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I came upon this problem before, but only now it really renders awesome desktop manager useless.

I was searching how to connect to Wifi with awesome. Found Gigamo Wifi Widget. Cool, how do I eat it?

The awesome wiki entry on widgets does not really answer this question.

I know my question is very stupid and the answer is somewhere in the documentation but I have no idea how to read it. How and where do I add widgets I find on the Net to my awesome lua files?

EDIT: when searching where is the rc.lua file henfiber mentioned, I came upon Archlinux wiki on Awesome, which put most important things in one page.

julka
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1 Answers1

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You can always use NetworkManager which is available for installation in most official repos. It contains an applet which creates an icon at your system tray. You can launch the applet at start-up, placing this line in your rc.lua file:

awful.util.spawn("nm-applet")

or you can start it manually from your terminal, writing:

$ nm-applet &

Then you can left-click at the NetworkManager Applet icon at the system tray and select from the list of available wifi access points. Additionally, the Network manager applet allows you to perform more advanced functions, like connecting to VPN.

Also, it is quite easy to use 3rd-party widgets you find in the wiki or in github. It requires these steps:

  1. Download the widget .lua file - let's say it is called

    cool_widget.lua

  2. move it in ~/.config/awesome/ so it is :

    ~/.config/awesome/cool_widget.lua

    An alternative is to use the structure

    ~/.config/awesome/cool_widget/init.lua

    it is better when your widget requires more than one files.

  3. Load the widget at the top of your rc.lua file: 

    cool_widget =  require("cool_widget")

  4. Add the widget in a wibox (toolbar) in the same way you add built-in ones

henfiber
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  • Ok, this solution will fix the problem this time. However, next time I may ask where do I put widget for bluetooth and so on and so for. As I take it, to launch built-in ones I just add corresponding line to `~/.config/awesome/rc.lua`. I guess, creating my own is a different question. – julka Jun 11 '15 at 09:00
  • Creating your own widget is a different question, indeed. However, it is quite easy to use 3rd-party widgets you find in the wiki or in github. It requires these steps: 1) Download the widget .lua file - let's say it is called cool_widget.lua 2) move it in ~/.config/awesome/ so it is : ~/.config/awesome/cool_widget.lua 3) An alternative is to use the structure ~/.config/awesome/cool_widget/init.lua 4) Load the widget at the top of your rc.lua file: `cool_widget = require("cool_widget")` 5) Add the widget in a wibox (toolbar) in the same way you add built-in ones. – henfiber Jun 11 '15 at 20:39
  • Consider adding this information to your answer, cause that actually was the question ^^. – julka Jun 12 '15 at 12:25