Riverbed is a set of configuration files and programs to turn the river wayland compositor into a bare-bones desktop environment.
See INSTALL.md.
Riverbed is configured through the use of a few configuration files as well as
the riverbedctl command. The configuration files are located at config/river
and are named variables, keybinds, autostart and custom. The purpose of
each should be clear by the name. Important to note is that keybinds and
custom are both scripts allowing for greater flexibility.
riverbedctl is the command line utility used for updating aspects of the
desktop such as the current layout, gaps, border-colors, etcetera. Unlike
riverctl, riverbedctl will inform the various parts of the desktop
synchronously. Therefore, changing the layout will for instance change the size
and position of the system bar.
These are the various functions of riverbedctl:
config/river/variables by calling riverbedctl variable=value. These settings must be saved manually to the configuration
file and will otherwise me lost upon reset.config/river/init notably
customs will reload the config/river/customs filereload_keybinds will reload the config/river/keybinds fileRiverbed uses the following programs:
| program | Purpose |
|---|---|
| river | Compositor |
| river-luatile | Layout Manager |
| way bar | Status bar |
| tofi | Launcher, Polkit-agent * pinentry |
| fnott | Notifications |
Riverbed does rely on other programs and libraries to be present on your system,
please check etc/apk/world for a full list.
I personally use the KDE suite of applications, but this can easily be substituted by with GNOME or DE agnostic applications.
Most programs used in this setup are available in the main alpine repositories,
though some are currently in testing. Other still are not available at all, this
repository contains custom APKBUILD files for these programs.
Currently manual intervention is required for getting the window switcher to work. This involves installing `pywayland' possibly through pip, and installing the river wayland protocols.
The process is more or less like this
apk add pip gcc wget
pip install pywayland
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/riverwm/river/refs/heads/master/protocol/river-control-unstable-v1.xml
wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/riverwm/river/refs/heads/master/protocol/river-status-unstable-v1.xml
python3 -m pywayland.scanner -i /usr/share/wayland/wayland.xml river-control-unstable-v1.xml river-status-unstable-v1.xml
apk del pip gcc wget
rm river-control-unstable-v1.xml river-status-unstable-v1.xml
'''
You might get an error from pip about python being externall managed. This can
be worked around by removing /usr/lib/python3.12/EXTERNALLY-MANAGED.
Once I find a more elegant way of installing this I will add it to the install
script.
## Alpine-specific
This setup is intended for use on Alpine Linux and its derivatives, I currently
have no interest in porting it to other distributions. That being said, other
than the files in `etc/apk`, everything should be cross-compatible.
If you are installing on a different distribution, you can look at
`etc/apk/world` for a list of programs that you would need to install. This
section will outline the other alpine-specific bits of this setup so that you
can adjust it for your needs.
### Elogind/systemd
This setup does not rely on `systemd` or `elogind`. Therefore, in order to keep
`polkit` and `dbus` working, I launch river with a combination of `consolekit`
and `dbus-launch`. If you use a `systemd` distro or use `elogind`, this may be
different.
For the same reason, I use `seatd` for seat management. For this to work, the
`seatd` system service must be running, and the user must be part of the `seat`
group
## Window layout
Riverbed supports three different window layouts, each with various settings.
`Runoff` is a simple master-stack layout which always reserves space for the
stack, even if there is only one window in screen. It also reserves space for
the bar which only takes up around 40% of the screen width. The size of the
master and stack can be controlled with the `main_ratio` variable.
`Dual` is a variation on the mater stack layout which will make the main window
take up the center and align one stack on either side.
`Grid` will sort windows into a more-or-less equal grid of windows. This layout
ignores the `main_ratio` window and does is the only one where the bar takes up
the full screen width. The grid is controlled by two variables: `columns` is a
hard-coded limit to the number to horizontal stacks riverbed will sort windows
into. While `dynamic_columns` can be set to dynamically create more columns as
the number of windows increase.
## Screenshots
### Runoff
### Dual
### Grid
### Launcher, OSD and Notification use the same space and styling as the bar
