In this guide I explain how you can build your own fully customizable environment from scratch, so you can give 100% at work or in your studies. Heads up! This guide is meant for Debian-based distributions, although it can be done on others too, but the commands will change

Examples of environments I’ve made:

Example 1

Example 2

Bspwm

What is it?

Bspwm is a tiling window manager, which works really well for writing and programming. However, if you need to do tasks that require a different desktop environment, you can switch from the login menu.

How do I install it?

sudo apt install bspwm

Configuration

The bspwm config file has to be moved to ~/.config/bspwm/bspwmrc

Default bspwmrc:

#! /bin/sh

pgrep -x sxhkd > /dev/null || sxhkd &

bspc monitor -d I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X

bspc config border_width         2
bspc config window_gap          12

bspc config split_ratio          0.52
bspc config borderless_monocle   true
bspc config gapless_monocle      true

bspc rule -a Gimp desktop='^8' state=floating follow=on
bspc rule -a Chromium desktop='^2'
bspc rule -a mplayer2 state=floating
bspc rule -a Kupfer.py focus=on
bspc rule -a Screenkey manage=off

There you can customize the number of workspaces you want, add programs that run when bspwm starts, configure borders, etc…

Polybar

What is it?

Polybar is a tool for creating status bars. It is fully customizable; its only two limitations are that you can’t place it on the right or left side, and you can’t add images.

How do I install it?

sudo apt install polybar

Configuration

Polybar is split into different modules, such as the date module, the Wi-Fi module, etc. You can use the ones from the themes, add extra modules, or create them all from scratch

Themes

There are lots of ready-made themes for polybar, for example

github.com/adi1090x/polybar-themes

If you like them or use them, don’t forget to support the creator by giving them a star on GitHub

How to install the themes:

adi1090x

#Clonar el Repositorio
git clone https://github.com/adi1090x/polybar-themes
#Y entrar en la carpeta, dar permisos de ejecución al setup.sh y ejecutarlo.
cd polybar-themes
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

My theme

#Clonar el repositorio
git clone https://github.com/d3b0o/dotfiles
#Crear la carpeta de configuraciones de la polybar y mover la configuración ahí.
cd dotfiles
mv polybar ~/.config/polybar

Now you have all the themes installed in ~/.config/polybar/.

What does each file do?

Each theme has the following files (some themes have other files, but in the end they all have the same)

Modules

Module configuration

Main module settings

How to create a module?

Template for a script module

[module/]
type = custom/script
interval = 
exec = 

In exec you put the script whose output you want to show in the polybar

Template for a text module

[module/]
type = custom/text
content = 

In content goes the text you want to show in the polybar

In modules you can make something run when clicked…

sxhkd

What is it?

sxhkd is a simple hotkey daemon usable within bspwm, needed to communicate with bspwm and launch the applications of your choice.

How do I install it?

git clone https://github.com/baskerville/sxhkd.git
cd sxhkd
make

Configuration

For the configuration you need the following file at ~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc

https://github.com/baskerville/bspwm/blob/master/examples/sxhkdrc

How to add custom commands?

At the bottom of the config file (~/.config/sxhkd/sxhkdrc)

#combinación de teclas
    #que ejecutara

#Ejemplo
super + shift + g
    google-chrome

Picom

What is it?

Picom is what’s known as a compositor for Xorg. It is a fork of compton, which in turn is a fork of other compositors. This compositor lets you use shadows, transparency, rounded corners, etc…

How do I install it?

#dependencias
sudo apt install libxext-dev libxcb1-dev libxcb-damage0-dev libxcb-xfixes0-dev libxcb-shape0-dev libxcb-render-util0-dev libxcb-render0-dev libxcb-randr0-dev libxcb-composite0-dev libxcb-image0-dev libxcb-present-dev libxcb-xinerama0-dev libxcb-glx0-dev libpixman-1-dev libdbus-1-dev libconfig-dev libgl-dev libegl-dev libpcre2-dev libevdev-dev uthash-dev libev-dev libx11-xcb-dev meson

git clone https://github.com/ibhagwan/picom.git
cd picom
git submodule update --init --recursive
meson --buildtype=release . build
ninja -C build
sudo ninja -C build install

Configuration

The picom config file is at ~/.config/picom/picom.conf, where you can change the borders, shadows, transparency, etc…

This is what picom.conf contains

https://gist.github.com/scheckley/b91d7b50c7f372ba7107baf01127da3a

Rofi

What is it?

Rofi started as a clone of simpleswitcher, written by Sean Pringle, a popup window switcher roughly based on superswitcher. Simpleswitcher laid the foundation, and therefore Sean Pringle deserves most of the credit for this tool. Rofi (renamed, as it lost the simple property) has been extended with extra features, like an application launcher and an ssh launcher, and can act as a drop-in replacement for dmenu, making it a very versatile tool.

Rofi, like dmenu, will provide the user with a textual list of options where one or more can be selected. This can be running an application, selecting a window, or options provided by an external script.

How do I install it?

sudo apt install rofi

Configuration

Themes

Just like polybar, there are lots of ready-made themes, for example:

github.com/adi1090x/rofi

If you use or like the themes, don’t forget to give them a star on GitHub

Installing the theme is simply:

git clone 2--depth=1 https://github.com/adi1090x/rofi.git
cd rofi
chmod +x setup.sh
./setup.sh

Theme configuration

All the themes are in ~/.config/rofi

The themes’ GitHub has pictures of all of them, so you can pick the one you like most

To open rofi, you just have to run the .sh file in the themes folder