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Usage is optimized for shortcuts. It may take some time to get used to it. Access to some programs may afford configuring or using command and exact program name. Information about battery usage, wifi, etc. needs configuration.

On the other hand it is small and therefore fast opening especially compared with KDE. It allows to place clients on several tags, and display several tags at the same time.

On the Awesome home page is stated that "it is primarly targeted at power users, developers and any people dealing with every day computing tasks and who want to have fine-grained control on theirs graphical environment."
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Now, if you are using GDM or KDM, it should appear in the login window, so you can select Awesome instead of Gnome or KDE.<<BR>> Now, if you are using GDM or KDM, it should appear in the login window, so you can select Awesome instead of Gnome or KDE.

Using KDM be aware that the login window only appears if automatic login isn't activated in the KDE-settings, starting, login window. Here you can also decide which window manager will be used for automatic login. It is recommended not to use automatic login while configuring awesome. Mistakes in the configuring file can in extreme case prevent Awesome from starting. In this case it is convenient to use the other window manager to reset the configuring file.
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It first run in "normal" mode, but you should press win+space so it enters into tiling mode. It first run in "normal" mode, but pressing win+space repeatedly goes through different tiling modes.
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Learn more key commands by running: Press win+r to get a command for starting programs, The command line showing "Run:" appears in the menu line just right of the tags section.

Press win+shift+q for quitting Awesome

Press win+ctrl+r for a restart of Awesome

Learn more key commands by pressing win+s or running:
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It is recommended that you edit the file in your personal folder so your changes do not affect other users. You do so by coping the general file first: It is highly recommended that you edit the file in your personal folder. So your changes do not affect other users. Furthermore in the case of a severe mistake in your personal configuring file Awesome will use the original "rc.lua" as fallback. You do so by coping the general file first:
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}}}

It could make sense to copy the whole awesome directory if you want to change the theme too:

{{{
$ mkdir ~/.config/awesome
$ cp /etc/xdg/awesome ~/.config/awesome
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Before starting be aware that the configuring file "rc.lua" is very different for Awesome 3.4 and Awesome 4. Only some examples and code snippets work with both versions. In addition only some websites state explicitly which Awesome version will work with their examples.

Awesome 3.4 is documented well, code snippets are available for many cases on different websites.

The [[https://github.com/Mic92/vicious | vicious]] library contained in the awesome-extra package contains several useful widgets. ~/.config/awesome/vicious/README contains a detailled description of the widgets and their use. Not all of these work for Awesome 4.

http://awesome.naquadah.org/images/6mon.small.png

Awesome is a tiling Window Manager that can replace or live together with other desktop environments like Gnome and KDE.

Usage is optimized for shortcuts. It may take some time to get used to it. Access to some programs may afford configuring or using command and exact program name. Information about battery usage, wifi, etc. needs configuration.

On the other hand it is small and therefore fast opening especially compared with KDE. It allows to place clients on several tags, and display several tags at the same time.

On the Awesome home page is stated that "it is primarly targeted at power users, developers and any people dealing with every day computing tasks and who want to have fine-grained control on theirs graphical environment."

Awesome works at least with Debian Jessie (Awesome 3.4) and Debian Stretch (Awesome 4).

Installation

# apt-get install awesome

Optional (adds extra widgets as usage of battery, wifi, cpu memory, etc.):-

# apt-get install awesome-extra

Now, if you are using GDM or KDM, it should appear in the login window, so you can select Awesome instead of Gnome or KDE.

Using KDM be aware that the login window only appears if automatic login isn't activated in the KDE-settings, starting, login window. Here you can also decide which window manager will be used for automatic login. It is recommended not to use automatic login while configuring awesome. Mistakes in the configuring file can in extreme case prevent Awesome from starting. In this case it is convenient to use the other window manager to reset the configuring file.

If it doesn't show up in the window manager list on the login screen edit /usr/share/xsessions/awesome.desktop, change NoDisplay=true to NoDisplay=false.

Hint: You can also write your own Xsession startup script and choose "System Default" in GDM or KDM.

This is a sample Xsession file, working at least on Debian Wheezy and Jessie (the file must be saved as $HOME/.Xsession):

gnome-screensaver &
gnome-settings-daemon &

export $(/usr/bin/gnome-keyring-daemon --start --components=pkcs11,secrets,ssh,gpg)

xrdb -cpp /usr/bin/cpp-4.7 -merge ~/.Xresources
xrandr --output HDMI2 --right-of HDMI1

exec awesome

If you are not using a login manager you should configure .xinitrc as usual, running awesome at the end of the script. In order to obtain certain privileges for your user (like being able to make the computer sleep and things like that), use ck-launch-session like this:

#.xinitrc
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources #if you have Xresources
xmodmap ~/.Xmodmap #if you use xmodmap
nm-applet& #if you want to use network-manager
bluetooth-applet& #if you have bluetooth
volti& #this is a program to control audio volume ("apt-get install volti")
ck-launch-session awesome

If you want to use Awesome at the same time than Gnome or KDE of XFCE, there is good news: it is possible. All this information is on the Awesome official wiki (for example: Awesome with Gnome).

Usage

This window manager is mostly managed using the keyboard.

It first run in "normal" mode, but pressing win+space repeatedly goes through different tiling modes.

Press win+enter to open terminals.

Press win+l or win+h to enlarge or shrink windows.

Press win+j to go to the next window.

Press win+r to get a command for starting programs, The command line showing "Run:" appears in the menu line just right of the tags section.

Press win+shift+q for quitting Awesome

Press win+ctrl+r for a restart of Awesome

Learn more key commands by pressing win+s or running:

man awesome

Configuration

Unlike Gnome or KDE type desktops environments, Awesome is configured editing a "lua" source file located either in /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua or ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua.

It is highly recommended that you edit the file in your personal folder. So your changes do not affect other users. Furthermore in the case of a severe mistake in your personal configuring file Awesome will use the original "rc.lua" as fallback. You do so by coping the general file first:

$ mkdir ~/.config/awesome
$ cp /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua

It could make sense to copy the whole awesome directory if you want to change the theme too:

$ mkdir ~/.config/awesome
$ cp /etc/xdg/awesome ~/.config/awesome

Now edit it:

$ nano ~/.config/awesome/rc.lua

Further configuration (highly recommended)

To get an idea of what you can do with awesome, it is recommended that you dedicate some time to fully configure it to your taste. It is recommended to investigate The official Awesome wiki.

Before starting be aware that the configuring file "rc.lua" is very different for Awesome 3.4 and Awesome 4. Only some examples and code snippets work with both versions. In addition only some websites state explicitly which Awesome version will work with their examples.

Awesome 3.4 is documented well, code snippets are available for many cases on different websites.

The vicious library contained in the awesome-extra package contains several useful widgets. ~/.config/awesome/vicious/README contains a detailled description of the widgets and their use. Not all of these work for Awesome 4.


CategoryDesktopEnvironment