My personal dwm setup with all patches already applied. No manual patching needed, just clone, build, and go.
- bar-height
- fullgaps
- moveresize
- noborderfloatingfix
- movestack
- pertag
- status2d
- warp
- xrdb
- alwayscenter
- attachbottom
- statuscmd
The patches/ folder is kept for reference and credit only. They are already applied to the source.
Build:
sudo apt install build-essential libx11-dev libxft-dev libxinerama-dev git fontforge python3-fontforge fonts-font-awesome
Programs used by the keybindings (install what you need, or change them in config.h):
sudo apt install dmenu kitty thunar scrot maim xclip brightnessctl alsa-utils network-manager bluez rfkill power-profiles-daemon picom
Firefox, VS Code, Discord, Spotify and OBS are launched by name, so install them separately or edit config.h.
The optional extras at the bottom list their own dependencies.
The layout symbols are cat glyphs from waycat by CarloCattano. Each layout gets a different frame: running cats for tile and floating, a sleeping cat for monocle. The original font maps its frames to plain letters, which clashes with normal text in dwm, so the glyphs are moved to the private use area first. The font file is not included in this repo, the script below builds it from the original:
./fonts/install-waycat.sh
Check that it is installed:
fc-list | grep -i waycat
Without the font, the layout symbols show an empty box. To skip it, edit the layouts[] array in config.h and remove the \uE000, \uE002 and \uE010 glyphs.
git clone https://github.com/vq6oon/dwm.git
cd dwm
./fonts/install-waycat.sh
sudo make clean install
Create the folder used by the screenshot keys:
mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots
Then start dwm. With startx, add this line to ~/.xinitrc:
exec dwm
With a display manager, add a session entry at /usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop:
[Desktop Entry]
Name=dwm
Comment=dynamic window manager
Exec=dwm
Type=Application
Programs that should start at login (status bar, wallpaper, compositor) go in ~/.xsessionrc for a display manager, or in ~/.xinitrc before exec dwm for startx.
The status bar is a separate project: sxstatus. The wifi, bluetooth, power profile, picom and camera mirror keys below call its dmenu menus, and the emoji picker uses its dmenu_sx for colors, so clone it to ~/.config/sxstatus. Its icons come from Font Awesome, which is already in fonts[] in config.h.
Super is the modifier (MODKEY in config.h).
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + P |
Launcher (dmenu) |
Super + T |
Terminal (kitty) |
Super + B |
Browser (firefox) |
Super + C |
Editor (code) |
Super + E |
File manager (thunar) |
Super + D |
Discord |
Super + M |
Spotify |
Super + R |
OBS Studio |
Super + V |
Emoji picker (see below) |
Super + Shift + C |
Mirror camera menu: on / off (see below) |
Super + F |
Mouse driver (Fantech X9 Thor, personal, change or remove in config.h) |
Each workspace remembers its own layout, master size and master count (pertag).
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + 1~9 |
Go to workspace 1~9 |
Super + Shift + 1~9 |
Move window to workspace 1~9 |
Super + Ctrl + 1~9 |
Show workspace 1~9 in addition to the current one |
Super + Ctrl + Shift + 1~9 |
Toggle window on workspace 1~9 |
Super + Tab |
Go to previously active workspace |
Super + 0 |
View all workspaces |
Super + Shift + 0 |
Show window on all workspaces |
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + J / K |
Focus next / previous window |
Super + Shift + J / K |
Move window down / up the stack |
Super + Return |
Promote focused window to master area |
Super + H / L |
Decrease / increase master area size |
Super + I / O |
Increase / decrease number of master windows |
Super + Q |
Close window |
Super + Shift + T |
Tiled layout |
Super + Shift + F |
Floating layout |
Super + Shift + M |
Monocle (fullscreen) layout |
Super + Space |
Toggle between current and previous layout |
Super + Shift + Space |
Toggle floating mode for window |
Super + - / = |
Decrease / increase gaps |
Super + Shift + = |
Reset gaps |
Super + Arrows |
Move floating window |
Super + Shift + Arrows |
Resize floating window |
Super + Ctrl + Arrows |
Move floating window to screen edge |
Super + Ctrl + Shift + Arrows |
Stretch floating window to screen edge |
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + , / . |
Focus previous / next monitor |
Super + Shift + , / . |
Send window to previous / next monitor |
Screenshots go to ~/Pictures/Screenshots.
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + Print |
Screenshot, full screen |
Super + Shift + Print |
Screenshot, select region (saved and copied to clipboard) |
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + F6 / F5 |
Volume up / down |
Super + F3 |
Toggle mute |
Super + F9 / F8 |
Brightness up / down |
Super + N |
Wifi menu |
Super + Shift + N |
Toggle wifi |
Super + G |
Bluetooth menu |
Super + Shift + G |
Toggle bluetooth |
There is no confirmation for reboot and shutdown.
| Keybind | Action |
|---|---|
Super + Shift + P |
Power profile menu (needs power-profiles-daemon) |
Super + Ctrl + P |
Picom mode menu: blur + opacity + vsync, opacity + vsync, vsync only, off |
Super + Shift + B |
Toggle status bar |
Super + Shift + F5 |
Reload bar colors from X resources |
Super + Shift + R |
Reboot |
Super + Shift + S |
Shutdown |
Super + Shift + Q |
Quit dwm |
Bar colors follow the wallpaper using pywal and the xrdb patch. The status bar from sxstatus, notifications and kitty follow too.
sudo apt install xdotool pipx nitrogen inotify-tools dunst libnotify-bin adwaita-icon-theme imagemagick
pipx install pywal
./pywal/install.sh
Add this to ~/.xsessionrc, with the xrdb line before the status bar starts:
xrdb -merge ~/.cache/wal/dwm-xres
nitrogen --restore &
dunst &
~/.local/bin/theme-watch &
Then pick a wallpaper in nitrogen and click Apply. theme-watch notices the change and runs theme, which regenerates the colors, reloads the dwm bar, restarts sxstatus and recolors notifications and kitty. You can also run theme yourself, or theme /path/to/image. Super + Shift + F5 reloads the bar colors from X resources by hand.
The status bar text uses the same foreground color as the dwm bar. The accent color is picked from the saturated pixels of the wallpaper itself, not from the wal palette, so near-monochrome wallpapers do not get a random tinted accent. If nothing is saturated, it stays a neutral light gray. The accent is used for the selected tag and the notification borders. For near-monochrome wallpapers the base colors are also pulled back toward neutral, because wal can tint them (a gray image can give a reddish background).
To make kitty follow the wallpaper too, add this at the end of ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf, below the theme block:
include ~/.cache/wal/colors-kitty.conf
If you ever picked a theme with kitten themes, remove ~/.config/kitty/dark-theme.auto.conf, because it overrides these colors in new windows.
Without pywal, dwm simply uses the colors set in config.h.
To make Firefox follow the wallpaper too, install Pywalfox (the add-on and the native app: pipx install pywalfox then pywalfox install). theme calls pywalfox update when it is installed. Firefox uses the wal palette, not the accent above. For near-monochrome wallpapers that palette is softened too.
Type emoji in any app with Super + V, using bemoji and dmenu.
sudo apt install xclip xdotool curl fonts-noto-color-emoji
git clone https://github.com/marty-oehme/bemoji /tmp/bemoji
install -m 755 /tmp/bemoji/bemoji ~/.local/bin/bemoji
The emoji list is downloaded on first run, so it needs an internet connection once.
Super + Shift + C opens a menu to start or stop a mirrored copy of the webcam on a v4l2loopback device. Pick that loopback camera in your video app, not the real one, which ffmpeg holds while the mirror is on. The menu comes from sxstatus. Set Cam and Out at the top of menus/cam_menu: use the stable path from ls /dev/v4l/by-id/ (the one ending in index0) for the camera, because /dev/videoN numbers change between reboots.
sudo apt install ffmpeg v4l2loopback-dkms v4l-utils
sudo modprobe v4l2loopback video_nr=10 card_label="Mirror Cam" exclusive_caps=1
To load the module at every boot, put the options in /etc/modprobe.d/v4l2loopback.conf:
options v4l2loopback video_nr=10 card_label="Mirror Cam" exclusive_caps=1
and the module name in /etc/modules-load.d/v4l2loopback.conf:
v4l2loopback
Opacity and blur come from picom, not from dwm. Three ready-made configs live in picom/, each one heavier than the last:
| Mode | What it does |
|---|---|
vsync |
vsync only, no transparency |
opacity |
vsync and 0.8 window opacity |
blur |
opacity and dual kawase blur, without vsync |
blurvsync |
opacity, dual kawase blur and vsync (heaviest) |
sudo apt install picom
mkdir -p ~/.config/picom
cp picom/*.conf ~/.config/picom/
Super + Ctrl + P opens a menu to switch between the modes or turn picom off, and the choice is remembered for the next login. The menu comes from sxstatus. To start the last chosen mode at login, add this to ~/.xsessionrc:
~/.config/sxstatus/menus/picom_menu restore &
Blur is heavy on the GPU and can cause stutter and audio crackle while screen sharing or mirroring a phone with scrcpy. Use the vsync mode or turn picom off while streaming.
All settings live in config.h (config.def.h is kept in sync). Edit it, then rebuild with sudo make clean install and restart dwm.
Based on dwm by suckless.org. Original license is in LICENSE, original readme in README.dwm.
Cat font by CarloCattano/waycat. Wallpaper colors by pywal. Emoji picker by bemoji.