Overview
Decided to give Sway another try. It’s certainly been a while. Sway is intended to be a replacement for the X11 window manager i3wm. It’s just the Wayland version.
When I tried it when I did. I didn’t quite mind it. Only gripe I really had was how the graphics performed and that it was noticeably different as far as i3wm was concerned.
Here I will provide a repo for my configuration files for my Sway environment on Fedora. I will also go over my process for installation and configuration. Troubleshooting hurtles I go through will be documented and discussed.
Expect regular updates to this article.
Installation
Installation on Fedora is pretty simple. Just the package manager to install Sway.
dnf install -y sway
This will install the following packages and dependencies. These dependencies could change at any time. So take the output with a grain of salt, please.
Note that your output may not be the same as mine.
ast metadata expiration check: 0:07:47 ago on Fri 04 Mar 2022 10:23:51 AM CST.
Dependencies resolved.
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Package Architecture Version Repository Size
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Installing:
sway x86_64 1.6.1-4.fc35 updates 5.1 M
Installing dependencies:
grim x86_64 1.3.2-2.fc35 fedora 23 k
libseat x86_64 0.6.4-1.fc35 updates 28 k
python3-dbus-next noarch 0.2.3-1.fc35 fedora 108 k
python3-i3ipc noarch 2.2.1-3.fc35 fedora 52 k
python3-tenacity noarch 8.0.1-1.fc35 fedora 45 k
python3-xlib noarch 0.31-1.fc35 fedora 266 k
swaybg x86_64 1.1-2.fc35 fedora 24 k
wlroots x86_64 0.14.1-3.fc35 updates 278 k
Installing weak dependencies:
alacritty x86_64 0.9.0-4.fc35 updates 1.8 M
slurp x86_64 1.3.2-2.fc35 fedora 25 k
sway-systemd noarch 0.2.1-1.fc35 updates 17 k
swayidle x86_64 1.7.1-1.fc35 updates 27 k
swaylock x86_64 1.5-8.fc35 fedora 40 k
wofi x86_64 1.2.4-2.fc35 fedora 76 k
xdg-desktop-portal-wlr x86_64 0.5.0-1.fc35 updates 44 k
Transaction Summary
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Install 16 Packages
Then it’s time to copy over the default configuration for Sway. Did this using the following commands.
Created the sway directory in the .config directory.
mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
Copy over the default configuration file.
cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/
Once that was done. I rebooted and login to my account using the Sway Window Manager within GDM. Note that this is done using the gear in the lower right-hand corner at the password portion of the login screen.
This will login to Sway. If anyone would like to learn more about Sway. Please utilize the links provided in the References section of this article.
Configuration
This is the section where I cover some of my configuration for Sway. Not going to go into all of the details for it. That can be done by going to the git repository for the configuration.
I’ll explain some interesting things I found throughout the process of configuring this.
Status Bar
One of the great things about i3 Window Manager was the status bar. i3status is absolutely wonderful. Though, on sway you don’t use this.
Waybar has been what I’ve stuck with. Although, it completely covers up dmenu. I’ve found another suitable alternative for that also. Which I will provide in the next section.
Actual configuration notes will be provided in due time.
Dmenu Alternative - wofi
Although, the online documentation seems unkept. It’s man pages are well written. Chose this as a “native” alternative to dmenu and rofi. It’s supposed to be the Wayland Rofi after all.
I’ll provide more documentation on the configuration as I have it. I’m still working on making this better in order to suit my needs.
Other Notes & Opinions
05/25/2022
So far it’s been about two months since I’ve switched to Swaywm on Fedora 35 and I don’t have any complaints. Sure, there is a learning curve to Wayland applications. But, nothing that reading the man pages can’t fix with time. So far I haven’t had any issues with screen tearing or anything like that.
Decided for the status bar. I would go with Waybar. I like the way it looks. It also provides all the data I need or want so far in a status bar.
I moved over from dmenu to wofi because in dmenu you’re unable to see the output if Waybar is at the top. Which is my prefrence. So instead of figuring out a way to fix that. I decided to add another alternative to the environment.