Usually if a rule doesnāt work, it is because the window doesnāt match the pattern. In this case your pattern is steam. You can use xprop to check a suitable pattern. Or, you can use bspwm-ruler to automatically generate a rule with the right pattern.
Other reasons it might not work:
some windows start with one name and class, and then change to another immediately. For example, libreoffice isnāt matched by Libreoffice pattern even though thatās what xprop shows. It is instead matched by ā*:sofficeā.
@kuntaubspc query -D --names will list the desktops by name, to ensure correct selection.
I like this method, as it walks through all the options.
Using bspwm-ruler set the rule: bspc rule -a Steam state=floating manage=on layer=normal desktop=0x01200014 follow=on
I had to edit the desktop ID to the desktop name to get persistence. So my final functioning rule was: bspc rule -a Steam state=floating manage=on layer=normal desktop=ļ¢µ follow=on
*donāt mind the square, I use font icons for desktop names.
I did have success with launching the chat and promotion windows on the correct desktop but, the main window wouldnāt cooperate.
bspc rule -a Steam state=floating manage=on layer=normal desktop=^7 follow=off
I had to swap out the font icon desktop names to generic numbers though. The default names can be changed in /usr/bin/workspaces_multimonitor.
Wanted to drop this link as well as it seems launching games individually may be something that works around the library window? (see last two comments)
First time posting so first ā what an awesome distro, forum and window manager!
Sorry to revive an old thread, but it felt like the best place to chime inā¦
I"m new to bspwm so this is likely something silly Iām doing wrong. Iāve tried following the advice here, but havenāt been able to get Spotify to launch on a specified desktop.
My desktop names are simple, and Iāve tried generating the rule with bspwm-ruler but it always just pops up on my current desktop. This is what Iāve got now, but Iāve tired āspotifyā and āSpotifyā (classes reported by xprop) and even the full window title (of course bspcās man page says to use the class, I was desparate). Iāve tried targeting different desktops and using ā9ā, ā^9ā, and the ā0xā¦ā format generated by bspm-ruler with no change.
You can run command bspc query -T to see if Spotify is still naming itās window late, basically confirm below link is still an issue. Thereās a couple workarounds listed in the thread as well.