Cozy Beginner Sway Configuration

2025-10-07

09:36. Got up. Went downstairs. Took my pills. Took a shower. Went back upstairs, gathered laundry, and started a load.

10:00. Got on laptop and installed Sway.

sudo dnf group install sway-desktop-environment

Enabled tap-to-click and natural scroll. Use U.S. English, Israeli Hebrew, and Russian keyboard layouts; switch between them with Super+Space.

# ~/.config/sway/config

input * {
	tap enabled
	natural_scroll enabled
	
	xkb_layout "us,il,ru"
	xkb_variant ",,"
	xkb_options "grp:win_space_toggle"
}

Enabled screenshots. Super+P captures the whole screen; Super+Shift+P captures a region of the screen. All screenshots get sent to both ~/Pictures/Screenshots/ as well as teh clipboard, just like on GNOME.

# ~/.config/sway/config

# Screenshots
bindsym $mod+p exec grim - | tee ~/Pictures/Screenshots/screenshot-$(date +%s).png | wl-copy
bindsym $mod+Shift+p exec slurp | grim -g - - | tee ~/Pictures/Screenshots/screenshot-$(date +%s).png | wl-copy 

Lock screen with Super+L.

# ~/.config/sway/config

bindsym $mod+l exec swaylock

11:30. Made oatmeal and a cup of cranberry pomegranate Yorkshire Gold tea.

12:15. Ate oatmeal with pumpkin butter and walnuts. Drank tea with sugar.

Sway: Launch Flatpaks with Rofi.

# ~/.config/sway/config

# Your preferred applicaation launcher
set $menu rofi -show drun

Suspend laptop when closed. Uncomment the following code.

# ~/.config/sway/config

exec swayidle -w \
         timeout 300 'swaylock -f -c 000000' \
         timeout 600 'swaymsg "output * power off"' resume 'swaymsg "output * power on"' \
         before-sleep 'swaylock -f -c 000000'

13:00. Swapped my load to the dryer. Added Mom's first load to the washer. Called Wellbeing Center for my pickup time tomorrow morning: 07:40.

Went to Walmart. Got several things: Cilantro, pumpkin butter, sweet potatoes, soy sauce, frozen broccoli, frozen stir fry vegetables, AA batteries, maple syrup, and a Monster. Went to CVS Pharmacy and got my mom's pills. Went to Price Chopper and got some medium picante sauce, because we forgot to get it. Drank a Monster on the way home.

16:00. Returned home. Put up groceries. Swapped laundry load. Got Sway to display the battery percentage in the top right corner of the screen.

# ~/.config/sway/config

status_command while date +"%Y-%m-%d %X $(cat /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/capacity)%"; do sleep 1; done

16:30. Pushed Sway configs to my dotfiles repository. Moved laundry to the dryer and started the last load.

17:30. Friend linked me to a YouTube video. I didn't watch it. I'm trying to drastically cut back on my YouTube views, because I don't want to do business with Google at all. Opened a Yuengling beer. The cans with the caps are hard to open!

Switch between dark mode and light mode automatically.

sudo dnf install darkman
systemctl --user enable --now darkman.service

Currently, I do not know how to configure darkman, so I will switch to dark mode manually.

gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface color-scheme 'prefer-dark'

18:00. Sway is still missing some features, like auto-mounting removable drives, and showing the current keyboard layout/input method. Added nmtui so I can connect to WiFi easily.

sudo dnf install NetworkManager-tui

Changed %X (AM/PM) to %T (24-hour) in my Sway config under status_command. It's easier to glance at. I'm too used to 24-hour time.

19:00. Ate a bowl of whole wheat spaghetti with generous amounts of cashew parmesan. Sopped up the sauce with two slices of whole wheat bread. Answered an email from a friend. Added a wallpaper to my desktop.

20:00. I learned that images need to go within the <figure> tag in order to be sized properly with Readable CSS. Watched All in the Family on Jellyfin.

<figure>
  <img src="screenshot-fastfetch-fedora-42-sway.png" alt="Screenshot">
  <figcaption><code>fastfetch</code> on Sway desktop on Fedora 42.  
  Starry wallpaper.</figcaption>
</figure>

21:51. Pushed blog changes to Git. Went upstairs to bed.