Useful XMonad shortcuts

Knowing and customizing shortcuts is the essence of being productive with XMonad. To get some inspiration it’s helpful to look at how built-in and other shortcuts are defined.

In this tutorial we go over some shortcuts for XMonad:

1. built-in and useful shortcuts. ➡
2. Ubuntu-specific shortcuts. ➡

Built-in shortcuts

To avoid needless work and keep our XMonad config file short, we shouldn’t define shortcuts that are already built-in ➡ Cheat sheet. Nevertheless, it’s helpful to see how some of these are defined internally in case we need similar actions:

("M-<Space>", sendMessage NextLayout)

Use the next layout arrangement for the windows in your currently visible workspace

("M-S-<Space>", setLayout $ layoutHook myConfig)

Use the next layout arrangement for the windows in your currently visible workspace

("M-<Enter>", spawn $ terminal myConfig)

Open an app or run a script.

("M-t", withFocused (windows . W.sink))

Put a floating window back into your layout arrangement.

("M-S-q", io (exitWith ExitSuccess))

Close XMonad and log out.

More: In-depth XMonad shortcuts
More: EZ shortcuts
More: Screens, workspaces and windows
See: Default shortcuts source code

Some other useful shortcut examples to know about:

("M-f", spawn "firefox")

Open the Firefox browser with Mod + f.

("M-S-m", windows swapMaster)

Swap the current focused non-master window with the master window with Mod + Shift + m.

("M-a w", spawn "firefox -new-instance -p \"web\"")

Open a Firefox app instance for web stuff with Mod + a and then w.

("M-a S-w", spawn "firefox -new-instance -p \"work\"")

Open a separate Firefox app instance just for work with Mod + a and then Shift + w.

("M-a e", spawn "thunderbird")

Open the email app Thunderbird with Mod + a and then e.

Ubuntu specific shortcuts

("M-d v", spawn "nautilus ~/Videos/")

Open the directory “Videos” in the Nautilus file manager with Mod + d and then v.

("<XF86AudioMute>", spawn "amixer -D pulse set Master 1+ toggle")

Mute sound with the “Mute” multimedia key

("<XF86AudioLowerVolume>", spawn "amixer -D pulse set Master 10%-")

Decrease volume with the “LowerVolume” multimedia key

("<XF86AudioRaiseVolume>", spawn "amixer -D pulse set Master 10%+")

Increase volume with the “RaiseVolume” multimedia key

("M-<Escape> l", spawn "dm-tool lock")

Lock your Ubuntu session and ask for password to continue working with Mod + Esc and then l.

("M-o 0", spawn "xrandr --output eDP-1 --auto --output HDMI-1 --auto --right-of eDP-1")

Enable using two screens with Mod + o and then 0.

("M-o 1", spawn "xrandr --output eDP-1 --auto --output HDMI-1 --off --right-of eDP-1")

Enable using only the first of two screens with Mod + o and then 1.

("M-o 2", spawn "xrandr --output eDP-1 --off --output HDMI-1 --auto --right-of eDP-1")

Enable using only the second of two screens with Mod + o and then 2.

Ubuntu and other linux distributions may have problems with sound or screen controls. In that case we can run lower-level commands ourselves, bypassing the distribution’s apps. For example. the terminal app amixer allows us to set your sound setting via the commandline and is an alternative to a graphical sound settings window. Similarly, the terminal app xrandr allows us to set up and control multiple monitors via the commandline.
More: In-depth XMonad shortcuts
See: List of all multimedia keys
More: EZ shortcuts
More: How to use Amixer
More: How to use Xrandr