[arch-general] How to get "b"-menu in Arch i3 - Arch-general - lists.archlinux.org

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Ram Kumar

15 Jul 2019 15 Jul '19

1:40 p.m.

Hi there Archers, I am moving from manjaro i3 to Arch now, already started customizing i3 to my need. Has anyone seen how the "b-menu" in Manjaro i3 is?..it contains bluetooth, network manger etc.. binded to mod+ctrl+b keys by default. how can i get a similar one to my Arch config?.. please guide me. Thanks in advance Fellow newbie Archer Ramkumar

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Notopygos

15 Jul 15 Jul

3:01 p.m.

On Mon, 15 Jul 2019 17:10:15 +0530 Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:

I am moving from manjaro i3 to Arch now, already started customizing i3 to my need. Has anyone seen how the "b-menu" in Manjaro i3 is?..it contains bluetooth, network manger etc.. binded to mod+ctrl+b keys by default. how can i get a similar one to my Arch config?.. please guide me.

Ask in manjaro forums whether it is a standalone program or their version for dmenu. If it is a downstream patch then you can get the source and build it. Looks like it is a downstream patch, there is dmenu & dmenu-manjaro and you are probably talking about dmenu-manjaro http://manjaro.melbourneitmirror.net/stable/community/x86_64/. You can add their repos and let pacman manage dmenu-manjaro updates (idk if this is a good idea) or build it on your computer (will not take much time/resource). ~Notopygos -- 1C24 ED06 365A 6045 C128 A1C0 FB0E 5321 5307 6E7D

Notopygos

3:08 p.m.

On Mon, 15 Jul 2019 18:31:28 +0530 Notopygos via arch-general wrote:

You can add their repos and let pacman manage dmenu-manjaro updates (idk if this is a good idea)

Don't do this, it will conflict with arch repos. Manjaro uses the same repo names (archlinux/community | manjaro/community) and probably pacman can't handle those https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=213165. (older thread, idk if valid today) ~Notopygos -- 1C24 ED06 365A 6045 C128 A1C0 FB0E 5321 5307 6E7D

Shorrer

10:35 p.m.

'bmenu' is that thing like shown here? https://classicforum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=28824.msg246141#msg246141 If that's so then I think I've found it. First, I don't know how things are working in Manjaro, but it seems like you guys are using our AUR so you should be familiar with the thing or you at the very least heard about it. If not and if you're interested in how it works then here is some quick'n'dirty explanation: it is community-provided repository of stuff that is required to create an installable pacman package. "Stuff" is mostly a PKGBUILD script that 'makepkg' can use to create a package (you can learn more at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository) So, let's get back to 'bmenu'. Seems like we had this package in AUR but it was removed. Except it actually wasn't and you can still get all the data required to create it. However, this might not work. After all, the AUR page was taken down for some reason... Steps to get it: 1. Go to some temporary directory that you don't mind unpacking stuff into 2. Execute "curl -O https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/bmenu.tar.gz" 3. Execute "tar -xaf bmenu.tar.gz" 4. Go to 'bmenu' folder that appeared 5. Execute "makepkg -sri" 6. Enjoy, I think Now, you AT LEAST should've got the required package. But, that's not all. Now we should bind that pesky key and I think I couldn't really tell you how exactly that's done as I don't remember i3 config syntax, but I'll try to cover up and explain what you should look for. i3 allows you to execute whatever you want from it's binds. As this 'bmenu' is, from what I've seen, a bash script, it needs bash and, more importantly, a terminal window. So it all boils down to binding your terminal emulator with argument to launch bmenu. It might look somehow like this bind-key $mod+ctrl+b "terminus -c bmenu" (again, this isn't exact line that you should be using). After that you should be done. You can poke around in PKGBUILD, remove "#branch=aur" from "sources" variable and get a bit more fresh but probably incompatible with Arch version. And given that the script itself is a bit, eh, old, it might not function properly sometimes. If you want you can fix it, push changes to git or fork the thing and make your own AUR package. That's it, I think. Hope this helps one way or another, and also sorry if this wall of text looks like random gibberish and not a step-by-step guide, I've just had very little sleep today. On 15/07/2019 14:40, Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:

Hi there Archers, I am moving from manjaro i3 to Arch now, already started customizing i3 to my need. Has anyone seen how the "b-menu" in Manjaro i3 is?..it contains bluetooth, network manger etc.. binded to mod+ctrl+b keys by default. how can i get a similar one to my Arch config?.. please guide me.

Thanks in advance

Fellow newbie Archer Ramkumar

Ram Kumar

16 Jul 16 Jul

2:41 a.m.

Hi Notopygos, I thought like its a separate package like dmenu, but its not. So as u suggested, i will look for alternatives which are compatible with Arch.. Hi Shorrer, Its a nice explanation and its clear to understand... thanks a lot for spending ur time in explaning this.. Thank u guys On Tue, 16 Jul 2019, 2:05 am Shorrer via arch-general, < arch-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

'bmenu' is that thing like shown here? https://classicforum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=28824.msg246141#msg246141 If that's so then I think I've found it.

First, I don't know how things are working in Manjaro, but it seems like you guys are using our AUR so you should be familiar with the thing or you at the very least heard about it. If not and if you're interested in how it works then here is some quick'n'dirty explanation: it is community-provided repository of stuff that is required to create an installable pacman package. "Stuff" is mostly a PKGBUILD script that 'makepkg' can use to create a package (you can learn more at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository)

So, let's get back to 'bmenu'. Seems like we had this package in AUR but it was removed. Except it actually wasn't and you can still get all the data required to create it. However, this might not work. After all, the AUR page was taken down for some reason... Steps to get it: 1. Go to some temporary directory that you don't mind unpacking stuff into 2. Execute "curl -O https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/bmenu.tar.gz" 3. Execute "tar -xaf bmenu.tar.gz" 4. Go to 'bmenu' folder that appeared 5. Execute "makepkg -sri" 6. Enjoy, I think

Now, you AT LEAST should've got the required package. But, that's not all. Now we should bind that pesky key and I think I couldn't really tell you how exactly that's done as I don't remember i3 config syntax, but I'll try to cover up and explain what you should look for.

i3 allows you to execute whatever you want from it's binds. As this 'bmenu' is, from what I've seen, a bash script, it needs bash and, more importantly, a terminal window. So it all boils down to binding your terminal emulator with argument to launch bmenu. It might look somehow like this bind-key $mod+ctrl+b "terminus -c bmenu" (again, this isn't exact line that you should be using).

After that you should be done. You can poke around in PKGBUILD, remove "#branch=aur" from "sources" variable and get a bit more fresh but probably incompatible with Arch version. And given that the script itself is a bit, eh, old, it might not function properly sometimes. If you want you can fix it, push changes to git or fork the thing and make your own AUR package.

That's it, I think. Hope this helps one way or another, and also sorry if this wall of text looks like random gibberish and not a step-by-step guide, I've just had very little sleep today.

On 15/07/2019 14:40, Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:

...
Hi there Archers, I am moving from manjaro i3 to Arch now, already started customizing i3 to my need. Has anyone seen how the "b-menu" in Manjaro i3 is?..it contains bluetooth, network manger etc.. binded to mod+ctrl+b keys by default. how can i get a similar one to my Arch config?.. please guide me.

Thanks in advance

Fellow newbie Archer Ramkumar

Notopygos

1:39 p.m.

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 06:11:29 +0530 Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:

I thought like its a separate package like dmenu, but its not. So as u suggested, i will look for alternatives which are compatible with Arch..

It is a seperate package like dmenu and it is compatible with archlinux. It is not present in default repos nor in the aur so you have to manually install it (not hard). ~Notopygos -- 1C24 ED06 365A 6045 C128 A1C0 FB0E 5321 5307 6E7D

Ram Kumar

17 Jul 17 Jul

2:29 a.m.

Oh.. does that package still alive? And is it safe to install it? On Tue, 16 Jul 2019, 5:09 pm Notopygos via arch-general, < arch-general@archlinux.org> wrote:

On Tue, 16 Jul 2019 06:11:29 +0530 Ram Kumar via arch-general wrote:

...
I thought like its a separate package like dmenu, but its not. So as u suggested, i will look for alternatives which are compatible with Arch..

It is a seperate package like dmenu and it is compatible with archlinux. It is not present in default repos nor in the aur so you have to manually install it (not hard).

~Notopygos -- 1C24 ED06 365A 6045 C128 A1C0 FB0E 5321 5307 6E7D

Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi

8:21 a.m.

Can you not top-post repeatedly. -- Regards Jagan PUBKEY: https://j605.tk/pgp

Ram Kumar

1:22 p.m.

What?.. i dont understand.. can u plz elaborate? On Wed, 17 Jul 2019, 11:51 am Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi via arch-general, wrote:

Can you not top-post repeatedly.

-- Regards Jagan PUBKEY: https://j605.tk/pgp

Ralph Corderoy

1:28 p.m.

Hi Ram,

...
Can you not top-post repeatedly.

What?.. i dont understand.. can u plz elaborate?

See https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Code_of_conduct#Mailing_lists -- Cheers, Ralph.

Eli Schwartz

16 Jul 16 Jul

3:44 a.m.

On 7/15/19 4:35 PM, Shorrer via arch-general wrote:

'bmenu' is that thing like shown here? https://classicforum.manjaro.org/index.php?topic=28824.msg246141#msg246141 If that's so then I think I've found it.

First, I don't know how things are working in Manjaro, but it seems like you guys are using our AUR so you should be familiar with the thing or you at the very least heard about it. If not and if you're interested in how it works then here is some quick'n'dirty explanation: it is community-provided repository of stuff that is required to create an installable pacman package. "Stuff" is mostly a PKGBUILD script that 'makepkg' can use to create a package (you can learn more at https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Arch_User_Repository)

So, let's get back to 'bmenu'. Seems like we had this package in AUR but it was removed. Except it actually wasn't and you can still get all the data required to create it. However, this might not work. After all, the AUR page was taken down for some reason...

https://lists.archlinux.org/pipermail/aur-requests/2019-January/029452.html The bmenu package maintainer was also the upstream developer of the Github repository. Per that individual's request, the package was deleted... Looking at the PKGBUILD raises a few eyebrows. Why does it pull from some branch on git -- oh right, developer makes new versions but they aren't tagged, just pushed to the "aur" branch... what??? As with most things created by Manjaro users, I'm a lot more disturbed by the script than I am by the PKGBUILD. Try counting the number of times the "bmenu" script will fall back to running "sudo pacman -Sy ranger && ranger". -- Eli Schwartz Bug Wrangler and Trusted User

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participants (6)

Eli Schwartz
Jagannathan Tiruvallur Eachambadi
Notopygos
Ralph Corderoy
Ram Kumar
Shorrer