Dwm

dwm is a dynamic window manager for X. It manages windows in tiled, monocle and floating layouts.

This guide covers:

• Installing dependencies for the suckless tools and installing firefox
• Installing from source or from repository dwm (dynamic window manager), dmenu (dynamic menu), st (simple terminal)
• Configuring the new profile to run dwm at login.

• Internet connectivity, unless the packages have been pre-fetched into a local cache.
• Install appropriate Graphics driver drivers for your hardware. Without graphics drivers, errors are likely to occur when starting your desktop.
• A non-root user account.
• The community repository must be enabled.
• Set up eudev.
• Install and enable D-Bus. Without D-Bus, icons and keyboard shortcuts may be missing.

Installation

Install X11 and set it up using the setup-xorg-base script.

# setup-xorg-base

To install dwm binary packagaes dwm, dmenu and st:

# apk add dwm dmenu st

Installing from source

Installing dependencies

Note: git make gcc g++ libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev ncurses are needed to install suckless tools from source.

dbus-x11 is needed for the dbus system (enables firefox running in dwm to open in a tile)

The last three adwaita-gtk2-theme adwaita-icon-theme font-dejavu are optional, but recommended for a nicer looking firefox.

The command to install the dependencies:

# apk add git make gcc g++ libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev ncurses dbus-x11 firefox-esr adwaita-gtk2-theme adwaita-icon-theme font-dejavu libxft-dev

Installing suckless tools dwm, dmenu, and st from source

Change to the /tmp directory.

$ cd /tmp

then execute:

# git clone https://git.suckless.org/dwm

Once downloaded, go to the dwm directory

# cd dwm

To install, run:

# make clean install

Next, go up one directory level

# cd ..

to install dmenu:

# git clone https://git.suckless.org/dmenu # cd dmenu # make clean install

Finally, go up one more directory level

# cd ..

to install st:

# git clone https://git.suckless.org/st # cd st # make clean install

Setting up your profile

Change to your home directory:

$ cd ~

Create or edit .xinitrc with at least the following:

Contents of ~/.xinitrc

exec dwm

Save the file and exit vi.

Next, create or edit .profile with at least the following:

Contents of ~/.profile

startx

Note: If you install additional programs that call your `$SHELL` with the POSIX `-l` login flag, you'll need to make launching `startx` conditional, otherwise X will attempt to launch every time your shell is called with the login flag.

Contents of ~/.profile

if [ -z $DISPLAY ] && [ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]; then startx fi

Log out or reboot. dwm will run the next time you log in. Press Alt+p to launch dmenu. Type firefox then press enter. Firefox will load and run in tile 9.

See also

• gentoo wiki page on dwm
• Dwm - Archwiki page on dwm
• Raspberry Pi 3 - Browser Client - A guide which omits dwm, but uses similar steps to install firefox in a diskless install on ARM. dwm is not used on the RPI3, due to tmpfs limitations.