freebsd dwl wayland tiling window manager install

freebsd dwl wayland tiling window manager install with patches in a separate git branch.


the reason why you need to build dwl on freebsd rather than using the port or packages
is because the dwl package lets you set an variable called DWL_HOME_CONFIG that points to a dwl config.h file
which is used to customize dwl

the problem is that a lot of the dwl patches like movestack have changes in other files like dwl.c
and since the dwl package only uses the config.h file most of the patches wont work with the dwl package or port

in this video i cover install dwl on freebsd 14,
setting the scroll speed, setting up your keyboard with xkb settings

applying the patches and dwl changes in a separate git branch allows you to easily merge your changes
when update dwl by running git pull

changing the modkey, setting your terminal and application launcher,
settings for firefox and opening videos with mpv on an external mointor and installing the movestack patch

dwl install notes

dwl-start script

freebsd dotfiles

dwl-freebsd

thanks to charlie on the freebsd forum for the tips on changing the Makefile and using gmake to build dwl
 
Nice tutorial. 👍 It may take me few days to learn to install and configure dwl.

I got used to dwm dmenu st for a few years. Now I could not live without them. Your tutorial shows alternatives to them in wayland.

You got a new subscriber :)
As always, greatly appreciated.Thank you so much,Mate
 
I have page that covers dwl--I doubt it's as complete as an hour long video, but might be useful for the basics. https://srobb.net/wayland.html. The dwl stuff is about the last 3rd of the page.
I did find the maintainer to be very nice when I had a couple of issues. (All turned out to be my fault)l
 
Nice tutorial. 👍 It may take me few days to learn to install and configure dwl.

I got used to dwm dmenu st for a few years. Now I could not live without them. Your tutorial shows alternatives to them in wayland.

You got a new subscriber :)
As always, greatly appreciated.Thank you so much,Mate
I did get an alert saying

"JamesL is now following you"

which does sound like a line from a horror movie
 
i have been using labwc which is a wayland version of openbox

apart from being a stacking window manager
one of the main issue is doesnt have independent workspace per monitor

so you have to create window rules for different applications like mpv or chromium so they will be visible on all workspaces

then you can play a video on the second monitor
and when you switch workspaces on the first monitor the video stays in place on the second display

thats fine as long as chromium or mpv is on the second display
but having chromium visible on all workspaces on the first display is a pain

so switched back to dwl because i prefer having independent workspaces for each monitor
 
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