Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

geniuz · 2010-04-30 19:12:43

I just want mention how much I appreciate this piece of software, I've been using it for about 2 weeks now and it has made me very productive. The default key-bindings are very intuitive and easy to remember. Before Musca I was using compiz-standalone and it took me quite a while to configure everything the way I wanted. Especially Conky was quite hard to set up. But in Musca all of this was a breeze, I have custom key-bindings and an ultra-lightweight and ultra-fast WM now. I've always been quite picky when it comes to WM's and therefore I have tried all the well-known WM's like the *boxes and even some tiling WM's like i3. Musca however is perfect, best of all worlds if you ask me. Also, the documentation is short yet very clear and explains every aspect of this WM very well. And best of all: I haven't encountered one single bug yet !

Long story short: thank you aerosuidae for this wonderfull program and I sincerely hope you stick around to support it . Heck, I'm even willing to learn C myself to keep it up !

Inxsible · 2010-06-04 05:44:42

I have a problem with dual monitors. Here's the thread i started in Newbie corner.

http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=98321

Can someone help me out ?

JackH79 · 2010-06-04 09:28:45

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … ss-Posting

Inxsible · 2010-06-04 12:08:33

JackH79 wrote:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/For … ss-Posting

If you have a look at the thread, it will be clear that I tried to get the answers in the thread that I created until someone suggested that the issue might be due to Musca. That's the reason for posting in the Musca thread and linking to the old thread is much more appropriate than explaining everything from scratch. That way anyone else trying to help knows what I have already tried.

And yes I know the forum rules.

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-06-04 12:10:07)

Inxsible · 2010-06-13 00:05:20

Still looking for some help with this regard: Also tried emailing the musca list, but I get a Permanent Delivery failure :-(

How do I set up multiple monitors so that I can have 2 groups, one on each screen? Also I want to be able to move application windows between the two groups.

Currently, when I do this in .xinitrc :

xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto --right-of DVI-1

I get one massive screen and the applications span across both monitors.

Here is my complete xorg.conf :

########################################
Section "Device"
    Identifier    "ATI Technologies HD2400XT Pro"
    Driver        "ati"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "DVI-1"
    Option        "DPMS" "true"
EndSection
Section "Monitor"
    Identifier    "DVI-0"
    HorizSync       30.0 - 72.0
        VertRefresh      50.0 - 120.0
    Option        "DPMS" "true"
    Option        "RightOf" "DVI-1"
EndSection
Section "Screen"
       Identifier    "Default Screen"
       Device        "ATI Technologies HD2400XT Pro"
       Monitor        "DVI-1"
       DefaultDepth    24
  
       SubSection "Display"
           Depth        24
           Modes        "1680x1050" "1280x1024" "1440x900" "1280x800" "1152x864" "1280x720" "1280x768" "832x624" "800x600" "640x480" "720x400"
           # ADD A VIRTUAL LINE TO PROVIDE FOR THE LARGEST SCREENS YOU WILL HOTPLUG
           Virtual              2960 1050
       EndSubSection
EndSection

######################################

And this is my .xinitrc

######################################
#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
#


 eval `cat $HOME/.fehbg` &
 xrandr --output DVI-0 --auto --right-of DVI-1
 sleep 1
 exec musca >> /dev/null
######################################

Thanks for your help.

Last edited by Inxsible (2010-06-13 00:06:31)

Xlator · 2010-08-06 02:48:34

To my mind this is the best WM since Fluxbox. When I first switched to Arch from Debian about a year ago having been persuaded by a friend to give it a go, I tried wmii. Much as I loved the idea of tiling WMs in theory, wmii lefter me utterly bewildered and ultimately was a huge disappointment. I retreated back to my trusty old friend Fluxbox which has served me so well for the past 8 years. Together with conky, tint2, wbar, dmenu and some terminals - and with all the fluxbox menus and other stuff turned off - it was, and still is, a lovely environment. I was still attracted to tiling WMs though, and even more so since I discovered uzbl and the joys of not relying on the mouse to do everything all the time.

Last night, I decided to mess around a bit. First stop was Xmonad, which wouldn't even start. Then I went to dwm, which I had shunned in my early Arch days depite my aforementioned friend extoling its virtues for all to hear. The task of editing source code to configure seemed rather daunting and a little cumbersome at that point. When I finally got round to trying it, it was very nice at first. Ultimately though, automatic tiling didn't agree with me, so it had to go. Ratpoison was next. This confused me right from the get go with it's cryptic help files and weird config. Then musca came along and hit the spot just right. Nice and easy to configure, fast, light and elegant, and the documentation is great. Works beautifully and has done everything I have asked of it so far. Had dwm been manual, I might've stuck with it, but I'm glad it isn't and I didn't because then I wouldn't have found this gem!

Tuxe · 2010-08-07 18:43:41

I tried Musca and really liked it. However, I seem to have a problem with Gnome Keyring and NetworkManager. With every other wm I have been using, my keyring gets unlocked when I log in from Slim and NetworkManager gets my wlan password from the keyring. With Musca, NM prompts me to enter the password. Has anyone an idea how to fix this?

Edit: Running dbus-launch before starting nm-applet fixed this.

Last edited by Tuxe (2010-11-23 17:12:37)

mhertz · 2010-08-29 14:34:48

I have recently changed from ratpoison to Musca(thanks, hellomynameisphil) and so just wanted to say thanks alot for this great wm and contribution!

I can see that there hasen't been any new commits to the bzr dev branch since 11/03-09(also stable release v0.1.24), and that there is several bugs still pending, so I really hope that Sean will take development up again when he has the time for it, or that others litterate in C and Xorg could give him a hand!

The only thing I don't like about Musca, is that it's being developed through the bzr revision-control system, as it's a 26mb installed package(+ python of 61mb!), whereas git/cvs is much smaller and generally allready is installed for other projects allready, whereas I need to install bzr+python(87mb!) just for Musca(<1mb).

Thanks again!

CU, Martin.

Last edited by mhertz (2010-08-29 14:37:37)

tzervo · 2010-08-29 15:15:13

bzr is makedepends, which means you can remove it after installation, OR, you can install the musca package (not the musca-bzr one), plus, if you want to help with development there are ways to convert a bzr repository to a git repository (e.g. the "tailor" package)

Inxsible · 2010-08-29 15:39:56

Or you can use the AUR package, which is a stable release.

mhertz · 2010-08-29 16:00:26

@tzervo:

Yeah, I know, but my point was that if development continues and if prefering the dev-branch, then bzr/python would be continually installed/removed upon each and every update. Just not very optimal IMHO, but nonetheless, im certantly not complaining! Just thinking out loud, about why the need of using bzr instead of the smaller and much more mainstream git/cvs, that's all... Again, not complaining!

@Inxsible:

Yes, I actually do use the release version atm.(thanks alot, mate!), since the bzr dev branch and stable release is identical atm. i.e. both is rev270...

CU, Martin.

Last edited by mhertz (2010-08-29 16:02:59)

mhertz · 2010-09-24 10:24:16

I found a bug in Musca where if entering full-screen mode of a flashplayer applet, then afterwards the cycle function of muca dosen't work anymore, no matter if leaving the flash applet again, or restarting the browser and all other running apps or anything. Only restarting musca will fix it again!. ratpoison dosen't suffer from this, btw. (i.e. so it isn't flash that's borking things up i guess - I'm using the flashplugin 64bit prerelease version(square codenamed) from AUR, and don't want a million lib32 libs bloating my system up)

Just in case Sean comes back to Musca development again, or that others fluent in C and X11 could pick up the toarch...

Thanks in advance!

(God, I think it's a shame that this awesome little wonder is left unmaintained while the bugreports are filling up! I really wish that this project could come to light again and hopefully get the much deserved recognetion that it so rightfully deserves! I cannot do it, as i'm a complete beginner in C programming and know nothing of X11 whatsoever!)

Last edited by mhertz (2010-09-24 10:30:27)

greenmanwitch · 2010-09-25 01:29:56

Yes! Somebody, please continue the development. Don't make me switch to dwm .

omp · 2010-09-25 11:08:11

greenmanwitch wrote:

Yes! Somebody, please continue the development. Don't make me switch to dwm .

At this point, if Musca stopped working, I'd probably go to Openbox. Although the tree branch of i3 looks promising; not sure when it will be released though.

greenmanwitch · 2010-09-27 02:04:57

Ok, so, at the moment this has been annoying me:

http://ompldr.org/vNW5obg/2010-09-27-11 … _scrot.png

I'm in tiling mode. Urxvt is open and I tried to open another program and I get that.. The program opens in its default dimensions instead of opening in a frame. Also, I cannot use the keyboard within the program. For example, pressing space after clicking on vlc's window will not pause the movie.

This seems to happen at random.

hellomynameisphil · 2010-09-27 02:52:32

greenmanwitch wrote:

Ok, so, at the moment this has been annoying me:
http://ompldr.org/vNW5obg/2010-09-27-11 … _scrot.png
I'm in tiling mode. Urxvt is open and I tried to open another program and I get that.. The program opens in its default dimensions instead of opening in a frame. Also, I cannot use the keyboard within the program. For example, pressing space after clicking on vlc's window will not pause the movie.
This seems to happen at random.

Have you tried the 'refresh' command?

http://aerosuidae.net/musca/Commands#refresh

Did you turn managing of this window class off in your .musca_start or via the command line?

http://aerosuidae.net/musca/Commands#manage

sie · 2010-10-20 19:17:53

Hmm. I've been using musca for quite a while now, and now built it on my laptop.

I noticed I can't do a thing for a while, when I start X, so I went to tty2, logged in as root, and saw this: http://sprunge.us/Webi
My limits.conf blocked the whole forking mess, but system's unusable for about 10 seconds. ;/

I thought I'd search where was it fork()ing, but I was very surprised, when I couldn't: http://sprunge.us/bJJd (strace output)
There isn't a single fork/execve(except for the initial one).

Any ideas what the hell's wrong? (Musca built from AUR.)

greenmanwitch · 2010-10-28 00:10:53

@Hellomynameisphil:

When I press the refresh command, the window disappears but the program stays running.

No, I didn't turn off managing the window class or any window class.

windowsrefund · 2010-11-13 03:32:37

I switched to Musca and am really loving it so far. For whatever reason, tabbed (from suckless.org) wouldn't run properly when I had unclutter running. I never noticed the problem when running dwm so I figure I'll post my fix here.

#!/bin/sh
# 2010-11-12: looks like tabbed does not like unclutter

ucpid=$(pgrep unclutter)

[ -n "$ucpid" ] && kill -s STOP $ucpid
tabbed=$(tabbed -d)
vimprobable2 -e $tabbed "$@"
[ -n "$ucpid" ] && kill -s CONT $ucpid

Army · 2010-11-19 21:48:32

I don't think that this will change anything, but I wanted to take a look at musca again and DAMN this usability is so awesome, so much better than awesome and i3 (the other two I gave a try and like). It's such a shame that there's noone out there willing and capable to continue this project. I would even donate some money if that should convince one!

arane · 2010-11-20 01:59:02

Army wrote:

I don't think that this will change anything, but I wanted to take a look at musca again and DAMN this usability is so awesome, so much better than awesome and i3 (the other two I gave a try and like). It's such a shame that there's noone out there willing and capable to continue this project. I would even donate some money if that should convince one!

Actually, the original author is still there. In his words, it is stagnant due to lack of time and the simple fact it does everything he wanted it to do. In addition, while many people tell him it is great, none have offered to help. I was considering helping out once I am more familiar with the code, but I have to agree with him. I have been using it and there is not anything I would change other than possible adding in the ability to have floating windows.

Army · 2010-11-20 12:06:58

I would congribute to the code if I was able to do that! I can live with musca's lack of managing fullscreen apps, e.g. mplayer (which can be kind of solved with fstype=none in the config), but what's really disturbing is, when I open an image file with feh in fullscreen, there's no way to use the keyboard anymore. There are other things which I don't remember right now, but they are there and make musca hard to use for me and I think many others.

Procyon · 2010-11-20 16:36:15

@Army: Here is a patch that should help with mplayer and VirtualBox. I think feh still needs an anti-motif patch. trapd00r's feh has it: https://github.com/trapd00r/feh

I still can't get wine applications to consistently get key presses. I'm not sure what is causing that, it works fine under Compiz. (edit: In the same wineserver I even get applications that do get presses and games that don't (they don't seem to go anywhere) which looks like it's not Musca's fault.)

And sometimes applications start up without being managed at all. I often had to start up comix several times until I got one that accepted key presses. Firefox dialogs too but they don't need keyboard input.

--- musca.c.orig    2009-11-03 03:20:21.000000000 +0100
+++ musca.c    2010-11-20 17:05:25.486000077 +0100
@@ -400,9 +400,10 @@
 {
     Window w; int i, wc = 0;
     Window *wins = allocate(sizeof(Window) * (h->above->depth + h->fullscreen->depth + 1));
+//---
+    wins[wc++] = list[0];
     FOR_STACK (w, h->fullscreen, Window, i) wins[wc++] = w;
     FOR_STACK (w, h->above, Window, i) wins[wc++] = w;
-    wins[wc++] = list[0];
     XRaiseWindow(display, wins[0]);
     if (wc > 1) XRestackWindows(display, wins, wc);
     if (n > 1) XRestackWindows(display, list, n);
@@ -3069,6 +3070,9 @@
             || is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateFullscreen)
             || is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateHidden)
             || is_unmanaged_window(win)) ? 0:1;
+        if (is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateFullscreen)) ws->manage = 1; //+++
+        if (is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateHidden)) ws->manage = 1; //+++
+        if (ws->type == atoms[NetWMWindowTypeNormal]) ws->manage = 1; //+++
         note("%s %s %s %s %s %s %x %x", ws->class, ws->name, ws->manage ? "manage": "ignore",
             ws->input ? "focus": "nofocus", ws->c ? "client": "unknown",
             ws->attr.override_redirect ? "override" : "normal", ws->state, ws->type);
@@ -3104,14 +3108,14 @@
         } else
         {
             XWindowChanges wc;
-            if (is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateFullscreen))
-            {
-                wc.x = 0; wc.y = 0;
-                wc.width = heads->screen->width;
-                wc.height = heads->screen->height;
-                wc.border_width = 0;
-                wc.sibling = Above;
-            } else
+//            if (is_netwmstate(ws->state, NetWMStateFullscreen))
+//            {
+//                wc.x = 0; wc.y = 0;
+//                wc.width = heads->screen->width;
+//                wc.height = heads->screen->height;
+//                wc.border_width = 0;
+//                wc.sibling = Above;
+//            } else
             {
                 wc.x = cr->x; wc.y = cr->y;
                 wc.width = MAX(1, cr->width);

1. Don't hide windows below fullscreen
2. Manage fullscreen/hidden/normal (maybe some other need to be added but you don't want to manage everything)
3. Don't do anything special with fullscreen apps.

Last edited by Procyon (2010-11-20 16:52:08)

mhertz · 2010-11-21 00:09:56

I also love musca insanely much, and it does everything I need, except one little annoying issue; When enabling fullscreen in flash, then musca's cycle function dosen't work anymore, and it continues also even if disabling fullscreen or quiting the browser. It behaves like this, and on every group, untill a restart of X and musca.

Last edited by mhertz (2010-11-21 00:15:57)

Army · 2010-11-21 08:06:41

Thanks a lot for this patch Procyon and for the hint to this fork of feh (I'll contribute a PKGBUILD to the AUR)! You REALLY helped me staying with musca!

Last edited by Army (2010-11-21 12:54:21)

Arch Linux

#451 2010-04-30 19:12:43

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#452 2010-06-04 05:44:42

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#453 2010-06-04 09:28:45

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#454 2010-06-04 12:08:33

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#455 2010-06-13 00:05:20

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#456 2010-08-06 02:48:34

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#457 2010-08-07 18:43:41

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#458 2010-08-29 14:34:48

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#459 2010-08-29 15:15:13

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#460 2010-08-29 15:39:56

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#461 2010-08-29 16:00:26

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#462 2010-09-24 10:24:16

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#463 2010-09-25 01:29:56

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#464 2010-09-25 11:08:11

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#465 2010-09-27 02:04:57

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#466 2010-09-27 02:52:32

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#467 2010-10-20 19:17:53

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#468 2010-10-28 00:10:53

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#469 2010-11-13 03:32:37

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#470 2010-11-19 21:48:32

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#471 2010-11-20 01:59:02

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#472 2010-11-20 12:06:58

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#473 2010-11-20 16:36:15

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#474 2010-11-21 00:09:56

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

#475 2010-11-21 08:06:41

Re: Musca (Tiling Window Manager)

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