d77void - river

This page is copied from docs on GitHub, where it is written and corrected; it is also on the documentation site. Changes made here are overwritten.

river is a dynamic tiling Wayland compositor. Its configuration is a
shell script, init, that runs riverctl commands; the layout (where windows
go) is drawn by a separate program, rivertile. Workspaces are tags, as in
dwm.

Login screen	greetd
Terminal	kitty
Bar	Waybar
Launchers	fuzzel, nwggrid, d77run
Notifications	SwayNotificationCenter
Lock screen	swaylock, with Super + T or after 5 minutes idle; screen off after 10
File manager, mail, browser	PCManFM, Geary, Brave

Where to change things

What	File
keys, programs started with the session, keyboard, window rules, layout	~/.config/river/init
the bar	~/.config/waybar/config_river.jsonc and the style files next to it
notifications	~/.config/swaync/
lock screen	~/.config/swaylock/config

Programs started with the session are the riverctl spawn lines. init runs
when river starts, so log out and in again after changing it (or run a single
riverctl command in a terminal to try it right away). The original is in
/etc/skel/.config/river/init.

Keys

Super is the modifier.

Keys	Action
Super + Shift + Return	terminal
Super + A	fuzzel (application launcher)
Super + N	nwggrid (application grid)
Super + R	d77run
Super + Shift + F	file manager
Super + M	mail
Super + W	web browser
Super + P	screenshot (grim)
Super + T	lock screen
Super + X	power menu
Super + Q	close window
Super + J / Super + K	focus next / previous window
Super + Shift + J / Super + Shift + K	swap with the next / previous window
Super + Return	move the window to the main area
Super + H / Super + L	shrink / grow the main area
Super + Shift + H / Super + Shift + L	one more / one fewer window in the main area
Super + arrows	put the main area at the top, right, bottom or left
Super + Space	float or tile the window
Super + F	full screen
Super + 1 … 9	go to tag
Super + Shift + 1 … 9	move window to tag
Super + 0	show all tags
Super + Shift + P	show or hide the scratchpad
Super + Shift + O	send the window to the scratchpad
Super + . / Super + ,	focus the next / previous monitor
Super + left / right / middle mouse button	move / resize / float a window
Super + F11	pass all keys to the window (again to return)
Super + Shift + E	exit river

Idle

After 5 minutes without input the screen locks (swaylock), after 10 it turns
off and comes back on with any input, and it always locks before the computer
suspends. This is /usr/bin/screenlock, started with the session.

On installations made from ISOs built before 16 October 2026 the screen
locks but never turns off. To fix it, install wlopm:

sudo xbps-install -S wlopm

and, in /usr/bin/screenlock, replace both swaymsg "output * power off"
and swaymsg "output * power on" with wlopm --off '*' and wlopm --on '*'.

Keyboard layout

In init:

riverctl keyboard-layout pt

Wallpaper

The line riverctl spawn "swaybg -i ~/Wallpaper/background1.png" sets it at
start-up; change the file name to another image in ~/Wallpaper/.