Sway on Laptop
Install and configure Sway
Install Graphics Drivers
Graphics drivers:
Add a normal user
Use setup-user to add a non-system normal user for running Sway.
Install seatd
Install seatd, a minimal seat management daemon. This grants the required permissions to the user running sway:
apk add seatd
# add seatd to boot run-level, because it must be running before greetd rc-update add seatd boot
rc-service seatd start adduser $USER seat
Install elogind (optional)
elogind is used to enable suspend-to-RAM with swayidle:
apk add elogind rc-update add elogind rc-service elogind start
Set up eudev
eudev is recommended and required for the greeter. Or else it will not be able to find any input device (libinput failure).
setup-devd udev
Install greetd (optional)
greetd is used to set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR and properly configure seat:
apk add greetd greetd-gtkgreet cage greetd-openrc rc-update add greetd adduser greetd seat
In /etc/greetd/config.toml, set
[default_session] command = "cage -s -- gtkgreet"
In /etc/greetd/environments, set
# Launch Sway with a D-Bus server available, use: dbus-run-session -- sway
We need to run sway with dbus-run-session, this is needed for PipeWire and screensharing in Firefox and Chromium.
Install doas
Doas is used to grant permissions for suspend-to-RAM and brightness control with brightnessctl:
apk add doas brightnessctl # optionally, allow $USER root access with password adduser $USER wheel
In /etc/doas.conf, set
permit :wheel permit nopass $USER as root cmd /bin/loginctl permit nopass $USER as root cmd /usr/bin/brightnessctl
After setting the above, suspend-to-RAM can be triggered by running
/bin/loginctl suspend
(use full path to executable) and brightness can be adjusted by running
/usr/bin/brightnessctl set 100
Install fonts
Install DejaVu fonts, which has good Unicode coverage:
apk add font-dejavu
Install PipeWire, WirePlumber and XDG portals
For a reasonable desktop experience with support for audio and screensharing, install pipewire, wireplumber and xdg portals:
apk add pipewire pipewire-pulse pipewire-tools apk add wireplumber apk add xdg-desktop-portal xdg-desktop-portal-wlr
Later, we need to launch PipeWire with Sway and configure several environment variables.
Install Sway
apk add sway \ xwayland \ # if you need xserver foot \ # default terminal emulator. Modify $term in config for a different one. bemenu \ # 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 for example this list at Gentoo Wiki.
Configuration
Copy default sway configuration to ~/.config:
# 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 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 man 5 sway and read the upstream wiki.
Launch PipeWire with Sway, add the following to sway config:
exec /usr/libexec/pipewire-launcher
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
Replace dmenu (depends on X server) with bemenu (Wayland native) for launching programs and selecting which screen to share in Firefox/Chromium:
set $menu dmenu_path | bemenu | xargs swaymsg exec --
Set a mouse cursor, using GNOME Adwaita theme:
seat "*" xcursor_theme Adwaita 16
Set screen lock and suspend-to-RAM:
exec swayidle -w \
timeout 300 'swaylock --daemonize' \
timeout 330 'doas /bin/loginctl suspend' \
before-sleep 'swaylock --daemonize'
Do not lock the screen if program is running in full screen:
for_window [app_id="^.*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen
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 wdisplays package. Note the output name (eDP-1, LVDS-1) and try apply scaling factors such as 1 and 2. To make changes permanent, add
output <name> scale <factor>
to ~/.config/sway/config.
To use toolkit scaling, use
# for GTK-based programs such as firefox and emacs: export GDK_DPI_SCALE=2 # for QT-based programs export QT_WAYLAND_FORCE_DPI="physical" # 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:
exec wl-paste --type text/plain --watch clipman store --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json" bindsym $mod+h exec clipman pick --tool wofi --histpath="~/.local/state/clipman-primary.json"
Firefox picture-in-picture mode/floating windows
Add this to your sway config file (modify the numeric values to suit your needs and your display):
for_window [app_id="firefox" title="^Picture-in-Picture$"] floating enable, move position 877 450, sticky enable, border none
Screenshots
A simple tool that works well under Wayland is Grimshot. Example keybindings:
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
See the sway wiki's article for a list of screenshot tools.
Start with NumLock enabled
Add this to your sway config file:
input type:keyboard xkb_numlock enabled
Change cursor theme and size
Add to your sway config:
seat seat0 xcursor_theme my_cursor_theme my_cursor_size
You can inspect their values with echo $XCURSOR_SIZE and echo $XCURSOR_THEME. If reloading your config does not result in change, try logging out and in.
$XCURSOR_SIZE and $XCURSOR_THEME.
Custom keyboard layout
Since wayland does not support setxkbmap, you will also need to add similar content to your /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/evdev.xml, after </modelList> and after <layoutList>:
<layout>
<configItem>
<name>[the name of your layout, same as the name of the file in /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols]</name>
<shortDescription>[usually just two letters]</shortDescription>
<description>[description of your layout]</description>
<countryList>
<iso3166Id>US</iso3166Id>
<iso3166Id>NO</iso3166Id>
</countryList>
<languageList>
<iso639Id>eng</iso639Id>
</languageList>
</configItem>
</layout>
<!--[other layouts]-->
Then, to enable for all keyboards, navigate to the input section of ~/.config/sway/config and modify it to
input * {
xkb_layout "my_layout"
}
If you have enabled xkb_numlock, include this setting inside those braces as well.
Default font
This is not related to Sway, but still nice to have: change system wide default font selection. In /etc/fonts/conf.d/52-my-default-fonts.conf, set
<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'urn:fontconfig:fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
<!-- Default fonts -->
<alias binding="same">
<family>sans-serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>DejaVu Sans</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias binding="same">
<family>serif</family>
<prefer>
<family>DejaVu Serif</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
<alias binding="same">
<family>monospace</family>
<prefer>
<family>DejaVu Sans Mono</family>
</prefer>
</alias>
</fontconfig>
You can obtain a list of installed fonts with fc-list.