Bluetile 0.5.2 (Tiling Window Manager) Released, Finally Supports Configuration [Ubuntu PPA]

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on Xmonad which is very easy to use out of the box as opposed to Xmonad and others who need a lot of configuration.

Even though you had almost everything you'd need with Bluetile, there was still something missing for those who like to tweak: configuration. But a new version of Bluetile was released which finally allows you to configure Bluetile:

We've uploaded the latest Bluetile 0.5.2 version to the WebUpd8 PPA so you can install it using the following commands (Ubuntu Lucid only - it fails to build on Karmic or Maverick):

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bluetile

If you're using Debian, you'll find some slightly older Bluetile debian packages HERE (but that version already supports customization).

Once you install Bluetile, press Alt + F2 and enter "bluetile" to run it.

More info on Bluetile | Credits for the image in the beginning of the post: Dons00

Install Bluetile In Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Via PPA Repository [Tiling Window Manager]

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on xmonad which brings the benefits of a tiling window manager to the users who don’t want to learn a new programing language to configure their window manager. A tiling window manager is a window manager with an organization of the screen into mutually non-overlapping frames, as opposed to the more popular approach of coordinate-based stacking of overlapping objects (windows) that tries to fully emulate the desktop metaphor. It is especially useful for large screens but it's very useful on basically any screen resolution.

We already covered Bluetile HERE so check out that post for more info.

Until now, installing Bluetile required a lot of time, compiling and so on, but now Bluetile has been uploaded to Debian unstable thanks to Joachim Breitner and for easy Ubuntu installation, I've added it to the WebUpd8 PPA so now you can install Bluetile in just a few seconds.

To add the WebUpd8 PPA and install Bluetile (Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx only!), run the following commands in a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8 && sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install bluetile

Then simply press "ALT + F2" and enter: "bluetile". In case the configuration window (dock) does not show up the first time, run "bluetile" again (it didn't show up the first time for me).

How To Install Bluetile In Ubuntu (Tiling Window Manager For X Based On Xmonad)

Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Bluetile is a tiling window manager for X based on xmonad. Bluetile automatically arranges the windows to tile the screen, maximizing screen use. I really like Bluetile because you don't have to login to a different session: all you have to do is normally login into your Gnome session and start Bluetile.


Bluetiles features:

• Hybrid approach: Stacking window layout & tiling layouts available
• Maximizing & minimizing windows in all layouts
• All features accessible from mouse, as well as keyboard
• Good multihead support
• Designed to integrate with the GNOME desktop environment

Bluetiles is not very easy to install but that's basically because there is no how-to (or a decent one anyway) for this so I decided to provide a post with full installation instructions - for Ubuntu (I've only tested it in Ubuntu Karmic).

Before we get started, take a look at these screenshots I've just took with Bluetiles:

And a video provided by the Bluetile website:

Screencast - Bluetile from Jan Vornberger on Vimeo.

1. Firstly, let's install everything we need and is available in the repositories.

Open a terminal and paste this:

sudo apt-get install build-essential checkinstall libghc6-network-dev libghc6-parsec-dev libghc6-mtl-dev libghc6-zlib-dev libghc6-glade-dev libghc6-gtk-dev ghc

2. Download and install Gtk2Hs

Download Gtk2Hs from HERE. Or, you can use this command instead for downloading the file:

wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/gtk2hs/gtk2hs-0.10.1.tar.gz

Then extract the archive and open a terminal, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run the following commands:

./configure
make
sudo checkinstall --fstrans=no --install=yes --pkgname=gtk2hs --pkgversion "0:10.1-12ubuntu3" --default

The last command from above will create a .deb file and install it, so you can easily remove / upgrade Gtk2Hs later on.

3. Download and install Haskell Cabal-Install in Ubuntu

You can download it from HERE or just run this command:

wget http://haskell.org/cabal/release/cabal-install-0.6.2/cabal-install-0.6.2.tar.gz

Then extract it, navigate to the folder where you extracted and run these commands:

./bootstrap.sh

sudo ln -s $HOME/.cabal/bin/cabal /usr/local/bin/cabal

4. Installing Bluetile

Run the following commands in a terminal:

cabal update
cabal install bluetile

Now you may want to close any Avant Window Navigator, Docky or Cairo Dock instances you may have running and finally run Bluetile:

~/.cabal/bin/bluetile

5. Using Bluetile.

Take a look at the keyboard shortcuts available HERE.


Update: you can now install Bluetile in Ubuntu 10.04 from a PPA repository!

Credits for the image in the beginning of the post: Dons00