Sway
Sway (contracted from SirCmpwn's Wayland compositor) is [[Article description::an open-source Wayland compositor that is designed to be compatible with the i3 window manager.]]
Installation
USE flags
USE flags for gui-wm/sway i3-compatible Wayland window manager
X
|
Enable support for X11 applications (XWayland) |
elogind
|
Enable support for rootless session via elogind |
fish-completion
|
Enable fish completion support |
man
|
Build and install man pages |
seatd
|
Enable support for rootless session via sys-auth/seatd |
swaybar
|
Install 'swaybar': sway's status bar component |
swaybg
|
Install 'swaybg': allows to set a desktop background image |
swayidle
|
Install 'swayidle': idle manager to run commands when user is inactive |
swaylock
|
Install 'swaylock': sway's screen locker |
swaymsg
|
Install 'swaymsg': tool for communicating with a running sway instance |
swaynag
|
Install 'swaynag': shows a message with buttons |
systemd
|
Enable use of systemd-specific libraries and features like socket activation or session tracking |
tray
|
Enable support for StatusNotifierItem tray specification |
wallpapers
|
Install sway's default wallpaper image |
zsh-completion
|
Enable zsh completion support |
Emerge
root #
emerge --ask gui-wm/sway
Configuration
To view all available configuration options:
user $
man 5 sway
Files
Each user running sway can edit the default configuration file in order to run a customized sway session. Gentoo stores this file at its default /etc/sway/config location:
user $
mkdir -p ~/.config/sway/
user $
cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/
Terminal emulator
By default the Sway configuration file uses the Alacritty terminal emulator (found in the x11-terms/alacritty package). It is a good idea to emerge this terminal emulator so that a terminal will be available once Sway is running:
root #
emerge --ask x11-terms/alacritty
Another popular choice is x11-terms/kitty which works natively with Wayland if the KITTY_ENABLE_WAYLAND
environment variable is set to 1
.
Another very lightweight alternative is st, but it isn't Wayland native.
Status bar
In addition to Sway's own status bar, gui-apps/waybar can be used as a highly customizable status bar for Sway.
root #
emerge --ask gui-apps/waybar
Brightness
dev-libs/light can be used to adjust backlights and brightness. Here is an example config:
~/.config/sway/config
Set the keyboard shortcuts for screen brightness support<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec light -U 2 bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec light -A 4</syntaxhighlight>
Alternatively, sys-power/acpilight can also accomplish the same brightness changes via a xbacklight compatible command:
~/.config/sway/config
Set the keyboard shortcuts for screen brightness support<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec xbacklight -dec 2 bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec xbacklight -inc 4</syntaxhighlight>
Sound volume
If pulseaudio is being used, the following configuration can be used for changing sound volume:
~/.config/sway/config
Set the keyboard shortcuts to change sound volume<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">bindsym XF86AudioRaiseVolume exec pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ +5% bindsym XF86AudioLowerVolume exec pactl set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ -5%</syntaxhighlight>
Taking screenshots
To add screenshot support, use the grim utility (found in the gui-apps/grim package). The abbreviation grim
is defined as Grab Images. This utility is tailored to the specifics of the Wayland protocol. In order to install grim, use the following command:
root #
emerge --ask gui-apps/grim
To add support for determining the boundaries of the selected screen area, the slurp utility, found in the gui-apps/slurp package, is used in combination with the grim utility. To install slurp, use the command:
root #
emerge --ask gui-apps/slurp
Next, edit the configuration file to add support for keyboard shortcuts to perform a screenshot operation.
~/.config/sway/config
Set the keyboard shortcuts for screenshot support<syntaxhighlight lang="bash"># # Screen capture # set $ps1 Print set $ps2 Control+Print set $ps3 Alt+Print set $ps4 Alt+Control+Print bindsym $ps1 exec grim - | wl-copy bindsym $ps2 exec grim -g "$(slurp)" - | wl-copy bindsym $ps3 exec grim $(xdg-user-dir PICTURES)/ps_$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S").png bindsym $ps4 exec grim -g "$(slurp)" $(xdg-user-dir PICTURES)/ps_$(date +"%Y%m%d%H%M%S").png</syntaxhighlight>
Please note that the Print or Ctrl + Print keys combination creates a screenshot in the wl-copy
buffer. This allows pasting the image directly from the clipboard, without having to save to a file on disk.
For the Alt + Print or Alt + Ctrl + Print keyboard shortcuts, the method of automatically saving the image file in the Pictures user directory is used.
Set a random wallpaper
A random wallpaper can be pulled from a folder and be set: [1]
~/.config/sway/config
Set a random wallpaper from a folder<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">set $wallpapers_path $HOME/Pictures/Wallpapers output * bg $(find $wallpapers_path -type f | shuf -n 1) fill</syntaxhighlight>
HiDPI
To adjust sway's rendering for HiDPI displays (4K and above), the name of the display to be adjusted must be obtained. After a sway session is running, issue the following:
user $
swaymsg -t get_outputs
The
swaymsg
USE flag must be enabled for the swaymsg command to be available on the system.The output
statement in the sway configuration file will accept a scale
parameter to adjust the scaling of the high resolution display.
Executing sway
Some display managers may work but are not supported by sway.[2] Without a display manager involved sway can be started from a tty:
user $
dbus-run-session sway
Omitting the dbus-run-session may cause runtime errors.
Systems that are configured with neither systemd nor elogind will need to create a bash script (or use some other means) to set the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable.
The instructions below must be followed only if the environment does not define the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable (this is usually the case, if systemd/elogind are not used).
The environment variable can be defined in the usual configuration files. For example, if Larry the cow (Larry) sets XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable in his Bash shell's configuration file and he has chosen that the directory will be in /tmp.
/home/larry/.bash_profile
Set the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">#!/bin/bash
if test -z "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"; then
export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/${UID}-runtime-dir
if ! test -d "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"; then
mkdir "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"
chmod 0700 "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"
fi
fi</syntaxhighlight>
With the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR defined, sway can be launched as usual:
user $
dbus-run-session sway
If issues are encountered check Sway issues on GitHub before contacting the Sway community on IRC (#sway) or opening a new Gentoo bug.
Launching Sway from a script
This method uses a script to forcibly take over a virtual terminal and launch Sway in it. The typical use case is to launch Sway automatically on boot.
Sway is not supposed to be launched this way, the script may need some tuning to work.
/usr/sbin/sway_launcher
Sway Launcher<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">#!/bin/sh # Launch sway with a specific user, from a specific Virtual Terminal (vt) # Two arguments are expected: a username (e.g., larry) and the id of a free vt (e.g., 7) # prepare the tty for the user. vtX uses /dev/ttyX chown "$1" "/dev/tty${2}" chmod 600 "/dev/tty${2}" # setup a clean environment for the user, take over the target vt, then launch sway su --login --command "openvt --switch --console ${2} -- sway >\${HOME}/.sway_autolauncher.log 2>&1" "$1" # this script returns immediately</syntaxhighlight>
This script has a few limitations:
- XDG_RUNTIME_DIR is expected to be defined and valid, see the section above.
- Without the
--switch
option for openvt, sway will freeze when trying to switch to a different vt (Ctrl+Alt+Fn), whether this is a bug or not is unknown. - The vt is not cleared when Sway exits, you can do it by calling deallocvt.
- Similarly the tty's owner and mode are not changed back to their default values when Sway exits.
Launching this script on boot can be done with the local service:
/etc/local.d/sway.start
Launch Sway on boot<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">#!/bin/sh sway_launcher larry 7</syntaxhighlight>
Usage
All key combinations will be defined in the ~/.config/sway/config configuration file.
The Super key is defined as the $mod
value by default. On most keyboards this will be the Windows key.
Movement
Sway has a Vi-like interface. h (left), j (down), k (up), and l (right) can be used for movement.
See man 5 sway-input for more information.
Terminal
The default key combination to open a terminal emulator is $mod+Enter.
GTK theme and font
Currently setting a GTK font and theme should be done by editing sway's configuration file. See Sway's wiki as well.
~/.config/sway/config
Set the font and theme for GTK applications<syntaxhighlight lang="bash">set $gnome-schema org.gnome.desktop.interface exec_always { gsettings set $gnome-schema gtk-theme 'theme name' gsettings set $gnome-schema icon-theme 'icon theme name' gsettings set $gnome-schema cursor-theme 'cursor theme name' gsettings set $gnome-schema font-name 'Sans 10' }</syntaxhighlight>
Troubleshooting
Failed to connect to user bus
[swaybar/tray/tray.c:42] Failed to connect to user bus: No such file or directory
- Forum topic [swaybar/tray/tray.c:42] Failed to connect to user bus: No such file or directory => Use dbus-run-session sway
- Forum topic sway(bar) with tray support
- https://github.com/swaywm/sway/issues/1415
Warning: no icon themes loaded
[swaybar/tray/icon.c:348] Warning: no icon themes loaded
It is looking for x11-themes/hicolor-icon-theme
See also
- I3 — a minimalist tiling window manager, completely written from scratch.
- Wayland — a simpler and modern replacement for X display server.
- Weston — a reference implementation of a Wayland compositor.