 So I have been challenged by one of my patrons to try X-monad again and to do so for one month and I've been talking about this challenge now for at least a month, maybe even two and It's not because I was trying to hype it up or anything. It's because I've been legitimately Procrastinating is the only real word. It's really the only word that describes I've just been hesitating and not going full force into this challenge. It's because I don't like Haskell I don't like X-monad. I've tried X-monad before now obviously I don't have to do the challenge I could always just say no, I I've said no to video ideas before even from people who give me money But there are so many people out there who really like Haskell and really like X-monad that I wanted to you know, give it a fair try because I will admit that I maybe didn't give it the best Shot the previous times that I've tried this You know, I you know, I tried it for a week or I tried it for like three days or something like that and I'd hit up a wall somewhere where I just could not get past the thing and You know, I just don't have the patience for it. So I'd move on but this time I wanted it to be different So instead of going out and using DT's configuration file like I have all the times in the past because DT is the King of X-monad I chose this time to start from the beginning now I will say that I did follow some of DT's Tutorials on X-monad. So, you know, some things obviously have been the same but I've also read through the official tutorial on the X-monad GitHub page and I have Been using it now for a day. So this is my one day with X-monad or my first day I should say cuz I'm gonna I'm gonna try to stick with it, but I have had some problems So let's just go ahead and show you My X-monad as it is right now. So this is my X-monad as it is right now, and it is very bare it's still very very much in the early stages of Customization configuration, whatever you want to say. I've managed to get my key bindings so I can you know, you know open up Rofi I can quit with super queue. I can do all the normal things I've customized the key bindings to the point where I need them I have started using sx-hkd just because I have a lot of key bindings in there The problem is that I've had some problems with sx-hkd and that none of my key cords work I have no clue why so I have super gg should bring up GIMP, but it doesn't Malt N should bring up discord, but it doesn't So there are some key bindings in sx-hkd that aren't working I'm assuming it's because there are some conflicting Key bindings between the two configuration files I'll have to go through those and figure those things out So that's not really an x-mone ad problem But that's one of the issues that I've come up with so far my biggest hurdle so far and it's not even close Has been the bar now what you're looking at right now is x-mobar and From what I can tell from the things that I've read online X-mobar may not be the best bar to use any more with x-mone ad Apparently they've had some fun issues and some other you know crash issues that have just been going on for the last few months And maybe it's not the best thing to use But I've been struggling through with it because you know x-mobar is kind of the bar that goes with x-mone ad So I wanted to give it a you know good old college try, but I'm I've failed I've completely failed with x I have x-mobar up there and running But it's not running properly like you can still see it's still using updating here I have no clue why and I'll talk more about what I've done to try to fix that here in a few minutes But it also doesn't show the workspace numbers and I'm not sure why again I've done some googling and I'll talk about that in a minute, but I have obviously not been able to fix it and This is the third different configuration file that I've tried in order to actually get it up and running to actually stay running I tried some of DT's old configs I know I said I wasn't going to do that But you know those are the ones that I had on hand and I just wanted to kind of get off the ground and see if I could You know actually use them those kept crashing. I'm not sure why they're old. I downloaded them ages ago So that has nothing to do with DT or anything like that It's just those particular configurations files are old and the only reason why I even used those was because the default configuration file is Non-existent as far as I can tell now in DT's video He shows on a boot to where there is an ex op ex mobar default configuration file That file does not exist on Redcore for whatever reason. So I went to the ex mobar Codeburg site expecting there to be a default configuration file And I think there was one but it's not official and it actually was linked to from a forum someplace It was very messy. I found three different default configuration files. All of them look different. This one here came from reddit So again not mine. I said I wasn't going to do that But I would just wanted something up there to see if I could try to at least get it working But I I've been unsuccessful This is the closest that I've come to actually having a bar up there and working But it doesn't have any of the features that are necessary to you know, actually be considered a bar for me I have to have the workspaces for it to be working and it's just it's not and I don't know why So let's get into the troubleshooting because that's honestly the troubleshooting thing is where I've had the most problems so if I go into my ex monad configuration file and You know, I like I said, I've managed to import a few things that you need to import. I've managed to change the terminal I've managed to Change a few key bindings stuff like that. I've added a few key bindings None of this stuff is particularly difficult if you've ever used Lua before or C or any of that stuff It's not completely different than any of those languages. Yeah, the syntax is a little bit different But you know, it's similar enough to like Lua or whatever with commas and Uh parentheses all over the place. It was not hard to put in my key bindings and do the things that I need to do So I got that far. I managed a set of wallpaper. I managed to get the startup hook working Which I've had problems with in the past and Then I got to start working on the bar the bar is where I've had like said, I've had the most problems with the bar And I've googled things, right? So that updating problem that's up there It has multiple different causes as far as I can tell it could be a dependency issue Which is possible since I'm running pulse audio and that's an also widget So that's a possibility but this one here. I'm not even sure what this widget's supposed to be But the point is it's not there, right? Uh, so it could have multiple, you know, it could be the missing dependency Apparently it could be your configuration is set up wrong You could not be importing the proper thing that you need to import So for example, the workspace numbers apparently you need to import the dynamic log here in order for it to work, right? And I did that right and then you have to do something in your xmo bar, which I've done Still no dice in terms of actually getting the numbers up there And the the issue here is that because there are multiple causes there are multiple different solutions and even in the Xmonad Documentation the solution doesn't necessarily always agree with all the other solutions or the all the other causes And it's it's kind of a mess. So the real issue that I've had here is that I use the default xmonad configuration file That they link to on their website, but their documentation isn't always Consistent with that default configuration file. So the best example that I have for this is it's actually the avoid stretch line right here Basically, what this does after you've imported the appropriate library is it makes it so that the xmo bar stays on top of the windows and they don't overlap each other so Honestly, that should be default you'd think but whatever you do have to make some changes to your configuration file in order for that to work But in the documentation it says nothing about my layout it points you towards some other area And if you didn't know or if you didn't watch dt's, you know video on this You wouldn't know that those two things were actually the same right and that's not the only example Of this inconsistency that it's all over the place where you know, it's called one thing In the default configuration file. It's called another thing in the Documentation now I think where the problem lies Is that the documentation for xmonad isn't actually the documentation for xmonad It's the documentation for haskell And those are two different things whether they like to think them the same or not xmonad is a window manager haskell is a programming language. They're not the same thing And they treat them kind of like the same thing. So xmonad does not have Its own documentation it relies 100 on the documentation for haskell And the problem with that is that the documentation for haskell is teaching you how to you know program in haskell Where as the people who have configured and Programmed xmonad have done things in alternate ways In haskell they don't necessarily, you know go together with the documentation. So it's not a great solution And it drives me nuts because i'm so new to this and i'm trying my hardest not to go grab someone else's configuration file for at least the configuration for xmonad I want to do this all my own And when i can't rely on the documentation to tell me exactly precisely how to do something because i can't have It can't be halfway there It can't be half-assed because i don't know anything about haskell So it has to tell me hey, this is what you have to do step by step by step Now as i said at the beginning a lot of this is a skill issue I can't really blame them to have a very complex Programming language and then not having it spelled out for absolute noobs because that's not who it's for It's not The documentation can't be just for noobs you have to you know Their audience is experienced programmers Not new users text monads so i can't really blame them But it's still a problem that i'm facing right it's it's it's a thing That has come up over and over again Where i'm looking for a solution and there are five ways of doing it in the documentation And i don't know which one to use and it gets worse When you expand outside of the documentation Because if you start looking at other people's tutorials and stuff like dt will do things one way And then you'll google it and find a blog who has done the exact same thing But in a slightly different way and the issue that i've come across This time using x-mode is that if you follow You know dt's ways of doing things and then you follow someone else's way of doing things and you mix them together They don't always mix together all that well Because you know they Imported conflicting libraries or something like that and it just gives you errors, right? And it's it's it's a it's a really It's messy Is my point like i didn't have this problem With dwm and c i've learned a lot of c Messing around with dwm any outside of that project. It actually got me interested in c So i was actually able to learn quite a bit of that language Even in my brief times with uh awesome window manager I learned a lot of lua in those brief times and you know i've learned more since i've started messing around with lua with neovim So i have the capability In my brain to actually learn this stuff But i've never had this problem that i've that i always have with haskell every time i come here with x-mode i have the same issues and Maybe there's a possibility that i have like a filter on my brain. They just can't get past it I don't know but it's a problem. So let's just go back to the bar For a couple minutes. It seems the x-mobar has some problems Whether they're just my problems or they're actually having some problems. I don't know maybe it's a mixture of the two So what my plan is now Is to move from x-mobar to poly bar? Is that seems to be the thing that most people are doing? I've been looking through the themes and posts and stuff on unix porn and the vast majority of people there in recent posts at least Have been using poly bar or eww. I didn't have luck with eww the last time i tried it So i'll probably avoid that but i'm an expert on poly bar I know a lot about poly bar. I've been using poly bar for years So i i am just going to Scrap my experiment with x-mobar and put in poly bar. That's something and i'm going to work on Tonight or tomorrow and see if i can't get that to actually work I know that there are some workarounds that you have to do in order to get things to work because it's not Technically 100% one-to-one compliant with x-mone ad, but apparently it can be done and i've seen pictures of it So i know that it's true So that's something that i need to do next the thing that's going to be continuing to be the biggest problem for me After i get the bar thing solved is going to be the documentation not being user friendly and I need A but like i looked through the tutorial the official tutorial And maybe i need to just stick with that one right that that is like 10 000 words or even more Of do this do this do this right in a row That's the way you should do it and I think that that's what i'm going to end up doing is i'm just going to follow that tutorial I may even start completely over again and see if i can't you know Just follow that instead of following three different places of how to do stuff because following three different ways of doing things Is has just not been working it's just not been working And i think that if i just follow one and it's the official one Hopefully the official one or i think they call it the unofficial i i don't know it's on their code bergs So or their github or github whatever it is And so it should be as official as it probably gets so we'll see How that goes and i'm going to try there because i have some Big hurdles coming up for this right because there are some things that i have to add in order for this to be a Workable experiment for me the big one of course is scratch pads so I know that that x-monet has scratch pads i've used them before And i think that x-monet has good scratch pad support i Only vaguely Remember what it's like, but i think that it has good scratch pad support So that's something that i'm going to have to add in On my own i also know that there's like a library that you can add that allows you to do different syntax for The key bindings and stuff so you don't have to Spell everything out. It's kind of like an abbreviation Type thing i want to add that i don't even know what it's called So that's going to be a challenge so there's going to be some things here that i need to do So this video has come across a lot as me complaining about x-monet, but i'm honestly Well, i i mean i was going to say i'm honestly really excited about the challenge, but that'd be partially a lie i'm I have some trepidation about my future with this challenge There's a good chance that i will hit a wall again and just save screw it i'm going back to q-tile It's 100 possible, but there's a part of me that is excited I i have been a little bored as of late on my computer I needed a challenge that was actually a challenge redcore has been way too stable um It's not like i wanted to break or anything, but i definitely I want something to challenge me a little bit and haskell and x-monet is going to provide that challenge So i'm a little excited. I'm also i'm weary about it So because of previous experiences, I know Uh, then there are some issues that are going to pop up and we'll see how I manage to handle those so My day one on x-monet has been very bumpy But I'm still using it. I haven't logged out and logged back into a window manager yet um, so Wish me luck. I think that i'm going to need it So that is it for this video if you have thoughts on my challenge of x-monet and all that stuff Leave those in the comment section below. I know that i've tried x-monet before I know that i've had words with it and I this seems probably a little reputitious But I want to give it a real try this time. Uh, i'm limiting my i'm not doing six months of x-monet I mean maybe after a month if I like really I you know I've fallen in love with it or something like that maybe but as of right now A month is probably going to be pushing it. So we're just going to go out a month So anyways comments on this challenge in the Uh in the comment section below if you have them you can follow me on mastodon or odyssey those links will be in the video description You can support me on patreon at patreon.com slash the linux cast links for libera pay and youtube will be in the video description as well Thanks to everybody who does support me on patreon and youtube you guys are all absolutely amazing without you the challenge There's not be anywhere near where it is right now. So thank you so very much for your support I truly do appreciate it. You guys are all absolutely awesome. So thank you very very much. Thanks everybody for watching. I'll see you next time