**one rule: everything looks like the bar.**

no polybar. no rofi. no eww. launcher / clipboard / fonts / cheatsheet / power menu all share the same strip, font, and pywal colors. floating bar, infinite canvas, wallpaper drives the whole theme.

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**WM**: \[vxwm\](https://codeberg.org/wh1tepearl/vxwm) (modular dwm fork)

**OS**: Arch Linux · display: X11 · shell: bash/zsh

**stack**

\- **terminal**: kitty

\- **launcher** / menus: dmenu + custom dmenu-above (bar-width, grows upward)

\- **clipboard**: clipmenu (same look as launcher)

\- **files**: thunar (GTK3 themed from pywal)

\- **compositor**: picom (shadows + rounded corners; bar/tray/menus clean)

\- **notify**: dunst (rebuilt colors on every wallpaper change)

\- **theme**: pywal → bar XRDB, dunst, picom shadows, gtk.css

\- **tray**: stalonetray + nm-applet + blueman + control-tray (volume/brightness sliders)

\- **audio** / light: PipeWire · vol / bright → dunst progress bars

\- **lock** / power: slock via horizontal power menu

\- **screenshots**: region + swappy · delay capture for open menus

\- **fonts**: setfont pick (one family for bar/menus/kitty/dunst; bar needs rebuild)

**cool bits**

\- **infinite canvas** — screen is a viewport; pan, home to (0,0), pin windows (tray stays put while the desk moves); coords in the bar

\- **bar-centric UI** — Super+p / v / Escape / / / Shift+t all feel like the same product

\- **setwal / wpick** — one wallpaper change recolors \*everything\* that matters

\- **status**: vxwm | HH:MM

\- **DPI locked to 96** (laptop NVIDIA panels otherwise go huge)

\- install script for Arch (+ experimental Fedora), shell choice bash/zsh/both

**essentials**

| bind | action |

|------|--------|

| Super+Shift+Return | kitty |

| Super+p | launcher |

| Super+v | clipboard |

| Super+Shift+e | thunar |

| Super+Shift+w | wallpapers |

| Super+Shift+t | fonts |

| Super+/ | searchable cheatsheet |

| Super+Escape | Lock · Exit · Suspend · Reboot · Poweroff |

| Super+r | canvas home |

| Super+Ctrl+z | pin window |

| Print | region shot → swappy |

| Super+Shift+Print | delayed shot (for menus) |

full bind list: **Super+/** in-session

**INSTALLATION**

Full **Arch** installer: ./install.sh (deps, configs, vxwm build, shell choice).

**Fedora**: present in the script but **highly experimental and not recommended** — don’t expect it to just work; Arch is the supported path.

**dotfiles**: https://github.com/latency-tech/vxwm-dotfiles

feedback / questions welcome. screenshots in album 👆

[vxwm] bar-centric X11 rice (infinite desktop + pywal all the way)