This small little tutorial will get you running Awesome Window Manager instead of the default (open-box WM) in #! Linux 11 (“Waldorf” release).

Edit: If you want more steps and detail, this how-to for Debian works great too.

1 .- An Awesome New World: Installing Awesome WM

sudo apt-get install awesome

Yup, thats it…

2 .- Wait, you are probably wondering: How do I set Awesome as default in slim (the #! Session Manager)?

sudo vi /etc/slim.conf

Now find an uncommented line that starts with “sessions" and change it to:

sessions    awesome

Remember to edit in vi() you need to hit i and edit, and then Esc to exit Insert mode and then :wq to write and quit.

To make this desicion permanent you will have to do the following on the command line:

sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-session-manager x-session-manager  /usr/bin/awesome 50

You can double check if you want using the following:

sudo update-alternatives --config x-session-manager

3 .- One last thing: Login to Awesome

Use Super+x to logout and then in slim(), the login manager, press F1 to make sure you select Awesome as your window manager.

Now go be Awesome!