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DWM to DWL

DWM is a simple window manager for Linux. Moving to Wayland you can not use DWM because DWM is X based. DWL is a similar application in the same spirit. A simple window manager.

Issues I ran into

Terminal

Make sure your terminal is using Wayland. foot or alacritty are one if you are having issues.

  • Your old terminal may be supported through XWayland. Make sure you compile your DWL with XWayland in config.mk.

Browser

Browser failed to load at all. Set browsers to run as Wayland. Compiling DWL with XWayland makes the transition a little easier. The browser may need XWayland.

  • MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=1 for Firefox

Refresh rate

Setting up the refresh rate can be done with wlr-randr which is similar to xrandr for X.

Changing the refresh rate to the monitor. See wlr-randr to list the modes you can use.

wlr-randr --output DP-2 --mode 2560x1440@143.964005

Then you can check your current values in wlr-randr.

$ wlr-randr
DP-2 "Dell Inc. Dell S2716DG (DP-2)"
  Make: Dell Inc.
  Model: Dell S2716DG
  Physical size: 600x340 mm
  Enabled: yes
  Modes:
    2560x1440 px, 59.951000 Hz (preferred)
    2560x1440 px, 143.964005 Hz (current)
    2560x1440 px, 119.998001 Hz
    ...
  Position: 1920,0
  Transform: normal
  Scale: 1.000000
  Adaptive Sync: disabled
HDMI-A-1 "Ancor Communications Inc VG248 (HDMI-A-1)"
  Make: Ancor Communications Inc
  Model: VG248
  Physical size: 530x300 mm
  Enabled: yes
  Modes:
    1920x1080 px, 60.000000 Hz (preferred, current)
    1920x1080 px, 59.938999 Hz
    1920x1080 px, 59.987999 Hz
    ...
  Position: 0,0
  Transform: normal
  Scale: 1.000000
  Adaptive Sync: disabled

No top bar

Even more simplified than DWM, no bar is available in DWL directly.

I am trying Waybar. Runs a GTK application. Has DWL integration but requires an IPC patch for DWL.

No DMenu

Using Bemenu but haven’t tried other options.