Tiling window manager that works relatively out of the box?

Question

I was trying i3, and I really enjoy controlling my pc, without moving hands from the keybord. But there is a lot of basic functions that i3 doesn't support out of the box like sound or brightness control, it seems that there are also problems when you want to use multiple displays etc (I'm not sure about the displays, I've came across posts, talking about it while i was searching how to resolve my problems with sound controle, but often i need to display persantaions with my laptop so i'll need it).

While I think it's good for self estime to pizza your self off writing scripts in order to change the f brightness, I don't find it reasonable or productive. I've allready lost a lot of time, and almost failed my phd because of doing stuff like this in stead of doing my homework, lol.

So is there a tiling window manager that works out of the box? Or is there some packages for i3 or other tiling managers that wille handle this basic stuff?

Thank you for your answers.

Answer 1

The basic stuff you are looking for is basic to a DE, but not to a WM, so if you want all of that out of the box then stick to a DE.

That said you can roll just about any command you like and bind it to any key you want. I have been using i3 for about 2 weeks now and had to deal with the specific issue re brightness. The solution was a web search away over here.

So my .config binds keys to a script....

# backlight control
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessUp exec sh ~/.config/i3/backlight.sh -inc 20
bindsym XF86MonBrightnessDown exec sh ~/.config/i3/backlight.sh -dec 20

And the script does the heavy lifting

#!/bin/bash

set -e 
file="/sys/devices/pci0000:00/0000:00:02.0/drm/card0/card0-eDP-1/intel_backlight/brightness"

current=$(cat "$file")
new="$current"

if [ "$1" = "-inc" ]
then
    new=$(( current + $2 ))
fi

if [ "$1" = "-dec" ]
then
new=$(( current - $2 ))
fi

echo "$new" | tee "$file"

Time taken for web-search, mods and the script wasn't half an hour.

Though my productivity did take a while to recover after changing to colemak ...... a temporarily painful move but ultimately a worthwhile one (especially watching other people trying to type).

Answer 2

I've found a way to make i3 work with KDE plasma, xfce, and lxde.

The configuration with KDE is the less bugy in my case and the only one where the cation keys (volium and brightness control) works properly.

For KDE: There is a guide in this link https://userbase.kde.org/Tutorials/Using_Other_Window_Managers_with_Plasma

And here is an other one: https://medium.com/@vishnu_mad/using-i3-window-manager-with-kde-plasma-c2ac70594d8

Personally i've used the methon on the second link and i've added some of the commands that I've took on the firs link, to my i3 config file.

In the end i've added the fallowing to my config file:

#____ Plasma Integration BEGIN _____

#Try to kill the wallpaper set by Plasma (it takes up the entire workspace
#and hides everythiing)
exec --no-startup-id wmctrl -c Plasma
for_window [title="Desktop — Plasma"] kill; floating enable; border none

#Avoid tiling popups, dropdown windows from plasma
for_window [class="plasmashell"] floating enable
for_window [class="Plasma"] floating enable
for_window [class="krunner"] floating enable
for_window [class="Kmix"] floating enable
#for_window [class="Klipper"] floating enable
#for_window [class="Plasmoidviewer"] floating enable

#____ Window Rules ____

#____ Avoid tiling for non-Plasma stuff ____
for_window [window_role="pop-up"] floating enable
for_window [window_role="bubble"] floating enable
for_window [window_role="task_dialog"] floating enable
for_window [window_role="Preferences"] floating enable
for_window [window_role="About"] floating enable
for_window [window_type="dialog"] floating enable
for_window [window_type="menu"] floating enable

#____ lol idk what programs this thig take care of ____

for_window [class="plasmashell"] floating enable;
for_window [class="Plasma"] floating enable; border none
for_window [title="plasma-desktop"] floating enable; border none
for_window [title="win7"] floating enable; border none
for_window [class="krunner"] floating enable; border none
for_window [class="Kmix"] floating enable; border none
for_window [class="Klipper"] floating enable; border none
for_window [class="Plasmoidviewer"] floating enable; border none
for_window [class="(?i)*nextcloud*"] floating disable
for_window [class="plasmashell" window_type="notification"] floating enable, border none, move right 700px, move down 450px
no_focus [class="plasmashell" window_type="notification"]

#____ Plasma Integration END _____

I found this article that shows how to combine xfce with i3 :

http://feeblenerd.blogspot.com/2015/11/pretty-i3-with-xfce.html

But in my case the brightness key doesn't work even with xfce lol (i mean, even the normal xfce, not the one opened with i3)

Also I've found this video that shows how to transform KDE default window manager in to a "quasi" tiling window manager :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4pppzPxD3Q

I've also found that you can combine i3 with LXDE by replacing the line window_manager=openbox-lxde by window_manager=openbox-lxde in ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/desktop.conf and you also need to remove the line @pcmanfm --desktop --profile LXDE in ~/.config/lxsession/LXDE/autostart but again there's a problem with the birghtness and sound controle