XMonad Setup

Install XMonad, XMobar, dmenu and trayer on your system. There are alternatives to some of these, but I’ve found each of them to be lightweight & stable.

Get the following files from my dotfiles repository and put them inside ~/.xmonad.

• xmonad.hs, this contains settings specific to XMonad tiling, and launches XMobar.
• xmobar.rc, this contains the layout for XMobar (Note: the syntax for this file doesn’t allow comments, so check the official FAQ for configuration details).
• xmonad-init, this will be executed on startup of XMonad, and can contain any auxilary programs you want to run, especially trayer. It must contain the line exec xmonad. It also needs to be executable (chmod +x xmonad-init).

Finally, find the file /usr/share/xsessions/xmonad.desktop. The line beginning with Exec must be

Exec=/path/to/xmonad-init

Now, when logging in, choose the xmonad option.

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