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Lately, I have taken the time to see how SwayWM/ Wayland might function for me (and you?). I began on a Debian based distro, specifically BearDog.  Now that I have managed to create a functioning reasonably ‘stable’ installation, I thought I’d provide the results and specifics of my discoveries.

As noted above, I believe my environment is now quite stable. I have been running SwayWM for over a month on both Debian (BearDog) and Arch (EndeavourOS). 

TL;DR: Based on my past experiences, I can confirm that SwayWM seems, based upon my usage, to run well on both Arch & Debian (Sid/ Unstable).

I have settled on Arch as my preferred platform, simply because I prefer running on a more reliable rolling release base.  Debian Sid has experienced some peculiar faults/errors over the last few weeks; although none seem linked/ related to  running SwayWM/ Wayland, they ‘got in my way’.  

For that reason,  EndeavourOS simply has functioned better for what I want and how I prefer to do ‘things’.

The following are my SwayWM & Wayland Notes

General:

Debian seems quite resource poor (almost impoverished) in the Wayland/ SwayWM ecosphere, although in recent months that appears to be on the mend (somewhat). The most resource rich distros include: Arch, Void, Gentoo, even ‘tiny’ Alpine seems to have more.  A corollary to this would suggest those distros might be good places to seek help, ideas, tools, etc.

In this tutorial, I will present some of the workarounds I have unearthed in order to over-come challenges and frustrations, I encountered. I think (hope?) I have kept track of the most important info and shared it here.

IMHO. It is “not super easy” but it IS possible to make Wayland/ SwayWM into a fully functional, rewarding computing environment. The environment I have, thus far created, I find enjoyable to use. Almost certainly Wayland is not as rich an environment as x-windows offers; but, it is fun, aesthetically pleasing and usable.

Here is a requisite screenshot. The image displays SwayWM, Wayland, Waybar, Conky (x2), Yad, Rofi all on Debian Sid/Trixie.

Other Wayland information resources:

• Arch Wiki (Wayland)
• Are we Wayland yet?
• Gentoo Wiki (Wayland)
• Status Bars | Hyprland Wiki
• Sway – ArchWiki
• Sway- Debian Wiki
• Guide to Set up Full Wayland with Arch Linux
• nwg-piotr/nwg-shell Wiki
• Alexays/Waybar: Highly customizable
• A curated list of Wayland code and resources.
• Utilities for handling monitors, resolutions, wallpapers and timed wallpapers
• Dynamic wallpapers with Sway
• SetWall
• List of software for Wayland – Gentoo Wiki
• Waybar Customization(s)
• yambar: Modular status panel for X11 and Wayland
• wl-delicolour-picker
• sway-screenshot

It all began on BearDog (Debian)

Be advised, I began by running SwayWM & Wayland on Debian Sid/Trixie. The reason for the Sid/Trixie choice is my preference for having and using current software. Tools such as SwayWM and Wayland are in active development; which means they change frequently. Should you elect a different platform, your mileage may vary…

Installing the basic Wayland/ SwayWM base is pretty straight forward. I followed the guidance on this page in the Debian wiki.  As for Arch, here is a link to Colin Woodbury’s tutorial which I used to help with my EndeavourOS install. 

FWIW. My i3wm setup was NOT in any way drop-in compatible with SwayWM. I run both regularly and they ‘are’ different.  Apparently, I have much too much going on in my i3wm install to make any port seemless.

Compatibility between my i3wm and SwayWMis all but non-existent.  I ultimately elected to find a clean SwayWM install and then tweak it to fit my needs. I elected to use the EndeavourOS Sway Community edition as my base. Thank you everyone at EndeavourOS!

My tweaked version, which is by now quite different from that on EOS, is that offered above.  (I’ll attempt to keep the dotfiles current.)

I have augmented what I learned on the above pages creating the following instruction document. Be advised this works for me, I can only hope it works for you, too. (See my warranty at the bottom of the page).  Here is a link to my  SwayWM-Wayland Dotfiles (I have successfully tested and use these dotfiles on my EndeavourOS base (Arch).)

The Journey

Below are the component parts I have tweaked, hacked, revised and bent to my preferred approach, such as my skills allow.  You may certainly use my code base or EndeavourOS’, which is available here and is minus my changes offered at the link above) or…

All of the folders, you wish to use, should be placed in your $Home/ directory. There are materials that will be placed in the following hidden directories:

• .config
• .conky
• .local (the full path will be .local/share/scripts)

Remember: my dotfiles will only work after you have installed SwayWM and Wayland on your system. AND, I apologize in advance for any materials I may have forgotten to put in here. Use our Contact Page to let me know if you need something I may have omitted.

SwayWM-Related Folders

These are most, if not all, of my ‘dotfiles’.

Keep in mind I will continually (assuming I remember) drop new versions of my ‘stuff’ here for you to use.  You should fully expect to modify and enhance what you find here, to suit your needs. This IS NOT a guaranteed clean install. (See my Warranty below)

Terminal Option(s)

I have elected to use foot as my primary Wayland/ SwayWM terminal. Why? Because, it is light, fast, and easy to tweak.  Sadly, it does not run on X11 (or I’d consider using it everywhere).

If you are seeking a terminal that is flexible & reasonably light to use on both X11 and Wayland, I recommend xfce4-terminal. It works amazingly well on both x11 and Wayland; plus, xfce4-terminal is able to support geometry and position settings.

However, you are, certainly, able to find other fancier, cooler, trendier terminals should you choose to do so.

Transition Challenges

Because of an over abundance of x-windows application experience, I have encountered awkward transitions to new methods of working. Think square peg, round hole. Here are a few examples where I am reluctant to perform back-flips in order to accomplish tasks.

Various items (software apps) that are not yet ready for Wayland (Root privs).

• First and foremost, be aware you need to install a polkit (such as lxpolkit-polkit) for the following fix(es) to work.
• In the Debian universe Synaptic is pretty important. Sadly, Synaptic is one of those problem children. If you wish to use it, Synaptic is best called via terminal for security reasons. The command line is “sudo -E synaptic”.
• Thunar Open as Root does not work in Wayland. If you wish to Open Thunar as Root via terminal. The command line is “sudo -E thunar”.
• The same applies to Nemo. Nemo Open as Root does not work. Open Nemo as Root via terminal. The command line is “sudo -E nemo”.
• The same applies to Gparted. Open Gparted as Root via terminal. The command line is “sudo -E gparted”.

Synaptic

I have been reliant on this Debian package management tool for more than 20 years… Debian, unlike ArchLinux, does not offer the wealth of package managers and approaches. Luckily, I dug up an approach to rescue & use synaptic. I know this weird hack has risks (the preferred approach involves using sudo -E, noted above) …

Here is another approach you may be able to live with (source: Reddit) 

My read (FWIW) is that the above approach is both more difficult and less reliable than simply opening an offending app via command line in terminal using sudo -E.

Xwayland

In an effort to get a “goodly number” of x-windows applications to run under Wayland, I installed Xwayland. It is not difficult. You simply install Xwayland in order to achieve a degree of  native x-window (x11) application compatibility.

CAVEAT: It is always better to use a native Wayland application, if you can find one. Xwayland (and QTwayland for that matter) are simply temporary solutions.

QTwayland

The same situation exists, and can be similarly addressed, for qt applications. (Here is the reference for the following solution.)  The major installation process follows:

• sudo apt install qtbase5-dev
• git clone git://code.qt.io/qt/qtwayland.git
• cd qtwayland
• git checkout v5.10.0
• qmake
• make
• make install

Random Wallpaper Background

The simplest, closest to ‘nitrogen approach’ I prefer to use in X11, involves installing ‘setwall’. Because setwall is written using rust, you can install it using ‘cargo’. I will try using it (it should work well) on my x11 window manager setups.

Wofi/Rofi

If you are running on Wayland only, wofi appears to be an excellent tool to use.  Unlike SwayWM with i3wm, wofi appears to be compatible with the rofi setups and scripts I use.  However if you run both X11 and Wayland based window managers (like I do), I recommend sticking with Rofi (after you install Xwayland).  It works well, then, in both environments.

Taking Screenshots

In order to take desktop screenshots, I found the following installations were required:

• install grim (using apt/nala).
• install grimshot (using apt/nala)

I am considering adding a new (to me), hopefully more approachable screenshot toolset to SwayWM:

• sway-screenshot

My initial read is that sway-screenshot adds a few nice features. But, grim by itself is silent, fast and generates a simple screenshot (entire window), just fine.  Obviously the choice is yours.

Conky

As a huge fan (user) of Conky, I am very pleased to have obtained a guide on how-to install and make Conky run on Wayland. This guidance may be found on the Lilidog Forums from @unklar. I should add that getting Conky to reliably run on both Arch & Debian base distros, required I clean up my conky scripts (massively). A warning to the wise, “Conky will NOT suffer messy code on Wayland. “

Additional ‘frustrations’

There are a few pieces of missing system functionality that irk me.  I know I should be able to survive without these things. I simply do not ‘prefer’ to run minus these functions, every day. Oh well…

• root level access at the GUI level. This impacts several critical applications including Thunar, Gparted, Synaptic, among others I am certain.

Should you find or know of good ways to address the issues I have noted, please use our contact page to let me know.

Have fun with SwayWM and Wayland. If you have additional tips and pointers you believe I should publish here, be sure to let me know.

Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):

• It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
• When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
• If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
• My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!

Because not everything can be found in every distribution, I have included pointers where I found some I wanted/ needed, including:

• asciiaquarium (install instructions) I used the manual build method help on this page.
• Art Time (very robust and ‘feature full’)

As for terminal status information, I tend to use two tools:

• pfetch (minimalist)
• neofetch (more robust)

Feel free to contribute other such useless software that you enjoy….

Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):

• It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
• When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
• If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
• My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!

I just wish it were perfect, but remember: “better is never to be confused with good….” 

Here’s the link…

• Yuck! they are ugly.
• Neither uses ctrl-shift-c (cut) & ctrl-shift-v (paste).
• Text spacing within the terminal frame is too squished on the edge.
• The basic terminal window size  is unbelievably tiny and unusable on a modern screen.
• The base fonts and bible print size (tinyyyy) and grainy.
• Both lack transparency.  xterm is not really easily fixable with respect to transparency, but URxvt is fixable (see below code snippet).

Here is a scrot of my terminals (xcompmgr is running for URxvt transparency).

FWIW: I tend to use xterm these days, I don’t run a compositor. I find screens are easier on my old eyes without transparency.

What follows are the way(s) I fix them.  All the ‘fixes’ are contained within my .Xresources file. There are no code patches, such as are required for st (suckless terminal). Simply add the below “snippet” to your .Xresources file in $Home, Logout & Login. If you have installed:

• a compositor like xcompgr or picom/compton (If not, you will need one to run in order to get transparency on URxvt.)
• xterm and/or URxvt and things should work.

Below is my code snippet (Note: the colors I use are from the Nordic Theme; replace them with your favorite color scheme.)

! Nordic Color scheme
#define nord0 #2E3440
#define nord1 #3B4252
#define nord2 #434C5E
#define nord3 #4C566A
#define nord4 #D8DEE9
#define nord5 #E5E9F0
#define nord6 #ECEFF4
#define nord7 #8FBCBB
#define nord8 #88C0D0
#define nord9 #81A1C1
#define nord10 #5E81AC
#define nord11 #BF616A
#define nord12 #D08770
#define nord13 #EBCB8B
#define nord14 #A3BE8C
#define nord15 #B48EAD

*.foreground:   nord4
*.background:   nord0
*.cursorColor:  nord4
*fading: 35
*fadeColor: nord3

*.color0: nord1
*.color1: nord11
*.color2: nord14
*.color3: nord13
*.color4: nord9
*.color5: nord15
*.color6: nord8
*.color7: nord5
*.color8: nord3
*.color9: nord11
*.color10: nord14
*.color11: nord13
*.color12: nord9
*.color13: nord15
*.color14: nord7
*.color15: nord6

! URxvt Settings
URxvt.font:     xft:DejaVu Sans Mono:size=11.5:antialias=true
URxvt.boldFont: xft:DejaVu Sans Mono:bold:size=11.5:antialias=true
urxvt*scrollBar:                  false
urxvt*mouseWheelScrollPage:       true
urxvt*cursorBlink:                true
urxvt*saveLines:                  5000
urxvt*internalBorder: 15
urxvt*geometry: 90x32
! Setting transparency and background                                                                                                                                       
 URxvt*depth:      32                                                                                                                                                        
 URxvt.background: [85]#1A1C1E   

! Normal copy-paste keybindings  ( ctrl-shift c/v )
urxvt.iso14755:                   false
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-V:     eval:paste_clipboard
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-C:     eval:selection_to_clipboard
!xterm escape codes, word by word movement
urxvt.keysym.Control-Left:        \033[1;5D
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-Left:  \033[1;6D
urxvt.keysym.Control-Right:       \033[1;5C
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-Right: \033[1;6C
urxvt.keysym.Control-Up:          \033[1;5A
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-Up:    \033[1;6A
urxvt.keysym.Control-Down:        \033[1;5B
urxvt.keysym.Shift-Control-Down:  \033[1;6B

! Xterm Settings
xterm*font:     xft:DejaVu Sans Mono:size=11.5:antialias=true
xterm*geometry: 90x32
xterm*mouseWheelScrollPage:       true
xterm*cursorBlink:                true
xterm*saveLines:                  5000
xterm*internalBorder: 15
! Normal cut & paste key conventions ( ctrl-shift c/v )
XTerm*selectToClipboard:          true
XTerm*VT100.Translations: #override \
      Shift Ctrl<Key>C: copy-selection(CLIPBOARD) \n\
      Shift Ctrl<Key>V: insert-selection(CLIPBOARD) \n\ 
      Shift Ctrl<Key>V: insert-selection(PRIMARY) \n\ 
      Shift<Btn1Down>: select-start() \n\ 
      Shift<Btn1Motion>: select-extend() \n\ 
      Shift<Btn1Up>: select-end(CLIPBOARD) \n\

Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):

• It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
• When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
• If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
• My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!

After long time use (more than a year on each) I felt the need to cleanup and simplify my desktop installs. All part of my trying to keep things simple and easy to use.

It is worth noting that I run both window managers (wms) in the same user space on the same device. All keybindings are shared between my wms via a single sxhkd config file.

The cleanup and simplification tasks I have implemented include:

• removal of my systrays (system notification trays) both on i3 and dwm. I want to see if I can live without a systray; just as I have trained myself to unlearn the need for desktop icons.
• creation of “elegant?” wm bars. I want my wm bars not only to look good but be informative, as well. To accomplish this, I have built unique setups for both dwm and i3.
  1. I use slstatus on dwm (keeping dwm as simple as possible).

     

     The slstatus bar setup/ layout is contained in config.h of slstatus. My config.h is available for download here. I assume you know how-to use it…

  2. I chose to use conkybar on i3 (because I like how it looks). When I use i3bar it really ends up looking pretty much the same as slstatus; and who wants that?!?!?

     

     conkybar is invoked using the following command in my i3 conf file:
     status_command ~/.config/i3/conkybar.sh
     My conkybar script is available here.

• I removed picom/ compton because xcompmgr does the trick for me. FWIW, here is the xcompgr setting I use.  I run it from .xprofile.
  # compositor
xcompmgr -CnfF -I-.015 -O-.03 -D6 -t-1 -l-3 -r4.2 -o.5 &
• I installed and setup a few light-weight keyboard accessible functions to replace the removed “tray items” and their supported function(s):
  • nmtui: Because I lost access to the systray networking icon (nm-applet), I created a new method of access to the networking/ wifi function by installing nmtui (via pacman) and created a keybinding to invoke nmtui, as needed. I have also included this in my system maintenance yad popup. Just in case you have no idea what nmtui looks like, here’s a screenshot:

    

  • brightness-controller featuring the following:
    • Brightness Control
    • Saving color profile
    • Loading color profile
      Yet another stellar screenshot for inquiring minds to peruse. This function is also available via my system maintenance yad popup.

      

  • topgrade: to quote from their github site:

    • Keeping your system up to date mostly involves invoking more than a single package manager. This usually results in big shell one-liners saved in your shell history. Topgrade tries to solve this problem by detecting which tools you use and run their appropriate package managers.

  • lxtask: I simply installed the application (lxtask) and made it available via my system maintenance yad popup (also via a keybind). Lxtask allows me to see all active processes (and kill/stop those I don’t want running.)
  • pavucontrol:  Just a simple install; you can review how I have included it in my little yad script (available in this article).
  • The above functions (as well as several others) are made available on both dwm & i3 for simple access & use via a yad script.

    

    The Yad system maintenance tools script is available for download.

    Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):

    • It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
    • When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
    • If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
    • My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!

I have begun a project to create a single user environment that offers 4 desktop options, 2 beyond the current xfce4 & fluxbox (FB) offered by MX19.1. This environment is an extension of my work on creating a bspwm desktop. Most of what I learned in that ‘adventure’ is expanded upon here.

Note: the opinions contained in this posting , both positive & negative, are mine. You may hold other opinions, If you do, I may still like you. I do not have to be right… even though I may be.

By way of full disclosure I have to offer the following “insights”:

1. I am a huge bspwm fan. It is by far my favorite window manager (desktop). It is included in the setup I am creating.
2. I, also, am fond of both OpenBox (OB) and xfce4.14.
3. I am not a fan of FB for a few reasons including:
   1. fluxbox (FB) does NOT support the ewmh standard, which means numerous non-native FB tools don’t work well or at all in FB.
   2. polybar my ‘goto panel for most desktops is among those. This problem was caused by me forgetting to do something; a stupid user problem (me). Here’s an image to prove polybar works.

      

4. xfce4 also has a panel problem/issue; it wants the xfce-panel to run. So, I will use it. I suppose I’m willing to modify the xfce-panel because I’m used to it and can bend it to my will.
5. I personally do not like the fluxbox (FB) toolbar and will see if I can either bend it to my will or find an alternative that will work. Found that I was able to fix my polybar dilemma.
   

What I will build are desktops that offer similar functionality, as well as look and feel. My plan is to disclose the base performance numbers of my desktops and update the numbers as they evolve. I will attempt to tweak the desktop(s) performance within the boundaries of my usage desires and technical capabilities (limited as they are). In truth, I am undertaking this journey for the following reasons:

1. a small group of young people, on Reddit, asked me to create a working bspwm desktop for them. (My altruistic reason)
2. I want to see which of these toolsets are truly better for my use. (One of my selfish reasons.)
3. I will define the differing facets of each environment, as I notice/ note them.

For starters here are the particulars on my hardware setup:

$ inxi -F
System:
Host: mx Kernel: 5.4.0-3-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 Desktop: Fluxbox 1.3.5
Distro: MX-19.1_ahs_x64 patito feo February 15 2019
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: Dell product: Latitude E5470 v: N/A
serial:
Mobo: Dell model: N/A serial: UEFI: Dell v: 1.21.6
date: 10/02/2019
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 43.4 Wh condition: 43.4/62.0 Wh (70%)
CPU:
Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i5-6300U bits: 64 type: MT MCP
L2 cache: 3072 KiB
Speed: 500 MHz min/max: 400/3000 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 500 2: 501
3: 500 4: 500
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 520 driver: i915 v: kernel
Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.4 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa
resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz
OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 520 (Skylake GT2)
v: 4.6 Mesa 19.3.3
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.4.0-3-amd64
Network:
Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-LM driver: e1000e
IF: eth0 state: down mac: 84:7b:eb:44:da:5d
Device-2: Qualcomm Atheros QCA6174 802.11ac Wireless Network Adapter
driver: ath10k_pci
IF: wlan0 state: up mac: 68:14:01:57:3d:df
Device-3: Qualcomm Atheros type: USB driver: btusb
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 978.09 GiB used: 8.08 GiB (0.8%)
ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Crucial model: CT1050MX300SSD4 size: 978.09 GiB
RAID:
Hardware-1: Intel 82801 Mobile SATA Controller [RAID mode] driver: ahci
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 50.35 GiB used: 8.08 GiB (16.0%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda4
ID-2: swap-1 size: 25.72 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda3
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 45.0 C mobo: N/A
Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0
Info:
Processes: 191 Uptime: 1h 57m Memory: 23.45 GiB used: 642.0 MiB (2.7%)
Shell: bash inxi: 3.0.36


On initial setup, the baseline numbers I show on my desktops for these 4 desktops are:

• Openbox (OB)- 440 MB RAM
• bspwm – 443 MB RAM
• xfce4.14 – 740 MB RAM
• fluxbox (FB) – 565 MB RAM

This is where we start.  The journey will include screenshots, scripts, and links to all relevant dotfiles on my gitlab & github accounts. My objective is to, also, create a shareable version of MX19.1 that users may download and use. I will share much of what I learn along the way.

The reason I am using MX Linux for this exercise is because MX is an excellent distro and very easy to use for creating distributive snapshots.  [controversial statement] However, I must say that for my personal use of bspwm, I prefer manjaro.  bspwm just runs better on an arch base. And if they ever create a toolset like MX snapshot, I could do all of this on that platform. I’m just not up for learning how-to manually create iso images of my desktop. [/controversial statement]

I am not creating this as a supported, professional respin; if you use what I create you are on your own. Although you may pose questions, offer help, etc. Consider this a shared mental exercise or proof of concept; one I am willing to share.

Sorry, but I’m not up for being or becoming a respin or distro author.

The other articles in this series:

• A Quad (4) Desktop Adventure #2

Remember, like with all of my work, I am able to provide the following assurance(s):

• It is almost certainly going to work until it breaks; although I have to admit it may never work and that would be sad.
• When/if it does break, you may keep all of the pieces.
• If you find my materials helpful, both you & I will be happy, at least for a little while.
• My advice is worth every penny you paid for it!

If so, you might find tdrop of interest. It is extensively tested and works on almost any DE or wm.

You may access it here:
https://github.com/noctuid/tdrop

I installed via the “git/sudo make install” route on MX18 (Debian). It works wonderfully.

Here are my keybindings (in bspwm located in sxhkdrc):

# drop-down terminal (tdrop)
alt + d
tdrop -ma -w 1024 -y "$PANEL_HEIGHT" --wm bspwm -s dropdown sakura

To install cli-visualizer on Debian

To make certain you have all dependencies run the following install:

• sudo apt-get install libfftw3-dev libasound2-dev libncursesw5-dev libpulse-dev libtool
• git clone https://github.com/dpayne/cli-visualizer.gitcd cli-visualizer
• cd cli-visualizer
• ./install.sh

Pulse Audio Setup (Easy)

Pulse audio should be the easiest to setup out of all the options. In order for this to work pulseaudio must be installed and vis must be built with pulseaudio enabled. To build with pulseaudio support run:

make ENABLE_PULSE=1

To enable pulse audio in the vis config set audio sources to pulse with

audio.sources=pulse

If this does not work, then vis has most likely not guessed the correct sink to use. Try switching the pulseaudio source vis uses. A list can be found by running the command
pacmd list-sinks | grep -e 'name:' -e 'index'.

The correct pulseaudio source can then be set with
audio.pulse.source=0

To use it… turn on your music, open a terminal and enter:

• vis

https://github.com/dpayne/cli-visualizer

Open a terminal window and enter the following in sequence…

sudo apt-get purge locales

sudo aptitude install locales

and finally the infamous:

sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales

This should allow you to set things up correctly once again, or perhap for the first time.

This tip was modified from the original on Serverfault

If you are like me and prefer the username to be available in a drop-down on lightdm Here’s what you need to do to allow a username drop-down to appear:

$ cat /usr/share/lightdm/lightdm.conf.d/02_my_user.conf
# Debian specific defaults
#
# - use lightdm-greeter session greeter, points to the etc-alternatives managed
# greeter
# - hide users list by default, we don't want to expose them
# - use Debian specific session wrapper, to gain support for
# /etc/X11/Xsession.d scripts

[Seat:*]
greeter-session=lightdm-greeter

#greeter-hide-users=true
greeter-hide-users=false

session-wrapper=/etc/X11/Xsession

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