ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

Trilby · 2012-12-11 18:40:58

I do plan ICCM compliance which will solve the firefox issues. Full EWHM, however, entails a lot of nonsense to be fit for any "corner cases". I will probably include some atom handling though which would cover a majority of EWMH. Sizing hints would be first among these and window IDing would be easy enough.

This will probably not happen, however, until most of the other features are a bit more polished.

bgc1954 · 2012-12-11 19:27:26

Just found something interesting--scrollwm doesn't like gimp. I can start it up and do whatever my project was, then when you click on the menu and click on quit, I get kicked out of X and returned to my xdm login screen.

Trilby · 2012-12-11 19:37:39

Yup, I just confirmed that happens here too.

Hey, scrollwm is only 2 day old! I bet you couldn't walk very well at that age either

I will look into this.

~~It's also crashing when I try to change tags when there are no clients open - I think I know the cause of this one though.~~(edit: this part is fixed)

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-11 19:44:39)

bgc1954 · 2012-12-11 19:49:09

Trilby wrote:

It's also crashing when I try to change tags when there are no clients open - I think I know the cause of this one though.(edit: this part is fixed)

You're too quick, I was just going to confirm that was happening to me too.

Just thought I'd let you know Chromium browser also starts out small like firefox. I've been trying it out as a backup browser when midori can't be used with some sites. Midori starts out full size though.

BTW, I think scrollwm is walking pretty good for a new kid.

Trilby · 2012-12-11 19:53:33

I guess I'll have to compromise some of my dedication to being lightweight to implement more ICCM and EWMH hints so my window managers can be used with more of these "mainstream" applications.

I think ScrollWM will be my "all the bells and whistles" WM and will serve as a testing ground for implementing all these features. I can then find the most efficient way to implement just what is needed in TTWM so TTWM can stay as slim as practical while working well with firefox and other apps.

bgc1954 · 2012-12-11 20:01:26

I just switched from git clone to a PKGBUILD and I noticed that there is a reference to ttwm in the line " msg "Using user config from ~/.ttwm_conf.h" --not enough coffee the other night.

Trilby · 2012-12-11 20:05:07

Too much coffee perhaps - I was rushing through it. I'll put that on the todo list, but as that involves uploading a new tarball to the AUR (and as it doesn't do any real harm), I'll leave that for tonight.

It does check for the right file though: ~/.scrollwm_conf.h

The only change from the default config I'm using is urxvtc instead of urxvt, and I've given the tags names instead of numbers. These tag names look damn good if I do say so myself

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-11 20:07:02)

Unia · 2012-12-11 21:23:20

Could we get some sort of titlebar on the windows that allows easier dragging? I find it tedious to use keyboard and mouse to move windows and change focus etc.

Trilby · 2012-12-12 01:43:03

Nope. Most features I'm opening to considering, but that would require reparenting which is a whole can of worms I have no intent of ever touching.

I'd be open to you forking this into a reparenting version if you wanted.

On another note, I am planning a degree of tiling capability (edit: first parts done!). Specifically, scrollwm will have mouse/key bindings to tile a choice of 1) the currently visible windows, 2) all windows in a tag, or 3) all windows over the current viewport. These are the same categories currently used for the various tab-cycling options.

EDIT: for anyone following this thread, you can look back at the original post for many updates that have been put there.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-12 05:19:29)

Trilby · 2012-12-12 05:49:36

Something just for Unia (ok not really): Now you can move and resize windows without using keyboard modifiers. But this was done without any reparenting or title bars. Instead, if you right or left drag anywhere on the desktop, the currently focused window will be moved or resized. You can also bind a tiling mode, or tile cycling to a middle click on the dekstop.

Unia · 2012-12-12 11:01:58

Oh man this is awesome! If only I had a touchscreen I could swipe around with

Couple of more things I would like to see:

1. Focus when the mouse hovers a window, like in DWM;
2. Active window border color.

ri · 2012-12-12 13:46:05

I like the idea and progress. I'll play with it when I get time and hopefully I'll be able to give som input

Trilby · 2012-12-12 14:13:20

focousfollowmouse and highlightfocused have been added to config.h. Set them as you desire. They're both "true" right now, but at least focusfollowmouse will be off (False) by default start with the next update. I don't care for that behavior myself.

I've also added animated window cycling. If you cycle focus to a window that is off screen (the middle of the window off screen) then scrollwm will "scroll" to that window.

Unia · 2012-12-12 17:24:50

Just updated to try the new changes, but X won't start. Or well, it does and gives a black screen for a second before returning me to TTY. No error messages appear. Any ideas?

I could provide more feedback, if that's needed.

bgc1954 · 2012-12-12 17:43:17

Not having quite the same problem as Unia but I am getting more crashes--ie. crashes immediately when trying to start midori. Firefox and Chromium crashing when going to a selection in google, opening a new page in browser (not happening always but most times).

I was trying to check more on gimp crashes and running xinit --vt3 from tty2 and this is the snippet I got when I got kicked out of x

X Error of failed request: Bad window (Invalid window parameter)
Major opcode of failed request: 42 (X_SetInput Focus)
Serial number of failed request: 558
Current serial number in output stream: 562
xinit:connection to X server lost

edit: just rebuilt scrollwm again to see if I had a different version than Unia but mine still starts X no problem. Chromium crashed on me when going to this site: forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=30&t=78376 I can go there on firefox and chromium in ttwm so its a scrollwm thing. I got a snippet after the crash

[17071:17071:1212/105634:ERROR:chrome_browser_main_x11.cc(62)] X IO Error detected

Just got another snippet when chromium crashed X--the above plus:

ERROR: zygote_host_impl_linux.cc(459)
Failed to send GetTerminationStatus message to zygote

Last edited by bgc1954 (2012-12-12 18:24:14)

Trilby · 2012-12-12 19:26:55

I fixed one bug leading to many of these crashes. ScrollWM was not coping well with windows that set their title to an empty string. I have put in a check for this that has resolved midori and gimp crashes for me.

Please confirm if this worked, and/or if there are remaining crashing issues under other circumstances.

bgc1954 · 2012-12-12 19:38:52

You're partway there for me. Midori, firefox and chromium crashes are eliminated. On my end, gimp still crashes when quitting--using the menu--and tty2 still spits out the Bad window stuff.

Edit: Just thought of something... and I can report that when using mod+killclient, gimp doesn't crash. It's just when you use the File->Quit menu option.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2012-12-12 19:41:24)

Unia · 2012-12-12 20:09:25

I still can't get X to start with ScrollWM. Again, X doesn't print anything to my TTY.

Trilby · 2012-12-12 20:11:08

Unia, do you have a custom config.h at ~/.scrollwm_conf.h? It so, you need to make sure to merge updates from the default config.h. Once scrollwm is up and running I'll try to keep the config.h stable, but for now it will be changing reguarly.

BGC: I think I finally replicated the gimp crash here - it only happens for me when *not* in single window mode. Can you confirm that? If this is the case it helps narrow it down. I suspect scrollwm is not getting unmapnotify events for the tool windows so it never removes them from its managed list ... even when they no longer exist. This would lead to bad pointer dereferencing. A solution isn't immediately obvious, but I have a few ideas on what to look for if this is the case

EDIT: more on the gimp issue: it seems I can avoid the crash in multiwindow mode by closing the tool windows before quitting. This is obviously not a suitable solution - but it is informative on what the problem is.

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-12 20:20:07)

bgc1954 · 2012-12-12 20:18:53

And thus the reason for the message in the PKGBUILD

 msg "  Be sure to check for changes to default config.h"

I had some crashes this morning when I first built a new scrollwm and I had a typo in the font I was trying to use.

Edit: Trilby - I get this on gimp with a fresh X start and nothing else running--if that's what you're asking.

Last edited by bgc1954 (2012-12-12 20:21:23)

Unia · 2012-12-12 20:31:45

Trilby wrote:

Unia, do you have a custom config.h at ~/.scrollwm_conf.h? It so, you need to make sure to merge updates from the default config.h. Once scrollwm is up and running I'll try to keep the config.h stable, but for now it will be changing reguarly.

I don't even have the file. I use the config.h you provide in GitHub and merge my changes everytime. Then I just run make and call the binary it creates from .xinitrc. It worked before, so it should still work now.

Trilby · 2012-12-12 21:11:44

The gimp error should be fixed, please verify. FYI: gimp, as of the last version, has a "single window mode" which I usually use. This has the whole application running within a single window with integrated tools - there is no separate tool window.

Unia, do you get any output from x?

Last edited by Trilby (2012-12-12 21:12:49)

Unia · 2012-12-12 22:30:25

Trilby wrote:

Unia, do you get any output from x?

Nope, not in the TTY and not in /var/log/Xorg.0.log either..

Trilby · 2012-12-12 22:33:06

Err ... it has to give something. Does xinit just put you back at a tty prompt without saying anything? If it does, then X is broken, not the WM.

Unia · 2012-12-12 22:38:22

Trilby wrote:

Err ... it has to give something. Does xinit just put you back at a tty prompt without saying anything? If it does, then X is broken, not the WM.

It does. How can I troubleshoot this? I can still log into DWM just fine, so my X can't be broken.

Arch Linux

#26 2012-12-11 18:40:58

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#27 2012-12-11 19:27:26

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#28 2012-12-11 19:37:39

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#29 2012-12-11 19:49:09

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#30 2012-12-11 19:53:33

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#31 2012-12-11 20:01:26

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#32 2012-12-11 20:05:07

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#33 2012-12-11 21:23:20

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#34 2012-12-12 01:43:03

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#35 2012-12-12 05:49:36

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#36 2012-12-12 11:01:58

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#37 2012-12-12 13:46:05

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#38 2012-12-12 14:13:20

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#39 2012-12-12 17:24:50

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#40 2012-12-12 17:43:17

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#41 2012-12-12 19:26:55

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#42 2012-12-12 19:38:52

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#43 2012-12-12 20:09:25

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#44 2012-12-12 20:11:08

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#45 2012-12-12 20:18:53

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#46 2012-12-12 20:31:45

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#47 2012-12-12 21:11:44

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#48 2012-12-12 22:30:25

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#49 2012-12-12 22:33:06

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

#50 2012-12-12 22:38:22

Re: ScrollWM - floating WM with scrolling workspace (and tiling!)

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