awesome-desktop

A simple desktop environment based on AwesomeWM framework and Gnome stack

Installation

Only manual installation. Makefile is in progress

Clone the repository somewhere:

git clone https://github.com/marcinn/awesome-desktop.git

Make required directories:

mkdir ~/.config/awesome
mkdir ~/.config/awesome/awmd-extensions

Setup symlinks:

cd ~/.config/awesome
ln -s /path/to/awesome-desktop/src awmd
ln -s /path/to/awesome-desktop/src/rc.lua
ln -s /path/to/awesome-desktop/themes/
ln -s /path/to/awesome-desktop/bin/

Create required extensions:

cd ~/.config/awesome/awmd-extensions
git clone https://github.com/pltanton/net_widgets.git
git clone https://github.com/streetturtle/awesome-wm-widgets.git

Create empty autostart file for your programs:

touch ~/.config/awesome/autostart.lua

Install required dependencies. Restart AwesomeWM & pray.

Goals

• configuration and extensibility without modyfiing LUA code
• sane defaults, preconfigured DE for advanced but regular user
• freedesktop.org: autostart
• freedesktop.org: theming, icons
• multihead support
• plugins/extensions layer
• rule based widgets activation
• GUI: displays configuration
• GUI: panels and widgets management
• GUI: settings manager
• GUI: plugins/extensions management
• Widgets: native widget for NetworkManager
• Widgets: notifications area
• Widgets: laptop-specific widgets (battery, brightness)
• Widgets: cpu throttling widget (similar to https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/945/cpu-power-manager/)

Motivations

• AwesomeWM is a more framework than complete desktop environment
• most of configs/themes available on the web, are built from scratch, incompatible, and have poor quality
• most of widgets available on the web have poor quality
• there is no complete DE built top of AwesomeWM - everyone must create own enviroment based on rc.lua variations
• Gnome3 delivers a good stack and utilities

Dependencies

• awesome-desktop (from Arch User Repository or something similar): session and configuration files which runs AwesomeWM as a Gnome session
• osd_cat (xosd): display OSD
• polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1 (polkit-gnome): authentication agent
• picom: compositor
• nmcli (NetworkManager): manage and retrieve info about networking
• xbacklight (acpilight, xorg-xbacklight): control laptop backlight
• python (Python 3): for utilities
• python-gobject
• gnome-screenshot (Gnome Screenshot): take screenshots
• convert (ImageMagick): for lockscreen blur
• notify-send (libnotify): send desktop notifications
• pulseaudio-ctl (PulseAUdio, pulseaudio-ctl): manage audio
• xdg-user-dir (xdg-user-dirs): read user dirs
• lain: widgets and utilities for AwesomeWM
• lgi (GLib for LUA): access GObject libraries
• Droid Sans Mono font: used in default theme
• xidlehook and i3lock-fancy: locking screen
• pa-applet: volume control applet (pulseaudio)
• nm-applet: tray icon for network manager
• xflux: night mode
• rofi: powerful app launcher / window switcher
• Gnome stack

Dependencies to be moved to extensions

• net_widgets (https://github.com/pltanton/net_widgets.git)
• vicious
• wibox
• touchpad_widget
• awesome-wm-widgets

Optional dependencies

• awesome-switcher

Optional utilities

• synclient and syndaemon: handling touchpad options
• pamac-tray: display notification about Manjaro/Arch updates in tray

Setup multihead:

• xrandr: manual setup
• autorandr (https://github.com/phillipberndt/autorandr)
• arandr