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Check the postgresql service is running - I think ubuntu/mint and the like start the service when you install postgresql (assuming SystemD)
#> systemctl status postgreql.service
If it's not enabled, repeat above with 'enable' instead of 'status'
The json file (cmscfg.json) is in the right place and correct
- my connectionURI line reads postgresql://dzcms@localhost:5432/...... not daz3d:<password>@localhost
- drop the password bit, and it'll fall back to asking for validation via dialog
The how to was made up of lots of peoples install howtos - I trusted if they posted it, they'd done it that way. Unfortunately I've not had any feedback from Linux daz users since I posted the howto - noone comes to this forum unless things break for them.
Run Daz with
#> WINEPREFIX=<path to wine bottle/prefix> wine <path to dazstudio.exe>
to ensure correct wine prefix is set, just running the exe, Wine may be using a preconfigured distro default.
Maybe missing fonts?
You can try using winetricks to install fonts you could ensure corefonts is installed with winetricks (or as last resort allfonts)
It might just be a daz script that needs to run in a window merely because it can't be run without creating a window but there's nothing to put in it.
If it's persistent across uses of Daz (i.e. next time you run it - then I'd worry more)
Still having problems?, try to run the Daz installer again.
#> WINEPREFIX=<path to wine prefix you want to install to> wine <path to dazstudioinstaller.exe>
I sometimes have to run daz a couple of times in a row for it not to crash on startup, same for DIM - and I've had the installer bork on some ocassions and run fine right after.
Hi again,
I reninstalled everything, this time using DAZ install manager (that, by the way, works perfect). Still, PostgreSql doesn't work inside Daz. However, I have additonal information. I checked and checked again the PostgreSQL installation in my Ubuntu and everythig is running correctly. The service runs at start-up, the user daz3d is set correctly with superuser privileges, the database dazcontent is set correctly. Port is correct. User is assigned to the database.
Also DAZ somehow sees this connection. In fact, the log in window only appears if the file cmscfg.json contains the correct info. If I change anyhting in that file, the log in widow won't appear anymore. If I revert it to the right content, the log in window when I start Daz shows up again. However, as I mentioned before, even though the log in window shows up, the log in returns an error of invalid log in credentials. Despite the log in appearing, immediately before it shows up, I still get a warning that PostgreSQL connection is not working. As someone mentioned in a post above, I also created a symbolic link to cmscfg.json in Wine/64bit_prefix/drive_c/ProgramData/DAZ 3D/CMS/. That didn't help.
In short, I'm pretty sure PostgreeSQL in set up correctly in my machine but DAZ still can't use it as something blocked the connection. I have a firewall (Open Snitch) but I disabled it and this made no difference.
Anything else I can try?
Thank you
Run
#> sudo netstat - tulpn | grep LISTEN
I get entries for 5432 on localhost(127.0.0.1) and ::1:5432 for [PID of]/postgres
also it's listening to 9455 and 9456 for [pid of] Dazstudio.exe if running.
Not sure how informative this is though.
Beyond this, I'm a little stumped.
I'm still stuck. I believe the PostgreSQL service actually works between DAZ and the local server but the external connections are blocked. I did several tests and figured out that if the service runs correctly and everything is set correctly, Daz behaves as the Postgre connection is running okay, but it then fails when it tries to connect externally to log in. If anything is set wrong (such as the port, or the service is stopped) Daz behaves differently and tells me that there is no Postgre running and doesn't even allow me to try to log in.
I have limited time now but I will make more tests as soon as I have the chance. I will report back if succefull. In the meantime, thanks for your help so far.
I sometimes think the Wine setup can be touchy, I have several Daz wine prefixes, 32bit, 64bit (both with Daz-dim also installed as well as the Beta) then I have two other 64bit prefixes, one with 4.10, one with another copy of 4.11 - both theses do not have dim so are isolated and frozen - the 4.11 one will not connect to the CMS - which is odd, as I have the config dirs (Application Data) softlinked in to all prefixes from the same location so the settings are identical.
So was anyone here able to get iray running with with their Nvidia GPU and Studio 4.11 or 4.12? The last version that lets me choose GPU for rendering was 4.10. Even with the latest Nvidia drivers I only get CPU as option in 4.11 and newer. GPU for OpenCL gets recognized though and simulations work perfectly thanks to Khral's solution (many thanks).
What is your GPU, and which drivers are you using?
I was expecting it to sort itself out eventually (as things often do on a rolling distro - then break again later). I spent the last month doing one figure with and HDRI images for the Freebie Wiki Image party, (average render time at 15 minutes on CPU) so it hasn't been a niggling issue.
Yup, I get the same. 4.10 only presents GPU as a render option - and I've the Beta installed with 4.11 and two extra Wine Bottles, one with 4.10 and a second 4.11. None but 4.10 presents the GPU as an option.
Archlinux, Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 driver version 430.40-5, Wine Staging 4.14-1
Nvidia 750Ti with the 4.15.27 drivers since any after those caused some problems with my Mint installation so far.
Hey, I guess it's a somewhat of a relief that you have that problem too so it means that I didn't wreck something and it's rather just some incompatibility, lol.
OH and also interestingly, some other software like the recent (windows) version of the upscaler program Waifu2x does not recognize CUDA on the system while the older one version does. I know there are Linux versions for it but I just used it as quick test since it was just another CUDA based program I remember having on my old Windows machine, so I took it to test things. So I guess there's some recent Windows CUDA library part that is not compatible with Wine at the moment. Would be interesting to see others testing recent version CUDA programs with Wine but it seems so very niche still that it's not easy to find a lot of info.
I assumed it was a library incompatibility for some time and expected it would straighten out - but it's been several months.
Do you have an address for the version of waifu2x you were having issues with? (Not familiar with the tool - I did a search but came across several versions #(a -caffe version and references to a Torch based version) plus and a couple of web-based browser ones.
The caffe version. https://github.com/lltcggie/waifu2x-caffe/releases
I think it may have been version 1.1.8 from late 2016 that ran but unfortunately I overwrote it with the recent version, thinking it would work too. So can't say for sure without going through several versions again to test which works. It's also extremely picky with the Wine versions since apparently not every Wine Staging works despite Staging being the CUDA enabled one. So yeah, Windows CUDA is just in general really mainly a thing of pure luck to get running with Wine but hey, tinkering around is part of the fun why we're doing this here, right? lol
I don't know about tinkering - I try to avoid doing that without need as I nearly always muck up my system.
But, having used 'Linux almost solely for 19 years, I'm used to I.T. acrobatics without a safety net*.
* Not that there's much of one on Windows, where the standard answer is 'reinstall'.
But pure luck, I'd agree. Daz and Dim only run without crashing once out of 3 times quite often.
I know that sort of thing can get annoying at some point but I'm still quite new to Linux stuff so I kinda just enjoy the ride, trying to get things running and stuff with my limited noob abilities but I see it a bit as a game :p Also, it's actually quite rewarding to see stuff running on it that was never meant to run on it in the first place. But I wish I started diving in to Linux stuff earlier when I had way more free time.
I switched over from Windows in 1999 - back then, everything was a project to get running. I remember I had to compile a video player from source (and spend ages getting it to playback efficiently - and with sound) so I could watch my DVDs.
I recall trying to get graphics on the console* (that's the screen it boots to when you are not running a login manager/display manager - I think Mint uses Lightdm) I managed to completely wreck my bootup settings.
* You can play videos on the console with mpv set to output to the framebuffer -which is fun - video with no windows (definitly works on OSS GPU drivers, but this never works for me with proprietary Nvidia).
I've been toying with the idea of switching distro for the first time in years (to Void Linux) but I'll probably wait until I'm doing a new build.
The cuda patches for wine only supports up to cuda 7. The Iray version in 4.11 is based on cuda 9 and 4.12 is on cuda 10.1.
Yeah Linux was even way more hands-on back then but I kinda like how you now have a lot more possibilities if you're not in the mood for really diving deeply into things while still having also the possibility of go all in if you have the time and interest for it. All in all it's been a fun ride for me so far! Also, mpv really is a lot of fun too and you get used to the interface really quickly too (in my opinion). Just love how you can customize literally everything to fit your needs.
DAMN. That is quite a letdown but I hope development will continue for the CUDA part in Wine... Just a damn shame that it's apparently not used by many so far which most likely is causing it to be really low priority in development.
Still, big thanks for that info, especially since it seems like you registered just for that post!
So was anyone here able to get iray running with with their Nvidia GPU and Studio 4.11 or 4.12? The last version that lets me choose GPU for rendering was 4.10. Even with the latest Nvidia drivers I only get CPU as option in 4.11 and newer. GPU for OpenCL gets recognized though and simulations work perfectly thanks to Khral's solution (many thanks).
Thanks for that tidbit of info.
Glad I kept a Studio 4.10 prefix around then (despite the ui sliders not working as well).
I'm not to concerned about the lack of GPU Iray - what worries me is Wine falling behind on the required version of CUDA needed to run dForce.
I've gotten pretty well dependant on dForce - don't want to have to go back to fighting with poor skirt rigging.
Trying to install 4.11 onto Ubuntu 18.04.
After all -- succeded.
My setup is:
Software: Ubuntu 18.04, kernel 5.0.0-27-lowlatency, Postgresql 9.4 and 11.5, wine-4.15 (Staging), nVidia driver 435.21 (run-file), ZFS;
Hardware: Ryzen 2600, 32GB RAM, 500GB SSD.
The most unclean moment: DIM and DAZ use one flexible and configurable ORM wrapper to access the database, and Connect/Cloud -- another, which is a bit hardnailed. First one can use any valid URI and connect to any database. Second, ignoring password, at least, and one user reported, that it always use 'Content' database.
PostgreSQL version have no value at all, if it actual. So you can use any from 9.x to 11.x; just install appropriate postgresql-contrib package.
But, you STRICKLY NEED to allow non-auth connections from localhost.
So run
find lines
and replace md5 with trust
You need this only for local IP connections. Leave local socket (peer) connection intact!
Now, you will need to figure out port number:
Remember this number. But I highly suggest use standard 5432 port.
Now, restart database server:
Connect to db-server using psql:
insert next script in console (it possible to insert all strings at once; if last string not run by itself -- just press Enter)
This script removes database and user and create them again. Extention citext will be created with default postgresql parameters.
Now, file cmscfs.json
So, now you must see "Metadata updating" message and yellow progress bar in DAZ status line, and be able to log in.
Sadly, newest IRAY is hardnailed to CUDA 10.1, which comes only with 435 drivers, but to no avail.
2019-09-07 23:42:14.275 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray ERROR - module:category(GPU:RENDER): 0.0 GPU rend error:
2019-09-07 23:42:14.275 Iray INFO - module:category(GPU:RENDER): 0.0 GPU rend info : Found 0 GPUs with vendor's API.
2019-09-07 23:42:14.292 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray WARNING - module:category(CUDA:RENDER): 0.0 CUDA rend warn : CUDA module initialization failed.
2019-09-07 23:42:14.292 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray WARNING - module:category(CUDA:RENDER): 0.0 CUDA rend warn : cudaRuntimeGetVersion returned with error 'initialization error'
<cut>
2019-09-07 23:42:17.151 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend info : NVIDIA display driver version: 337.88
2019-09-07 23:42:17.151 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray WARNING - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend warn : CUDA module initialization failed with error 'initialization error' (0x3); iray photoreal can only run in CPU mode. Please update your NVIDIA driver (www.nvidia.com).
2019-09-07 23:42:17.152 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend error: NvAPI call NvAPI_EnumTCCPhysicalGPUs returned an error:
2019-09-07 23:42:17.152 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray ERROR - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend error:
2019-09-07 23:42:17.152 Iray INFO - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend info : Using iray plugin version 4.8-beta, build 312200.3564 n, 23 Feb 2019, nt-x86-64-vc14.
2019-09-07 23:42:17.152 WARNING: ..\..\..\..\..\src\pluginsource\DzIrayRender\dzneuraymgr.cpp(302): Iray WARNING - module:category(IRAY:RENDER): 1.1 IRAY rend warn : There is no CUDA-capable GPU available to the iray photoreal renderer.
For examle, with 410 and 430 drivers IRAY can detect CUDA as version 10.0, but refusing to use it.
Cuda-Z screenshot attached.
Hi maelstrom
Nice job - I'd have popped in sooner, but, as usual Daz forum s/w fogot to notify me on activity on this thread. It's often quiet unless there's a problem
- and someone with a little understanding of Sql - Excellent!
I know I was mostly chanting noted incantations with my fingers crossed when it came to setting up CMS.
I'm on Archlinux, currently Nvidia 435.21-13 - but while I've still got dForce (thankfully) I think I'm still only getting CPU renders. It seems while Daz has moved onto CUDA 10, Wine-staging in stuck on an older CUDA, which is why Linux reports CUDA 10 and Daz in Windows can see 10, but we're not getting 10.
Hi, Gaff! Nice to meet you.
Thanks for your appreciation of my skills ) My script based on @Chanteur-de-Vent solution.
I believe, that CUDA under wine-staging works fine, as CUDA-Z reports, without looking back on supported version 7, as wine reporting to console while trying to run DazStudio. And I pretty sure, that Daz3D use some libraries, that not passed from native. But without having an expertise in using CUDA on any system, I cannot investigate this issue on my own.
Also, there is possibility to run all DAZ-related software in separate container, with lxd or systemd-nspawn (lxd for me looks much prettyer). Such solution makes DAZ most independed from host system, software updates, and let user to get all files in consistent state for backup at once, like an atomized unit.
You're welcome.
It's unfortunate, but Linux Daz users don't hang out here, and don't come here except when they are having problems.
I attempted to put together a thread Installation script - I posted the alpha back when there was a little life here, asking for input on it, but mostly ended up doing the work myself.
If you have the time, would you mind casting an eye over the most recent and maybe tidying the PostgreSQL bit for best practice (not point adding formatting, forum only allows text, which limits the presentation while editing).
I'm interested in the containers idea, but what advantage would that afford?
LXD
Systemd-nspawn
Yeah, the former looks the better option, the latter is referred to as 'chroot on steroids', which makes me think of temp clean environments for compilation.
Granted, being on Archlinux as I am, sometimes breaks Daz Studio as often the updates make an old library out of date once in a while, but only for a day or two (in my experience so far, anyway). A lot of windows software is developped on sets of libraries and never get updated, so a more controlled environment is preferable to breakage, but DAZ seem to keep up to date (too so, with this CUDA problem).
Might be worth it though, if you came across the perfect linux distro to run wine on, Debian stable is out, it's Wine was way behind so that when 4.11 was in beta and Wine hit a new version, the combination fixed the Studio Slider issue (still can be seen with whatever Wine version and Studio 4.10), but Debain Wine was too old to give it's Daz users that lovely boost (waahey, props and figures sliding all around the stage for the first time on Daz Studio with linux like a Jan Svankmajer film).
I do miss the mulit-wine version ability of PlayonLinux, but I dropped that when they switched to Java based UI. I think I read there's a way to do it without, but I've not gotten around to it.
I have several prefixes :
Daz32 - the 32bit Studio, Dim32 and main hexagon and also little tools like rsr-png converter for old runtime image format - also Bryce and Carrara - but they don't work usably on Linux.
Daz64 - the 64bit equivalent - Studio 64, the Beta, and Dim64 - like Daz32 this gets updated as I run DiM from it
Daz64_4.11 - Previous stable release just in case - I actually use this a lot - Wine still hasn't got Windows threads down, they get tangled more often in the most recent release.
Daz64_4.10 - last version that GPU Iray works from - but only partially working sliders - some work, but mostly like trying to swim through cheddar.
If I'd been around when Daz Studio 3 was out, I'd have kept it too - didn't see any benefit to keeping a Studio 4.9.
I run Studio from the command line, benefit of that is if the ui stops responding, I have some clue as to why, and whether it's likely to return or it's just gone to sleep waiting for an interrupt like a dialog that doesn't exist or is in thread block.
The only gripe I have with Wine, is those awful stone-age file dialogs from the Windows 95 era - unecessary to inflict those on anyone - they never remember the location they were last in, they don't work like the rest of the Linux UI, and several decades behind the Windows application they work for, and even themed they're ugly.
Gaff, wasn't you attachment just plain text? Now it html.
Both of them just wrappers around kernel's lxc. Docker is a wrapper too )
Systemd-nspawn just a part of systemd. In some distributions it already installed with some base system package, as dependency, in others not. Anyway, it just tool to spawn lxc-based containers with systemd infrastructure.
LXD more complex solution, supporting freeze and thaw filesystem, snapshot and rollback, live migration, organizing via storage pools, and have a repos with ready container images. Like docker do, but without brain-squasing layer philosofy and ridiculous restrictions. More look like Proxmox, but distro-independent and no webUI. Also, lxd have tools for preparing, pushing and pooling images, git-like, as docker do. Whether with Proxmox you cannot have your own repository (at least for now), and systemd-nspawn does not have any tools for packaging and maintaining, leaving you all alone with shell.
I prefer lxd mostly for it's ability to handle ZFS natively. And simple packaging.
But it not necessary, until you don't wanna isolate your Wine, DAZ and PostgreSQL installation as atomized thing, and maintain a couple versions completely separated. As far I know, a couple of DAZ installations can use one DB without issues, when all contents locations are the same.
Is it?
Darn - I tried to save it as odt - import, but Daz forum say odt verboten, same with doc - it was copied off my DA journal page.
I tried Export, and picked one marked txt - but might also have said media wiki - WTF libreoffice? no simple export as text?
World = hell && handbasket.
Fixed and reattached - copied and pasted straight to text editor.
Ah, I've not paid a lot of attention to containers and such, I've not had any real need.
Oh, of course. All wine prefix 'My Documents' locations are just soft links to Documents folder (bit crap really, as now there's all sorts of files were before all I had was actual text documents - thing edge of the wedge of sloppy windows thinking if you ask me).
I've my Content and Runtimes softlinked into Documents from an external drive as well as I'm pushing nearly a full 2TB of content already - gonna need a new drive soon. I don't use Smart Content much, as a solution to being able to easily find and organise content, it failed to fix the real problem.
I've a couple of Content Libraries, the Primary Daz library is getting unwieldly to organise and for storage purposes, additionally, I've ones for the other shops, a freebie repo, one for free sci fi, one for animation and a couple others - used to have ultra organised set of 25 (Daz and Poser runtime sides make 50) - but so many slowed Studio up badly so now I keep it under ten.
Mediawiki is a formatted text, so in txt it saves as html.
But "Save as ..." menu will do exactly what you want, when "Text (*.txt)" fileformat choosen.
Me too )
Containers, in first of all, is lightweight virtualisation, where guest shares host's kernel. So, it is not possible to have linux containers on windows host and vice-versa. But, mostly, it simply another application, just restricted by cgroups, and nothing more. No excessive memory consumption, no balloning to retrieve it back, no virtualization overhead, no mandatory hardware support.
I running gitlab in container. Simple to backup, simple to start and stop, simple to transfer to another node (i have no one, but possibility... isn't charming?)
Also I had a vision of isolating skype, discord, telegram, browsers, steam and any other third-party apps to individual containers, but I am too lazy for it.
And I am not artist at all. Just linux devops. So I can't imagine, how much troubles DAZ content organizing scheme can bring up. But I like to help, if I can. So...
Maybe, you are pushing to yours ext.hd limit? External 2.5" HD's limit about 50 IOPS and 0,01MB/s and less transfer rate with hard random access. So it will be extremely slow in standard usage. Do you have any ssd to try? For mobility and speed you can use an USB3 cases for M.2 or SATA SSD.
Also, using ZFS with compression saves about 30-40% of space, dramatically increasing IOPS and have own realization of extremely effective cache.
Illustration for compression:
Real file size 9GB, as on screen shot. It mostly content for DAZ in standard installation, download cache removed.
I probably just wasn't paying attention, and just scanned the line and saw '.txt'
The slowdown with a lot of runtimes was prior to moving runtimes off /Home
I had People, clothes and multiple props runtimes/content libraries dependant on theme, broken up by source (Sharecg, MostdigitalCreations, etc.). Then I moved 'People' and Pose morphs I'd bought elsewhere into the Daz Content as I wasn't using them much due to being off on another runtime, then hair got moved.
I'm still running EXT4 (external drives in EXT3), being external, the drives cycle down power when not in use which is a little annoying on ocassion when i break off for a bit and come back, there's an obvious bit of stutter and a delay before content becomes navigable again - but I don't see the point in spending for quicker access merely on that basis.
I only have one SSD, and that is a 60GB one for / where it's needed, /home is internal 1TB HDD. Perhaps I'll switchto ZFS at some point, when I'm forced to invest in a larger drive. SSD have only recently started coming in useful large storage capacity, I'm still not that confident about HDD drive sizes larger than 3TB - all my drives are Western Digital, I had several Seagate failures, but every WD has been rock solid. Interface-wise, a lot are old USB2, a few are USB3, but I really don't have enough USB ports, so I don't think the USB3s are plugged into the best ports.
- I've only 23GB left of a 1.7TB for content - and that only counts Daz format content, not objs for import and other formats (995GB of organised content runtimes - rest is DIM download cache, archived installed content and not-yet installed content.
My Daz64 wine prefix is 7.4G, so ZFS compression is possibly worth almost 1G (I also have a couple of Daz related applications on that prefix too though, like Hexagon, for the the bridge to work).
Out of interest, what Desktop do you normally use?
Is it always the same one, or do you vary occasionally?
For the last several years, I'm mostly on i3wm, but use a lot of Plasma applications. I used to have a super configured Xmonad setup. All the major desktops just annoy me after a while, but I install them once in a while to see how things are progressing.
Old. But not obsolete.
So, remember two things: firstly, write perfomance on usual filesystem greatly degrades at ~85÷90% of capacity used, zfs pools will suffer about 80÷85%. But for home use it does not matter at all. And another thing: never use deduplication unless you sure having a lot of RAM. Oh, a third one: if you need an advise, just ask )
6÷12 TB tends to become mainline, and 6TB are best buy for a moment. Of course, you need GPT partitionning to use more then 2TB capacity, but all modern systems handle this well for years. But all of them are 3.5" form-factor.
Amazon have some 2.5" 4TB Samsung external drive.
WD and Hitachi niciest to use. Toshiba fine too, but Seagate bad to the bones, since 7200.8 series. you can see it by use hddscan, mhdd or victoria under windows/dos, and whdd under linux.
USB2 less reliable, and much slower for hdd. And it may corrupt your data while transfering.
For a moment, you can find some 2TB all-flash NVME drives, like Samsung 970 Evo or ADATA XPG SX8200 Pro for reasonable price, especially A-Data. And external boxes to fit 2x nvme into 2.5" form factor (4TB superspeed and silence!) with USB3.1 interface... Too expensive for me, but maybe someone find them usefull.
I have Daz, hexagon and all free downloadable content, so mine mostly textures, meshes and lightmaps. But one and only criteria for truth is an experiment.
If you can try to archive one of yours content folders (or a part of single), so gzip-3 shows about 5÷10% more compression rate than LZ4 (mainline in ZFS for now), but LZ, at least, twenty times faster.
The mouse... XFCE4. But I am looking in tilda dropdown terminal or firefox much more, than on desktop.
Once I tryed i3. It feels like… M'kay, it made for Aliens, by Predators. As ed/vi/vim. Now I am waiting for Wayland coming into mainstream, even with Utani, they both are humans, at all. (I suppose, that my english not so well to joking, but it so hard to not mentition
)
But tiling wm's is good idea anyway.
KDE too crashlike for me. Seriously, I never seen a stable KDE installation. And only heard it, from people, that using just little part, like wm or decorator.
Gmone 3 and Unity are resource-eating junk.
Cinnamon written on JS, and leaks constantly.
Mate eats a little bit more resources, than xfce, with no advantages.
Cairo or any mac-like docks look nice, and, usually, fine to use, but have no tray, or it looks crappy.
XFCE and Mate both fine, but cannot unite pinned app launcher and app button. And all docks able to integrate to their panes are abandoned or need compiling.
So, mice is my favorite.
Oh, it'll not be anytime soon - I've had my current drives for a fair few years - i just pulled the internal SDD and HDD out of the last sytem, put them in the new build and booted - had to reconfigure the boot Grub, and change the GPU driver, but beyond that, smooth switch.
Well, if you've an Nvidia card, there's no Wayland yet - otherwise I'd be on Sway, not i3 - KDE Plasma is glitchy on Nvidia drivers and only marginally better with KDE Openbox, Gnome is just annoying after a while - I kind of like the screen setup for multimonitor, but too much else annoys after a bit.
"Aliens by Predators"? Heh!! Tilingwms usually have some sort of indpendant screen (Gnome kind of has it one independant screen), Enlightenment is somewhere close, and there's Openbox multihead - but the rest are a dead loss. i3 is reliable and highly configurable I can lock tags to particular monitors and move them i can lock applications to particular tags and move them - a manual tiler, you can't easily configure any exotic layouts like you can with Awesome or Xmonad - I think I've tried every Window Manager and every desktop from FVWM to CLFSWM (now that's a weird one). Which reminds me, there's a new tiling wm I only read about recently (there's not many new these days, not for Xorg, anyway) 'wtftw' written in Rust.
I used to like Unity - it's not half as heavy as Gnome, and much more elegant - I used to use Ubuntu - I was following and waiting for UnityNext, when they cancelled it, I lost interest in Ubuntu and switched not long after. I've not used XFCE since earlier this decade.
I basically have my own desktop built out of KDE Apps and other bits and bobs - being a Mainframer of old, I'm more comfortable on the CLI a lot of the time - but for file management I just like Dolphin over the alternatives - I'd prefer to still have Konqueror though - tabs and one split isn't enough sometimes - especially in Runtime Content Management.
I don't need a dock or launcher - Rofi or dMenu are good enough - I've sxhkd (a hotkey daemon) run from xsession, and other things setup in xprofile, one of which then calls my startup script wm_startup which sets up everything else, including running Freedesktop startup applications using Dex dependant on which Window Manager I've launched or not at all if a desktop. It's simple, uncluttered and elegant.
I often install Gnome or KDE when a major new release is out, but they don't last long. I've kind of given up on floating (compositing or parenting) desktops.
Gaff, sorry for long answer.
Interesting concept!
For my workflow using pseudo-tiling like split screen for 2-4 equal rectangles and dropdown terminal like a bonus is enough.
also, I wishing to try some videoreg-like setup, with main app about 60÷75% (1 big + 4 horizontally + 4 vertycally + corner for second workspace will be quietly enough for me), and other apps in lessier windows, where switching will bring app at tile-0 while others displayed as preview. Oh, and systray... I have heavy doubts about it in such installation. But if I occasionally close some app to tray (Ctrl+Q for skype, e.g.), i desire to be able to return it back.
But most issuing moment is my unability to use tiny fonts. Actually, I use 120÷150% scaling factor, so, a FullHD 50" TV, a 2K 24" monitor and HD+ (1600x900) 14" notebook have almost same virtual resolution, slightly more than HDready (about 800p).
So, there simply no space for real tiling.
Sounds like what you want is Dynamic tiler with a Master window - where the in-focus window is always in the same position and size - you could definetly set that up in Xmonad - bit of a challenge there, you have to piece the configuration together in the functional programming language Haskell.
I too am having an increasing problem with 'tiny' I've always been shortsighted, now in my middle years I'm also long sighted too, so my font sizes have crept up and up.
A lot of people assume tilers are only for huge monitors with high resolutions - I've a pair of cheap monitors (too cheap, I bought them before the 3D addiction) with crappy 1920x1080 res and a LCD TV 1366x768 - I like the tiler metaphor mainly for the 'desktop' control of tag per screen and elegant window organisation. i3 defaults to vertical splits, but easy to switch to horizontal if I want - alternatively can do Tabbing, floating and fullscreen, different on different tags if i want, and no more annoying alt-tabbing looking for an open application - my File manager is bound to tag 1, terminals to tags 2,3 browser to 4, media (video , music) applications to 5, 9 & 0 (one for each monitor), the rest are application tags (mostly unassigned for dynamic use) - Kwin can kind of do this application binding.
Mostly I've only one app per screen - If I'd better resolution I could put the browser in half a screen (most pages have lots of useless space on a widescreen)
As to Skype - I've not used it in some time - las time, I noted how it doesn't like being unloaded - if you do so, it next loads up not logged in - dman annoying.
I am familiar with FP, backgrounding on Ërlang and Elixir. But an idea to keep yeat another compiler for yet another app are extremely dumb, and direct way to bloatwaring system. Everything must be able to use shell, python (which is common for lot of distributions), or integrateable script engines, like Lua or PascalScript, JS or plugins/addons to extend itself. Any other way too windows-like.
So, Awesome looks good enough to try.
My oftenly used scenario is skype/discord ⅓ screen and www-browser ⅔, but it is a compromise. And, as all compromises, it never satisfy both. Both browser and messenger or too small, or need scrolling. Real tiling just addsome space for price of window headers, so space, which is main problem in standard setups, tiling will never resolve.
Having more than one workspace and using shortcuts to switch them, and saving session to automatically launch all apps in their workspaces almost do same thing, that you have done. Floating looks cool, but it breaks tiling paradigm, referencing ordinary compositing.
And much more, any comfortable work possible in fullscreen or near it. You may tiling some sensors, weather forecast, player controls, etc... But them really dont need to be tiled, them make no sense and just consume a place to illustrate how things may be. It's not working setup, and never become, unless you use some monitoring for 1-3 parameters. But it very uncommon, isn't?
So for working tiling you need something like 25:10 proportion, or wider. Using really wide pane to tile windows comfortably, without annoying scrolling or tear down your eyes.
And that's all about.