thank you for this excellent post. it was so helpful. i never
would have gotten off the ground without someone like you giving me
the kick-start.

i am following you along, 2.5 years later, on an ubuntu 64bit v11.10 machine.

some notes:

- in my .xmobarrc, i would get an error and it wouldn’t start until i added the lowerOnStart config like so:
…
, position = TopW L 85
, lowerOnStart = False
…

- i changed my /usr/local/bin/xmonad.start setup a little bit. i
removed a lot of stuff and it took me all day to figure out what was
optional (basically, everything) and what i really needed. like
Oli M, i had to put an ampersand (&) after nm-applet (and almost all
processes being started up). and since i could not find a
“gnome-power-manager” for ubuntu 11.10, i just left that out. here
it is:

========================================================================
#!/bin/bash

# /usr/local/bin/xmonad.start

# all commands are optional except the last (for executing xmonad).

# notice most commands are put into background (&) so as not to lock up
# xmonad startup

# merge any X-windowc settings. (i commented out because I do not have
# this file currently)
# xrdb -merge .Xresources

# non-gnome system tray (lighter)
trayer –edge top –align right –SetDockType true –SetPartialStrut true –expand true –width 15 –height 12 –transparent true –tint 0×000000 &

# syndaemon – a program that monitors keyboard activity and disables the
# touchpad when the keyboard is being used.
# ubuntu package: syndaemon
syndaemon -d -t

# i just changed the background to a solid grey
xsetroot -solid “#636161″ # Darker gray.

# network manager applet – because i am mobile and like the wifi
# and network status controls
nm-applet –sm-disable &

# my dropbox daemon
~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox start -i &

# printer applet (usually invisible) when i print
sh -c “sleep 31 && system-config-printer-applet > /dev/null 2> /dev/null” &

# notify when ubuntu package updates are available
update-notifier –startup-delay=60 &

# start xmonad
# REQUIRED
exec xmonad
========================================================================

- i didn’t want the windows key to be my “Mod” key. so for others coming to this page, i did this by
removing the following line in ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs:
, modMask = mod4Mask — Rebind Mod to the Windows key
and, after testing it with ghci as you mentioned earlier,
$ ghci ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs
i recompiled:
$ xmonad –recompile
and started a new session (exited with mod-shift-q and signed back in)

- of course, to get trayer and xmobar for ubuntu, one only has to add
them to the list of packages. i did not add feh, and also dwm -tools
(for the dmenu when one hits mod-P in xmonad environment) is no
longer dwm-tools, but suckless-tools. so the command would be:

$ sudo apt-get install xmonad libghc6-xmonad-contrib-dev libghc6-xmonad-dev suckless-tools trayer xmonad

QUESTIONS:

- what do you do for gnome-power-manager in ubuntu 11.10?

- in a gnome-based window manager, it is easy to reconfigure the power
button to be a “sleep” or “hibernate” button, instead. how can this
be done in xmonad without bringing in all the heavy baggage of
gnome?

thanks again, arjuna.
jeff

Just to let you know, I had trouble with your .xmobarrc and your xmonad.start, but I figured it out with some tinkering.

For .xmobarrc, I just modified the .xmobarrc-example in my docs. Perhaps I’m using a different version of xmobar? (0.9.2)
For xmonad.start I had to append an & to gnome-power-manager and the nm-applet lines.

Not completely sure why I had to do those things, but everything works find now.

$ cat /usr/share/applications/xmonad.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Xmonad
Exec=xmonad
NoDisplay=true
X-GNOME-WMName=Xmonad
X-GNOME-Autostart-Phase=WindowManager
X-GNOME-Provides=windowmanager
X-GNOME-Autostart-Notify=false

You can get it here:

http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/pool/universe/t/trayer/trayer_1.0-2_amd64.deb

For Ubuntu users, when you click on the link it should open in gdebi.

After reading your instructions, I decided to integrate xmonad more fully into my normal Ubuntu environment. Hence, I wrote my own instructions here: http://jjinux.blogspot.com/2009/11/linux-my-xmonad-setup.html. I referenced your instructions in my blog post.

Thanks again!

Molto grazie

Now I’m wrestling with how to use trayer. I think I have it docked on the bottom, but I have no idea what it’s doing for me.