FAQ

Which operating systems does wmii run on?

wmii is compatible with POSIX-compliant operating systems, including:

  • Linux
  • *BSD
  • Mac OS X
  • Solaris
  • cygwin (reported, not confirmed)

Which external libraries are needed?

  • libc is the base userland library for all programs written in C, and is thus installed on all systems.
  • Xlib is the base of the X Window System, thus it is installed on systems with X11 support. A separate development package might have to be installed for compiling, such as libx11-dev Debian-based systems.
  • libixp is a stand-alone client/server 9P library

Further dependencies are:

  • xmessage - A standard part of most X11 installations.
  • dmenu - A simple menu program.

I've just installed the new snapshot but something doesn't work.

Remove all old configuration files and install again.

OMG, how come there's a massive border at the bottom of my terminal!?

Your terminal has asked to only be resized in certain increments, and there's not enough space for another row. wmii is forced to compromise and leave blank space around it.

On FreeBSD, using p9p, I get an error on the console about not being able to open /dev/fd/7.

You need to mount fdescfs on /dev/fd. See the BUGS section of rc(1) for details.

How do I get a list of the key bindings that are currently in use?

The best place to look is the rc.wmii or wmiirc file. You can check which one is being used via ps aux | grep wmii | grep rc while wmii is running. You can also check wmii(1) for a table of default key bindings.

How do I move a window to a different view?

Just retag it. Tag it a+b to let it show up on both views, a and b. Or, you can tag with +b to make the window appear on the b view without removing it from existing views.

How do I enable tabbing?

Tabbing has been replaced with stacking. Press $MODKEY-s to set a column to stacking.

How do I get information about a specific client window?

In general, that's the job of X applications like xprop, xwininfo, and click. wmii, however, does provide the class and instance names of clients in their props file:

% wmiir read /client/sel/prop
XTerm:xterm:/home/kris/wmii/-kris

You can obtain size information about a client by reading the index file of a given view.

% wmiir read /tag/sel/index

How do I set a background image?

Use third party tools like wmsetbg (from WindowMaker), qiv, feh, xv, xloadimage, bsetbg (from blackbox), etc. If the used program is not capable to set the _XROOTPMAP_ID property hint, then the background has to be set before wmii is executed. Else you can put the command after the xsetroot call in the wmiirc file.

How do I define clients to be floating and having a certain tag?

You simply write a rule into your /tagrules file:

/Psi.*/ -> ~+psi

Why doesn't UTF-8 work?

Set a Unicode(ISO-10646)-capable font in your wmiirc, by changing WMII_FONT to something like

-*-courier-*-r-*-*-12-*-*-*-*-*-iso10646-*

How do I enable sequential shortcuts (like in ratpoison)? or

How to combine wmii with (x)emacs? The shortcuts collide!

Some applications make extensive use of the Alt key. The preferred solution is to use the Windows, Apple, or Penguin key in its place. It's assigned the identifier Mod4 on most systems. Set the following in rc.wmii.local or wmiirc:

MODKEY=Mod4

Alternatively, you can use key chains, so you're required to press a certain key combination before wmii accepts its shortcuts:

MODKEY=Control-i,

With xev and xmodmap, it is possible to find other suitable keybindings.

How do I resize and move windows with the mouse?

$MODKEY+LeftMouse moves a window.
$MODKEY+RightMouse resizes a window.

I just installed wmii and MOD+a/p don't work.

These shortcuts rely on dmenu and dmenu's command line options have recently changed. Until the rc files or dmenu is updated, you'll have to adjust the dmenu command line in your rc files manually.