Sway

Sway is a tiling Wayland compositor. It's a drop-in replacement for the i3 window manager.

Prerequisites

First, install & configure eudev:

# apk add eudev
# setup-udev

Then install graphics drivers appropriate to your system:

# apk search mesa-dri
# apk add mesa-dri-intel # example

The following contains guides per-graphics for setting the video stack up.

For Intel:

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Intel_Video

For Radeon:

https://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Radeon_Video

Add yourself to the input and video groups:

# adduser $USER input
# adduser $USER video

You have to log out and back in for this to take effect.

Installation

We can now install sway:

# apk add sway sway-doc
# apk add                \ # Install optional dependencies:
    xorg-server-xwayland \ # strongly reccommended for compatibility reasons
    alacritty            \ # default terminal emulator
    dmenu                \ # default application launcher
    swaylock             \ # lockscreen tool
    swayidle               # idle management (DPMS) daemon

Running Sway

To run sway, first set XDG_RUNTIME_DIR to a suitable location (e.g. /tmp). Install & configure elogind to skip this step. Then run sway from the Linux console:

$ XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp sway

Add this to a script if it becomes tedious.

Configuration and Usage

An example config is provided at /etc/sway/config. Copy it to ~/.config/sway/config and read through it to learn the default keybindings.

For additional information, start at man 5 sway and read the upstream FAQ.