Sway Power-User Configuration

Sway is a Wayland compositor that speaks the i3 config language almost verbatim. If you migrated from i3, most of your ~/.config/i3/config works unchanged. If you're starting fresh, you get a tiling compositor with solid HiDPI support, no Xorg dependency, and a mature ecosystem built around wlr-protocols. This guide wires together a complete daily-use setup: Waybar for the status bar, swaylock for screen locking, swayidle for automatic idle actions, and grim/slurp for screen capture.

Installing Sway and Core Utilities

Debian / Ubuntu (22.04+)

sudo apt install sway waybar swaylock swayidle swaybg \
  grim slurp wl-clipboard mako-notifier fonts-font-awesome

Fedora 38+

sudo dnf install sway waybar swaylock swayidle swaybg \
  grim slurp wl-clipboard mako fonts-awesome-cron

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S sway waybar swaylock swayidle swaybg \
  grim slurp wl-clipboard mako ttf-font-awesome

Log out of your current session. At the display manager or TTY login, select Sway as the session type, or run sway from a bare TTY.

Base Sway Configuration

Sway reads ~/.config/sway/config. Copy the system default first, then edit it:

mkdir -p ~/.config/sway
cp /etc/sway/config ~/.config/sway/config

The file is i3-compatible syntax. Key settings to tune immediately:

# Set modifier key (Mod4 = Super/Win, Mod1 = Alt)
set $mod Mod4

# Preferred terminal and app launcher
set $term foot
set $menu wofi --show drun --prompt 'Run'

# Font for window titles
font pango:JetBrains Mono 10

# Natural scrolling and tap-to-click on touchpad
input type:touchpad {
    tap enabled
    natural_scroll enabled
    dwt enabled
}

# Per-output resolution and scale (adjust to your monitor name)
output eDP-1 resolution 2560x1600 scale 1.5

# Wallpaper
output * bg /usr/share/backgrounds/sway/Sway_Wallpaper_Blue_1920x1080.png fill

Find your output name with swaymsg -t get_outputs and your input device name with swaymsg -t get_inputs.

Replacing the Default Bar with Waybar

Comment out the built-in bar { … } block in your sway config and launch Waybar instead:

# In ~/.config/sway/config — replace the bar block with:
exec_always --no-startup-id waybar

Create Waybar's config directory and start with the packaged example:

mkdir -p ~/.config/waybar
cp /etc/xdg/waybar/config ~/.config/waybar/config
cp /etc/xdg/waybar/style.css ~/.config/waybar/style.css

A minimal, functional ~/.config/waybar/config that covers the essentials:

{
  "layer": "top",
  "position": "top",
  "modules-left": ["sway/workspaces", "sway/mode"],
  "modules-center": ["clock"],
  "modules-right": ["pulseaudio", "network", "battery", "tray"],
  "clock": {
    "format": "{:%a %d %b  %H:%M}",
    "tooltip-format": "{:%Y %B}\n{calendar}"
  },
  "battery": {
    "states": { "warning": 20, "critical": 10 },
    "format": "{capacity}% {icon}",
    "format-icons": ["󰂎", "󰁺", "󰁼", "󰁾", "󰂀", "󰂂", "󰁹"]
  },
  "network": {
    "format-wifi": "{essid} ({signalStrength}%) 󰤨",
    "format-ethernet": "{ipaddr} 󰈀",
    "format-disconnected": "Disconnected 󰤭"
  },
  "pulseaudio": {
    "format": "{volume}% {icon}",
    "format-muted": "󰝟",
    "format-icons": { "default": ["󰕿", "󰖀", "󰕾"] },
    "on-click": "pavucontrol"
  }
}

Reload Sway ($mod+Shift+c) to see Waybar replace the default bar.

Screen Locking with swaylock

swaylock is a Wayland-native screen locker. Create ~/.config/swaylock/config:

color=1e1e2e
ring-color=89b4fa
key-hl-color=a6e3a1
text-color=cdd6f4
inside-color=1e1e2e
font=JetBrains Mono
show-failed-attempts
ignore-empty-password

Test it immediately to verify your login password works before automating it:

swaylock --config ~/.config/swaylock/config

Add a keybinding in your sway config:

bindsym $mod+shift+l exec swaylock --config ~/.config/swaylock/config

Automatic Idle Actions with swayidle

swayidle watches for compositor idle signals and runs commands at defined timeouts. It also hooks into systemd's logind to handle lid close and system sleep. Add this to your sway config:

exec swayidle -w \
  timeout 300 'swaylock --config ~/.config/swaylock/config' \
  timeout 360 'swaymsg "output * dpms off"' \
  resume 'swaymsg "output * dpms on"' \
  before-sleep 'swaylock --config ~/.config/swaylock/config' \
  lock 'swaylock --config ~/.config/swaylock/config'

• timeout 300: lock after 5 minutes of idle.
• timeout 360: turn off displays 1 minute after locking.
• resume: turn displays back on when activity resumes.
• before-sleep: lock before the system suspends (requires logind integration).
• lock: respond to loginctl lock-session from other processes.

The -w flag tells swayidle to wait for swaylock to grab the input before the display powers off, preventing a brief flash of the unlocked desktop.

Idle Inhibit for Full-Screen Applications

Sway can automatically suppress idle when a window is full-screen — essential for video playback. Add to your sway config:

# Inhibit idle when any window is fullscreen
for_window [class=".*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen
for_window [app_id=".*"] inhibit_idle fullscreen

For finer control, applications can set the zwp_idle_inhibit_unstable_v1 protocol hint directly (Firefox and mpv do this natively on Wayland). You can also manually inhibit idle for the focused window:

bindsym $mod+shift+i inhibit_idle open

Screen Capture

Full-Screen and Region Screenshots

grim captures Wayland output; slurp provides interactive region selection. Add these bindings:

# Full screenshot to ~/Pictures
bindsym Print exec grim ~/Pictures/screenshot-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).png

# Region screenshot — click-drag to select area
bindsym $mod+Print exec grim -g "$(slurp)" \
  ~/Pictures/screenshot-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).png

# Region screenshot piped directly to clipboard
bindsym $mod+shift+Print exec grim -g "$(slurp)" - | wl-copy

Screen Recording

Install wf-recorder for GPU-accelerated Wayland screen recording:

# Arch
sudo pacman -S wf-recorder
# Fedora
sudo dnf install wf-recorder
# Ubuntu/Debian (may need PPA or build from source on older releases)
sudo apt install wf-recorder

# Record selected region to file (Ctrl+C to stop)
bindsym $mod+r exec wf-recorder -g "$(slurp)" -f ~/Videos/record-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S).mp4
bindsym $mod+shift+r exec pkill -SIGINT wf-recorder

Verification

After editing, reload the config without logging out:

swaymsg reload

Check that all exec'd processes started correctly:

swaymsg -t get_tree | grep -E 'waybar|swayidle'
journalctl --user -b | grep -E 'sway|waybar|swayidle|swaylock'

Trigger the lock manually and confirm display power-off follows roughly 60 seconds later:

loginctl lock-session

Troubleshooting

swaylock shows a black screen and accepts no input

This usually means swaylock isn't installed setuid or PAM isn't configured. On Arch, ensure /etc/pam.d/swaylock exists (the package creates it). On Debian/Ubuntu, reinstall the package to trigger the postinst script.

Waybar doesn't show after reload

Check for a conflicting second instance: pkill waybar then swaymsg reload. Also validate your JSON config with waybar --log-level debug 2>&1 | head -40 — a trailing comma in JSON will silently prevent startup.

Screen doesn't turn off during idle

Confirm swayidle is running: pgrep -a swayidle. If an application holds an idle inhibitor (check with swaymsg -t get_tree | grep inhibit), DPMS will be suppressed. Also verify the compositor has DPMS support enabled — it's on by default, but some GPU drivers on older kernels can interfere.

grim captures a blank image on multi-monitor setups

Specify the output explicitly: grim -o eDP-1 screenshot.png. List available outputs with swaymsg -t get_outputs | grep name.