Awesome Dotfiles

Details
Features
Dependencies
Installation
Folder Structure
My Preferred Applications
Application Theming
Keybinds
Notes

Details

OS: Arch Linux
Shell: ZSH
WM: awesome
Theme: Qogir-dark
Icons: McMojave-Circle-Blue-Dark
Terminal: kitty

Features

Lightweight: Uses ~350 MB of ram on my desktop!
Easy installation / configuration
Very few dependencies
Wallpaper auto-blur functionality
Log out / shutdown / restart / lock screen
Volume / brightness adjustment widgets with sliders
Integrated dpi / resolution scaling
- Note that xft.dpi must be properly assigned in the .Xresources file if you are using a high DPI screen
Supports multi monitor setups!
- The top bar appears on every monitor, and the side bar only appears on the main monitor
i3-like keybinds

Dependencies

I have made my best effort to reduce the number of dependencies by using the awesome API to its fullest extent, and allowing users to edit the apps.lua file (see installation section) to define their own preferred applications. That being said, here are the dependencies.

Dependency	Description
`awesome-git`	Window manager - must use git version. If you are using an Arch based distro you can install it off of the AUR. Otherwise refer to the installation instructions
`feh`	Fast image viewer used as wallpaper setting utility
`picom`	Window compositor, eliminates screen tearing and allows for cool fade effects
`rofi-git`	Application launcher - must use git version
`imagemagick`	Used in config to generate blurred wallpaper

Optional Dependencies

These will improve the user experience but aren't required: Bear in mind that most of these dependencies come preinstalled on non arch systems. I would recommend reading their descriptions below to determine which ones you need to install. Alternatively, set up my config and install the packages based on what isn't appearing in the top panel.

i3lock: Will be opened when the lock icon is selected in the exit window
acpi: Battery managing cli application, used by top bar widget to determine battery status
xfce4-power-manager: Lightweight power manager spawned when the top panel battery icon is clicked
bluez, bluez-utils: Bluetooth cli application, used by top bar widget to determine if bluetooth is on
blueman: Bluetooth managing application, spawns when the bluetooth top panel icon is clicked
pamac-aur: Lightweight GUI package manager, spawned when the top panel package icon is clicked
nm-connection-editor: GUI wifi connection editor, spawned when the top panel wifi icon is clicked
Scrot: Screenshot tool, which is mapped to the Print Screen key in keys.lua. If you want to meet this dependency, ensure that the ~/Pictures folder exists, otherwise the program will save your screenshots to your home directory
Alsa: Provides kernel driven sound drivers, which the control of has been mapped to volume keys in keys.lua
xbacklight: Controls display brightness, which the control of has been mapped to brightness keys in keys.lua

Fonts You Should Install

SF Text: System font used by macOS, iOS, and watchOS. Used in this config as the WM font. Also used as font for firefox
Fira Code: Great monospaced font with ligature support, used in terminal and text editors

Installation

Ensure all dependencies are met
Clone this repository and place its contents into your .config folder
navigate to the awesome folder and place your desired wallpaper there, ensuring that it is named wallpaper. One awesome (pun intended) feature of my config is that the filetype of the wallpaper can be any image filetype and it will automatically recognize it. Remember to delete the blurredWallpaper file in order to make the blurring script recognize a new wallpaper has been added and needs to be blurred
edit the apps.lua file to define your desired default and startup applications. If you do not have an application installed that matches a given variable name, change the variable to '' (ie: if you do not have an image editor installed, ensure apps.imageEditor = '')
If the wifi top bar widget is not working, edit the widgets/wifi.lua file and ensure that the local interface variable matches your wifi interface name (if you are unsure how to find your interface name, check out this discussion).
optional: edit the keys.lua file to change / add keybinds

Awesome Folder File Structure

In order to avoid a poorly organized rc.lua spanning thousands of lines, it has been split into multiple files / folders. I have taken extra care to create a logical directory structure that will hopefully allow those new to awesomewm to have an easy time navigating it.

rc.lua: Contains the script that runs when awesome starts (essentially links all the other files together)
apps.lua: Contains the default and startup applications
keys.lua: Contains keybinds
rules.lua: Contains window rules
theme.lua: Contains theme variables
tags.lua: Contains tag (aka workspace) information, edit this to change the tag's icon and behaviour
icons: stores icons used in WM
components: Folder that contains all of the components of the WM, such as panels, volume and brightness sliders, notification pop-ups, etc
widgets: stores widgets used in the functionality of the components

My Preferred Applications

Display Manager - SDDM (with sddm-sugar-dark theme): Beautiful display manager. Matches the window manager theme very well and looks amazing
Text Editor - nvim: I'm an alpha chad
File Manager - Nautilus: Lightweight file browser, few dependencies, and can be configured to work with a preferred terminal. Also has extensions for easy right click extraction / compression of archive files (ie zip / rar etc)
Web Browser - Firefox: Super configurable and isn't made by Google
Terminal - Kitty: Used to use alacritty, switched to kitty as it is very fast and has great ligature implementation (which helps with programming in vim). Is very configurable and has built in tmux-like functionality
Theme / Look & Feel Manager - lxappearance: makes managing icon / cursor / application themes easy, only theme manager with no DE dependencies, and works very well

Other cool applications you should install

redshift: Changed screen warmth based on the time of day
neofetch: Displays system information in the terminal
cmatrix: Terminal base matrix text effect
cava: Terminal audio visualizer!

Application Theming

Firefox

Set up my custom Firefox theme
Use this homepage
Use SF Text font

Spotify

Install Spicetify
chown spotify directory: sudo chown $USER -R /opt/spotify
run spicetify once to generate config
spicetify backup apply enable-devtool to enable devtools
Copy my spicetify folder to ~/.config
run spicetify update restart

Neovim

Ensure the nvim folder from the repo has been copied into the ~/.config directory
Install VimPlug with

curl -fLo ~/.local/share/nvim/site/autoload/plug.vim --create-dirs \
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/junegunn/vim-plug/master/plug.vim

Open neovim and run :PlugInstall
Exit and reopen neovim

Zsh

Guide if you are having trouble following the steps below

Install a font that supports powerline, my favourites are Fira Code and Source Code Pro, however a quick google search will show many other great fonts
Install oh-my-zsh

sh -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/master/tools/install.sh)"

Change the zsh theme to agnoster

Open ~/.zshrc with your fave text editor
Set ZSH_THEME="agnoster" and save the file

Install Plugins (Note that the ~/.zshrc edits are already done in this repo)

Syntax highlighting (copy and paste the below command to install)

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-syntax-highlighting.git ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-syntax-highlighting

Edit ~/.zshrc, add zsh-syntax-highlighting to the plugins section

Autosuggestions (copy and paste the below command to install)

git clone https://github.com/zsh-users/zsh-autosuggestions ${ZSH_CUSTOM:-~/.oh-my-zsh/custom}/plugins/zsh-autosuggestions

Edit ~/.zshrc, add zsh-autosuggestions to the plugins section

Fini! Reopen the terminal to view the fruit of your labor

Keybinds

Note that the modkey is set to be the windows / command key. If you would like to use a different modkey check out the keys.lua file. If you are new to awesomewm, note that tag refers to workspace, and client refers to window.

Keyboard

mod + enter: Spawn terminal
mod + d: Spawn rofi (an application menu)
mod + f: Make client fullscreen
mod + m: Maximize client
mod + n: Minimize client
mod + shift + n: Unminimize client
mod + [1-9]: Switch to tag [1-9]
mod + shift + [1-9]: Move client to tag [1-9]
mod + space: Change the tag layout, alternating between tiled, floating, and maximized
mod + [up / down / left / right / h / j / k / l]: Change client by direction

Mouse

mod + drag with left click: Move client
mod + drag with right click: Resize client

Notes

If the config isn't working there is a 99% chance it's because you are using awesome and not awesome-git. Arch and Manjaro users can download the awesome-git package from the AUR, while users on other distros will need to build it from source. This sounds scary but is as simple as folling the steps outlined in the official awesomeWM repo
Awesome API Documentation
If you encounter any problems please open an issue in this repo and I will gladly investigate it
If you would like to change the wallpaper, ensure that the wallpaper is named "wallpaper" and is located in the ~/.config/awesome folder. Also ensure that you delete the blurred wallpaper file in order for the blurring script to recognize it needs to generate a new blurred wallpaper

nedo090 / awesome-dotfiles