a jwm love-fest!1

fuscia · 2008-05-24 16:34:57

i love jwm. it's easily configured and wicked lightweight (memory seems to climb even less when using jwm than when using one of the tiling wm's).

i remember someone saying jwm wasn't well liked by arch users. is that right? if so, why?

here's a screenshot* -

that's urxvt running htop, among other things, using screen (a decent alternative to tiling, especially as one can log in and out of different wm's without losing music, or a download, etc.). the wallpaper is a scaled pic of a mark rothko.

here's my .jwmrc

<?xml version="1.0"?>

<JWM>

   <!-- The root menu, if this is undefined you will not get a menu. -->
   <!-- Additional RootMenu attributes: onroot, labeled, label -->
   <RootMenu height="32" onroot="123">
      <Program icon="rxvt.png" label="urxvt">urxvt</Program>
      <Program icon="firefox.png" label="firefox">firefox</Program>
      <Program icon="gimp.png" label="g!m[">gimp</Program>
      <Program icon="gcolor2.png" label="color">gcolor2</Program>
      <Program icon="thunar.png" label="tuna">thunar</Program>

      <Menu icon="folder.png" label="utilities">
         <Program icon="xcalc.png">xcalc</Program>
         <Program icon="xfontsel.png">xfontsel</Program>
         <Program icon="xmag.png">xmag</Program>
         <Program icon="xprop.png" label="xprop">
            xprop | xmessage -file -
         </Program>
      </Menu>
      <Separator/>
      <Restart label="Restart" icon="restart.png"/>
      <Exit label="Exit" confirm="true" icon="exit.png"/>
   </RootMenu>

   <!-- Additional tray attributes: autohide, width, border, layer, layout -->
   <Tray  x="0" y="-1" height="17">

      <!-- Additional TrayButton attribute: label -->
      <TrayButton label="MOB">root:1</TrayButton>

      <TrayButton label="_">showdesktop</TrayButton>

      <!-- Additional Pager attributes; width, height -->
      <Pager/>

      <!-- Additional TaskList attribute: maxwidth -->
      <TaskList/>

      <Dock/>

      <!-- Additional Swallow attribute: height -->
      <Swallow name="xload" width="64">
         xload -nolabel -bg black -fg red -hl white
      </Swallow>

      <Clock>xclock</Clock>

   </Tray>

   <!-- Visual Styles -->

   <WindowStyle>

      <Font>Sans-8:bold</Font>
      <Width>4</Width>
      <Height>12</Height>

      <Active>
         <Text>gray90</Text>
         <Title>gray80:black</Title>
         <Corner>gray70</Corner>
         <Outline>black</Outline>
      </Active>

      <Inactive>
         <Text>gray50</Text>
         <Title>gray40:black</Title>
         <Corner>gray20</Corner>
         <Outline>black</Outline>
      </Inactive>

   </WindowStyle>

   <TaskListStyle>
      <Font>Sans-8:bold</Font>
      <ActiveForeground>gray70</ActiveForeground>
      <ActiveBackground>gray20:gray10</ActiveBackground>
      <Foreground>gray60</Foreground>
      <Background>gray10</Background>
   </TaskListStyle>

   <!-- Additional TrayStyle attribute: insert -->
   <TrayStyle>
      <Font>Sans-7:bold</Font>
      <Background>gray10</Background>
      <Foreground>gray70</Foreground>
   </TrayStyle>

   <PagerStyle>
      <Outline>black</Outline>
      <Foreground>gray60</Foreground>
      <Background>gray10</Background>
      <ActiveForeground>gray70</ActiveForeground>
      <ActiveBackground>gray20</ActiveBackground>
   </PagerStyle>

   <MenuStyle>
      <Font>Sans-7:bold</Font>
      <Foreground>gray70</Foreground>
      <Background>gray10</Background>
      <ActiveForeground>white</ActiveForeground>
      <ActiveBackground>gray30:gray10</ActiveBackground>
   </MenuStyle>

   <PopupStyle>
      <Font>Sans-8</Font>
      <Outline>black</Outline>
      <Foreground>black</Foreground>
      <Background>yellow</Background>
   </PopupStyle>

   <IconPath>
      $HOME/.icons
   </IconPath>

   <!-- Virtual Desktops -->
   <!-- Desktop tags can be contained within Desktops for desktop names. -->
   <Desktops count="4">

      <!-- Default background. Note that a Background tag can be
           contained within a Desktop tag to give a specific background
           for that desktop.
       -->
      <!Background type="tile">$HOME/bg.xpm</Background>

   </Desktops>

   <!-- Double click speed (in milliseconds) -->
   <DoubleClickSpeed>400</DoubleClickSpeed>

   <!-- Double click delta (in pixels) -->
   <DoubleClickDelta>2</DoubleClickDelta>

   <!-- The focus model (sloppy or click) -->
   <FocusModel>sloppy</FocusModel>

   <!-- The snap mode (none, screen, or border) -->
   <SnapMode distance="10">border</SnapMode>

   <!-- The move mode (outline or opaque) -->
   <MoveMode>opaque</MoveMode>

   <!-- The resize mode (outline or opaque) -->
   <ResizeMode>opaque</ResizeMode>

   <!-- Key bindings -->
   <Key key="Up">up</Key>
   <Key key="Down">down</Key>
   <Key key="Right">right</Key>
   <Key key="Left">left</Key>
   <Key key="h">left</Key>
   <Key key="j">down</Key>
   <Key key="k">up</Key>
   <Key key="l">right</Key>
   <Key key="Return">select</Key>
   <Key key="Escape">escape</Key>

   <Key mask="A" key="Tab">nextstacked</Key>
   <Key mask="A" key="F4">close</Key>
   <Key mask="A" key="#">desktop#</Key>
   <Key mask="A" key="F1">root:1</Key>
   <Key mask="A" key="F2">window</Key>

</JWM>

*(some say that my image host has occasional nsfw ads. i only spotted harmless ones in konqueror and none in firefox and opera.)

finferflu · 2008-05-24 20:23:53

It looks like Icewm or Fluxbox, what's exactly peculiar of this WM?

fuscia · 2008-05-24 20:49:57

finferflu wrote:

It looks like Icewm or Fluxbox, what's exactly peculiar of this WM?

lighter than both (i think), doesn't have icewm's oddball menu mess, simpler than fluxbox.

k.mandla · 2008-05-24 21:49:24

I dig it. I wrote up a Tango blue-ish theme a while back. Sounds like this ...

< ?xml version="1.0"?>

<jwm>

   <!-- The root menu, if this is undefined you will not get a menu. -->
   <!-- Additional RootMenu attributes: onroot, labeled, label -->
   <rootmenu height="16" onroot="123">
      <program label="Terminal">urxvt</program>
    <separator />
      <menu label="Applications">
          </menu><menu label="Multimedia">
              <program label="Audacious">audacious</program>
          </menu>
          <menu label="Network">
              <program label="Kazehakase">kazehakase</program>
             <program label="Sylpheed">sylpheed</program>
          </menu>
          <menu label="Graphics">
             <program label="Mirage">mirage</program>
    </menu>

      <menu label="Utilities">
           <program label="emelFM2">emelfm2</program>
         <program label="Galculator">galculator</program>
         <program label="Leafpad">leafpad</program>
         <program label="ePDFView">epdfview</program>
     <separator />
         <program label="GTK2.0 Change Theme">gtk-chtheme</program>
      </menu>
      <separator />
      <restart label="Restart" />
      <exit label="Exit" confirm="true" />
   </rootmenu>

   <!-- Additional tray attributes: autohide, width, border, layer, layout -->
   <tray x="0" y="-1" height="24">

      <!-- Additional TrayButton attribute: label -->
      <traybutton label="JWM">root:1</traybutton>

      <traybutton label="_">showdesktop</traybutton>

      <!-- Additional Pager attributes; width, height -->
      <pager />

      <!-- Additional TaskList attribute: maxwidth -->
      <tasklist />

      <dock />

      <!-- Additional Swallow attribute: height -->
      <swallow name="xload" width="48">
         xload -nolabel -bg "#888a85" -fg "#cc0000" -hl "#eeeeec" -update 1
      </swallow>

      <clock>xclock</clock>

   </tray>

   <!-- Visual Styles -->

   <windowstyle>

      <font>FreeSans-8:bold</font>
      <width>3</width>
      <height>18</height>

      <active>
         <text>#eeeeec</text>
    <title>#729fcf:#3465a4</title>
         <corner>#eeeeec</corner>
         <outline>#2e3436</outline>
      </active>

      <inactive>
         <text>#555753</text>
         <title>#babdb6:#d3d7cf</title>
         <corner>#eeeeec</corner>
         <outline>#2e3436</outline>
      </inactive>

   </windowstyle>

   <taskliststyle>
      <font>FreeSans-8</font>
      <activeforeground>black</activeforeground>
      <activebackground>#d3d7cf:#babdb6</activebackground>
      <foreground>black</foreground>
      <background>#babdb6:#d3d7cf</background>
   </taskliststyle>

   <!-- Additional TrayStyle attribute: insert -->
   <traystyle>
      <font>FreeSans-8:bold</font>
      <background>#d3d7cf</background>
      <foreground>#2e3436</foreground>
   </traystyle>

   <pagerstyle>
      <outline>#2e3436</outline>
      <foreground>#888a85</foreground>
      <background>#555753</background>
      <activeforeground>#d3d7cf</activeforeground>
      <activebackground>#3465a4</activebackground>
   </pagerstyle>

   <menustyle>
      <font>FreeSans-8</font>
      <foreground>#2e3436</foreground>
      <background>#d3d7cf</background>
      <activeforeground>#eeeeec</activeforeground>
      <activebackground>#729fcf:#3465a4</activebackground>
   </menustyle>

   <popupstyle>
      <font>FreeSans-8</font>
      <outline>#2e3436</outline>
      <foreground>#2e3436</foreground>
      <background>#fce94f</background>
   </popupstyle>

   <iconpath>
      $HOME/.icons
   </iconpath>

   <!-- Virtual Desktops -->
   <!-- Desktop tags can be contained within Desktops for desktop names. -->
   <desktops count="4">

      <!-- Default background. Note that a Background tag can be
           contained within a Desktop tag to give a specific background
           for that desktop.
       -->
      <background type="tile">$HOME/downloads/31055-1.png</background>

   </desktops>

   <!-- Double click speed (in milliseconds) -->
   <doubleclickspeed>400</doubleclickspeed>

   <!-- Double click delta (in pixels) -->
   <doubleclickdelta>2</doubleclickdelta>

   <!-- The focus model (sloppy or click) -->
   <focusmodel>click</focusmodel>

   <!-- The snap mode (none, screen, or border) -->
   <snapmode distance="10">border</snapmode>

   <!-- The move mode (outline or opaque) -->
   <movemode>outline</movemode>

   <!-- The resize mode (outline or opaque) -->
   <resizemode>outline</resizemode>

   <!-- Key bindings -->
   <key key="Up">up</key>
   <key key="Down">down</key>
   <key key="Right">right</key>
   <key key="Left">left</key>
   <key key="h">left</key>
   <key key="j">down</key>
   <key key="k">up</key>
   <key key="l">right</key>
   <key key="Return">select</key>
   <key key="Escape">escape</key>

   <key mask="A" key="Tab">nextstacked</key>
   <key mask="A" key="F4">close</key>
   <key mask="A" key="#">desktop#</key>
   <key mask="A" key="F1">root:1</key>
   <key mask="A" key="F2">window</key>

</jwm>

kiwisaotome · 2008-05-25 02:02:55

Hm... I was thinking about jwm a while ago (after shuffling through the list of window managers in AUR). Now I'm using it, and it seems to be very, very nice. A lot nicer than IceWM, and very snappy. (Very very... Very. Very.)

I guess I'll be using this alongside Awesome and Openbox. I don't have much of a custom config yet, but once I do, I'll post my jwmrc.

dunc · 2008-05-25 23:59:23

kiwisaotome wrote:

Hm... I was thinking about jwm a while ago (after shuffling through the list of window managers in AUR). Now I'm using it, and it seems to be very, very nice. A lot nicer than IceWM, and very snappy. (Very very... Very. Very.)

Yes. I was prompted by this thread to try it on my parents' 600MHz Celeron (which seems to have become my lightweight apps test machine, since they can't be weaned off Win98), and it's definitely more responsive than IceWM. I swear apps even load faster. IceWM is certainly prettier (with the right themes), but JWM's not bad at all.

kiwisaotome · 2008-05-26 00:22:02

Here's my .jwmrc --> http://dotfiles.org/~kiwisaotome/.jwmrc

I can't get a screenie of it right now, but it's just a grey and blue theme. Took a little bit to tweak it. Just try it out! (After backing up your original .jwmrc first. )

fuscia · 2008-10-02 09:04:33

haven't used the delightful little bugger in a while. i don't know why. i surely do like it.

fuscia · 2008-11-17 13:51:03

i can't believe you guys aren't all over this yet. i've decided jwm is the ak-47 of wm's (it even loads when it's wet).

jamesbannon · 2008-11-17 18:25:29

There are two things I haven't been able to get around with any of the light-weight desktops:

a) Fonts are almost always grainy - I can't seem to get the 120 dpi I get with GNOME / KDE. (I've just found a bit on the Xorg set-up in the Wiki that might help with this though).

b) Getting GTK styles to work seamlessly.

E.g., I would be quite happy to use OpenBox with the likes of Roxterm, Claws-mail & Firefox if I can get decent fonts working and decent GTK2 styles.

reflets de vert · 2010-03-20 00:49:00

I am a very new user of arch linux.

I used ubuntu, and wanted to have something more lightweight and simple (not a Rube Goldberg machine, even though I really like some work ubuntu made). I used jwm on ubuntu with gdm.

Like a lot this way to configure the desktop, and this very light WM.

I have a very simple jwmrc that I must improve a bit.
When I see yours I'm impressed.

Don't understand why it's not more used.

mythus · 2010-03-21 12:43:40

Hehehe, good ole jwm. I think I put up a screenshot some time ago in the screenshot thread of me running it on my old backup pc. It was nice, snappy, and despite being very simple was also extremly configurable. I mean, sure you couldn't really replace the window open, minimize, and close icons, but you could do pratcically everything else. Awesome little wm. The only thing I found myself missing was window grouping.

Here's the funny thing. I now have a very nice and modern pc that I can easily run KDE on (and have been lately to play around with and check out), yet of all things I am considering going back to JWM. It is just that nice of a WM. It is light, much lighter than any other WM i've tried, even the one or two tilers I dabbled in. It is simple, everything is in a simple rc file, that while it is xml, it is simple xml... ie.. human readable and usable. It is snappy, it can open a program before you realized you opened the program.. well that is a bit extreme, but it is fast. And it is extremly customizable, you can easily make quite a unique environment out of it.

keenerd · 2010-03-21 16:23:00

Many fond memories, JWM was part of my first real exposure to Linux. (Puppy.) I recall one feature that was added six (?) years ago, the ability to swallow ANY application into the taskbar. Is there any other WM capable of doing this? It was meant for integrating WindowMaker dockapps, but I liked to embed a small OpenOffice window in my taskbar. I guess I was amused by such things back then.

Is JWM the only WM with this feature?

renuvio · 2010-03-21 22:36:52

I tried some window managers and the principal DE's but always back to JWM, 'cause i know how to configure it to my requirements.

Right now i use it almost all the time with the keyboard only, with a lot of key bindings to run my favorite apps; this is for me more comfortable than using the mouse for every single task. Yes, this is not an exclusive feature of JWM, but this one works, and i'm familiar with that .jwmrc config, so this is my wm of choice.

Mr. Swillis · 2011-05-25 17:44:33

JWM is awesome! I've been messing around too much with the new releases of the big DEs lately and have finally gone back to my lighweight friends. Totally forgot how awesome some of these are. I run primarily Openbox and JWM when I'm in this zone. JWM is amazingly simple to customize and theme. I've got mine setup with a different menu for right clicking the desktop vs clicking the root menu button. I'll make a note to post up my config when I get home later.

Also! For EASY GTK theming, snag "lxappearance" with pacman. It's the GTK theming compenent in LXDE and is available as a standalone app from the standard pacman repos (at least last I checked).

EDIT: Yep, lxappearance totally available as a standalone and allows you to easily control GTK theme, icon theme, and mouse cursor theme.

- Swill

Last edited by Mr. Swillis (2011-05-27 17:36:09)

Mr. Swillis · 2011-05-31 18:44:09

Hey Everyone,

I whipped up a little tutorial for getting a setup like mine: http://www.deadcrow.org/tech/how-to-get … linux.html

This is specific to Arch, but can also be used as a general guideline for other distros, assuming the packages I'm using are available. If anything, you can at least use the example .jwmrc file I have posted there. I also have a nice .xinitrc file pre-populated with many popular DEs and WMs that works great with the F1 session switcher in Slim.

If anyone checks this out and notices any glaring issues, please feel free to provide feeback here or in the comments on my blog and I'll make updates where necessary.

Oh, and you have my full permission to copy anything you find useful in that post and re-use in the documentation here or wherever (ie. the wiki).

Thanks!

Swill

Last edited by Mr. Swillis (2011-05-31 22:08:26)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-05-24 16:34:57

a jwm love-fest!1

#2 2008-05-24 20:23:53

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#3 2008-05-24 20:49:57

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#4 2008-05-24 21:49:24

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#5 2008-05-25 02:02:55

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#6 2008-05-25 23:59:23

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#7 2008-05-26 00:22:02

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#8 2008-10-02 09:04:33

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#9 2008-11-17 13:51:03

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#10 2008-11-17 18:25:29

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#11 2010-03-20 00:49:00

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#12 2010-03-21 12:43:40

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#13 2010-03-21 16:23:00

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#14 2010-03-21 22:36:52

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#15 2011-05-25 17:44:33

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

#16 2011-05-31 18:44:09

Re: a jwm love-fest!1

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