How do I use the awesome window manager?

I've installed awesome on my Ubuntu laptop, and I like it. But I feel kind of lost. I don't know any keyboard shortcuts and the man pages aren't really any help (for instance, what does Mod4 mean?).

Is there any kind of brief introduction to awesome I can read?

Solution 1:

Here is one person's introduction

Here is a guide to installing it with Ubuntu

And here is a history and additional links via Wikipedia

Hope that helps!

Solution 2:

I assume Mod4 is the same as meta which is the Windows key on most modern keyboards.

Solution 3:

Here is my bare bones intro to awesome window manager: http://isomorphismes.tumblr.com/post/33846445632/awesome-window-manager. First few lines:

The main keys you need to know are:

• ⌘+space = change screen layout type
• ⌘+shift + space = change screen layout type, cycling backwards
• ⌘+j = go to the next window on this desktop (focus on, as if you had hovered your mouse over it … but without needing to reach over to the mouse)
• ⌘+k = go to the previous window on this desktop
• ⌘+J = swap this window and the next one
• ⌘+K = swap this window and the previous one
• ⌘+h = → the center partition squashing the right pane(s)
• ⌘+l = ← the center partition expanding the right pane(s)
• ⌘+← = desktop to the left
• ⌘+→ = desktop to the right
• ⌘+9 = desktop number nine

Notice that h,j,k,l are the right-handed home row keys on a QWERTY|AZERTY.

Solution 4:

Press Mod4+Enter (typically this would be the Wind*ws key and Enter) to open a terminal and then enter man awesome. A list of default key-bindings is shown.