🖥️ Sway Minimal Configuration

A sleek, minimal, and efficient configuration for the Sway tiling window manager.

This repository provides a complete, plug-and-play setup for a modern Wayland desktop environment, built around Sway. Just clone and follow the instructions "Because manually configuring a tiling WM is so 2010." .

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🧰 "It Just Works" Features

(Sway™-brand magic included)

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✨ Curated Pain Points ✨

Advertised	Reality
Minimalist Design	"Clean" = 6px gaps between windows and existential dread
Lightweight	Only consumes 2GB RAM... until you open Firefox
Integrated Tools	waybar crashes if you blink at it wrong
Sensible Keys	$mod+Shift+Alt+Ctrl+Q to close a window (just kidding... or are we?)
Easy Customization	"Well-commented" = # FIXME: This breaks everything (2017)
Beginner Friendly	"Minutes" assumes you've already sacrificed a goat to the Wayland gods

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🔥 Bonus Round

• Font Rendering: Optional (may require blood sacrifice)
• Multi-Monitor: Works flawlessly*
  * On Tuesdays during a full moon
• Community Support: "Read the source code" — Some dev on GitHub

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📋 Table of Contents

• Prerequisites
• Installation
• Keybindings
• Customization
• Repository Structure
• Additional Resources

🧰 Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the necessary packages installed on your system. The primary components of this setup are:

• sway: The tiling Wayland compositor.
• waybar: A highly customizable Wayland status bar.
• rofi: A powerful window switcher, application launcher, and dmenu replacement.
• alacritty: A fast, GPU-accelerated terminal emulator.

Package Installation

Note

Package names may differ slightly across Linux distributions.

Arch Linux / Arch-based

sudo pacman -S sway waybar rofi

Ubuntu / Debian

sudo apt install sway waybar rofi

Fedora

sudo dnf install sway waybar rofi

🚀 Installation

Follow these simple steps to install the configuration.

1. Clone the Repository Open a terminal and clone this repository to your local machine.

   git clone https://github.com/Ajaybalajiprasad/sway.git
   cd sway

2. Copy Configuration Files This command will copy the configuration directories into your user's .config directory.

   cp -r ./* ~/.config/

   [!WARNING] This will overwrite any existing configurations you have for these applications. Back up your files if necessary!

3. Launch Sway Log out of your current desktop session. From your display manager (like GDM or LightDM), select "Sway" and log in. Alternatively, you can start Sway from a TTY by running:

   sway

You should now be greeted with your new, fully configured Sway desktop!

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⌨️ Keybindings

This configuration uses the Super key (Windows key) as the primary modifier ($mod). Navigation is based on Vim keys, but arrow keys are also supported.

Application & Utility Shortcuts

Key Combination	Action
$mod + T	Open a new terminal (foot)
$mod + D	Open application launcher (Rofi)
$mod + Shift + D	Open run command launcher (Rofi)
$mod + Tab	Show window switcher (Rofi)
$mod + Shift + E	Open file manager (thunar)
$mod + Shift + F	Launch Firefox
$mod + Shift + B	Launch Brave Browser
$mod + Shift + V	Show clipboard history (Wofi)

System & Session Control

Key Combination	Action
$mod + Q	Kill the focused window
$mod + Shift + C	Reload Sway configuration
$mod + Ctrl + L	Lock the screen and suspend the system
$mod + Ctrl + U	Shut down the system immediately

Window & Layout Management

Key Combination	Action
$mod + H/J/K/L	Change focused window (left/down/up/right)
$mod + Arrow Keys	Change focused window
$mod + Shift + H/J/K/L	Move focused window
$mod + Shift + Arrow Keys	Move focused window
$mod + F	Toggle fullscreen for focused window
$mod + Shift + Space	Toggle floating for focused window
$mod + Space	Switch focus between tiling and floating windows
$mod + R	Enter resize mode (use arrows or HJKL to resize)

Layout Styles

Key Combination	Action
$mod + E	Toggle between horizontal and vertical split
$mod + B	Set layout to split horizontally
$mod + V	Set layout to split vertically
$mod + S	Set layout to stacking
$mod + W	Set layout to tabbed

Workspace Management

Key Combination	Action
$mod + 1-9, 0	Switch to workspace 1-10
$mod + Shift + 1-9, 0	Move focused window to workspace 1-10
$mod + Minus	Show/hide the scratchpad
$mod + Shift + Minus	Move focused window to the scratchpad

Hardware & Media Controls

Key Combination	Action
PrintScreen	Take a fullscreen screenshot
Shift + PrintScreen	Take a screenshot of a selected area
$mod + Shift + R	Start a screen recording
Volume Keys	Adjust system audio volume
Brightness Keys	Adjust screen brightness

🎨 Customization

The configuration is designed to be easily modified. All files are located in your ~/.config directory.

• Sway (~/.config/sway/config): The main control file. Change keybindings, startup applications, window rules, and output settings here.

• Waybar (~/.config/waybar/):

  • config: Add, remove, or re-arrange modules on your status bar.
  • style.css: Change colors, fonts, and spacing using CSS.

• Rofi (~/.config/rofi/):

  • theme.rasi: Modify this file to change the theme, layout, and behavior of the Rofi launcher.
  • config.rasi: Default configuration for rasi include theme.rasi here.

• Swaylock (~/.config/swaylock/config): Adjust the appearance of your lock screen.

📁 Repository Structure

.
├── rofi/
│   └── config.rasi      # Rofi theme and behavior configuration
|   └── theme.rasi       # styles and theme for rofi
├── sway/
│   └── config           # Main Sway compositor configuration
├── swaylock/
│   └── config           # Swaylock screen locker settings
└── waybar/
    ├── config           # Waybar module layout and settings
    └── style.css        # CSS styling for Waybar's appearance

📚 Additional Resources

For more in-depth documentation, refer to the official project pages:

• Sway Official Website & Wiki
• Waybar GitHub Repository
• Rofi GitHub Repository

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Congrats you're an sway user now !!

updated by @ajaybalajiprasad