Ubuntu – Xmonad with Unity / HUD

hudunitywindow-managerxmonad

I want to use xmonad and still use the HUD from Unity. Is this possible?
Could Xmonad be using while using Unity? is there a way to use the HUD inside of Xmonad?

I'm in 12.04, soon to be 12.10.

Best Answer

I'm using Xmonad with Unity in Ubuntu 12.04 and it is working well. I don't use the launcher panel - I hide it in workspace 9 - but I do use the top panel. I believe that you can use the launcher if you want to though.

Be aware that Xmonad does not support 3D rendering - so you will have to use the 2D version of Unity in Ubuntu 12.04, which is differs from the 3D version in some ways.

Follow the instructions here: http://www.haskell.org/haskellwiki/Xmonad/Using_xmonad_in_Unity_2D

I recommend configuring Nautilus to disable desktop icons. Otherwise you will get awful rendering artifacts if you are using multiple screens: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1882688

The procedure will be different in Ubuntu 12.10 since Unity 2D is no longer available in that version. However, the 3D version of Unity has fallback support for 2D window managers in 12.10; so you may get an experience that is actually closer to the regular 3D version.

In case you are interested, my Xmonad config is here: https://github.com/hallettj/config_files/blob/master/.xmonad/xmonad.hs

Update 2012-12-02: I upgraded to Ubuntu 12.10 and I was not able to get Xmonad to work with the new version of Unity after all. It turns out that Unity 2D was designed differently in that it implemented the panel as a separate component that could be used with any window manager. Although the new version of Unity does have a fallback mode for machines that do not support graphics acceleration, it does not have the same modular design.

I have switched to running Xmonad with Gnome Classic. I'm already missing the integrated menu bar that Unity provided :(

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