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https://github.com/labwc/labwc

A Wayland window-stacking compositor
https://github.com/labwc/labwc

labwc layer-shell openbox sway wayland wayland-compositor window-manager wlroots

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A Wayland window-stacking compositor

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README 

        
# labwc



[Website] [Scope] [IRC Channel] [Release Notes]



- [1. Project Description](#1-project-description)

  - [1.1 What Is This?](#11-what-is-this)

  - [1.2 Why](#12-why)

  - [1.3 Why The Openbox Theme Specification?](#13-why-the-openbox-theme-specification)

  - [1.4 Very High Level Scope](#14-very-high-level-scope)

  - [1.5 Videos](#15-videos)

  - [1.6 Screenshot](#16-screenshot)

- [2. Build and Installation](#2-build-and-installation)

- [3. Configuration](#3-configuration)

- [4. Theming](#4-theming)

- [5. Translations](#5-translations)

- [6. Usage](#6-usage)

  - [6.1 Gaming](#61-gaming)

- [7. Integration](#7-integration)



## 1. Project Description



### 1.1 What Is This?



Labwc stands for Lab Wayland Compositor, where lab can mean any of the

following:



- sense of experimentation and treading new ground

- inspired by BunsenLabs and ArchLabs

- your favorite pet



Labwc is a [wlroots]-based window-stacking compositor for [wayland], inspired

by [openbox].



It is light-weight and independent with a focus on simply stacking windows well

and rendering some window decorations. It takes a no-bling/frills approach and

says no to features such as animations.  It relies on clients for panels,

screenshots, wallpapers and so on to create a full desktop environment.



Labwc tries to stay in keeping with [wlroots] and [sway] in terms of general

approach and coding style.



Labwc has no reliance on any particular Desktop Environment, Desktop Shell or

session. Nor does it depend on any UI toolkits such as Qt or GTK.



### 1.2 Why?



Firstly, we believe that there is a need for a simple Wayland window-stacking

compositor which strikes a balance between minimalism and bloat approximately

at the level where Window Managers like Openbox reside in the X11 domain.  Most

of the core developers are accustomed to low resource Desktop Environments such

as Mate/XFCE or standalone Window Managers such as Openbox under X11.  Labwc

aims to make a similar setup possible under Wayland, with small and independent

components rather than a large, integrated software eco-system.



Secondly, the Wayland community has achieved an amazing amount so far, and we

want to help solve the unsolved problems to make Wayland viable for more

people. We think that standardisation and de-fragmentation is a route to

greater Wayland adoption, and wanting to play our part in this, Labwc only

understands [wayland-protocols] & [wlr-protocols], and it cannot be

controlled with dbus, sway/i3/custom-IPC or other technology.



Thirdly, it is important to us that scope is tightly controlled so that the

compositor matures to production quality. On the whole, we value robustness,

reliability, stability and simplicity over new features. Coming up with new

ideas and features is easy - maintaining and stabilising them is not.



Fourthly, we are of the view that a compositor should be boring in order to do

its job well. In this regard we follow in the footsteps of [metacity] which

describes itself as a "Boring window manager for the adult in you. Many window

managers are like Marshmallow Froot Loops; Metacity is like Cheerios."



Finally, we think that an elegant solution to all of this does not need feel

square and pixelated like something out of the 1990s, but should look

contemporary and enable cutting-edge performance.



### 1.3 Why The Openbox Theme Specification?



In order to avoid reinventing configuration and theme syntaxes, the [openbox]

3.6 specification is used. This does not mean that labwc is an openbox clone

but rather that configuration files will look and feel familiar.



Also, parsing GTK3+ and Qt themes for window decorations is very complicated,

so using much simpler specs such as those used by openbox and xfwm makes sense

for a compositor such as labwc, both in terms of implementation and for user

modification.



Openbox spec is somewhat of a stable standard considering how long it has

remained unchanged for and how wide-spread its adoption is by lightweight

distributions such as LXDE, LXQt, BunsenLabs, ArchLabs, Mabox and Raspbian. Some

widely used themes (for example Numix and Arc) have built-in support.



We could have invented a whole new syntax, but that's not where we want to

spend our effort.



### 1.4 Very High Level Scope



A lot of emphasis is put on code simplicity when considering features.



The main development effort is focused on producing a solid foundation for a

stacking compositor rather than adding configuration and theming options.



See [scope] for full details on implemented features.



High-level summary of items that Labwc supports:



- [x] Config files (rc.xml, autostart, shutdown, environment, menu.xml)

- [x] Theme files and xbm/png/svg icons

- [x] Basic desktop and client menus

- [x] HiDPI

- [x] wlroots protocols such as `output-management`, `layer-shell` and

  `foreign-toplevel`

- [x] Optionally xwayland



### 1.5 Videos



| video link                | date        | duration

| ------------------------- | ------------| -------

| [0.7.2-release-video]     | 24-May-2024 | 3:17

| [0.6.0-release-video]     | 31-Oct-2022 | 2:48

| [0.3.0-release-video]     | 05-Aug-2021 | 1:10

| [pre-0.1.0-release-video] | 25-Feb-2021 | 3:42



[0.7.2-release-video]: https://youtu.be/gNIj6VU-IH8

[0.6.0-release-video]: https://youtu.be/guBnx18EQiA

[0.3.0-release-video]: https://youtu.be/AU_M3n_FS-E

[pre-0.1.0-release-video]: https://youtu.be/rE1bQjSVJzg



### 1.6 Screenshot



The obligatory screenshot:





  






  Screenshot description




## 2. Build and Installation



To build, simply run:



    meson setup build/

    meson compile -C build/



Run-time dependencies include:



- wlroots, wayland, libinput, xkbcommon

- libxml2, cairo, pango, glib-2.0

- libpng

- librsvg >=2.46 (optional)

- xwayland, xcb (optional)



Build dependencies include:



- meson, ninja, gcc/clang

- wayland-protocols



Disable xwayland with `meson -Dxwayland=disabled build/`



For OS/distribution specific details see [wiki].



If the right version of `wlroots` is not found on the system, the build setup

will automatically download the wlroots repo. If this fallback is not desired

please use:



    meson setup --wrap-mode=nodownload build/



To enforce the supplied wlroots.wrap file, run:



    meson setup --force-fallback-for=wlroots build/



If installing after using the wlroots.wrap file, use the following to

prevent installing the wlroots headers:



    meson install --skip-subprojects -C build/



## 3. Configuration



User config files are located at `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config/labwc/}`

with the following six files being used: [rc.xml], [menu.xml], [autostart], [shutdown],

[environment] and [themerc-override].



Run `labwc --reconfigure` to reload configuration and theme.



For a step-by-step initial configuration guide, see [getting-started].



## 4. Theming



Themes are located at `~/.local/share/themes/\/openbox-3/` or

equivalent `XDG_DATA_{DIRS,HOME}` location in accordance with freedesktop XDG

directory specification.



For full theme options, see [labwc-theme(5)] or the [themerc] example file.



For themes, search the internet for "openbox themes" and place them in

`~/.local/share/themes/`. Some good starting points include:



- https://github.com/addy-dclxvi/openbox-theme-collections

- https://github.com/the-zero885/Lubuntu-Arc-Round-Openbox-Theme

- https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-themes



## 5. Translations



The default window bar menu can be translated on the [weblate platform](https://translate.lxqt-project.org/projects/labwc/labwc/).





Translation status




## 6. Usage



    ./build/labwc [-s ]



> **_NOTE:_** If you are running on **NVIDIA**, you will need the

> `nvidia-drm.modeset=1` kernel parameter.



If you have not created an rc.xml config file, default bindings will be:



| combination              | action

| ------------------------ | ------

| `alt`-`tab`              | activate next window

| `super`-`return`         | alacritty

| `alt`-`F3`               | bemenu

| `alt`-`F4`               | close window

| `super`-`a`              | toggle maximize

| `alt`-`mouse-left`       | move window

| `alt`-`mouse-right`      | resize window

| `alt`-`arrow`            | move window to edge

| `super`-`arrow`          | resize window to fill half the output

| `alt`-`space`            | show the window menu

| `XF86_AudioLowerVolume`  | amixer sset Master 5%-

| `XF86_AudioRaiseVolume`  | amixer sset Master 5%+

| `XF86_AudioMute`         | amixer sset Master toggle

| `XF86_MonBrightnessUp`   | brightnessctl set +10%

| `XF86_MonBrightnessDown` | brightnessctl set 10%-



A root-menu can be opened by clicking on the desktop.



### 6.1 Gaming



Cursor confinement is supported from version `0.6.2`. If using older versions,

use a nested [gamescope] instance for gaming.  It can be added to steam via

game launch option: `gamescope -f -- %command%`.



## 7. Integration



Suggested apps to use with labwc:



- Screen shooter: [grim]

- Screen recorder: [wf-recorder]

- Background image: [swaybg]

- Panel: [waybar], [yambar], [lavalauncher], [sfwbar]

- Launchers: [bemenu], [fuzzel], [wofi]

- Output managers: [wlopm], [kanshi], [wlr-randr]

- Screen locker: [swaylock]



See [integration] for further details.



[wayland]: https://wayland.freedesktop.org/

[openbox]: https://openbox.org/help/Contents

[wlroots]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlroots

[sway]: https://github.com/swaywm

[wayland-protocols]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wayland/wayland-protocols

[wlr-protocols]: https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/wlroots/wlr-protocols

[scope]: https://github.com/labwc/labwc-scope#readme

[wiki]: https://github.com/labwc/labwc/wiki

[getting-started]: https://labwc.github.io/getting-started.html

[integration]: https://labwc.github.io/integration.html

[metacity]: https://github.com/GNOME/metacity



[rc.xml]: docs/rc.xml.all

[menu.xml]: docs/menu.xml

[autostart]: docs/autostart

[shutdown]: docs/shutdown

[environment]: docs/environment

[themerc-override]: docs/themerc

[themerc]: docs/themerc

[labwc-theme(5)]: https://labwc.github.io/labwc-theme.5.html



[gamescope]: https://github.com/Plagman/gamescope

[grim]: https://github.com/emersion/grim

[wf-recorder]: https://github.com/ammen99/wf-recorder

[swaybg]: https://github.com/swaywm/swaybg

[waybar]: https://github.com/Alexays/Waybar

[yambar]: https://codeberg.org/dnkl/yambar

[lavalauncher]: https://sr.ht/~leon_plickat/LavaLauncher

[sfwbar]: https://github.com/LBCrion/sfwbar

[bemenu]: https://github.com/Cloudef/bemenu

[fuzzel]: https://codeberg.org/dnkl/fuzzel

[wofi]: https://hg.sr.ht/~scoopta/wofi

[wlopm]: https://git.sr.ht/~leon_plickat/wlopm

[kanshi]: https://sr.ht/~emersion/kanshi/

[wlr-randr]: https://sr.ht/~emersion/wlr-randr/

[swaylock]: https://github.com/swaywm/swaylock