Using Qtile. Every day WORKFLOW and CONFIGURATION. The Python based LINUX window manager

The window manager Qtile in action. Configuration with Alacritty, Polybar, Thunar, Brave, Pywal and Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Teams, ChatGPT plus a Windows 11 VM. The LINUX window manager configured for my every day work. Similar appearance to Hyprland window manager.
THE ML4W DOTFILES MOVED FORM GITLAB TO GITHUB!
👉 ML4W Dotfiles for Hyprland: github.com/mylinuxforwork/dot...
Qtile is a Dynamic Window Manager based on the programming language Python.
qtile.org
Qtile is simple, fast and extensible. With a bit of a learning curve you are able to create and design your own personal user experience for your daily work. Qtile is very well documented. One of the best documentations of all available Window Managers.
docs.qtile.org/en/stable/inde...
The first part of the video is about my personal workflow and in the second part I will share some insight of my Qtile configuration.
THE ML4W DOTFILES MOVED FORM GITLAB TO GITHUB!
👉 ML4W Dotfiles for Hyprland: github.com/mylinuxforwork/dot...
My configuration looks a bit like the Hyprland window manager:
• Install HYPRLAND. Base...
Welcome to my channel! I'm Stephan Raabe, a Digital Marketing Professional with over 20 years of experience in B2B digital marketing, computer science, and web technologies.
Linux is an exceptional operating system that powers my business and personal life every day. It's stable, fast, and highly customizable to meet individual needs. On this channel, I share my Arch Linux setup, share experiences with differnet Linux distributions, featuring window managers like Hyprland and Qtile.
Whether you're a Linux enthusiast or someone looking to optimize your tech setup, there's something here for you. Subscribe and let's explore together!
👉 ML4W Dotfiles for Hyprland: github.com/mylinuxforwork/dot...
👉 ML4W Dotfiles Wiki: github.com/mylinuxforwork/dot...
👉 ML4W Hyprland Starter: github.com/mylinuxforwork/hyp...
👉 ML4W Hyprland Starter Wiki: github.com/mylinuxforwork/hyp...
👉 ML4W Hyprland Settings App: github.com/mylinuxforwork/hyp...
👉 Homepage: www.ml4w.com
👉 Discord: / discord
👉 ChatGPT Python Script: github.com/mylinuxforwork/cha...
00:00 In this video…
01:20 The Qtile Workflow
03:55 Floating Windows
04:45 Outlook, Teams, Brave and ChatGPT
06:00 Windows 11 Virtual Machine
06:45 Qtile configuration

[@mylinuxforwork]

If you like this video, please subscribe to my channel: 👉 www.youtube.com/@mylinuxforwork/?sub_confirmation=1 Watch the Arch Linux foundation video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/Y6mpn3psaJuiaM0

[@f.d.6675]

Very nice video showing the actual workflow. Gratuliere

[@mylinuxforwork]

👍

[@alexcolclough3001]

I really love this rice... have switched over to it and made some of my own changes to better suit me, but this is one of the cleanest ive ever seen for qtile.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you. Have fun with it.

[@thesaigoneer]

Liked and subscribed! Great vid, and man, I'll have to go through your dots. Super practical things in there. Qtile is still on the wishlist, but I got caught up Hyprland for now. Keep them coming!

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks for the feedback. Have also a video to Hyprland. Install HYPRLAND. Base installation on Arch Linux with Waybar, WOFI, Hyprpaper and KVM/QEMU support kzbin.info/www/bejne/jGjRgWCKpJVpaZI

[@gnudoc]

Liked and subscribed. Great presentation, thank you. I'll be reading your dotfiles with interest! The right side of your polybar seems very nice.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you. And don’t hesitate to add another commentin case of questions.

[@offensive-operator]

years using bspwm and you and your video just made me want to try qtile. it is beautiful

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you. Give it a try and test Qtile in a VM. Best way to check if it’s something for you. How’s your experience with bspwm?

[@offensive-operator]

really good so far but I already have more than 5 years using bspwm I think that's why I want to change LOL @@mylinuxforwork

[@cyberguy2025]

I have been using qtile for some time now, I love the fact that it is minimal and less resource hungry. tbh I love linux anyway regardless of WM, or DE. Awesome video and thank you

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks for your feedback.

[@cyberguy2025]

@@mylinuxforwork Your welcome

[@softwarewalaa]

Loved Your Work , Literally Very Thankful To You ❤

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you.

[@SteDenig]

Really great content, perfect presentation. Keep going! Greetings! 👍

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you so much for your feedback.

[@erichanson5628]

Amazing content!

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks.

[@DangerHiVolt]

Simply amazing

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks.

[@brederodes]

Great content!

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you.

[@JosenildoMarques01]

Very beautiful! I love it! I have never used Arch Linux before. I'll create a VM and give it a try. Danke schon!

[@mylinuxforwork]

Danke. Please try it with qemu/kvm

[@NickFields4]

I love it, TY ❤

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you.

[@thepathnotfound]

Amazing desktop

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you.

[@lionux6506]

Nice !!

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks.

[@abdoulayebalde2139]

You have a really nice config file. I love most of the thing you showed. I am using Qtile as well but I am not able to make the scratchpad work. I don't know what's the problem though. Nice work and keep uploading these nice videos. also show us how you integrated windows 11 on this. I really need a full explanation of that please. Thanks in Advance

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you. This is a good starting point: Windows 11 in a LINUX Virtual Machine. Full INSTALLATION Guide. Best integration into LINUX. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jZ6poaqmjJuLodE And also check my other videos about virtualization.

[@jgra_dev]

I love it. :)

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks.

[@Jeff_Seely]

You're configuration of my favorite window manager is stunningly gorgeous and highly functional. My workflow is the same as yours. I use Outlook, teams, and require Windows 11 to connect to factory automation with proprietary software. All of this looks really suitable! Which base installation distro of arch did you use? Thank you very much for your demonstration and have a good day.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks for your comment. You can just install Arch with the latest ISO.

[@patrickprucha5522]

Very nice looking and functional. Good Work! It must of taken some type just searching the backgrounds. I would be curious , from start to finish and only time spent on working your customization, how much time it actually took you.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you so much.

[@micleh]

Awesome! Your setup and default shortcuts are very close to how I configured my dwm, but yours is much nicer and more streamlined. I'm very much interested in how you prepare your configuration so that you can push it to gitlab (symbolic links, etc.). I'm a huge fan of reproducibility, since I reinstall systems on different computers frequently. My virt-manager can also be started easily (with win10 or 11) but yours is even more hassle-free. Maybe you can do a video on how you set it up. Thanks for your very useful and streamlined videos.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you so much. A video about my gitlab setup will definitely come. You can also check the video about my Windows 11 VM: WINDOWS 11 Virtual Machine with USB pass through, SHARED folders & RDP. KVM/QEMU and Virt-Manager kzbin.info/www/bejne/pYernKmubr9_gMU

[@micleh]

@@mylinuxforwork Hi. I just posted a comment about my problems with installing qtile via your scripts and dotfiles. I also gave precise information about missing packages, paths, etc. Has the comment been deleted?

[@mylinuxforwork]

@@micleh Hi. I see your comment as email notification but not on KZbin. Maybe the comment is too long. No problem. Let me read it and I’ll come back to you soon.

[@micleh]

@@mylinuxforwork I didn't know that comments could be too long. Thanks for taking your time.

[@mylinuxforwork]

@@micleh just read your long comment. Let me look into my script again. But I‘m planning a video about configuring Qtile from scratch. Plus a follow up video about to backup config files on github/gitlab.

[@original-bug]

Your video was easy to follow and really impressed me. Can you make another one for Debian-based systems, focusing on using Qtile? 😊

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks for your feedback. Debian is not my production platform. But maybe there is a time when I will install it and start some testing.

[@foxythemes]

Super organized and beautiful setup. Great job! What do you use to show line numbers in vim?

[@mylinuxforwork]

I use neovim and here is my config gitlab.com/stephan-raabe/dotfiles/-/blob/main/nvim/init.vim?ref_type=heads

[@MattCamp]

fellow Qtiler here.. I like your rice,, gonna have to go take a look at your dotfiles

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks. Have fun with it.

[@PLANTROON]

Thanks for the great qtile demonstration. I'd like to ask - how do you get GPU acceleration in WIndows 11 VM?

[@mylinuxforwork]

With GPU passthrough. I pass my second GPU Nvidia to the Windows 11 VM.

[@PLANTROON]

@@mylinuxforworkAh that explains it. Thanks :) no luck for me on Intel Xe laptop. I wanted the same setup as you have with tiling WM and Windows VM, but I had to stick with an old kernel. And upon sleeping and waking up the laptop, it would freeze up when SRIOV was enabled on the iGPU. Proper fixed support for this is supposed to land in kernel 6.8, so hopefully it actually does. Really disappointed with what Intel is doing, but alas, GPU vfio trickery is not meant for consumer-grade hardware.

[@garygordonhiggs]

I'm curious, I never see any of t he so-called linux pundits using the Qtile widgets for the weather and for the wallpaper.....very easy to settup and use.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thank you for your feedback. Very good to know.

[@heinzriemann3213]

Ehrenmann.

[@mylinuxforwork]

👍

[@Cmdrlucky8]

This is awesome, thank you for sharing! Would mind sharing your configuration and setup for the Windows 11 desktop. Is it a VM or remote desktop?

[@mylinuxforwork]

It is a remote desktop into a Virtual Machine with GPU passthrough. Please check my video here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/q4DYq3mabayXaNE

[@bluejay3379]

Thank you for sharing. I tried installing through your dotfiles. When I try the startx command it brings me to the default qtile layout and not your config.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Hi. My dotfiles will not only work out of the box. You need to install all required applications. Check out also the bash script 01-install.sh. This video is not an installation guide. It’s more a showcase about what’s possible with Qtile. But my dotfiles can be a good orientation. And a Qtile ricing tutorial will follow soon.

[@pawan67_]

@@mylinuxforwork Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/pawan67/git-folder/dotfiles/qtile/config.py", line 161, in colordict = json.load(open(colors)) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pawan67/.cache/wal/colors.json'

[@pawan67_]

@@mylinuxforwork this is causing to not load your config can you share colors.json as well

[@mylinuxforwork]

@@pawan67_ the file is created dynamically. This is the structure github.com/dylanaraps/pywal/blob/master/pywal/templates/colors.json You can of course add colors manually to the file if you don’t want to use pywal.

[@2u263]

What is the os Debian Arch Slackware ?

[@mylinuxforwork]

It's Arch Linux.

[@eliasbuschmann1411]

0:43 No wonder I couldn't find many rice tutorials for qtile.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Qtile is very well documented.

[@imran8295]

Where is battery icon for laptop

[@mylinuxforwork]

Need to check. Maybe a bug. But you can try to add it in dotfiles/qtile/config.py

[@jan5504]

why it's hard to install the wayland compositor of this wm?

[@mylinuxforwork]

I cannot answer this question. In my setup I'm using hyprland with Wayland and Qtile as my Xorg backup.

[@mariogutierrez4989]

Qtile somewhat works with wayland, but the experience is not stable enough to use it as a daily driver.

[@legatto]

how can I reset the keymap permanently to us instead of de

[@mylinuxforwork]

On Hyprland you can change it here gitlab.com/stephan-raabe/dotfiles/-/blob/main/hypr/hyprland.conf?ref_type=heads . On qtile in the autostart.sh

[@kychemclass5850]

Do you not 'feel' any issues due to python being an interpreted language and therefore slow? One would think when it comes to OS operation slow things are to be avoided as they are likely to cause bottlenecks?

[@mylinuxforwork]

No problems at all. Works great.

[@kychemclass5850]

@@mylinuxforwork Tq for confirming :)

[@stephenwilson0386]

Compiled languages are a lot faster than Python when it comes to certain software applications, but that's pretty much irrelevant in the context of a window manager.

[@kychemclass5850]

@@stephenwilson0386 That's an interesting line. But I don't see how a run-time processes run in a WM would run at the same speed as a compiled process in a WM ( &- no matter what the run-time/compiled status of the WM was either). Perhaps the time differences so small timing issues are trivial??

[@kyu0114]

Hi, I have subscribed to first ever linux related channel! I would love to follow your configuration but the GitLab configuration doesn't seem to be the same as the video. For example, there is no updatewal.sh and color.json is missing and polybar setting is missing from config.py. polybar -r mybar didn't quite work for me so I had to change to polybar mybar -c ~/.config/qtile/dotfiles/polybar/config.ini - however the bar gap seems to be different. When I first open Qtile, qtile default bar is still present. Has polybar been removed from the latest gitlab config.py? Thanks!! The config looks very good and I am desaparate to replicate it.

[@mylinuxforwork]

Thanks and you're right. Polybar isn't supported anymore in my dotfiles. With the qtile-extra package I could make even better looking status bar. But you can of course install polybar on top and deactive the qtile bar manually.

[@lymb-dev]

Can you also share your polybar settings with us? Looks like you deleted that due to the Wayland stuff, right?

[@mylinuxforwork]

Yes. I am using the build in bar right now. Here you can access the latest config of my dotfiles github.com/mylinuxforwork/dotfiles/tree/2.8/polybar

[@stamshem12]

is not work on kali linux ? and this is amazing!! :O

[@mylinuxforwork]

👍

[@baumkuchen6543]

Python is scripting language,

[@mylinuxforwork]

👍

[@pawan67_]

Hey, I am facing the following error in qtile config, where can i find colors.json i looked into dotfiles couldn't find it there Traceback (most recent call last): File "/home/pawan67/git-folder/dotfiles/qtile/config.py", line 161, in colordict = json.load(open(colors)) ^^^^^^^^^^^^ FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: '/home/pawan67/.cache/wal/colors.json'

[@mylinuxforwork]

Hi. Have you installed and initiated pywal correctly? colors = os.path.expanduser('~/.cache/wal/colors.json') is generated by pywal when a new wallpaper has been set. Please also check scripts/updatewal.sh