February 2010 - xmonad

[patch] New extension: X.H.ScreenCorners
by Nils 22 Feb '10

22 Feb '10

Hi, I wrote a new extension today which will add KDE like screen corners to XMonad. See the documentation of the new module for more informations. http://www.n-sch.de/hdocs/xmonad-contrib/XMonad-Hooks-ScreenCorners.html Patch is attached. Nils Schweinsberg

2 4

Xmonad, beagle-search, and mime types
by Damian 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

Hello, I don't consider myself a smart person. Even my mom used to say that I wasn't so bright. But still, should this be so damn difficult? 'beagle-search' is a front end for the beagle desktop search engine. When you issue a query, the application shows you icons (which represent files) with the result of the query. If you click on the icon, the file will be opened with the default application. The problem is that I cannot set the default application by any means. For instance I would like to open jpeg image files using geeqie. I've failed miserably in trying to associate filetypes to applications, using beagle search. The application beagle-search uses xdg-open to open applications. If a filetype has no application associated, then the default handler is firefox (don't ask me why). So I tried to see how xdg-open works, but the man page didn't give me any useful information. The related command, xdg-mime, doesn't work as I expected. I've created a file called geeqie.desktop in the directory /home/damian/.local/share/applications with the following contents: [Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Geeqie Exec=geeqie MimeType=image/jpeg Icon=exec NoDisplay=true Then I've tried to associate geeqie with jpeg files by running: xdg-mime default geeqie.desktop image/jpeg The command terminates successfully, and after running xdg-mime query default image/jpeg I get as output "geeqie.desktop". But xdg-open (and therefore beagle-search) still refuses to open jpeg images with geeqie. Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

2 3

increase size of font on terminal
by Sean Neilan 21 Feb '10

21 Feb '10

Hey All, Does anyone know how to increase the font size on the terminal that comes with xmonad? You know, the one for when you press Alt-Shift-Enter. Thank you very much for your time. -Sean

3 3

Layout.Gaps and PerScreen; is it going to happen?
by Mikael Puhakka 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

Dear Xmonad community, I've recently switched to Xmonad from a 3-year relationship with Fluxbox and just after 4-5 days of daily using I am beginning to love this thing very passionately. However, the old habits die hard and I don't even want to let go of every of them. Some vices of mine include a small Conky instance in a corner, a pseudo-transparent xterm tail -f :ing /var/log/messages with semi-hourly fortunes, and a Rainlendar the flashy calendar application. The "tail -f" monitor behind stuff in tiled environments such as this doesn't make much sense but I rather wouldn't part from the other two. Basically the subject says it all; I wonder if there is a working Gap modifier that would work on one screen only (I have currently a tri-head xinerama setup). I googled through the mailing lists and since 2008 there has been no fuzz about it. Am I left with a hack like a gapped layout to be used with one screen only, or is there a better solution for this? These applications don't do well with Layout.Monitor or alike. As a lazy workaround I've been using "Circle" layout for that particular screen and workspace (it's surprisingly handy and not just an eye toy). TIA, Mikael

2 3

Copy/paste via keyboard
by Chris Jones 20 Feb '10

20 Feb '10

GNU/screen has a powerful keyboard-controlled mechanism that lets you copy rectangular blocks, append to its paste buffer, direct the output to a file, etc. I like tiny fonts, and I find that using the keyboard is quicker and a lot more accurate. When I use the mouse, I always end up either missing some stuff, or copy-pasting extra stuff to be on the safe side. I _think_ I saw references online to a similar copy/paste feature in xmonad, but nothing conclusive. Is it something that's available out of the box with 0.8 (debian squeeze) or is it something that you need to script/configure? Or is this just a case of wishful thinking on my part? Thanks, CJ

7 10

xmonad stops responding even after removing loghook reference
by Sean Neilan 17 Feb '10

17 Feb '10

Hey All, My xmonad installation on Ubuntu 9.10 i386 stops responding after a while. It's just like the faq entry here: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Frequently_asked_questions#XMonad… I've commented out references to logHook in my xmonad config file http://pastebin.com/f8622e8a Still, the same error is happening. Does anyone know if I'm doing something wrong? Thank you for your time. Sean Neilan

2 2

Splitting into xmonad-core/xmonad/xmonad-contrib; WAS Small announce about the completion of the bluetile merge
by Gwern Branwen 16 Feb '10

16 Feb '10

On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 7:27 PM, Gwern Branwen <gwern0(a)gmail.com> wrote: > On Mon, Dec 7, 2009 at 4:34 PM, Wirt Wolff <wirtwolff(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> A bluetileConfig could also play a role similar to the template >> config in providing a reference for people picking and choosing parts >> of the bluetile configuration, or wanting to activate them all plus >> a few customizations. >> >> Thanks for bearing with the long-winded saying of: >> * Yes I agree they should continue as synced separate projects. >> * Some of the bluetile server commands should be available from contrib. >> * There should be a bluetileConfig providing all but the dock and greeter >> bits from bluetile. As much as possible normal Config.Foo customization >> methods should work, and any deviations be well documented and include >> integration helper functions if needed. >> >> regards, >> -- >> wmw > > Here's something I've been thinking. What if we came up with an > xmonad.hs that included all the stuff everybody asks for and the > obvious newbie aids like a first-run xmesage prompt? (Let's call this > a standardConfig, as opposed to barebonesConfig or pimpedOutConfig.) > > Then we could take the current xmonad package, rename it > 'xmonad-core'*; the new 'xmonad' would be basically a cabal file > depending on xmonad-core and xmonad-contrib, and an executable reading > 'Main.hs...importXMonad...import XMonadContrib.StandardConfig...main = > xmonad standardConfig'. (xmonad-core's executable would be left alone > of course.) > > If we get ambitious, the new xmonad main could do more. Perhaps we > could check for XineRama in main and then modify our standardConfig to > use SmartBorders or not? > > This, I think, could make everyone happy: > > - The people concerned about keeping the core minimal and pure can > tell anyone suggesting 'hey, let's make SmartBorders the default > layout' to change the standardConfig and leave the core alone. The > tension between a default that is on par with TWM or raw X and a > bloated failing awesome-like core goes away. > - People who really want the stripped down xmonad have a name which > makes it very clear which one of 'xmonad', 'xmonad-core', and > 'xmonad-contrib' they want. > - Distro & package maintainers bear very small costs since the package > is really small and simple. Quite possibly it may not need updating > for years or indefinitely once we get dynamic linking. (Since, if I > understand the idea right, the compiled program would not hardwire the > xmonad libraries but point to libxmonad.so or something, and would get > new versions of 'xmonad' and 'standardConfig' everytime the respective > libraries were changed.) > - The majority of our users' lives will be easier: by installing > 'xmonad', they get the core and -contrib as dependencies, and they > don't have to struggle to get a comfortable setup. Sane defaults. I > think we could make a standardConfig which is competitive with fluxbox > or ratpoison. Even if a user doesn't want the spartan -core, but > dislikes the standardConfig, they could still be better off, since > it's unlikely they dislike the entire thing or even most of it. It > seems to me that most people tend to dislike 1 or 2 things; if a > person dislikes only 1 thing, they ideally will only have to change > one thing. > - People with existing configs are entirely unaffected. Because module > names are split from package names, their xmonad.hs will never know > the difference. (Presumably the new xmonad executable will see the > xmonad.hs and recompile/run it rather than continue with > standardConfig.) > - This idea is better than some separate 'bluetile' executable > package. dons and others have spent years publicizing xmonad. People > who want xmonad install 'xmonad'. The people who would benefit from it > are almost by definition the people who would not know about it until > too late. > Nor can we add an executable section to XMonadContrib for exactly > the same reason. Someone just trying out XMonad may well never install > -contrib or even know about it until they begin complaining. If you > knew little about Xmonad and saw the Debian description at > <http://packages.debian.org/sid/xmonad> would you be able to instantly > infer 100% of the time that "Xmonad is configured in Haskell, and > custom layout algorithms may be implemented by the user in config > files" implies that there is an enormous collection of extensions & > customizations called xmonad-contrib? I mean, -contrib isn't even a > recommended or suggests! > > The major downsides I can think of: > > - hardcore minimalists might complain that they have to relearn to > 'install xmonad-core' rather than 'install xmonad', lest they pull in > -contrib as well. But then, these tend to be the people best able to > bear the costs; I cannot weep for them. > - the documentation might become misleading in places. Perhaps not > majorly; many problems will be averted by the fact that the old > 'xmonad' executable could always be reached as 'xmonad-core', and to > do anything programming-wise would require using module names, and > since the new xmonad depends on xmonad-core, there'd be no breakage. > To be consistent, we might want to rename the darcs repo to > .../xmonad-core; but then, the new 'xmonad' is so small we could just > tuck it away in its own directory, or make the repo have 2 top-level > folders, xmonad-core & xmonad. > - this requires effort and approval from many people. > (How many distro maintainers do we have? 3 or 4? Toss in another > 3 for the -core devs, and then maybe a few more for people in favor of > the general idea of a default userfriendly config but really couldn't > we just make it another XMC module or something. Hard to have a > consensus or get anything done with 10 people complaining, and this > doesn't work if the official xmonad package doesn't change. It can't > be done as a fork, as I covered above.) > > * this is what everybody in #xmonad seems to say to distinguish the > core package from contrib, anyway Has anyone thought about it since? It's not at all uncommon in #xmonad to see people having issues with adding common config options that I think this proposal would address. -- gwern

9 14

Issue 374 in xmonad: WM keys don't work after exiting a GLUT game mode app
by codesite-noreply＠google.com 15 Feb '10

15 Feb '10

Status: New Owner: ---- New issue 374 by penma23: WM keys don't work after exiting a GLUT game mode app http://code.google.com/p/xmonad/issues/detail?id=374 When exiting an application that uses the game mode of the GLUT library, no WM keys work, until the mouse pointer is used to focus *some window* on the screen, at which point all WM keys will work again. This behaviour can not be observed in many other window managers (so far tested: awesome, dwm, twm), so I believe this is a bug in xmonad. Attached is a test program that enters game mode and exits upon keypress. After exiting, WM keys will not work anymore. Observed in at least 0.9.1, on Linux, using Xorg. Attachments: glut-grab.c 960 bytes -- You received this message because you are listed in the owner or CC fields of this issue, or because you starred this issue. You may adjust your issue notification preferences at: http://code.google.com/hosting/settings

1 0

darcs patch: minor style changes (and 2 more)
by daniel＠wagner-home.com 15 Feb '10

15 Feb '10

Mon Dec 28 12:30:16 EST 2009 Daniel Wagner <daniel(a)wagner-home.com> * minor style changes Mon Jan 4 00:42:51 EST 2010 Daniel Wagner <daniel(a)wagner-home.com> * DynamicLog support for IndependentScreens Sun Feb 14 19:07:31 EST 2010 daniel(a)wagner-home.com * documentation for marshallPP

2 1

[Patch] Remove an obsolete comment
by Justin Bogner 15 Feb '10

15 Feb '10

Attached.

2 1