 4S-2       window-delete
    bind-mouse 4S-3       window-hide
    bind-mouse S-1        window-group 
# app shortcuts
    bind-key 4-t 	"urxvtc"
    bind-key 4-p 	"dmenu_run -p '>>' -fn 'Iosevka Term:pixelsize=11' -nb '#0a0f14' -sb '#0a0f14' -nf grey90 -sf '#edb54b'"
    bind-key 4-u	"seamonkey"
    bind-key 4-o	"pcmanfm"
    bind-key 4-i	"nedit"
# volume settings, using common keycodes
    bind-key S-F11 	"mixerctl -w outputs.master-=5,0l5" 
    bind-key S-F12 	"mixerctl -w outputs.master+=5,5" 
    bind-key S-F10	"mixerctl -w outputs.master=0,0" 
# MPD controls
    bind-key S-Right 	"mpc prev"
    bind-key S-Down  	"mpc play"
    bind-key S-Left 	"mpc next"
    bind-key S-Up 	"mpc stop"

Remember that cwm(1) and cwmrc(5) man pages can answer to almost any cwm-related question 😉

stratact To start off, I want to set up an XDG popup menu as the left-click mouse button on the root window. Can you awesome folks show me how?

You could use x11/dunst for that; my ~/.config/dunst/dunstrc

[global]
font = "Iosevka Term 7"
markup = yes
format = "%a: %s\n%b"
sort = yes
indicate_hidden = no
alignment = center
show_age_threshold = 60
show_indicators = yes 
word_wrap = yes
ignore_newline = no 
geometry = "200x20-1+1"
shrink = yes
transparency = 8
idle_threshold = 120
follow = mouse
sticky_history = yes
line_height = 0
separator_height = 2
padding = 7
horizontal_padding = 7
frame_color = "#778899"
separator_color = frame 
startup_notification = true
frame_width = 2 
show_icons = left
icon_position = left 
max_icon_size = 16 
icon_path = /usr/pkg/share/icons/Adwaita/16x16/status/:/usr/pkg/share/icons/Adwaita/16x16/devices/
browser=/usr/pkg/bin/seamonkey
dmenu = /usr/pkg/bin/dmenu -p dunst

[shortcuts]
close_all = mod4+backslash
history = mod4+backspace

[urgency_low]
background = "#0a0f14" 
foreground = "#98d1ce"
timeout = 5 

[urgency_normal]
background = "#0a0f14"
foreground = "#98d1ce"
timeout = 5 

[urgency_critical]
background = "#0a0f14"
foreground = "#d26939"
timeout = 7

You'll need to start the dunst daemon at session startup (append dunst & to your ~/.xinitrc).
In CWM, left(1), middle(2) and right(3) mouse button click on root window are predefined (window list, group list and application menu respectively) and cannot be changed; unbinding all predefined mouse bindings results in them not working anymore. However you can define custom bindings using modifiers like I did in my config: in your case, you may for instance remap Super/Mod4+LeftClick on root window to a pop-up notification showing whatever you want, like:

bind-mouse 4-1        "notify-send 'Hello world!' 'This is an example notification.' --icon=dialog-information --urgency=low"

Hope this helps 😉

stratact

pin Hmm, if it's wip, it's probably not worth it trying to build. It might have build errors down the path.

Also, you're not a "simple tiling wm user," in fact I admire your X11 environment screenshots the most. There is a certain beauty to them, that's hard to say.

stratact

pin Could I suggest spectrwm than? 🤣

Unfortunately, my friend, I do like floating and that's why I'm aiming for something similar. 🙁

stratact thank you!

Edit: Just came across this guys post on r/unixporn and thought about you 😉
How about fluxbox? It surely can look good!

JuvenalUrbino

stratact Hmm, if it's wip, it's probably not worth it trying to build. It might have build errors down the path.

There's a lot of well-working stuff in wip (as well as a lot of deprecated not compiling half-ports); I rely on it quite a bit, especially for games. It all comes down to the current maintainer and the most recent package activity (reading package DESCR, TODO and fetching latest commits help narrowing the list of what's worth compiling and what is not). Speaking of cwm, I prefer using the latest snapshot from wip/cwm, which follows a rolling-release model, rather than the official package; I know the maintainer (ng0) and I trust his work 🙂

stratact

pin thank you!

Edit: Just came across this guys post on r/unixporn and thought about you 😉
How about fluxbox? It surely can look good!

Thank you. I appreciate the thought. Those themes look really good. Perhaps I can try them out if cwm doesn't work for me. 😄

JuvenalUrbino I don't have the impertinence to state you asked in right place

Actually, I wouldn't doubt you and I appreciate that as well. The funny thing is, after joining I did quickly realize I was out of place in UnitedBSD. In terms as a (potential) NetBSD user, I understand I'm an anomaly. However I do not want to let that stop me, because I want to avoid FreeBSD as much as possible. Having being part of their community, there is something mysterious about them that scares me and I don't want to be a part of it anymore. I want to be in a friendly and open community where people respect and help each other. I think that's a better and more nurturing environment for new comers. However I understand, I don't think and have the common views like many users here. And I'm not going to disrespect them either. I have made many mistakes showering my own opinions on people who have opposing views and I realized that's wrong because people have the right to their way of computing life. And it's not just that, by having an open mind, my opinions on things can change. The modern computer is a generic purpose machine, not a single one-way tool.

Sorry for the random tangent. And thank you for the configs and extra insight. I really appreciate it. I will need some time to apply them and see which behaviors I like. I like seeing examples of other people's ideas and learn from them. 🙂

stratact I want to be in a friendly and open community where people respect and help each other.

Don't we all. Unfortunately there are trolls everywhere ☹️

stratact after joining I did quickly realize I was out of place in UnitedBSD

Hmm... I don't think anyone is out of place here 😉
I've tried to join daemon forums before, but I'm kind off happy I didn't make it.
We are few here, but we are friendly!

stratact I think that's a better and more nurturing environment for new comers.

I think its better for everyone. Being nice also makes you feel better.

JuvenalUrbino

stratact after joining I did quickly realize I was out of place in UnitedBSD

What? this forum is mostly attended by amateurs who like to chat about BSD while barely knowing what they're talking about 😛: far from us making any sort of judgment on any user. In regard of personal opinions, values, philosophy...not seldom do we find ouselves diverging on certain topics, this is good, as it allows us to learn something new everyday. Speaking of mods, I'm into medicine and another one is into chemistry, can't tell about other people. You're free to say whatever you want as long as (probably specifying this is not necessary) you keep the discussion on-topic, follow the general netiquette, avoid spamming and duplicating, provide evidence for your assesments, respect other users and they're opinions, show a proper degree of maturity and common-sense as expected from a grown-up adult 😉

stratact In terms as a (potential) NetBSD user, I understand I'm an anomaly.

what's your concept of the prototypical NetBSD user (community is populated with a lot of different people)? anybody is free to use the software they want

stratact Having being part of their community, there is something mysterious about them that scares me and I don't want to be a part of it anymore

yeah, don't know about you, but I've been into it for years, and I can relate to this: I'm under the impression community (at least people active online) changed a lot lately, and mostly for the worse. But don't let community influence you, in the end it's you the one having to use this or that piece of software, so if you like it, why care about what people mumble about online? let them consume themselves into their flame wars

stratact However I understand, I don't think and have the common views like many users here.

Now you raised my curiosity: may I ask what do those debatable views actually consist of?

stratact I have made many mistakes showering my own opinions on people who have opposing views and I realized that's wrong because people have the right to their way of computing life.

this is a hint which more broadly applies to a wide range of circumstances in everyday life:
"Those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music.”

stratact

Gotcha, thanks for broadening my view @pin. 😃