How To: Awesome WM with Debian/Ubuntu

[Behemoth]

How to: Awesome WM 2.3.4 with Debian/Ubuntu/*buntu

First, install the awesome wm package ? apt-get install awesome (which will be the 2.3.4 version)

Once installation is complete, most of the customization will be done in the .awesomerc file.

This will be located in your ~/user directory

The default setup is simple to read, for the most part, and configuration parameters are plainly laid out.

To boot into your Awesome WM session, log out of your current desktop and you should be able to select it from your session menu. In my case, I edited the .Xsession file to include awesome and all relevant programs as my xclient session.

Here is my ~/.Xsession file:

gnome-power-manager &

nm-applet & 

gnome-screensaver &

feh --bg-scale /home/lance/images/wallpapers/shared/Geeky/1270448911455.jpg

sh /home/lance/.awesome/awesomeclock.sh &



exec awesome

The above file loads the gnome-power-manager for logouts and sleep mode, along with nm-applet for wireless networking. It also displays the default wallpaper using feh (which is installable by using apt-get install feh), and a script to display a clock with the current date.

The clock script is as follows:

#!/bin/sh

while true

do

    echo "0 widget_tell mystatusbar clock text " \

         "`date +"%A %B %d, %Y %l:%M %p"`" | awesome-client

    sleep 1

done

Paste the above text into a text file and save as awesomeclock.sh in your .awesome directory.

This is called by the .awesomerc config file, which I have added below. The statusbar section will call the widgets displayed. Paste this snippet at the bottom of the statusbar section to call the clock script. The .Xsession file will call the script at boot.

 textbox clock

        {

            text = "-"

            align = "right"

        }

     }

}

I have also installed dmenu, an application launcher that displays in your status bar. In my .awesomerc, I have set up the menu to launch using the Windows (Mod4) key +p. Just type the first few letters of the application to launch, and it will be displayed in the menu. Press Enter to execute.

I am still working on getting more widgets/status displays in the status bar to show cpu, mem, and disk space. Once I get it working, I will add it to this post.

BTW, visit http://awesome.naquadah.org/wiki/Main_Page for Awesome shortcuts and tips/tricks.

Also, to check that your .awesomerc file is correct, you can type awesome -k at the command prompt in the terminal. If it is not correct, errors will be displayed.

This is by no means an end-all-be-all intro to Awesome, just something to get your feet wet.

Here is my full .awesomerc:

screen 0
{
    styles
    {
        normal
        {
            font = "sans 7"
            fg = "#cccccc"
            bg = "#444444"
            border = "#555555"
        }
        focus
        {
            fg = "#000000"
            bg = "#666666"
            border = "#535d6c"
        }
        urgent
        {
            fg = "#111111"
            bg = "#ff4500"
        }
    }
    tags
    {
        tag main { }
        tag www{ }
        tag mail{ }
        tag media{ }
        tag term { }
        #tag  { }
        #tag 7 { }
        #tag 8 { }
        #tag 9 { }
    }
    layouts
    {
        layout tile { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/tilew.png" }
        layout tileleft { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/tileleftw.png" }
        layout tilebottom { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/tilebottomw.png" }
        layout tiletop { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/tiletopw.png" }
        layout max { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/maxw.png" }
        layout spiral { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/spiralw.png" }
        layout dwindle { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/dwindlew.png" }
        layout floating { image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/layouts/floatingw.png" }
    }
    statusbar mystatusbar
    {
        position = "top"
        height = "17"

        taglist mytaglist
        {
            mouse
            {
                button = "1"
                command = "tag_view"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "1"
                modkey = {"Mod4"}
                command = "client_tag"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "3"
                command = "tag_toggleview"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "3"
                modkey = {"Mod4"}
                command = "client_toggletag"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "4"
                command = "tag_viewnext"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "5"
                command = "tag_viewprev"
            }
        }
        layoutinfo mylayoutinfo
        {
            mouse
            {
                button = "1"
                command = "tag_setlayout"
                arg = "+1"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "4"
                command = "tag_setlayout"
                arg = "+1"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "3"
                command = "tag_setlayout"
                arg = "-1"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "5"
                command = "tag_setlayout"
                arg = "-1"
            }
        }
        tasklist mytasklist
        {
            show_icons = false

            mouse
            {
                button = "4"
                command = "client_focusnext"
            }
            mouse
            {
                button = "5"
                command = "client_focusprev"
            }
            mouse
            {
                modkey = {"Mod4"}
                button = "4"
                command = "client_swapnext"
            }
            mouse
            {
                modkey = {"Mod4"}
                button = "5"
                command = "client_swapprev"
            }
        }
        iconbox logo
        {
           image = "/usr/share/awesome/icons/awesome16.png"
            mouse
            {
                button = "1"
                command = "spawn"
                arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator -e man awesome"
           }
        }
        textbox clock
        {
            text = "-"
            align = "right"
        }
     }
}

rules
{
    rule { name = "Gimp" float = true }
    rule { name = "MPlayer" float = true }
    rule { name = "Acroread" float = true }
    rule { name = "pinentry" float = true }
    rule { name = "gedit" float = true }
    rule { name = "pidgin" float = true }
}

mouse
{
    root
    {
        button = "3"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator"
    }
    root
    {
        button = "4"
        command = "tag_viewnext"
    }
    root
    {
        button = "5"
        command = "tag_viewprev"
    }
    client
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        button = "1"
        command = "client_movemouse"
    }
    client
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        button = "2"
        command = "client_zoom"
    }
    client
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        button = "3"
        command = "client_resizemouse"
    }
    titlebar
    {
        button = "1"
        command = "client_movemouse"
    }
    titlebar
    {
        button = "3"
        command = "client_resizemouse"
    }
}

keys
{
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "F1"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator -e man `for i in /usr/share/man/man?;do ls $i; done | cut -d. -f1 | awesome-menu 'See manual page for:'`"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "F2"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "exec find /usr/bin -type f -executable ! -empty | sed 's,.*/,,' | awesome-menu -e 'exec ' Execute:"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "F3"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator -e ssh `cut -d' ' -f1 ~/.ssh/known_hosts | cut -d, -f1 | awesome-menu 'ssh to:'`"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "Return"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "space"
        command = "tag_setlayout"
        arg = "+1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "space"
        command = "tag_setlayout"
        arg = "-1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "b"
        command = "statusbar_toggle"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "j"
        command = "client_focusnext"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "k"
        command = "client_focusprev"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "p"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "dmenu_path | awesome-menu -e 'exec ' Execute:"
    }
     key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "Tab"
        command = "focus_history"
        arg = "-1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "j"
        command = "client_swapnext"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "k"
        command = "client_swapprev"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "j"
        command = "screen_focus"
        arg = "+1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "k"
        command = "screen_focus"
        arg = "-1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "h"
        command = "tag_setmwfact"
        arg = "-0.05"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "l"
        command = "tag_setmwfact"
        arg = "+0.05"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "h"
        command = "tag_setnmaster"
        arg = "+1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "l"
        command = "tag_setnmaster"
        arg = "-1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "h"
        command = "tag_setncol"
        arg = "+1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "l"
        command = "tag_setncol"
        arg = "-1"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "Escape"
        command = "tag_prev_selected"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "Left"
        command = "tag_viewprev"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "Right"
        command = "tag_viewnext"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "m"
        command = "client_togglemax"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "Return"
        command = "client_zoom"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "space"
        command = "client_togglefloating"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        key = "s"
        command = "client_togglescratch"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "s"
        command = "client_setscratch"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "c"
        command = "client_kill"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "q"
        command = "quit"
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "r"
        command = "restart"
    }
    key  # dmenu launcher
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "p"
        command = "spawn"
        arg = "dmenu_path | awesome-menu -e 'exec ' Execute:"
    }
    key
    {
       modkey = {"Mod4"}
       key = "0"
       command = "tag_view"
    }
    keylist
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4"}
        command = "tag_view"
        keylist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
        arglist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
    }
    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        key = "0"
        command = "tag_toggleview"
    }
    keylist
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Control"}
        command = "tag_toggleview"
        keylist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
        arglist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
    }

    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        key = "0"
        command = "client_tag"
    }
    keylist
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift"}
        command = "client_tag"
        keylist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
        arglist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
    }

    key
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift", "Control"}
        key = "0"
        command = "client_toggletag"
    }
    keylist
    {
        modkey = {"Mod4", "Shift", "Control"}
        command = "client_toggletag"
        keylist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
        arglist = { 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 }
    }
   }
# vim: filetype=conf 

I may have left out something in this post. If there are any questions or you can't get something working, I'll try my best to answer. :)

[Behemoth]

Here is a screenshot of the above setup :

[Behemoth]

Some common Awesome commands:

(Mod key - 'Windows' key)

Mod+space = rotate open screen layout

Mod+h or l = scale focused window left or right, makes the window larger or smaller

Right-click on the empty screen to launch terminal

Mod + F1 = terminal

Mod + F2 = Awesome Menu

Mod + b = statusbar toggle

Mod + Ctrl + R = Reload Awesome

Mod + Shift + Q = Quit to login screen

Those listed above are the ones I use the most. More shortcuts can be found in the 'key' section of the .awesomerc file.

[Syanide]

Thanks for posting this (Y) As soon as I get some time I'll try it, I've never played with tiling wm's before.

[brentaal]

Awesome is an awesome window manager. Personally, I prefer dwm, though. (Y)

[bjoswald]

Love the background, but that's it. Sorry, looks a little too barebones for me! Thanks for the guide, though. A good learning experience!

[Behemoth]

Thanks for posting this (Y) As soon as I get some time I'll try it, I've never played with tiling wm's before.

No problem :). Ive been using Awesome off and on for a while - I seem to keep coming back to it. Hopefully my rudimentary guide will help out.

Awesome is an awesome window manager. Personally, I prefer dwm, though. (Y)

I like DWM as well. It is installed by default on #!, although I never could tweak it to my likings. I may give it another shot though - I have heard good things about it. Also Xmonad as well.

Love the background, but that's it. Sorry, looks a little too barebones for me! Thanks for the guide, though. A good learning experience!

I understand completely. I kept going more minimalistic in my DE/WMs, not sure you can go more minimalistic than this. ;)

[Charisma Veteran]

I like minimal. I'm thinking I'll try this soon.

One question. In Ubuntu, Openbox has a feature I really like--holding down superkey brings up a little toggle where you can press the arrow keys to go through your open windows. I like avoiding the mouse as much as possible. Does Awesome do this, or at least can it be made to do this?

[Behemoth]

I like minimal. I'm thinking I'll try this soon.

One question. In Ubuntu, Openbox has a feature I really like--holding down superkey brings up a little toggle where you can press the arrow keys to go through your open windows. I like avoiding the mouse as much as possible. Does Awesome do this, or at least can it be made to do this?

Mod+J will change focus to the open windows, one by one. Mod + arrow keys will rotate through the different desktops.

[Behemoth]

I found some help on the interwebs about a load average/clock script that will display in the statusbar. For those that are unsure how a load average works, from our friends at wikipedia:

For example, one can interpret a load average of "1.73 0.50 7.98" on a single-CPU system as:

* during the last minute, the CPU was overloaded by 73% (1 CPU with 1.73 runnable processes, so that 0.73 processes had to wait for a turn)

* during the last 5 minutes, the CPU was underloaded 50% (no processes had to wait for a turn)

* during the last 15 minutes, the CPU was overloaded 698% (1 CPU with 7.98 runnable processes, so that 6.98 processes had to wait for a turn)

Add the following to the bottom of the 'statusbar' section in the .awesomerc

textbox uptime
        {
                style
                {
                    font = "sans 7"
                    fg = "#ffffff"
                }
                text = " 0.00 0.00 0.00 |"
                align = right
                text_align = right
                width = 0
                mouse
                {
                    button = "1"
                    command = "spawn"
                    arg = "exec x-terminal-emulator -e htop"
                }
        }
        textbox clock
        {
                style
                {
                    font = "sans 7"
                }
                text = " Day Mon 00, 00:00 "
                align = right
                text_align = left
                width = 0
        }

This will display the load average, and add a clock to the right of it. (this also adds a button that will launch htop, the process manager, when clicking on the load average)

The script that will pipe the information is:

#!/bin/sh
#
while true
do
    if [ -S ~/.awesome_ctl.0 ]; then
        while true
        do
            echo "0 widget_tell mystatusbar clock text `date +\"%a %b %d, %k:%M\"` "
            echo "0 widget_tell mystatusbar uptime text `uptime | sed 's/.*://; s/,//g'` "
            echo "" # an empty line flushes data inside awesome
            sleep 10
        done | awesome-client
    else
        sleep 1
    fi
done

Save this as .awesomeclock.sh (or whatever) and save it in the .awesome directory. Make sure to make it executable by running

chmod +x .awesomeclock.sh

from the terminal in the .awesome directory.

or

user@host:~/.awesome$ chmod +x .awesomeclock.sh

and add the following line to the .Xsession file

sh /home/lance/.awesome/awesomeclock.sh &

This will give the following result:

Hope this works...

[Behemoth]

Since I have posted this hopefully helpful how-to, I have upgraded my Awesome setup from 2.3.4 to 3.4.1. This was a bigger chore than I had envisioned.

The config file itself went from an easy to understand text file to a config file driven by Lua. This brought some challenges, although the new config file allows for more customization and flexibility.

I had to use a user .ppa to upgrade the package itself, which once that was complete, my adventure began. After the installation was complete and I booted into my new Awesome setup, I had to start customizing. I found some very helpful tutorials on DesktopEvolution.org, posted by Darthlukan, which made the widget setup and statusbar customization fairly painless.

The .ppa is located here: http://ppa.launchpad.net/aguignard/ppa/ubuntu. Once enabled, update Synaptic and install Awesome 3.4.1.

To customize the statusbar to enable the cpu, mem, etc. widgets, follow the instructions laid out in Darthlukan's posts. He has made it very easy to follow. After all the widgets were installed and I almost achieved my customization goals, I still had one issue that bothered me. The open programs would display their icons in the status bar. I posed my question in several IRC and forum threads with no luck. I finally posted on Linuxquestions.org and was responded to by antegallya, which solved my issue. The following code had to be 'patched' into the /usr/share/awesom/lib/awful/widget/tasklist.lua file:

@@ -95,6 +95,10 @@
     local text = "<span font_desc='"..font.."'>"
     local name
     local status_image
+    local c_icon
+    if not args.hide_icon then
+        c_icon = c.icon
+    end
     if client.floating.get(c) and floating_icon then
         status_image = capi.image(floating_icon)
     end

@@ -120,7 +124,7 @@
         text = text .. name
     end
     text = text .. "</span>"
-    return text, bg, status_image, c.icon
+    return text, bg, status_image, c_icon
 end

To patch the file, add the code where there is a + symbol, and replace the code where the - symbol is.

For help, here is my .rc.lua, which was copied from /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua -

-- Standard awesome library
require("awful")
require("awful.autofocus")
require("awful.rules")
-- Theme handling library
require("beautiful")
-- Notification library
require("naughty")
-- Widget library
require("vicious")

-- Load Debian menu entries
require("debian.menu")

-- {{{ Variable definitions
-- Themes define colours, icons, and wallpapers
beautiful.init("/home/lance/.config/awesome/theme.lua")

-- This is used later as the default terminal and editor to run.
terminal = "terminator"
editor = os.getenv("EDITOR") or "editor"
editor_cmd = terminal .. " -e " .. editor

-- Default modkey.
-- Usually, Mod4 is the key with a logo between Control and Alt.
-- If you do not like this or do not have such a key,
-- I suggest you to remap Mod4 to another key using xmodmap or other tools.
-- However, you can use another modifier like Mod1, but it may interact with others.
modkey = "Mod4"

-- Table of layouts to cover with awful.layout.inc, order matters.
layouts =
{
    awful.layout.suit.tile,
    awful.layout.suit.tile.left,
    awful.layout.suit.tile.bottom,
    awful.layout.suit.tile.top,
    awful.layout.suit.fair,
    awful.layout.suit.fair.horizontal,
    awful.layout.suit.spiral,
    awful.layout.suit.spiral.dwindle,
    awful.layout.suit.max,
    awful.layout.suit.max.fullscreen,
    awful.layout.suit.magnifier,
    awful.layout.suit.floating
}
-- }}}

-- {{{ Tags
-- Define a tag table which hold all screen tags.
tags = {}
tagnames = { "fm", "net", "irc", "editor", "term" }
taglayouts = {
        awful.layout.suit.tile.left,
        awful.layout.suit.max,
        awful.layout.suit.max,
        awful.layout.suit.floating,
        awful.layout.suit.max }
for s = 1, screen.count() do
    -- Each screen has its own tag table.
    tags[s] = {}
    for tagnumber = 1, 5 do
        -- Add tags and name them.
        tags[s][tagnumber] = tag(tagnames[tagnumber])
        -- Add tags to screen one by one, giving them their layouts at the same time.
        tags[s][tagnumber].screen = s
        awful.layout.set(taglayouts[tagnumber], tags[s][tagnumber])
    end
    -- I'm sure you want to see at least one tag.
    tags[s][1].selected = true
end

-- }}}

-- {{{ Menu
-- Create a laucher widget and a main menu
myawesomemenu = {
   { "manual", terminal .. " -e man awesome" },
   { "edit config", editor_cmd .. " " .. awful.util.getdir("config") .. "/rc.lua" },
   { "restart", awesome.restart },
   { "quit", awesome.quit }
}

mymainmenu = awful.menu({ items = { { "awesome", myawesomemenu, beautiful.awesome_icon },
                                    { "Debian", debian.menu.Debian_menu.Debian },
                                    { "open terminal", terminal }
                                  }
                        })

mylauncher = awful.widget.launcher({ image = image(beautiful.awesome_icon),
                                     menu = mymainmenu })
-- }}}

--Separators
spacer    = widget({ type = "textbox"})
separator = widget({ type = "textbox"})
spacer.text     =" "
separator.text  ="."

-- {{{ Wibox

-- Create a cpuwidget (usage%)
cpuicon = widget({ type= "imagebox" })
cpuicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/cpu.png")
-- Initialize widget
cpuwidget = widget({ type = "textbox" })
-- Register widget
vicious.register(cpuwidget, vicious.widgets.cpu, "cpu-$1%", 2)

-- Create a memwidget (usage$ usedMB/TotalMB)
memicon = widget({ type =  "imagebox" })
memicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/mem.png")
-- Initialize widget
memwidget = widget({ type = "textbox" })
-- Register widget
vicious.register(memwidget, vicious.widgets.mem, "mem-$1% ($2MB/$3MB)", 13)

-- Create a batwidget (status chrg%)
baticon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
baticon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/bat.png")
-- Initialize widget
batwidget = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
-- Register widget
vicious.register(batwidget, vicious.widgets.bat, "$1$2%", 31, "BAT0")

-- Create a textclock widget
clockicon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
clockicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/time.png")
mytextclock = awful.widget.textclock({ align = "right" })

--Create a netwidget (usage)
dnicon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
upicon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
dnicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/down.png")
upicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/up.png")
-- Initialize widget
netwidget = widget({ type = "textbox" })
-- Register widget
vicious.register(netwidget, vicious.widgets.net, "up-${eth1 up_kb}kb/s / down-${eth1 down_kb}kb/s", 1)


-- Create a fswidget (usage)
fsicon = widget({ type = "imagebox" })
fsicon.image = image("/home/lance/.config/awesome/icons/disk.png")
-- Initialize widget
fswidget = widget({ type = "textbox" })
-- Register widget
vicious.register(fswidget, vicious.widgets.fs, "root- ${/ used_gb}gb / ${/ avail_gb}gb", 37)
-- Create a systray
--mysystray = widget({ type = "systray" })

-- Create a wibox for each screen and add it
mywibox = {}
mypromptbox = {}
mylayoutbox = {}
mytaglist = {}
mytaglist.buttons = awful.util.table.join(
                    awful.button({ }, 1, awful.tag.viewonly),
                    awful.button({ modkey }, 1, awful.client.movetotag),
                    awful.button({ }, 3, awful.tag.viewtoggle),
                    awful.button({ modkey }, 3, awful.client.toggletag),
                    awful.button({ }, 4, awful.tag.viewnext),
                    awful.button({ }, 5, awful.tag.viewprev)
                    )
mytasklist = {}
mytasklist.buttons = awful.util.table.join(
                     awful.button({ }, 1, function (c)
                                              if not c:isvisible() then
                                                  awful.tag.viewonly(c:tags()[1])
                                              end
                                              client.focus = c
                                              c:raise()
                                          end),
                     awful.button({ }, 3, function ()
                                              if instance then
                                                  instance:hide()
                                                  instance = nil
                                              else
                                                  instance = awful.menu.clients({ width=250 })
                                              end
                                          end),
                     awful.button({ }, 4, function ()
                                              awful.client.focus.byidx(1)
                                              if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
                                          end),
                     awful.button({ }, 5, function ()
                                              awful.client.focus.byidx(-1)
                                              if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
                                          end))

for s = 1, screen.count() do
    -- Create a promptbox for each screen
    mypromptbox[s] = awful.widget.prompt({ layout = awful.widget.layout.horizontal.leftright })
    -- Create an imagebox widget which will contains an icon indicating which layout we're using.
    -- We need one layoutbox per screen.
    mylayoutbox[s] = awful.widget.layoutbox(s)
    mylayoutbox[s]:buttons(awful.util.table.join(
                           awful.button({ }, 1, function () awful.layout.inc(layouts, 1) end),
                           awful.button({ }, 3, function () awful.layout.inc(layouts, -1) end),
                           awful.button({ }, 4, function () awful.layout.inc(layouts, 1) end),
                           awful.button({ }, 5, function () awful.layout.inc(layouts, -1) end)))
    -- Create a taglist widget
    mytaglist[s] = awful.widget.taglist(s, awful.widget.taglist.label.all,mytaglist.buttons)

    -- Create a tasklist widget
    mytasklist[s] = awful.widget.tasklist(function(c)
                                              return awful.widget.tasklist.label.currenttags(c, s, { hide_icon = true })
                                          end, mytasklist.buttons)

    -- Create the wibox
    mywibox[s] = awful.wibox({ position = "top", height = "15", screen = s })
    -- Add widgets to the wibox - order matters
    mywibox[s].widgets = {
        {
            mylauncher,
            mytaglist[s],
            mypromptbox[s],
            layout = awful.widget.layout.horizontal.leftright
        },                                                                                                       
        mylayoutbox[s],
        mytextclock, spacer, clockicon,                 
        separator, spacer, cpuwidget, spacer, cpuicon, separator,
        spacer, memwidget, spacer, memicon, separator,
        spacer, netwidget, spacer, separator,
        spacer, fswidget, spacer, separator,
        s == 1 and mysystray or nil,
        mytasklist[s],
        layout = awful.widget.layout.horizontal.rightleft
    }
end
-- }}}

-- {{{ Mouse bindings
root.buttons(awful.util.table.join(
    awful.button({ }, 3, function () mymainmenu:toggle() end),
    awful.button({ }, 4, awful.tag.viewnext),
    awful.button({ }, 5, awful.tag.viewprev)
))
-- }}}

-- {{{ Key bindings
globalkeys = awful.util.table.join(
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "Left",   awful.tag.viewprev       ),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "Right",  awful.tag.viewnext       ),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "Escape", awful.tag.history.restore),

    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "j",
        function ()
            awful.client.focus.byidx( 1)
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "k",
        function ()
            awful.client.focus.byidx(-1)
            if client.focus then client.focus:raise() end
        end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "w", function () mymainmenu:show(true)        end),

    -- Layout manipulation
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "j", function () awful.client.swap.byidx(  1)    end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "k", function () awful.client.swap.byidx( -1)    end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "j", function () awful.screen.focus_relative( 1) end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "k", function () awful.screen.focus_relative(-1) end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "u", awful.client.urgent.jumpto),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "Tab",
        function ()
            awful.client.focus.history.previous()
            if client.focus then
                client.focus:raise()
            end
        end),

    -- Standard program
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "Return", function () awful.util.spawn(terminal) end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "r", awesome.restart),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "q", awesome.quit),

    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "l",     function () awful.tag.incmwfact( 0.05)    end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "h",     function () awful.tag.incmwfact(-0.05)    end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "h",     function () awful.tag.incnmaster( 1)      end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "l",     function () awful.tag.incnmaster(-1)      end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "h",     function () awful.tag.incncol( 1)         end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "l",     function () awful.tag.incncol(-1)         end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "space", function () awful.layout.inc(layouts,  1) end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "space", function () awful.layout.inc(layouts, -1) end),

    -- Prompt
    awful.key({ modkey },            "r",     function () mypromptbox[mouse.screen]:run() end),

    awful.key({ modkey }, "x",
              function ()
                  awful.prompt.run({ prompt = "Run Lua code: " },
                  mypromptbox[mouse.screen].widget,
                  awful.util.eval, nil,
                  awful.util.getdir("cache") .. "/history_eval")
              end)
)

clientkeys = awful.util.table.join(
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "f",      function (c) c.fullscreen = not c.fullscreen  end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "c",      function (c) c:kill()                         end),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "space",  awful.client.floating.toggle                     ),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "Return", function (c) c:swap(awful.client.getmaster()) end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "o",      awful.client.movetoscreen                        ),
    awful.key({ modkey, "Shift"   }, "r",      function (c) c:redraw()                       end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "n",      function (c) c.minimized = not c.minimized    end),
    awful.key({ modkey,           }, "m",
        function (c)
            c.maximized_horizontal = not c.maximized_horizontal
            c.maximized_vertical   = not c.maximized_vertical
        end)
)

-- Compute the maximum number of digit we need, limited to 9
keynumber = 0
for s = 1, screen.count() do
   keynumber = math.min(9, math.max(#tags[s], keynumber));
end

-- Bind all key numbers to tags.
-- Be careful: we use keycodes to make it works on any keyboard layout.
-- This should map on the top row of your keyboard, usually 1 to 9.
for i = 1, keynumber do
    globalkeys = awful.util.table.join(globalkeys,
        awful.key({ modkey }, "#" .. i + 9,
                  function ()
                        local screen = mouse.screen
                        if tags[screen][i] then
                            awful.tag.viewonly(tags[screen][i])
                        end
                  end),
        awful.key({ modkey, "Control" }, "#" .. i + 9,
                  function ()
                      local screen = mouse.screen
                      if tags[screen][i] then
                          awful.tag.viewtoggle(tags[screen][i])
                      end
                  end),
        awful.key({ modkey, "Shift" }, "#" .. i + 9,
                  function ()
                      if client.focus and tags[client.focus.screen][i] then
                          awful.client.movetotag(tags[client.focus.screen][i])
                      end
                  end),
        awful.key({ modkey, "Control", "Shift" }, "#" .. i + 9,
                  function ()
                      if client.focus and tags[client.focus.screen][i] then
                          awful.client.toggletag(tags[client.focus.screen][i])
                      end
                  end))
end

clientbuttons = awful.util.table.join(
    awful.button({ }, 1, function (c) client.focus = c; c:raise() end),
    awful.button({ modkey }, 1, awful.mouse.client.move),
    awful.button({ modkey }, 3, awful.mouse.client.resize))

-- Set keys
root.keys(globalkeys)
-- }}}

-- {{{ Rules
awful.rules.rules = {
    -- All clients will match this rule.
    { rule = { },
      properties = { border_width = beautiful.border_width,
                     border_color = beautiful.border_normal,
                     focus = true,
                     keys = clientkeys,
                     buttons = clientbuttons } },
    { rule = { class = "MPlayer" },
      properties = { floating = true } },
    { rule = { class = "pinentry" },
      properties = { floating = true } },
    { rule = { class = "gimp" },
      properties = { floating = true } },
    -- Set Firefox to always map on tags number 2 of screen 1.
    -- { rule = { class = "Firefox" },
    --   properties = { tag = tags[1][2] } },
}
-- }}}

-- {{{ Signals
-- Signal function to execute when a new client appears.
client.add_signal("manage", function (c, startup)
    -- Add a titlebar
    -- awful.titlebar.add(c, { modkey = modkey })

    -- Enable sloppy focus
    c:add_signal("mouse::enter", function(c)
        if awful.layout.get(c.screen) ~= awful.layout.suit.magnifier
            and awful.client.focus.filter(c) then
            client.focus = c
        end
    end)

    if not startup then
        -- Set the windows at the slave,
        -- i.e. put it at the end of others instead of setting it master.
        -- awful.client.setslave(c)

        -- Put windows in a smart way, only if they does not set an initial position.
        if not c.size_hints.user_position and not c.size_hints.program_position then
            awful.placement.no_overlap(c)
            awful.placement.no_offscreen(c)
        end
    end
end)

client.add_signal("focus", function(c) c.border_color = beautiful.border_focus end)
client.add_signal("unfocus", function(c) c.border_color = beautiful.border_normal end)
-- }}}

Hopefully, some will make the attempt to try a tiling WM, as I've never felt that I've had more control over my system. If there are any questions, feel free to post here again, and I will try to help to the best of my (limited) abilities.

BTW, here is a screenie of my statusbar with the widgets and icons disabled: