Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

debaser · 2010-04-01 12:42:21

Hey, my first post, and what better day for it.

Totally failed trying to get xmonad working. In a fit of despair last night I gave up and quite easily got an awesome session installed to kdm last night.

Having looked at KDE for a month, man am I relieved.

I'm getting a little excited at the configuration options and I wanted to ask a really simple question before I get stuck into it.

It seems straightforward to autorun programs and also to preset tags (window layouts) on the 1-9 'desktops'.

Is it posssible to combine these and configure Awesome so that when you start a new awesome session it automatically launches a browser full size window on desktop '1', 4 terminals tiled on '2', vlc full screen on '3' etc

In other words if you autorun programs can you specify where they appear?

Sorry if this is too noobish for words, and I know probably should just give it a go first. However I have been fixing my own sh*t on Arch for a few weeks now and this is really just an excuse to finally say hello on the forums.

Thanks hopefully for some responses then!

the_isz · 2010-04-01 15:55:15

Hi and welcome to Arch!

There are several ways to solve this problem - as you probably already figured
out - but here's mine:

Start the programs you want automatically started from your .xinitc before you
start awesome. Then configure where each application is supposed to be put by
editing your rc.lua. There is already a commented area in the default config
which you can change/extend to achieve what you want:

-- {{{ Rules
awful.rules.rules = {
-- ...
    -- Set Firefox to always map on tags number 2 of screen 1.
    -- { rule = { class = "Firefox" },
    --   properties = { tag = tags[1][2] } },
    }
-- }}}

Good luck and have fun!

Last edited by the_isz (2010-04-01 15:55:53)

debaser · 2010-04-01 17:39:37

I'll give that a go, thanks!

renato_garcia · 2010-04-01 18:11:33

I prefer put the starting programs in bottom of rc.lua, sounds more natural to me.

awful.util.spawn("emacs --daemon")

This has the drawback that the programs load a new instance when a new screen is created. To fix this start the programs using a function like:

function run_once(command)
    if not command then
        do return nil end
    end
    local program = command:match("[^ ]+")

    -- If program is not running
    if math.fmod(os.execute("pgrep -x " .. program),255) == 1 then
        awful.util.spawn(command)
    end
end
run_once("conky")

Last edited by renato_garcia (2010-04-01 18:12:36)

Vegita · 2010-04-02 06:07:08

Time fi salute the don

barzam · 2010-04-02 06:35:36

I use .xinitrc to start up programs. Makes it easier if you switch WM.

Aximand · 2010-08-07 15:16:27

the_isz wrote:

Hi and welcome to Arch!

-- {{{ Rules
awful.rules.rules = {
-- ...
    -- Set Firefox to always map on tags number 2 of screen 1.
    -- { rule = { class = "Firefox" },
    --   properties = { tag = tags[1][2] } },
    }
-- }}}

With this code firefox will be always launch on tag 2. Can I launch it once on tag 2 on _autostart_?

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-01 12:42:21

Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#2 2010-04-01 15:55:15

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#3 2010-04-01 17:39:37

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#4 2010-04-01 18:11:33

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#5 2010-04-02 06:07:08

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#6 2010-04-02 06:35:36

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

#7 2010-08-07 15:16:27

Re: Awesome - Autorun programs on desktops

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