First, install it for GDM – see Ratpoison doesn't appear in GDM menu. Create /usr/share/xsessions/ratpoison.desktop
[Desktop Entry] Name=Ratpoison Comment=This session logs you into Ratpoison Exec=/usr/bin/ratpoison TryExec=/usr/bin/ratpoison Icon= Type=Application X-Ubuntu-Gettext-Domain=ratpoison-session
Since I find C-t to be a useful key to create new tabs in Firefox, I decided to use the “§” key aka “section” (see SwissGermanKeyboard). (To discover the names of keys use the escape key—by default this is C-t—and the key you want; the error message will name it.)
In my .ratpoisonrc file, I use “section” as the escape key, define two commands I use a lot, define ⌘⇥ to get me the next window and ⇧⌘⇥ to get me the previous window. I leave some space at the bottom for applets in trayer:
escape section bind e exec emacs bind f exec x-www-browser definekey top M-Tab next definekey top M-ISO_Left_Tab prev unmanage panel set padding 0 0 0 26
When initializing my X11 session, I start trayer running nm-applet for the wireless connection using my .xsessionrc file:
( sleep 1; \
trayer --align right --edge bottom --distance 0 \
--expand true \
--transparent true --alpha 128 --tint 0 \
--SetDockType true --SetPartialStrut true &
nm-applet & ) &Back in the old days I used the following config.
In my .Xmodmap file I defined Caps Lock to be F13:
! CapsKey
clear Lock
! keycode 66 = Undo Redo
! Use it as ratpoison command key!
keycode 66 = F13In my .ratpoisonrc I used F13 as the command file. Most of the commands just call shell scripts with the same name as the command. That made customizing them easier.
escape F13
alias www exec web-browser
bind w www
alias wwwutf8 exec web-browser u
bind W wwwutf8
alias xtermutf8 exec xterm-utf8
bind C xtermutf8
alias root exec root
bind u root
bind o windows
alias windowmenu exec windows-menu
bind O windowmenu
bind c exec aterm
bind m exec phoenixInteresting in this respect was my use of the text browser w3m. I called it via the web-browser script. It got started using the -B option (to start with the bookmarks), and when running under X and given the u parameter, it would use an xterm in UTF-8. Without the need to use UTF-8, it would use aterm instead of xterm, however. I did that so I could continue using the script later when I switched from xterm to aterm. (Obviously all the UTF-8 stuff was useless, then, too.) Instead of w3m I had to use the w3m-m17n, too.
#! /bin/bash
# GEOM="-geometry 155x55"
if [ -z "$DISPLAY" ]; then
PROG=w3m
if [ "u" == "$1" ]; then
URL=$2
else
URL=$1
fi
elif [ "u" == "$1" ]; then
PROG="xterm-utf8 -name web-browser $GEOM -bg #243 -fg NavajoWhite -e w3m-m17n"
URL=$2
else
PROG="aterm -name web-browser $GEOM -bg #342 -fg NavajoWhite -e w3m"
URL=$1
fi
if [ -z "$URL" ]; then
URL=-B
fi
$PROG $URLAnd the xterm-utf8 script made sure to call the uxterm binary and use an appropriate font.
#!/bin/sh
exec uxterm \
-bg '#003' \
-fn '*-unifont-*--16-*-iso10646-1' \
$*