SOLVED:Dmenu not launching correctly in Xmonad

Question

I am running xmonad and I am having issues getting the dmenu_run to execute properly. It was working fine before but now it just launches with a white bar and nothing autocompletes. I am running Xmonad 0.9.2-2.1 and dmenu 4.4-1. Here is my entry in xmonad.hs:
, ((modMask, xK_p ), spawn "dmenu_run | dmenu -b")
Also, here is my entire xmonad.hs:
import XMonad hiding (Tall)
import XMonad.Hooks.DynamicLog
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageDocks
import XMonad.Hooks.ManageHelpers
import XMonad.Layout.HintedTile
import XMonad.Layout.LayoutHints (layoutHints)
import XMonad.Prompt
import XMonad.Prompt.Shell
import XMonad.Util.Run(spawnPipe)
import System.Exit
import System.IO
import Data.Monoid
import qualified XMonad.StackSet as W
import qualified Data.Map as M
myBorderWidth = 1
main = do
xmproc <- spawnPipe "/usr/bin/xmobar /home/comhack/.xmobarcc"
xmonad $ defaultConfig {
terminal = "urxvt",
modMask = mod1Mask,
workspaces = ["Net", "Chat", "Work", "4", "5", "6", "7", "8", "9"],
normalBorderColor = "#000000",
focusedBorderColor = "#838B8B",
manageHook = composeOne [isFullscreen -?> doFullFloat],
borderWidth = myBorderWidth,
keys = myKeys,
focusFollowsMouse = True,
layoutHook = myLayout,
logHook = dynamicLogWithPP $ xmobarPP
{ ppOutput = hPutStrLn xmproc,
ppTitle = xmobarColor "green" "" . shorten 60,
ppHiddenNoWindows = xmobarColor "grey" ""
myKeys conf@(XConfig {XMonad.modMask = modMask}) = M.fromList $
[ ((modMask , xK_Return ), spawn $ XMonad.terminal conf)
, ((modm , xK_backslash ), spawn “amixer -q set Master toggle”)
, ((modm , xK_minus ), spawn “amixer -q set Master 3- unmute”)
, ((modm , xK_equal ), spawn “amixer -q set Master 3+ unmute”)
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_c ), kill)
, ((modMask , xK_space ), sendMessage NextLayout)
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_space ), setLayout $ XMonad.layoutHook conf)
, ((modMask , xK_n ), refresh)
, ((modMask, xK_p ), spawn "dmenu_run | dmenu -b")
, ((modMask , xK_Tab ), windows W.focusDown)
, ((modMask , xK_j ), windows W.focusDown)
, ((modMask , xK_k ), windows W.focusUp)
, ((modMask , xK_m ), windows W.focusMaster)
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_Return ), windows W.swapMaster)
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_j ), windows W.swapDown)
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_k ), windows W.swapUp)
, ((modMask , xK_h ), sendMessage Shrink)
, ((modMask , xK_l ), sendMessage Expand)
, ((modMask , xK_t ), withFocused $ windows . W.sink)
, ((modMask , xK_comma ), sendMessage (IncMasterN 1))
, ((modMask , xK_period ), sendMessage (IncMasterN (-1)))
, ((modMask .|. shiftMask, xK_q ), io (exitWith ExitSuccess))
, ((modMask , xK_q ), spawn "xmonad --recompile")
, ((modMask , xK_F2 ), shellPrompt defaultXPConfig)
, ((0 , 0x1008ff30 ), shellPrompt defaultXPConfig)
, ((0 , 0x1008ff13 ), spawn "amixer -q set Master 2dB+")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff11 ), spawn "amixer -q set Master 2dB-")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff12 ), spawn "amixer -q set Master toggle")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff16 ), spawn "cmus-remote --prev")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff17 ), spawn "cmus-remote --next")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff14 ), spawn "cmus-remote --pause")
, ((0 , 0x1008ff5b ), spawn "urxvt -e screen -rd cmus")
, ((modMask , xK_Print ), spawn "scrot -e 'mv $f ~/Screenshots'")
++
[((m .|. modMask, k), windows $ f i)
| (i, k) <- zip (XMonad.workspaces conf) [xK_1 .. xK_9]
, (f, m) <- [(W.greedyView, 0), (W.shift, shiftMask)]]
++
[((m .|. modMask, key), screenWorkspace sc >>= flip whenJust (windows . f))
| (key, sc) <- zip [xK_w, xK_e, xK_r] [0..]
, (f, m) <- [(W.view, 0), (W.shift, shiftMask)]]
myLayout = avoidStruts $ tiled ||| wideTiled ||| Full
where
tiled = HintedTile nmaster delta ratio Center Tall
wideTiled = HintedTile nmaster delta ratio Center Wide
nmaster = 1
ratio = 1/2
delta = 3/100
It was working fine before so I am thinking that it must of been an update or something. If I run the command in a terminal, it works just fine. So it has to be the syntax or something. This works perfectly:
dmenu_run | dmenu -b
Any ideas?
Last edited by securitybreach (2011-08-08 03:07:25)

Answer 1

Obscaenvs wrote:
I don't think it's an actual bug; it's just updated syntax. For me, this solved the issue:
In my xmonad.hs, I _had_ the line
, ((modm, xK_p ), spawn "exe=`dmenu_path | dmenu` && eval \"exec $exe\"")
I changed this to use dmenu_run instead and not piping to dmenu:
, ((modm, xK_p ), spawn "exe=`dmenu_run` && eval \"exec $exe\"")
A recompile is necessary for this to take effect. One of you did not have to recompile, but that was most likely because the downgraded dmenu understood the old syntax.
Now it works...YMMV.
EDIT: I see now that user "securitybreach" uses "dmenu_run" already... Try not piping the command; when I did this, I got two instances of Dmenu running: one with all the executables in path as usual, and one blank.
There are people having issues with dmenu using other window managers besides XMonad, so that is not the same issue.  Not to mention, that my spawn of dmenu is WAY less complicated than that, and I am still getting the issue (before downgrade).