Arch Linux

LaptopDev

Member

Registered: 2024-09-24

Posts: 54

[basically solved] GDM - How to launch dwm with picom?

The only way I can reliably launch dwm with picom is writing over the vendor dwm.desktop in /usr/share/xsessions , but I just want a copy to override it from some other location. Is this not possible?

Picom does launch with dwm when

/usr/share/xsessions/dwm.desktop

is

[Desktop Entry]
Name=dwm
Comment=Dynamic window manager (with picom)
Type=XSession
TryExec=/usr/local/bin/dwm
Exec=sh -c 'picom -b --vsync; exec /usr/local/bin/dwm'

Last edited by LaptopDev (2025-10-16 21:18:16)

killertofus

Member

Registered: 2025-02-10

Posts: 171

Re: [basically solved] GDM - How to launch dwm with picom?

Did you install dwm from the aur AUR package or do you compile a custom (patched) version

does dwm work with a different dm ie ly?

also do you start dwm/picom with your .xinitrc?

picom -b &
exec dwm

side note: have you considered dwl/mangowc it's the wayland version of dwm

---

I Have Linux Perl Can i Download Gnome???

LaptopDev

Member

Registered: 2024-09-24

Posts: 54

Re: [basically solved] GDM - How to launch dwm with picom?

I got a modified dwm; so I will just modify the makefile from the dwm repo root with this:

# 0) Add install/uninstall deps once
sudo sed -i '/^install: /{/install-desktop/!s/$/ install-desktop/}' Makefile
sudo sed -i '/^uninstall: /{/uninstall-desktop/!s/$/ uninstall-desktop/}' Makefile

# 1) Drop any previous custom block we added
sudo sed -i '/^# install xsessions desktop entry/,$d' Makefile

# 2) Append a TAB-safe block using .RECIPEPREFIX
sudo tee -a Makefile >/dev/null <<'EOF'

# install xsessions desktop entry
.RECIPEPREFIX := >
XSSESSIONSDIR ?= /usr/share/xsessions

install-desktop:
> mkdir -p "$(DESTDIR)$(XSSESSIONSDIR)"
> printf '%s\n' \
>   '[Desktop Entry]' \
>   'Name=dwm (picom)' \
>   'Comment=Dynamic window manager' \
>   'Type=XSession' \
>   'TryExec=$(PREFIX)/bin/dwm' \
>   'Exec=sh -c '\''picom -b --vsync; exec $(PREFIX)/bin/dwm'\''' \
>   > "$(DESTDIR)$(XSSESSIONSDIR)/dwm.desktop"
> chmod 644 "$(DESTDIR)$(XSSESSIONSDIR)/dwm.desktop"

# uninstall xsessions desktop entry
uninstall-desktop:
> rm -f "$(DESTDIR)$(XSSESSIONSDIR)/dwm.desktop"
EOF

It's kind of silly; not sure why I don't understand why there isn't a central whitelist / blacklist config for display managers. I don't want to see choices I don't want.

killertofus

Member

Registered: 2025-02-10

Posts: 171

Re: [basically solved] GDM - How to launch dwm with picom?

does dwm work with a different dm ie ly?

can you start dwm/picom with your .xinitrc?

picom -b &
exec dwm

---

I Have Linux Perl Can i Download Gnome???