[Solved] echinus

OU812 · 2011-01-08 16:09:09

Hello. I'm just starting to wade into the waters of tiling wms. I started with icewm, but it has very limited options. Next I tried fluxbox + wumwum, but I didn't like the feel of it. So I read the "comparison of tiling window managers" wiki and I decided on echinus since it had floating and tiling options, as well as title bars. I also like the fact that it's written in C. I'm not sure, but I hope it can update config changes on the fly. But after installing it, I don't know what to do with it. My only knowledge comes from reading the rc, but I don't understand all of the options.

Here's what I can do:

open xterm, toggle window borders and titles, close and maximize windows, cycle through open windows

Here's what I want to do:

tile windows, have ourico launch on startup (I use startx to login with .xinitrc), what can I do to customize it

I've looked at the echinus homepage, arch wiki, arch forums, and the rc file. I've even googled a bit. I found a config file and a thread at puppy, but nothing like a tutorial.

Any help is appreciated.

john

Last edited by OU812 (2011-01-16 15:49:54)

OU812 · 2011-01-08 17:03:11

I'm doing better. Here's what i still can't figure out:

The rc suggests A + space to toggle between tiling and floating modes. Doesn't seem to work.

How do I get ourico to launch on startup?

Thanks.

john

P.S. I'm going to edit rc so that tiling instead of floating is default. We'll see.

OU812 · 2011-01-08 17:12:30

Interesting. I changed the default from floating to tiling and it seems fine now. Behaves as expected. Anyone know how to get ourico to launch at startup? I use startx with .xinintrc. Thanks!

john

jasonwryan · 2011-01-08 18:20:45

John - please learn to use the 'Edit' button and don't bump your thread https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fo … te#Bumping

There is a README for echinus - it sets out all of the options for configuring and using it.

To get ourico to launch at startup, just put it in your .xinitrc directly before echinus. Something along the lines of:

ourico &
exec echinus

See my start script for details: http://beta.intuxication.org/jasonwryan … inus-start

OU812 · 2011-01-09 04:34:13

My apologies. I wasn't trying to bump this thread, but I am guilty of not using my head.

The readme file was much more understandable for a beginner during subsequent reads and most of my issues have been taken care of. I do have a few questions if you have the time to help:

1. I'm not sure how to tell which window is focused.
2. Is there a way to change the "master" window as in scrotwm?
3. I can start tint2 and fbpanel in .xinitrc, but not ourico. When I ran it in a terminal, I got an error along the line of "echinus is not configured."
4. If a panel can be started using .xinitrc, then can I assume that conky and feh (to set the background) could be added as well?

Also, I have followed some of your links and your scripts are very helpful. Being new to arch, I'm not sure where to put them. I've done some research and it looks like they can go ~/scripts. Not sure how to implement them though. A hint perhaps?

Thanks.

john

anonymous_user · 2011-01-09 05:04:29

OU812 wrote:

4. If a panel can be started using .xinitrc, then can I assume that conky and feh (to set the background) could be added as well?

Correct.

OU812 wrote:

Also, I have followed some of your links and your scripts are very helpful. Being new to arch, I'm not sure where to put them. I've done some research and it looks like they can go ~/scripts. Not sure how to implement them though. A hint perhaps?

If you call the scripts with the full path then it won't matter where you place them. However if you want to run them by just specifying the name, you have to place them in a folder in your $PATH such as /usr/bin/. What I do is create a ~/bin folder and then add it to $PATH by having "export PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin" in ~/.bash_profile

Last edited by anonymous_user (2011-01-09 05:05:30)

jasonwryan · 2011-01-09 05:15:24

1. In your echinusrc, there is an option for selected border:

Echinus*selected.border: #404040

Just make sure you have sufficient contrast to highlight the selected window.

2. You can set keybinds to do all that sort of thing. Use my rc as an example and the README will get you there...

3. You need to give echinus a second to start before ourico (that's why I start ourico with sleep 1) - it will then paint across the top of the screen once echinus has started.

OU812 · 2011-01-09 15:15:33

@anonymous_user
Thanks for that. I've always wondered what that was all about.

@jasonwryan
I'm in the process of adding your ourico start script and echinus scripts/configs to my system. I noticed something in your ourico script that I was curious about:

7 # Log stderror to a file
8 #echinus 2> ~/.echinus/log;

Is line 8 meant to be commented?

Thanks.

john

jasonwryan · 2011-01-09 18:35:03

It depends. As the comment notes, if you want to log any errors when launching or running echinus, uncomment that line and comment out the other line

echinus > /dev/null;

or, as I posted above, you can just start it with

exec echinus

OU812 · 2011-01-12 03:36:30

Thanks.

I still can't launch ourico at startup. I even used sleep for 2s. When launched from a terminal, I get:

echinus: cannot open configuration file

How do I get past this? Thanks.

john

jasonwryan · 2011-01-12 03:41:42

Does your ouricorc have the correct permissions?

Paste your echinusrc and ouricorc.

OU812 · 2011-01-12 04:07:01

I'm using your echinusrc copied from the link in the echinus arch wiki. I copied it to ~/.echinus. The only modification I've made so far is to swap urxvt with lxterminal.

The ouricorc file is still the stock one upon installation (using aur). It is still stored in /etc/xdg/ourico. After reading your post, I thought I may need to copy it somewhere. I tried to google for an answer and found a link:

https://bitbucket.org/jasonwryan/eeepc/ … /.ouricorc

But I don't know where to save your ouricorc.

I checked permissions and both files seem to have appropriate read permissions. Neither are set to be executable. Both have write permission for owner only.

Thanks.

john

jasonwryan · 2011-01-12 06:49:59

The wiki page makes it clear where echinusrc should go and the second line of each of my config files gives you the path for the respective file:

echinusrc need to be in ~/.echinus/echinusrc

ouricorc should be in home: ~/.ouricorc

hellnest · 2011-01-13 07:04:28

@jasonwryan
I think better ask in this thread instead opening a new similliar one , i've got a question regarding ouricorc which is hog a processor usage. Here's the example
in my xinitrc which causing Memory + Processor Hog. I already try to disable clock and xcompmgr but in Htop show that ouricorc & X is use a lot of resource.

ourico &
exec echinus

The other things is

ourico &
exec ck-launch-session echinus

Didn't bring ourico at startup but there's no memory hog when i exec the ourico after echinus start.

This is ourico issue or something wrong with my config? I like echinus style.

jasonwryan · 2011-01-13 07:21:37

Apparently there is an issue with ourico. I don't see it myself, but see this post:

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 43#p867343

You could always run it without ourico and use tint2

hellnest · 2011-01-13 12:27:55

Yeah i guess it's issue come from ourico it self.

OU812 · 2011-01-16 05:27:19

jasonwryan wrote:

echinusrc need to be in ~/.echinus/echinusrc
ouricorc should be in home: ~/.ouricorc

Oops. I meant ~/.echinus/ the directory. Sorry I didn't read the ourciorc header carefully, otherwise I could have figured this all out myself. Sheesh.

Ourico works fine now. Thanks for your help and patience.

john

jasonwryan · 2011-01-16 05:54:09

Glad you got it sorted. Please prepend [Solved] to the thread title.

OU812 · 2011-01-16 15:50:43

Sorry about that. I wanted to wait a bit in case hellnest needed to post again.

john

Arch Linux

#1 2011-01-08 16:09:09

[Solved] echinus

#2 2011-01-08 17:03:11

Re: [Solved] echinus

#3 2011-01-08 17:12:30

Re: [Solved] echinus

#4 2011-01-08 18:20:45

Re: [Solved] echinus

#5 2011-01-09 04:34:13

Re: [Solved] echinus

#6 2011-01-09 05:04:29

Re: [Solved] echinus

#7 2011-01-09 05:15:24

Re: [Solved] echinus

#8 2011-01-09 15:15:33

Re: [Solved] echinus

#9 2011-01-09 18:35:03

Re: [Solved] echinus

#10 2011-01-12 03:36:30

Re: [Solved] echinus

#11 2011-01-12 03:41:42

Re: [Solved] echinus

#12 2011-01-12 04:07:01

Re: [Solved] echinus

#13 2011-01-12 06:49:59

Re: [Solved] echinus

#14 2011-01-13 07:04:28

Re: [Solved] echinus

#15 2011-01-13 07:21:37

Re: [Solved] echinus

#16 2011-01-13 12:27:55

Re: [Solved] echinus

#17 2011-01-16 05:27:19

Re: [Solved] echinus

#18 2011-01-16 05:54:09

Re: [Solved] echinus

#19 2011-01-16 15:50:43

Re: [Solved] echinus

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