Custom window manager?

[twert627]

Be able to run another WM than Wayland?

[spronovo]

Hi, there are no immediate plan for this. What functionality are you missing the most in the default Weston window manager?

[nielsdekoeijer]

I'm sure this has been requested a lot, but personally, I see value in being able to emulate a Linux desktop on windows. This allows for a best-of-both-worlds for those of us who have to run windows at work who would like to use a Linux desktop environment.

[Apreche]

Hi, there are no immediate plan for this. What functionality are you missing the most in the default Weston window manager?

@sprnovo Currently the only things I use with WSL are terminals and vim. You are probably wondering then, why do I need a GUI like wslg at all? It's because managing a bunch of terminals and text editors as individual windows is a pain. In my current configuration I use VcXsrv to run the i3 window manager full screen on one of my two monitors. I would very much like it if wslg could support that, so I would be able to get rid of VcXsrv and also, presumably, experience a great performance benefit from wslg. However, if wslg can not offer this feature, then it's completely useless to me.

As a point of reference, here is a screen capture of the dual monitor scenario I would like to replicate using WSLg, and which currently works almost perfectly using VcXsrv + wsl.

[mwarrenus]

I'd like to use ch11ng/exwm.

EXWM (Emacs X Window Manager) is a full-featured tiling X window manager for Emacs built on top of XELB. It features:

• Fully keyboard-driven operations
• Hybrid layout modes (tiling & stacking)
• Dynamic workspace support
• ICCCM/EWMH compliance
• (Optional) RandR (multi-monitor) support
• (Optional) Builtin system tray
• (Optional) Builtin input method

and

XELB (X protocol Emacs Lisp Binding) is a pure Elisp implementation of X11 protocol based on the XML description files from XCB project. It features an object-oriented API and permits a certain degree of concurrency.

[hedges333]

I'm not sure if it's related to choosing a default window manager, but some applications start without minimization buttons, which is a PITA. See screenshot. xfce4-terminal doesn't have a minimization button, although gvim does. This is WSL2. I removed VcXsrv entirely, since WSL2 handles windowing now on its own. When I used WSL1 with VcXsrv, this started with a minimization button. I didn't change anything else. Do I need to change to a different window manager to get windows like this to start correctly? Thanks.

[Biswa96]

What window manager do you want to use?

[charlie-haley]

If you wanted i3, Sway is an i3-compatible window manager based on Wayland, looks like that will run on top of WSLg. But, from what I've seen, doesn't look very usable

[mwarrenus]

I'd like to use ch11ng/exwm.

EXWM (Emacs X Window Manager) is a full-featured tiling X window manager for Emacs built on top of XELB.

and

XELB (X protocol Emacs Lisp Binding) is a pure Elisp implementation of X11 protocol based on the XML description files from XCB project. It features an object-oriented API and permits a certain degree of concurrency.

[unbrand]

I vote for openbox. Please. If I could use openbox, I'd ditch this other box I'm using for Linux and use my Windows machine exclusively. Thanks guys for doing such a good job with wsl2!

[SinclairGurny]

If you wanted i3, Sway is an i3-compatible window manager based on Wayland, looks like that will run on top of WSLg. But, from what I've seen, doesn't look very usable

Agreed. I recently tried installing sway. It opened but it did not work properly

[mid-kid]

The problem with sway on WSLg is that it doesn't receive all keystrokes and it's a nested compositor, so some applications pop up outside of it. It might genuinely work better to run sway under a windows-based X11 server...

[davepoltorak]

Hi Everyone,

Has there been any progress on this particular suggestion? Having recently switched to Windows 11, it would be great to stop dual booting and use WSLg for a performant i3 experience from within Windows.

I've tried VcXsrv and the experience is just a bit too latent to switch away from a bare-metal approach

Thanks for any update!

[Felix1492]

I am new to Linux but I have WSL2 Ubuntu 23.10 installed, and then installed I3 and this is the error I get :

I3 >
ERROR: Another window manager is already running (WM_Sn is owned)
ps aux | grep -i wm >
root 534 0.0 0.0 3932 1964 pts/2 S+ 20:25 0:00 grep --color=auto -i wm
pkill 534 >
__
ps aux | grep -i wm >
root 540 0.0 0.0 3932 1984 pts/2 S+ 20:27 0:00 grep --color=auto -i wm

Because I can't kill it, and it won't stop running, or even sometimes say that it's running I assume that it is a Windows thing.
I have not configured I3 yet because it seems silly to do that when I can't get it running without a windows x-server.
I'm kind of hoping that this question is very simple for you all Because I can't find a solution or even an explanation of what WM_Sn is doing.

Forgive my formatting I didn't know what to do about it. :P

[dcorking]

For my use case (tiling) there may be an alternative approach, as Windows 11's snap feature is quite effective for casual use, but doesn't manage my X apps running under WSL. At the risk of sidetracking the OP's feature request: how complex would you guess it might be to add support for the Windows shell's snap UI to wslg?

[NickHackford]

I'm in a similar boat to you. I installed https://github.com/glzr-io/glazewm and it works really well as an i3/sway replacement. The only problem I have with it is it doesn't work with wslg apps.

While being able to run my own wm would be best, glaze is a pretty good replacement for my needs.

[dcorking]

Thank you @NickHackford , your idea led me to https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi which I'll try as it appears to support tiling WSLg windows

[NickHackford]

Thanks for the heads up. Komorebi seems to be faster than Glaze but doesn't seem to work as well for me. It seems unable to resize certain windows even after I followed the config tutorial. I also can't get it to handle multiple monitors in a way that is acceptable for me so I will have to stick with Glaze for now.