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Hyprland: getting started (part 2)

 1 year ago
source link: https://www.lorenzobettini.it/2023/07/hyprland-getting-started-part-2/
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This is the second blog post on getting started with Hyprland (see the first post here).

In this article, we install and configure a few other tools. We will also look at the customization of keyboard shortcuts.

Other tools

As noted here https://wiki.hyprland.org/Useful-Utilities/Must-have/, you need an Authentication Agent:

Authentication agents are the things that pop up a window asking you for a password whenever an app wants to elevate its privileges.

Let’s install the suggested one:

sudo pacman -S polkit-kde-agent

And then we start it in the Hyprland configuration file with the “exec-once” directive:

exec-once = /usr/lib/polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1

Let’s restart Hyprland (such a change in the configuration file needs a restart), e.g., with the default shortcut SUPER + M, we exit Hyprland, and then we can log back in. When a program needs to elevate its privileges, we get the KDE dialog. For example, if we use the EndeavourOS Welcome App to update the mirrors, we get the dialog as soon as the mirror file must be saved:

hyprland-kde-polkit.png?resize=625%2C386&ssl=1

The same happens if we run from a terminal a “systemctl” command that needs superuser privileges:

hyprland-systemctl-polkit.png?resize=625%2C387&ssl=1

Having the authentication dialog tiled as the other windows is not ideal. So let’s create a Window rule in the Hyprland configuration to make it floating:

windowrulev2 = float,class:^(org.kde.polkit-kde-authentication-agent-1)$

TIP: to know the values for “class”, you can use “hyprctl clients” when the desired application is running and inspect its output by looking for the “class:” part.

Keyboard shortcuts

Hyprland is about using keyboard shortcuts a lot. You might want to take some time to get familiar with the main keyboard shortcuts for launching and closing (look at the configuration file). Change them as you see fit if you don’t like the default ones.

These are the default ones as set in the example configuration we started with:

# See https://wiki.hyprland.org/Configuring/Keywords/ for more
$mainMod = SUPER
# Example binds, see https://wiki.hyprland.org/Configuring/Binds/ for more
bind = $mainMod, Q, exec, kitty
bind = $mainMod, C, killactive,
bind = $mainMod, M, exit,
bind = $mainMod, E, exec, nemo
bind = $mainMod, V, togglefloating,
bind = $mainMod, R, exec, wofi --show drun
bind = $mainMod, P, pseudo, # dwindle
bind = $mainMod, J, togglesplit, # dwindle

I prefer these (note that SUPER+Q now has an entirely different behavior):

bind = $mainMod SHIFT, R, exec, hyprctl reload
bind = $mainMod, D, exec, wofi --show drun
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, Return, exec, nemo
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, F, togglefloating
bind = $mainMod, F, fullscreen
bind = $mainMod, Q, killactive,
bind = $mainMod, Return, exec, kitty
bind = $mainMod, P, pseudo, # dwindle
bind = $mainMod, J, togglesplit, # dwindle

Some additional shortcuts might be helpful as well, such as the following (“grouping” has to do with tabbed windows):

# For grouping (tabbed windows)
bind = $mainMod, G, togglegroup
bind = $mainMod, tab, changegroupactive, f
bind = $mainMod SHIFT, tab, changegroupactive, b
# For workspaces
bind = ALT, tab, workspace, m+1
bind = ALT SHIFT, tab, workspace, m-1

And for moving tiled windows:

# Move
bind = $mainMod CTRL, H, movewindow, l
bind = $mainMod CTRL, L, movewindow, r
bind = $mainMod CTRL, K, movewindow, u
bind = $mainMod CTRL, J, movewindow, d

Mouse gestures

Hyprland provides mouse gestures (swipe) for switching among workspaces. This is not enabled by default, but it’s easy to do: change the existing “gestures” section as follows:

gestures {
  # See https://wiki.hyprland.org/Configuring/Variables/ for more
  workspace_swipe = true
  workspace_swipe_fingers = 3

Screenshots

Let’s configure the system to take screenshots.

First, we install “grim” (A screenshot utility for Wayland)

sudo pacman -S grim

Let’s also install an image viewer, like “Eye of Gnome”:

sudo pacman -S eog

You can try to run “grim” from a terminal to see how it works: by default, it takes a screenshot of the whole screen and save the corresponding images with names containing date and time in the “Pictures” folder. For example, after running “grim” twice, I get the following:

$ ll Pictures/
total 272
drwxr-xr-x 1 bettini bettini 108 12 mag 17.52 .
-rw-r--r-- 1 bettini bettini 130333 12 mag 17.51 20230512_17h51m54s_grim.png
-rw-r--r-- 1 bettini bettini 146018 12 mag 17.52 20230512_17h52m41s_grim.png

What if we want to take a screenshot of a region? We need another program, “slurp” (Select a region in a Wayland compositor)

sudo pacman -S slurp

And we configure a few key bindings (note the last one, which takes a screenshot of the currently active window: this requires several commands to get the active window through Hyprland and then compute a few screen coordinates to pass to “grim”):

# Screenshots
bind = , Print, exec, grim
# with selection
bind = CTRL, Print, exec, grim -g "$(slurp)"
# current window (pos and size)
bind = ALT, Print, exec, grim -g "$(hyprctl activewindow | grep 'at:' | cut -d':' -f2 | tr -d ' ' | tail -n1) $(hyprctl activewindow | grep 'size:' | cut -d':' -f2 | tr -d ' ' | tail -n1 | sed s/,/x/g)"

Brightness and volume

How to set the screen’s brightness and volume through the corresponding keys?

First, install “brightnessctl”:

sudo pacman -S brightnessctl

You can get the current brightness by simply running the program (or with “get” or “-m”) and changing it with the “set” and the value (e.g., increase/decrease by percentage). For example:

brightnessctl set 10%+
brightnessctl set 10%-

So, we need to bind the appropriate special keys to such commands:

# Special Keys
bind = , xf86monbrightnessup, exec, brightnessctl set 10%+
bind = , xf86monbrightnessdown, exec, brightnessctl set 10%-

For volume, we do something similar: assuming that “wireplumber” is installed, we use “wpctl”:

bind = , xf86audioraisevolume, exec, wpctl set-volume -l 1.0 @DEFAULT_SINK@ 5%+
bind = , xf86audiolowervolume, exec, wpctl set-volume -l 1.0 @DEFAULT_SINK@ 5%-
bind = , xf86audiomute, exec, wpctl set-mute @DEFAULT_SINK@ toggle

Note the use of “-l 1.0” meaning that we don’t want to allow the wireplumber to increase the volume above 100%.

Screen locking

If we want to have screen locking (using a keyboard shortcut), we need these two programs:

  • swayidle, Idle management daemon for Wayland
  • swaylock, Screen locker for Wayland
sudo pacman -S swayidle swaylock

And then, configure the shortcuts (note that we define a variable, $lock, in the configuration file):

# Screensaver and lock screen
$lock = swaylock -f --color 1e1e2eFF
exec-once = swayidle -w timeout 300 '$lock' timeout 300 'hyprctl dispatch dpms off' resume 'hyprctl dispatch dpms on' before-sleep '$lock'
# Screenlock
bind = $mainMod, L, exec, $lock

Now, when we press SUPER + L, the screen is locked (swaylock can be configured with colors and the like, but I won’t discuss that). You have to type your password: when you start doing that, you’ll see a circle with some parts changing. If you get the password wrong, swaylock will notify you.

The “exec-once” (remember, you need to restart Hyprland for that) will lock the screen after 300 seconds, but it will also turn it off using a “hyprctl” dispatch command. Note that when that happens, you need to press a key or move the mouse, and the instruction above instructs the system to turn the screen back on. Of course, then you’ll have to type your password.

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more posts about Hyprland 🙂

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