Personal customization of IceWM on mainly, Void Linux and Artix Runit. Note that other inits are not supported in this guide.
- Overview
- Special Thanks
- To Do
- Automated Install (WIP)
- DIY Method
- Installing Yay and Enabling Arch Linux support (Artix Only)
- Installing IceWM and base packages
IceWM is a lightweight window manager used on distributions like AntiX, but by default its very... W95-like. So I decided to customize at the maximum that I can. This is the result.
Keybindings are processed via sxhkd instead of IceWM built-in one (because I didn't realized that IceWM already has its own script to setup keybindings, but you are free to use it). IceWM's taskbar were replaced by xfce4-panel, but you can also use the IceWM's one. Rofi is used as app launcher. Materia-Manjaro-Dark-B with some modifications is the selected WM theme. lxappearance and Qt5ct are used to customize desktop themes.
I used Nemo as the default file manager, and Sakura is the selected terminal emulator (also I recommend QTerminal and xfce4-terminal). Here we'll use LXDM as a Display Manager.
This guide is focused on Void Linux and Artix Linux. Feel free to add or remove everything as you need and/or want in your setup. This is just a guide.
- Tuxliban Torvalds for contributing on simplify and optimize automated installation script, enabling services, Xed text editor installation process, and this guide.- Add a Display Manager in order to get Polkit working correctly.
- Correct some guide content.
- Replace XFCE tools (for example
xfce4-panelbytint2). - Make wallpaper to work properly with Nemo Desktop (Artix only).
- Make automated script to detect signature error on package download and then, abort the installation.
- Fix Artix script (currently it's broken).
- Polish automated installation script.
- Replace some tools in order to keep the setup lightweight.
Void Linux:
sudo xbps-install -S git
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/KF-Art/icewm-personal-tunning
cd icewm-personal-tunning
chmod u+x automated_install_void.sh
./automated_install_void.sh
Artix (currently broken, use at your own risk):
sudo pacman -S git
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/KF-Art/icewm-personal-tunning
cd icewm-personal-tunning
chmod u+x automated_install_artix.sh
./automated_install_artix.sh
After that, you can start your X session with startx.
To start, we will create a directory in which the cloned GitHub repositories will be saved.
mkdir "$HOME/github"
#Installing Yay
pacman -S base-devel git
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://aur.archlinux.org/yay-bin.git
cd yay-bin
makepkg -si
#Enabling Arch Linux support
pacman -S artix-archlinux-support
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/KF-Art/icewm-personal-tunning/ && cd icewm-personal-tunning
# Add Arch Linux repos to pacman.conf. Hope that in the future this is not necessary.
cat resources/pacman-arch-support.conf | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf
Void Linux:
sudo xbps-install -S icewm rofi network-manager-applet sakura pa-applet brillo nemo qt5ct kvantum unzip zip bsdtar betterlockscreen sxhkd clementine xfce4-panel xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin xfce4-power-manager xfce4-clipman-plugin mate-polkit octoxbps notification-daemon playerctl numlockx picom xscreensaver setxkbmap xautolock blueman NetworkManager pulseaudio firefox pavucontrol git wget gedit eudev timeshift cronie bluez dbus lxdm
Artix:
#Repositories packages.
sudo pacman -S --needed icewm rofi network-manager-applet sakura nemo qt5ct kvantum-qt5 unzip zip bsdtar sxhkd clementine xfce4-panel xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin xfce4-power-manager xfce4-clipman-plugin mate-polkit octopi octopi-notifier-frameworks notification-daemon playerctl numlockx xscreensaver xorg-setxkbmap xautolock blueman networkmanager pulseaudio firefox pavucontrol git wget eudev cronie cronie-runit bluez dbus xed picom lxdm lxdm-runit
#AUR packages.
yay -Sa --needed pa-applet-git timeshift-bin betterlockscreen
Void Linux:
sudo ln -sf /etc/sv/{bluetoothd,NetworkManager,udevd,dbus,crond} /var/service
Artix:
sudo ln -sf /etc/runit/sv/{bluetoothd,NetworkManager,udevd,dbus,cronie} /run/runit/service/
From this point you can start your X session with startx.
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="qt5ct" #Allows qt5ct to manage Qt settings.
#We'll use this when installing Xed via XDEB.
export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/share/bin"
brightnessctl, for example.
wget https://gitlab.com/cameronnemo/brillo/-/archive/v1.4.9/brillo-v1.4.9.tar.gz
tar -xvf brillo-v1.4.9.tar.gz
cd brillo-v1.4.9
make
sudo make install install.apparmor install.polkit DESTDIR="/"
~/.config/autostart and ~/.config/autostart-scripts configurations (at least on Void Linux). Fortunately, IceWM has its own built-in startup manager. We'll create a new file called startup inside ~/.icewm.
touch "$HOME/.icewm/startup"
chmod u+x "$HOME/.icewm/startup"
Once created, we'll setup autostart commands and applications (yeah, I used setxkbmap to set keyboard map, but I recommend you to setup it with Xorg directly):
#!/bin/bash
pulseaudio --start &
sxhkd &
pa-applet &
nm-applet &
picom &
numlockx &
/usr/libexec/polkit-mate-authentication-agent-1 &
xscreensaver -nosplash &
xfce4-panel &
nemo-desktop &
setxkbmap latam
/usr/libexec/notification-daemon &
xautolock -detectsleep -time 5 -locker "betterlockscreen -l blur -w /path/to/your/wallpaper.png" -killtime 10 -killer "loginctl suspend"
blueman-applet &!
# In Void use octoxbps-notifier and in Artix, /usr/bin/octopi-notifier.
octoxbps-notifier &
# /usr/bin/octopi-notifier &
Change /path/to/your/wallpaper.png by the path of your desired background for lockscreen. In this build, a wallpaper is included into resources folder.
Feel free to increase or decrease the -killtime (10 is the minimum) and -time amount.
sxhkd to manage keybindings, but this should work similar on ~/.icewm/keys (you need to create it and make it executable). We'll create a new file called sxhkdrc.
touch "$HOME/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc"
Now we can configure our keybindings:
#Media buttons
XF86Audio{Prev,Next,Play,Pause}
playerctl {previous,next,play-pause,play-pause}
#Volume Control
XF86Audio{RaiseVolume,LowerVolume}
pactl -- set-sink-volume @DEFAULT_SINK@ 0 {+5%,-5%}
#Mute button
XF86AudioMute
pactl set-sink-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle
#Brightness control
XF86MonBrightness{Down,Up}
sudo brillo {-U 20,-A 20}
#Terminal emulator
ctrl + alt + t
sakura %u
#File manager
ctrl + alt + e
nemo
#Web browser
ctrl + alt + w
firefox
#Music player
ctrl + alt + q
clementine
#Lockscreen
ctrl + alt + l
betterlockscreen -l blur -w /path/to/your/wallpaper.png
#Rofi
ctrl + space
$HOME/.config/rofi/launcher.sh
brillo also needs elevated privileges to be able to change brightness, and also we'll add an exception for it. You can make writable the brightness file of your GPU (like as I did), in order to do it without superuser privileges, but I don't know what other consequences it can have.
touch "$HOME/.icewm/preferences"
And now setup the preferences:
TaskBarShowWorkspaces=0
ShowTaskBar=0
RebootCommand="loginctl reboot"
ShutdownCommand="loginctl poweroff"
TerminalCommand=sakura
SuspendCommand="loginctl suspend"
If you don't want to use XFCE's panel, set ShowTaskBar on 1, and remove it from autostart.
brillo requires root privileges in order to edit the brightness and power status. To be able to use the related keybindings and startup commands, we have to add one exception to sudoers file.
sudo visudo
Now add this line at the end of the file (change yourusername for your user's name):
yourusername ALL= NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/brillo
Alternatively, you can use the automated script method.
echo "$USER $(cat /etc/hostname)= NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/brillo" | sudo EDITOR='tee -a' visudo
After that, logout. Related keybindings now should work.
Xed is my favorite GTK text editor, so I included it into this build. I think that is strange that the Cinnamon's default text editor is not in the repositories of Void, because Cinnamon is one of the officially supported desktop environments. Into Artix this is not necessary, 'cause it's on the repositories. The installation of Xed via XDEB is quite tedious, so I created a script to automate the task. First, clone this repo (if not done already):git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/KF-Art/icewm-personal-tunning/
Now you can run the installation script. Note that you will need a fully POSIX compatible shell, like oksh or mksh. In this script we'll use dash to avoid installing extra packages.
cd icewm-personal-tunning/scripts/
chmod u+x xed_void_install.sh
./xed_void_install.sh
~/.local/share/bin to avoid errors.
sudo xbps-install -S binutils tar curl xz
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/toluschr/xdeb
chmod u+x $HOME/github/xdeb/xdeb
sudo cp $HOME/github/xdeb/xdeb /usr/local/bin
Once installed, we can proceed to package conversion. Install XApps dependency from Void Linux's repository:
sudo xbps-install -S xapps
Download DEB packages from official Linux Mint's repository:
mkdir /tmp/xed && cd /tmp/xed
# These commands will not work on Bash or ZSH, So the dash shell will be used temporarily.
dash -c 'echo "xed_2.8.4+ulyssa_amd64.deb\nxed-common_2.8.4+ulyssa_all.deb\nxed-doc_2.8.4+ulyssa_all.deb"' >> xed_packages
dash -c 'for i in $(cat xed_packages); do curl -O http://packages.linuxmint.com/pool/backport/x/xed/$i; done'
And convert them with XDEB:
dash -c 'for i in $(cat xed_packages); do xdeb -Sde $i; done'
Finally, you can install them:
sudo xbps-install -R binpkgs xed xed-common xed-doc
Xed needs its Glib schemas to be compiled. Otherwise, it will not work.
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas
Now Xed should be working properly. If you want, delete the Gedit package. The automated script doesn't remove Gedit, in case Xed fails in the future.
sudo xbps-remove -R gedit
We will use a theme based on Aditya Shakya's KDE KRunner one.
# Clone this repo if not done yet.
git -C $HOME/github clone https://github.com/KF-Art/icewm-personal-tunning/
# Copy theme and launcher.
mkdir $HOME/.config/rofi
cp $HOME/github/icewm-personal-tunning/dotfiles/rofi/* $HOME/.config/rofi/
~/.bashrc:
triangle=$'\uE0B0'
export PS1='\[\e[48;5;237m\] \[\e[0;48;5;237m\]\u\[\e[0;48;5;237m\]@\[\e[0;48;5;237m\]\H\[\e[48;5;237m\] \[\e[0;38;5;237;48;5;29m\]$triangle\[\e[48;5;29m\] \[\e[0;48;5;29m\]\w\[\e[48;5;29m\] \[\e[0;38;5;29;48;5;24m\]$triangle\[\e[48;5;24m\] \[\e[0;48;5;24m\]\!\[\e[48;5;24m\] \[\e[0;38;5;24;48;5;42m\]$triangle\[\e[0;48;5;42m\] \[\e[0;38;5;234;48;5;42m\]\T\[\e[0;48;5;42m\] \[\e[0;38;5;42m\]$triangle \[\e[0m\]'
Edit it as much you want. Also, you can use a prompt generator to modify it, like the one made by Scriptim.
We need to clone the font repo, move fonts to/usr/share/fonts/OTF, and update fonts cache and list:
#San Francisco Fonts
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/sahibjotsaggu/San-Francisco-Pro-Fonts
sudo mkdir /usr/share/fonts/OTF
sudo mv $HOME/github/San-Francisco-Pro-Fonts/*.otf /usr/share/fonts/OTF
#JetBrains Mono
mkdir /tmp/JetBrains-Mono && cd /tmp/JetBrains-Mono
wget https://github.com/JetBrains/JetBrainsMono/releases/download/v2.242/JetBrainsMono-2.242.zip
unzip JetBrainsMono-2.242.zip
sudo cp -r fonts /usr/share
#Update font cache and list
fc-cache -fv; fc-list
~/.icewm/themes/. Now we have to edit theme file, specifically Srmx (~/.icewm/themes/Materia-Manjaro-Dark-B/Srmx.theme) to give it a custom fonts and wallpaper. Edit these lines like this:
#Fonts
TitleFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
StatusFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
MenuFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
NormalTaskBarFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
ActiveTaskBarFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
ListBoxFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
ToolTipFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
QuickSwitchFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
ClockFontNameXft= "SF Pro Display:size=10"
#Desktop
DesktopBackgroundImage= "/path/to/your/wallpaper.png"
Feel free to edit all the theme as you want (for example, color scheme).
In order to use Qt5ct and manage Qt settings, it's necesary to add a environment variable to your.zshrc or .bashrc at the end of the file:
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME="qt5ct"
Alternatively, you can set this variable into /etc/environment to set it at system level. Logout to apply the changes (restart if you're setting it at system level).
After that, open Qt5ct, set Kvantum style and configure fonts as you want (I recommend SF Pro Display Light 10).
Download your preferred GTK and Kvantum themes and copy them to /usr/share/themes and ~/.config/Kvantum/, respectively. In this setup, I will use StarLabs-Green (GTK) and KvFlat-Emerald (Kvantum), but you can use any theme you want.
#KvFlat-Emerald installation
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/KF-Art/KvFlat-Emerald/
cp "$HOME/github/KvFlat-Emerald/KvFlat-Emerald-Solid" "$HOME/.config/Kvantum"
Now open lxappearance & Kvantum, set themes and configure fonts (lxappearance).
void-distributor-logo icon. In this case, I will use Reversal icon theme:
git -C "$HOME/github" clone https://github.com/yeyushengfan258/Reversal-icon-theme
cd "$HOME/github/Reversal-icon-theme"
sudo ./install.sh -green
Now apply the icon theme at lxappearance and Qt5ct.
betterlockscreen -u /path/to/your/wallpaper.png
I have leave the defaults in general. Delete the default start menu and add Whisker menu instead, change the icon to void-distributor-logo and change the label to "Void Linux". Lastly, add Power Manager and Clipman applets.
DON'T RUN xfce4-power-manager DAEMON, IT WILL DISABLE sxhkd BRIGHTNESS KEYBINDINGS.