1
2
3
4

pw groupmod video -m user
pkg install sway swayidle swaylock-effects alacritty dmenu-wayland dmenu
mkdir ~/.config/sway
cp /usr/local/etc/sway/config.sample ~/.config/sway

Before starting sway, there are a few details that should be checked and taken care of:

  • install a proper font; otherwise, I only got rectangles instead of letters
  • adjust the keyboard layout since sway does not use the configred layout from the os
1

pkg install fira

Then add the line font Fira Mono Medium 11 at the end of the sway config. The layout can be configured by uncommenting this block (and adjusting the value):

1
2
3

input type:keyboard {
  xkb_layout "ch"
}

With that, sway should already be useable and start up with sway -c ~/.config/sway/config.

For alacritty, create a config in ~/.config/alacritty/alacritty.toml with the following content:

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

[font]
size = 11

[font.normal]
family = "Fira Mono"

[terminal.shell]
program = "/usr/local/bin/fish"

This results in an already pretty useable base system!