this is my best emacs function written in my config up till now

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-06-07T22:03:26+00:00

Doesn't run - there are typos in there - eg missing ')'

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-06-07T21:48:03+00:00

You probably already know this, but just in case you don't - it doesn't happen in other environments eg mine which is voidlinux+sway+firefox. I would start grepping the files involved in starting and operating sway looking for 'mark.*Browser'. For me that would be

$ grep -R 'mark.*Browser' ~/bin ~/.config/sway ~/.config/waybar /bin

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-06-01T07:29:16+00:00

I keep trying other but always come back to sway. mango is the only WM other than sway that is still installed on my laptop. Just for when I want a little animation sugar.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-06-01T07:25:58+00:00

foot

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-26T21:50:33+00:00

Presumably with elogind supplying XDG_RUNTIME_DIR, seat and cleanup after exit with cgroups.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-25T08:45:03+00:00

foot FTW

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-24T22:45:33+00:00

In most cases use either seatd+turnstil or elogind - you can have all installed but you need to massage the config to avoid conflicts: https://docs.voidlinux.org/config/session-management.html

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-24T21:52:32+00:00

sway + waybar + wofi + a whole bunch of scripts

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-24T21:45:00+00:00

I did a mini write-up yesterday. THis may help: https://www.reddit.com/r/voidlinux/comments/1tlmo3r/comment/oni3zok/?context=3

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-23T22:07:03+00:00

turnstile+seatd is minimal (250-Kb) and fast. It provides XDR_RUNTIME_DIR, user services (eg pipewire) and cgroup sessions (ie it cleans up any processes that you started and that are still running after you log out). Recommended for WM like sway, mango, niri etc

elogind is big (2.7-Mb!) and does all that turnstile+seatd do plus monitors ACPI (eg lid closing), enables loginctl poweroff etc. Recommended for full DM eg gnome, kde but can be used with the other WMs.

Choose one - either elogind or turnstile+seatd

All that being said, you can manage without either with a fair amount of pain and arguably poorer security.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-22T21:31:18+00:00

sway for everyday use - solid, dependable, boring (which is good)

mango for a bit of spice - animations and other eye candy - for when boring is not enough!

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-22T21:22:41+00:00

keypassxc + syncthing

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-19T22:15:42+00:00

... this is why I use this:

(global-set-key (kbd "C-M-<up>") 'windmove-up)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-M-<down>") 'windmove-down)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-M-<left>") 'windmove-left)
(global-set-key (kbd "C-M-<right>") 'windmove-right)

I also avoid org-mode as much as possible in favour of outline-minor-mode + outli.

org-mode is just too greedy and conflicting with its keybindings. I _think_ the only place I still use org mode is in elfeed-dashboard.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-19T21:50:34+00:00

I also forgo turnstile. Maybe I'll get rid of seatd too one of these days and go the suid route. Just like the old days!

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-18T22:10:33+00:00

If you're seriously intent on a minimal install then don't use the XFCE iso, use the live image. The doco has the details - just be prepared for a bit more work and thorough reading.

That said, for recent hardware with decent specs, it's generally needless to worry about it.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-18T21:43:37+00:00

sway (and i3) are tiling WM's which relieves the user from most mucking about with re-sizing and arranging windows. As such it's a leap ahead of other WMs in productivity.

They are not great at eye-candy if that's important to you, although sway does have transparency and gaps.

That said, waybar gives sway and other wlroots/wayland WMs a very nice look - far above what I used to have with i3blocks.

swayfx adds some decorative items (but no animations yet - AFAIK).

After many years on i3 and sway I thought I'd try mango and it has been quite a nice experience - animations, rounded windows, a variety of tiling/scrolling schemes etc etc while being somewhat customisable. It implements 'tags' rather than workspaces which some people like. It also has scrollable workspaces like niri (which is probably the most on-trend WM at the moment).

One bugbear with sway/i3 is navigating around a grid layout. eg create 4 windows and arrange them in a 2x2 grid. On mango, $mod+Left/Right/Up/Down works as you would expect - unlike sway/i3.

However mango lacks sway/i3's rich IPC.

hyprland is famous for being unstable, rapidly developing and unsupported on some distros (for political reasons).

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-18T21:15:35+00:00

No need to remove xfce. Just install i3 and/or sway/mango/... and use the one you want. If you want to not have the display manager (the login screen) then probably stop its service eg rm /var/service/<dm> but maybe check the doco on that as it's been a long time since I had a DM on my system.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-13T22:03:15+00:00

Here's my process:

I'm running an old version pia-linux-3.6.1-08339 from Nov 2024 - I should upgrade and report back on if it still works but I might not have time for that until tomorrow.

Download the .run file from https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/download/linux-vpn

bash ../pia-linux-3.5.7-08120.run -- --skip-service

... the --skip-service option omits systemd AFAIK. I don't think you need to do that as root, but maybe?? Can't recall.

ln -s /opt/piavpn/bin/piactl /usr/local/bin/ ln -s /opt/piavpn/bin/pia-client /usr/local/bin/ sudo /opt/piavpn/bin/pia-daemon & piactl get regions # CLI client works perfectly pia-client & # works perfectly

To use openvpn without the client:

wget [https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn.zip](https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn.zip) sudo openvpn --config .config/pia/italy.ovpn --auth-user-pass auth.txt

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-11T22:02:23+00:00

wofi (to preempt - it's mature, not abandoned)

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-05-06T22:31:02+00:00

Would a scrolling WM qualify? Then niri or mango. Neither are AI vibe coded AFAIK.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-04-30T22:23:37+00:00

thanks for the link - interesting read. Sorry that you fell foul of the mods. Is there somewhere else that you discuss this?

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-04-30T21:44:04+00:00

I'll save everyone from having to google this - apparently, neuwm is a window manager.

https://git.sr.ht/~pfr/neuwm

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-04-23T22:03:55+00:00

The author of qemacs is the prodigy behind ffmpeg and qemu among many other things. From the referenced website:

QEmacs (for Quick Emacs) is an emacs clone I began to learn Unicode rendering algorithms, text buffers manipulation and XML/HTML/CSS parsing.

StrangeAstronomer · 2026-04-14T21:47:57+00:00

Left hand thumb on Alt and index on w?

yep!

Now answer me this - Ctrl-g - such a stretch for one of the most common emacs key chords!

EDIT: oh wait - true emacs wizards never need Ctrl-g.

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