View source for Sway

Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor and a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager for X11. It works with your existing i3 configuration and supports most of i3's features, plus a few extras.

== Add a normal user ==

Use <code>setup-user</code> to add a non-system normal user for running Sway.

== Set up eudev ==

[[eudev]] is recommended and required for. Without it, sway cannot connect to input devices.

 setup-devd udev

== Install Graphics Drivers ==

Graphics drivers:

* [[Intel Video]]
* [[Radeon Video]]
* [[Nvidia Video]]

== Setting up a seat manager ==

Wayland compositors need raw access to input and output devices. This is mediated by a [https://man.sr.ht/~kennylevinsen/seatd/ seat manager]. Using either seatd or elogind is supported. Using both may lead to conflicts.

=== Install seatd ===

Install seatd, a minimal seat management daemon. This grants the required permissions to the user running sway. You don't need this if you use [[#Install_elogind_(optional)|elogind]].

 apk add seatd
 rc-update add seatd

 rc-service seatd start
 adduser $USER seat

=== Install elogind ===

<code>swayidle</code> has integration with <code>elogind</code> and can handle <code>before-sleep</code> events.

 apk add elogind
 rc-update add elogind
 rc-service elogind start

If using <code>swayidle before-sleep</code>, there will be a race condition, so that when you resume the computer from suspend, the screen shows the contents of the unlocked screen for a second before showing the actual lock screen.  This can be a privacy concern, if someone is filming the screen.
To solve this issue, do the following:

Create this file <code>/etc/elogind/system-sleep/10-swaylock.sh</code>, then add the following script to this file:

 #!/bin/sh
 if [ "${1}" == "pre" ]; then
   touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep
   sleep 1
 fi

Then set it to executable.

Later, once sway is installed, add the following line to sway config:

 # in ~/.config/sway/config
 exec touch /tmp/swaylock-sleep && inotifyd swaylock /tmp/swaylock-sleep

With this line, the screen will be promptly locked before suspend-to-RAM starts.

== Install greetd (optional) ==

{{Box YELLOW|Note:|This content is tangential, and should be moved into the 'greetd' page}} 

 apk add greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage
 rc-update add greetd
 adduser greetd seat

In <code>/etc/greetd/config.toml</code>, set

<pre>
[default_session]

command = "cage -s -- gtkgreet"
</pre>

To use a graphical greeter with seatd add <code>rc_need=seatd</code> to <code>/etc/conf.d/greetd</code>.

In <code>/etc/greetd/environments</code>, set
<pre>
# Launch Sway with a D-Bus server available, use:
dbus-run-session -- sway
</pre>

D-Bus is required for PipeWire and screensharing in Firefox and Chromium. Running with <code>dbus-run-session</code> is a convenience wrapper that will explicitly export the path of the session bus.

== Install fonts ==

Install DejaVu fonts, which has good Unicode coverage:

 apk add font-dejavu

== Install Sway ==

 apk add sway \
    xwayland             \ # if you need xserver
    foot                 \ # default terminal emulator. Modify $term in config for a different one.
    wmenu                \ # default wayland native menu for choosing program and screensharing monitor
    swaylock swaylockd   \ # lockscreen tool
    grim                 \ # screenshot tool
    wl-clipboard         \ # clipboard management
    i3status             \ # simple status bar
    swayidle               # idle management (DPMS) daemon

For complimentary software alternatives, see [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki/Useful-add-ons-for-sway the relevant page from sway's wiki] or [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/List_of_software_for_Wayland this list at Gentoo Wiki.]

== Configuration ==

Copy default sway configuration to <code>~/.config</code>:

 # as normal user
 mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
 cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/

Read through it to learn the default keybindings.
Sway configuration is mostly backwards-compatible with that of [[I3wm|i3]] and if you are looking for a solution for a specific issue, you may also try checking if it hasn't been provided for i3WM.

For additional information, start at <code>man 5 sway</code> and read the [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki upstream wiki].

== PipeWire and enable screensharing ==

For audio playback, either PipeWire or PulseAudio work fine.

For screen sharing, applications are split into two categories:

- Those which use the native wayland protocol, </code>wlr-screencopy</code>
- Those which use the API from Flatpak's <code>xdg-desktop-portal</code> (this portal is also used by native non-Flatpak applications).

Applications in the first group require not additional setup. Applications in the second group (which includes Firefox and Chromium) require setting up pipewire, wireplumber and xdg portals:

 apk add pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-tools
 apk add wireplumber
 apk add xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr

Launch PipeWire with Sway. Use your service manager of choice, or add the following to sway config:

 exec /usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher

If your are using automatic D-Bus activation, you also need to set DBus variables for the portal and screensharing features to work:

 exec dbus-update-activation-environment WAYLAND_DISPLAY XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=sway

{{Box YELLOW|Unclear:|The following paragraph is unclear and needs further work}} 

Replace dmenu (depends on X server) with bemenu (Wayland native) for launching programs and selecting which screen to share in Firefox/Chromium:

 set $menu bemenu-run | xargs swaymsg exec

== Mouse cursor theme ==

Set a mouse cursor, using GNOME Adwaita theme:

 seat "*" xcursor_theme Adwaita 16

== Screen lock and suspend-to-RAM ==

=== Without elogind ===

Consider using {{Pkg|powerctl}}.

=== With elogind ===

Putting the system to sleep with elogind requires elevated privileges or additional configuration.

For details on configuring <code>doas</code> with <code>elogind</code>, see [[Elogind#Doas]]

To put the system to sleep after 600 seconds, use:

 exec swayidle -w timeout 600 'doas /bin/loginctl suspend'

loginctl suspend command will trigger the screenlock, as mentioned in the section [[#Install elogind (optional)|Install elogind (optional)]] above.

Do not lock the screen if program is running in full screen:

 for_window [app_id="^.*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen

== Brightness control ==

Controlling display backlight requires either the proper udev rules, or using some form of privilege escalation.

{{Pkg|brightnessctl}} is a reliable alternative, although its default udev rules require too wide permissions (see {{Issue|15409}}). You may need your own rules, or configure doas to allow running it as an unprivileged user.

Optionally enable brightnessctl service to restore brightness settings on reboot:

 rc-update add brightnessctl

== Output scaling for high resolution displays ==

Without further configuration, program interfaces might be too small to use on high resolution displays.

Sway supports the per-display configuration of

* fractional (e.g., 1.5x), and
* integer scaling (e.g., 2x) 

However, fractional scaling is discouraged due to both the performance impact and the blurry output it produces. In this case, where 1x scaling is too small and 2x scaling is too large, program-specific GTK/QT based scaling is recommended.  See below.

To enable Sway scaling, the user can first preview different scaling factors with <code>wdisplays</code> package.  Note the output name (eDP-1, LVDS-1) and try apply scaling factors such as 1 and 2.  To make changes permanent, add

<pre>
output <name> scale <factor>
</pre>

to ~/.config/sway/config.

To use toolkit scaling, use
{{Cmd|# for GTK-based programs such as firefox and emacs:
export GDK_DPI_SCALE{{=}}2

<nowiki>#</nowiki> for QT-based programs
export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI{{=}}"physical"
<nowiki>#</nowiki> or if still too small, use a custom DPI
export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI{{=}}192 # 2x scaling
export QT_QPA_PLATFORM{{=}}"wayland-egl"
}}

== Make clipboard content persistent ==
By default the clipboard content does not persist after terminating the program: you copy some text from Firefox and then exit Firefox, the copied text is also lost.

Install clipman from testing repo and add the following to sway config:

<pre>
exec wl-paste --type text/plain --watch clipman store --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
bindsym $mod+h exec clipman pick --tool wofi --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
</pre>

== Firefox picture-in-picture mode/floating windows ==
Add this to your sway config file (modify the numeric values to suit your needs and your display):
<pre>
for_window [app_id="firefox" title="^Picture-in-Picture$"] floating enable, move position 877 450, sticky enable, border none
</pre>

== Screenshots ==
A simple tool that works well under Wayland is Grimshot. Example keybindings:
<pre>
bindsym Print exec grimshot copy area
bindsym Shift+Print exec grimshot copy screen
bindsym Control+Print exec grimshot save area ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png
bindsym Control+Shift+Print exec grimshot save screen ~/Pictures/$(date +%d-%m-%Y-%H-%M-%S).png
</pre>

See [https://github.com/swaywm/sway/wiki/Useful-add-ons-for-sway the sway wiki's article] for a list of screenshot tools.

== Start with NumLock enabled ==
Add this to your sway config file:
<code>input type:keyboard xkb_numlock enabled</code>

== Change cursor theme and size ==
Add to your sway config:
<pre>
seat seat0 xcursor_theme my_cursor_theme my_cursor_size
</pre>
You can inspect their values with <code>echo $XCURSOR_SIZE</code> and <code>echo $XCURSOR_THEME</code>. If reloading your config does not result in change, try logging out and in.
{{Note|Wayland uses client-side cursors. It is possible that applications do not evaluate the values of <code>$XCURSOR_SIZE</code> and <code>$XCURSOR_THEME</code>.}}


== Custom keyboard layout ==

To use custom keyboard layout, just use
<pre>
input type:keyboard {
  xkb_file /path/to/my/custom/layout
}
</pre>

== Changing default application fonts ==

See [[Fontconfig]]

== Troubleshooting ==

If you encounter any issues, try running <code>sway -Vc /etc/sway/config</code>. It will run sway with the default config file and set the output to be more verbose. It is generally a good idea to track your config files with git (when and if at all you use a remote repository for them, keep it private for security reasons). 

=== Flatpaks ===
{{main|Flatpak}}
Due to their sandboxing, flatpaks require the use of a portal frontend (xdg-desktop-portal) and backends (such as xdg-desktop-portal-wlr, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk, xdg-desktop-portal-gnome) that implement the methods. When in doubt, install multiple backends. For more information on backends, see [https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/#using-portals flatpak's page on the subject]. In addition to the steps under the "Firefox Screensharing" section, it may also be necessary to launch additional backends in your Sway config file. Otherwise, you may run into GDBus errors as your flatpak fails to interface with the portal. This can cause issues such as with opening your file directories from a flatpak application.

After installing different backends, you might need to add the relevant backends to your sway config file similarly to in the "Firefox Screensharing" section above. For example, an autostart section of your sway config file may include:
<pre>
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
exec /usr/libexec/xdg-desktop-portal-gnome
</pre>

This is only needed if they are not started automatically via other means.

=== Firefox (Flatpak) and/or GTK apps ===
==== Disappearing cursor ====
You may need to get an icon pack and possibly a theme from [https://www.pling.com/browse?cat=107&ord=latest Pling store] and set <code>GTK_THEME</code> environmental variable. Alternatively you can install a theme      for all users (search [https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/ Alpine Linux Packages] for ''*-icon-theme'') using <code>apk add</code>.

==== Missing file picker/cannot download ====

Go to ''about:config'' and set <code>widget.use-xdg-desktop-portal.file-picker</code> to 0.

=== Failing to start under certain graphics cards/multiple wlroots stacked windows spawning upon start ===
As of Dec 31 2022, [https://developer.nvidia.com/docs/drive/drive-os/latest/linux/sdk/common/topics/window_system_stub/Gnome-WaylandDesktopShellSupport136.html Nvidia still doesn't fully support Wayland]. Therefore, the possible solutions are as outlined in the link, or setting your WLR_BACKENDS environmental variables to <code>drm,libinput</code> or <code>x11</code> (add libinput here as well if you cannot use your mouse and keyboard after starting Sway). The latter also works for AMD/ATI cards ('''make sure to install libinput first''').

=== Sway socket not detected ===

See [[Sway#Installation|Installation]] for instructions on how to set this environmental variable. This issue may occur with terminal multiplexers, such as [[tmux]]


== See Also ==
* [https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Sway Archwiki]
* [https://wiki.gentoo.org/wiki/Sway Gentoo Wiki]
* [https://wiki.postmarketos.org/wiki/Sway PostmarketOS Wiki]

[[Category:Desktop]]
[[Category:Window Managers]]
[[Category:Wayland]]