My Arch Linux X11 desktop setup

See this blog post for my Sway (Wayland) setup

dotfiles

See my dotfiles git repository for my dotfiles.

Why do you have to write about your own desktop?

Arch’s DIY mentality means that you can create your own destop environment from the various software packages, and thus to configure the desktop, one would have to study various programs in the Arch wiki. This means that finding documentation specific for one’s own desktop setup is very difficult.

I have multiple computers, so I think it is not unwise to document my own desktop setups for future reference. This guide is divided into 2 parts - Wayland and X Windows System.

My Wayland desktop components

  1. Wayland compositor: sway - volume control and brightness control is configured as hotkeys in sway configuration.

  2. Taskbar: swaybar, this status bar uses the same shell configuration as my X11 dwm dwmbar.sh. This configuration can be used in both dwm and sway. It needs my whole dotfile to function properly tho, because it uses WAYLAND enviroment variable which is exported from .kshrc or .bash_profile.

  3. Launcher: wofi, which is Wayland dmenu and rofi replacement. I have dmenu aliased to wofi -d (which is dmenu-compatible mode) so that I can still use my dmenu-based script.

My X Windows desktop components

The components are the display server, the window manager, the compositor, the menu launcher, and the applets.

  1. Display server: X Window System (from xorg-server package)

  2. Window managers: bspwm (tiling), openbox (stacking)

  3. Compositor: picom (formerly compton)

  4. Taskbar: tint2

  5. Applets: xfce4-power-manager, volumeicon

X configuration

Arch’s xorg-* packages are sane enough to run on most hardware without configuration. However, on very new hardware, sometimes the default configuration is not optimized for the hardware, resulting in artifacts or screen tear, as I have experienced in my new T14 (AMD) laptop. This is why most of my X configuration is about hardware. Below are some of my X configs in /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d

X config: change input method (languages) with alt+space

# 00-keybord.conf

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "system-keyboard"
  MatchIsKeyboard "on"
  Option "XkbLayout" "us,th"
  Option "XkbModel" ""
  Option "XkbVariant" ""
  Option "XkbOptions" "grp:alt_space_toggle"
EndSection

X config: AMDGPU

# 20-amdgpu.conf

Section "Device"
  Identifier "AMD"
  Driver "amdgpu"
  Option "TearFree" "true"
  Option "DRI" "3"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
  Identifier "MyScreen"
  DefaultDepth 30
EndSection

X config: Synaptics

# 70-synaptics.conf

Section "InputClass"
  Identifier "touchpad"
  Driver "synaptics"
  MatchIsTouchpad "on"
  Option "TapButton1" "1"
  Option "TapButton2" "3"
  Option "TapButton3" "2"
  Option "VertEdgeScroll" "on"
  Option "VertTwoFingerScroll" "on"
  Option "HorizEdgeScroll" "on"
  Option "HorizTwoFingerScroll" "on"
  Option "CircularScrolling" "on"
  Option "CircScrollTrigger" "2"
  Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinZ" "40"
  Option "EmulateTwoFingerMinW" "8"
  Option "CoastingSpeed" "0"
  Option "FingerLow" "30"
  Option "FingerHigh" "50"
  Option "MaxTapTime" "125"
EndSection

Compositor

The compositor is used (usually with window manager) for display compositing to perform funny effects. I don’t like fancy compositing, so my picom.conf is actually a few lines.

Window managers

Bspwm

bspwm is a lightweight tiling window manager. It only manages windows, and does nothing else, not even handling keyboard hotkeys. Instead, the hotkeys and their associated commands are handled by a seperate program, usually sxhkd.

When bspwm is used in .xinitrc, the window manager first reads it config files bspwmrc and autostart.

Basic bspwm configuration

bspwmrc stores bspwm-specific configurations, and it is essentially a shell script with several bspc lines. To configure bspwm window manager options, edit bspwmrc file. To edit hotkey options, edit sxhkdrc file.

autostart stores shell script for programs that will be autostarted with bspwm, like the compositor and other applets.

OpenBox

OpenBox is a lightweight stacking window manager. OpenBox can be configured graphically with obconf, although it does not support advanced configurations. You will have to edit the config files for OpenBox if you need advanced customization.

Basic openbox configuration

rc.xml stores general configurations, like the hotkeys, while menu.xml stores right-click menu configurations.

autostart works like bspwm’s autostart.

Launcher

dmenu

I use demenu as interactive launchers. I map hotkeys to several shell scripts like dmenugoogle, dmenufirefox, and dmenupower. Configuration to the various dmenu scripts can be done by editting the dmenu* files, or editting sxhkd to map new hotkeys for the script on bspwm, and rc.xml on openbox.

dmenu* scripts are provided in sh-tools/bin.

Taskbar (status bar?)

I use tint2 as a top taskbar. The applets are on the task bar.

In addition to the applets, I also add my own shell script for tint2 to display CPU temperature and fan speed.

Applets

The applets usually work correctly out-of-the-box, requiring no config to work. Nonetheless, you will have to config it to enable its features.

volumeicon does not enable the XF86Audio* hotkeys, which made it pretty useless on first run. You can configre it graphically, or edit its config (~/.config/volumeicon) with:

[Hotkeys]
up_enabled=true
down_enabled=true
mute_enabled=true

up=XF86AudioRaiseVolume
down=XF86AudioLowerVolume
mute=XF86AudioMute

xfce4-power-manager by default does not put laptop in suspense after lid close. This can be easily configured graphically.

Starting X

startx

startx will use xinit to start an X session. The xinit program will read its configuration from .xinitrc, which usually store another program name, like a window manager like bspwm.

.xinitrc

The file ~/.xinitrc is used by xinit when it is starting the X server. We usually put our target windows manager or desktop environment here. So, to switch window manager on the next X session, simply edit .xinitrc file.

.xinitrc example

Let’s say the content of .xinitrc looks like this:

[[ -f $HOME/.Xresources ]] && xrdb $HOME/.Xresources & exec bspwm;

The flow of actions will look like this:

  1. xinit starts the X server, and executes command for.xinitrc, which in this case is only sourcing .Xresources and exec bspwm

  2. bspwm is started and it looks for its own configuration files in ~/.config/bspwm

  3. bspwm executes its config script bspwmrc, and the autostart files

  4. bspwm starts itself, and via autostart, the compositor picom and the applets (and other programs you put in autostart)

  5. The commands in autostart file may execute extra scripts, like my tint CPU temperature and fan speed script.

  6. Boom, we have the GUI (if all went well)

The same is also true for OpenBox, and many other minimal window managers.

Back to top