Trying to install a window manager for river [solved]

efog4 · 2026-01-09 19:46:42

Hello, I was using dwl which was fairly comprehensible to me but due to its stagnation I decided to branch out. I find river's flexibility really interesting but because its changes are so new im struggling to troubleshoot.

I have successfully built and installed river but then when I try to pass a window manager (this one: https://github.com/kewuaa/kwm) none of my input seems to register / I cannot spawn even a terminal. I have captured my session's output with script but if there is some other log I should post please let me know

Script started on 2026-01-09 11:29:32-08:00 [TERM="linux" TTY="/dev/tty1" COLUMNS="170" LINES="48"]
^[[?2004h[USER@tompo ~]$ ~/.local/r^H^[[K^Gbin/river -c ~/dtfil/kwm/^Gzig-out/bin/kwm ^G^H^[[K
^[[?2004l^Minfo: river version 0.4.0-dev.308+2c4953a, initializing server
info: raised file descriptor limit of the river process to 4096
info(wlroots): [libseat] [libseat/backend/seatd.c:64] Could not connect to socket /run/seatd.sock: No such file or directory
info(wlroots): [libseat] [libseat/libseat.c:76] Backend 'seatd' failed to open seat, skipping
info(wlroots): [libseat] [libseat/libseat.c:73] Seat opened with backend 'logind'
info(wlroots): [backend/session/session.c:108] Successfully loaded libseat session
info(wlroots): [backend/backend.c:248] Found 1 GPUs
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/backend.c:225] Initializing DRM backend for /dev/dri/card1 (i915)
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:310] Found 3 DRM CRTCs
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:268] Found 24 DRM planes
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:205] Supported EGL client extensions: EGL_EXT_device_base EGL_EXT_device_enumeration EGL_EXT_device_query EGL_EXT_platform_base EGL_KHR_client_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_EXT_client_extensions EGL_KHR_debug EGL_EXT_platform_device EGL_EXT_explicit_device EGL_EXT_platform_wayland EGL_KHR_platform_wayland EGL_EXT_platform_x11 EGL_KHR_platform_x11 EGL_EXT_platform_xcb EGL_MESA_platform_gbm EGL_KHR_platform_gbm EGL_MESA_platform_surfaceless
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:369] Using EGL 1.5
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:370] Supported EGL display extensions: EGL_ANDROID_blob_cache EGL_ANDROID_native_fence_sync EGL_EXT_config_select_group EGL_EXT_create_context_robustness EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import EGL_EXT_image_dma_buf_import_modifiers EGL_EXT_query_reset_notification_strategy EGL_EXT_surface_compression EGL_IMG_context_priority EGL_KHR_cl_event2 EGL_KHR_config_attribs EGL_KHR_context_flush_control EGL_KHR_create_context EGL_KHR_create_context_no_error EGL_KHR_fence_sync EGL_KHR_get_all_proc_addresses EGL_KHR_gl_colorspace EGL_KHR_gl_renderbuffer_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_2D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_3D_image EGL_KHR_gl_texture_cubemap_image EGL_KHR_image_base>
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:372] Supported EGL device extensions: EGL_EXT_device_drm EGL_EXT_device_drm_render_node EGL_EXT_device_query_name EGL_EXT_device_persistent_id
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:374] EGL vendor: Mesa Project
info(wlroots): [render/egl.c:376] EGL driver name: iris
info(wlroots): [render/gles2/renderer.c:538] Creating GLES2 renderer
info(wlroots): [render/gles2/renderer.c:539] Using OpenGL ES 3.2 Mesa 25.3.3-arch1.1
info(wlroots): [render/gles2/renderer.c:540] GL vendor: Intel
info(wlroots): [render/gles2/renderer.c:541] GL renderer: Mesa Intel(R) UHD Graphics (ICL GT1)
info(wlroots): [render/gles2/renderer.c:542] Supported GLES2 extensions: GL_EXT_blend_minmax GL_EXT_multi_draw_arrays GL_EXT_texture_filter_anisotropic GL_EXT_texture_compression_s3tc GL_EXT_texture_compression_dxt1 GL_EXT_texture_compression_rgtc GL_EXT_texture_format_BGRA8888 GL_OES_compressed_ETC1_RGB8_texture GL_OES_depth24 GL_OES_element_index_uint GL_OES_fbo_render_mipmap GL_OES_mapbuffer GL_OES_rgb8_rgba8 GL_OES_standard_derivatives GL_OES_stencil8 GL_OES_texture_3D GL_OES_texture_float GL_OES_texture_float_linear GL_OES_texture_half_float GL_OES_texture_half_float_linear GL_OES_texture_npot GL_OES_vertex_half_float GL_EXT_draw_instanced GL_EXT_texture_sRGB_decode G>
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1741] Scanning DRM connectors on /dev/dri/card1
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1796] Found connector 'eDP-1'
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1821] 'eDP-1' connected
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1610] Detected modes:
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1634]   1366x768 @ 59.999 Hz (preferred)
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1634]   1366x768 @ 47.979 Hz
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1671] Physical size: 340x190
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1796] Found connector 'HDMI-A-1'
info(wlroots): [backend/drm/drm.c:1855] connector eDP-1: Requesting modeset
info: running init executable '/home/USER/dtfil/kwm/zig-out/bin/kwm'
info: running server
info(wlroots): [xwayland/server.c:107] Starting Xwayland on :0
info(context): init context
debug(context): spawn: `sh -c $HOME/.local/bin/swaybgd`
debug(context): new input_device wayland.client.river.InputDeviceV1@1671e7c0
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80080> created
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80080> type: keyboard
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80080> set repeat info: (rate: 50, delay: 300)
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80080> name: Power Button
debug(context): new input_device wayland.client.river.InputDeviceV1@1671fee0
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a800c0> created
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a800c0> type: keyboard
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a800c0> set repeat info: (rate: 50, delay: 300)
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a800c0> name: Video Bus
sh: line 1: /home/USER/.local/bin/swaybgd: No such file or directory
debug(context): new input_device wayland.client.river.InputDeviceV1@16720250
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80100> created
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80100> type: keyboard
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80100> set repeat info: (rate: 50, delay: 300)
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80100> name: Power Button
debug(context): new input_device wayland.client.river.InputDeviceV1@167204a0
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80140> created
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80140> type: keyboard
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80140> set repeat info: (rate: 50, delay: 300)
debug(input_device): <input_device@7fbdb5a80140> name: Sleep Button
debug(context): wait pid 2369
thread 2366 panic: reached unreachable code
The XKEYBOARD keymap compiler (xkbcomp) reports:
> Warning:          Unsupported maximum keycode 708, clipping.
>                   X11 cannot support keycodes above 255.
> Warning:          Virtual modifier Hyper multiply defined
>                   Using 0, ignoring 0
> Warning:          Virtual modifier ScrollLock multiply defined
>                   Using 0, ignoring 0
Errors from xkbcomp are not fatal to the X server
^[[1m/usr/lib/zig/std/posix.zig:4427:23^[[0m: ^[[2m0x11bbe57 in waitpid (std.zig)^[[0m
            .CHILD => unreachable, // The process specified does not exist. It would be a race condition to handle this error.
                      ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/home/USER/dtfil/kwm/src/context.zig:717:38^[[0m: ^[[2m0x119991b in signal_handler (main.zig)^[[0m
            const res = posix.waitpid(-1, posix.W.NOHANG);
                                     ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb583e4cf in ??? (libc.so.6)^[[0m
^[[2mUnwind information for `libc.so.6:0x7fbdb583e4cf` was not available, trace may be incomplete

^[[0m^[[1m/usr/lib/zig/std/mem.zig:1121:54^[[0m: ^[[2m0x10b870f in indexOfSentinel__anon_8284 (std.zig)^[[0m
                        return i + std.simd.firstTrue(matches).?;
                                                     ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/usr/lib/zig/std/mem.zig:1072:39^[[0m: ^[[2m0x1090b16 in len__anon_3112 (std.zig)^[[0m
                return indexOfSentinel(info.child, sentinel, value);
                                      ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/usr/lib/zig/std/mem.zig:857:18^[[0m: ^[[2m0x106f93f in span__anon_2791 (std.zig)^[[0m
    const l = len(ptr);
                 ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/home/USER/dtfil/kwm/src/input_device.zig:87:43^[[0m: ^[[2m0x11b01eb in rwm_input_device_listener (main.zig)^[[0m
            input_device.set_name(mem.span(data.name));
                                          ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/home/USER/dtfil/kwm/.zig-cache/o/c90ab3adb5b199ef4c41c84415381702/wayland.zig:10356:84^[[0m: ^[[2m0x11b07ed in dispatcher (wayland.zig)^[[0m
                        @as(*const HandlerFn, @ptrCast(@alignCast(implementation)))(
                                                                                   ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb5b3f25e in ??? (libwayland-client.so.0)^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb5b3f6f2 in ??? (libwayland-client.so.0)^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb5b42f33 in ??? (libwayland-client.so.0)^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb5b4300f in ??? (libwayland-client.so.0)^[[0m
^[[1m/home/USER/dtfil/kwm/.zig-cache/o/c90ab3adb5b199ef4c41c84415381702/wayland.zig:268:55^[[0m: ^[[2m0x1185053 in main (main.zig)^[[0m
                return posix.errno(wl_display_dispatch(display));
                                                      ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m/usr/lib/zig/std/start.zig:627:37^[[0m: ^[[2m0x1185bf1 in main (std.zig)^[[0m
            const result = root.main() catch |err| {
                                    ^[[32m^^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb5827634 in ??? (libc.so.6)^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x7fbdb58276e8 in ??? (libc.so.6)^[[0m
^[[1m???:?:?^[[0m: ^[[2m0x12cd734 in ??? (???)^[[0m
info: shutting down
(EE) failed to read Wayland events: Broken pipe
^[[?2004h[USER@tompo ~]$ exit
^[[?2004l^Mexit

Script done on 2026-01-09 11:29:59-08:00 [COMMAND_EXIT_CODE="0"]

for building and installing river I just followed the instructions on the repo and for building kwm I just ran "zig build" after cloning the repo and then ran "~/.local/bin/river -c ~/dtfil/kwm/zig-out/bin/kwm"

I have never really built with zig so maybe the error is there? with dwl it was as simple as running "sudo make install"

Last edited by efog4 (2026-01-10 07:53:16)

killertofus · 2026-01-09 20:09:15

since you have used dw, have you considered mango , the past maintainer suggested using it, while it might not be a one to one, it's a one to two, it's what I moved to when dwl went stagnant

Last edited by killertofus (2026-01-09 20:09:35)

efog4 · 2026-01-09 20:47:37

I am aware of mango, with my arch installation i've been in the building / tinkering phase and (like arch) i am hoping for a more bare bones approach for my GUI and then acquiring features as they are needed. mango has a bunch of stuff I do not intend on using and working in reverse (stripping away features from something feature rich) just sounds more headache inducing. Although my methods may not be streamlined this is very much a learning process for me which is motivating. If anything mango may become my interim (still using dwl while troubleshooting river), but the fact that river is made to empower experimentation and unique designs is attractive to me.

edit: spoke with the developer and turns out im not crazy and there is just a minor bug haha

Last edited by efog4 (2026-01-10 07:54:01)

Arch Linux

#1 2026-01-09 19:46:42

Trying to install a window manager for river [solved]

#2 2026-01-09 20:09:15

Re: Trying to install a window manager for river [solved]

#3 2026-01-09 20:47:37

Re: Trying to install a window manager for river [solved]

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