Desktop environments

Hi all
I'll admit that I don't know very much about desktop environments in any other OS than Windows (but hey, what's to know?). I use xfce and would like to know more about what these things I've been hearing about are. Window managers? Panel Systems? And other things like Openbox?
My plan is to eventually create a desktop environment where there are no taskbars, just windows, and when you right click the desktop the menu comes up. I would also like to be able to change the transparency of whichever windows and having some sort of alt+tab kind of thing where I can make windows disappear and recall/cycle them with a key combination. If I can do this with xfce, I would appreciate if someone pointed me in the right direction. Thanks!

Xs1t0ry wrote:Is openbox a DE or is it a program?
* A DE provides icons, toolbars, applications, applets, and abilities like drag and drop.
* A WM controls the placement and appearance of application windows under the X Window System but does NOT provide panels, applets, icons, etc.
Openbox is a window manager, not a full DE.
Here is a good explanation: http://www.tuxfiles.org/linuxhelp/xwtf.html
(Thanks to khiloa)
Last edited by Misfit138 (2007-07-07 22:56:54)

Similar Messages

Font Hinting, Antialiasing, etc vs Desktop Environments

I wonder if any of the presets for font hinting, antialiasing and subpixel rendering apply to a desktop environment (like GNOME, KDE SC or Cinnamon). I've enabled all 3 of them and I just can't see a difference.
The only one that seem to make a difference (with Cinnamon at least) is LCD filtering.
The wiki page on Font Configuration does mention something about desktop environments but I'm not sure I understand. Cinnamon has its own configuration settings for font hinting, antialiasing and subpixel rendering (and from what I can remember GNOME too) but if memory serves when I installed the Infinality patches I clearly saw a difference with the font rendering afterwards, so why the Infinality patches work and not the more basic built-in stuff.
Thanks in advance...

I explored this some time ago and one issue I had was that I had to reset the font cache to see the changes.

Importing Menus from other Desktop Environments

I'm on Openbox. I feel my GNOME menu is complete but I don't use GNOME. I want to know if there is away, a program or anything, to import the menu from other Desktop Environments into my OpenBox right click menu.
Thank you.

http://david.chalkskeletons.com/scripts.html
I think you'll find what you need under GNOME/XDG

Testing Multiple Desktop Environments + Increasing Productivity

Hello,
I've been using Arch Linux with Gnome for some time now and I'm interested in testing out other desktop environments. Particularily Xfce and FluxBox. I'm not really interested in KDE as from past experience I've found it rather bloated. I do however like how you can run Quanta Plus on it (although I've heard this can be done via Gnome with the KDE files etc).
I recently used Ubuntu with Gnome and was impressed with its ability to have completely seperate work spaces (seperate icons,wallpapers, taskbar and processes). I'm interested in methods of doing this and saving/restoring entire workspace sessions. The idea is to have two completely seperate work spaces, one for personal use and the other for work.
Is it possible to have multiple DE's installed at the same time on Arch and ability to switch between them easily and also remove them if necessary?
Basically I'm interested in increasing productivity.
I'm interested in your thoughts on this.
Thanks.

Well if you are developing applications that need testing on multiple Desktop enviroments, then yes installing them would help increasing your productivity.
But if your developed apps are platform independent, installing multiple DEs - in one way - is nothing but bloat and will get in the way because now you will have to rbr different shortcuts/application names for different DEs. That in my opinion leads to decreased productivity. Separate wallpapers on different virtual desktops and apps like those take up lot of memory and are a waste of resources, IMHO
If however, you want to just try out different WMs/DEs to find the right one for you, then yes...as moljac mentioned install them and find out which ones you like.
and yes its easy to install and remove them.

Conky Conditional Statement [MOVED TO DESKTOP ENVIRONMENTS!]

Is there a way to make a conky config that will check to see it your wlan card is on/off. When it is on, it should show some set of information that you choose. When it is off, none of that information should be shown.
I like to see:
Link Quality
SSID
Up
Down
Upload
Download
IP Address
I know that conky has if-elseif-endif statements, but I assume that those go through the config once, and then don't go through it again.
I guess that it could be done with an external script as well, but I am no programmer, so I am not sure about that.
Thoughts?
Michael
Last edited by michaelramm (2008-12-08 21:43:07)

conky's if/else-if statements are run/checked each update so if your interval is 1 then that's each second.
i've seen many conky's around that display one set of info if eth0 is up (ethernet plugged in) and another if wlan0 is up (wifi). not useful for my desktop so i never saved any of the links. check through the "post your conky configs" thread here or go to google.
something like
${if_up wlan0} $--wifi info-- $endif${if_up eth0} $--ethernet info-- $endif
would probably work.
EDIT -- sorry, ignore this; i posted on the one in desktop environments now.
Last edited by brisbin33 (2008-12-08 22:07:25)

X shuts down suddenly on various desktop environments

Hi, I have this isssue for 4 months.I have tried
-changing desktop environments / lxde openbox gnome
-decreasing resolution
-stopping conky and inactive deamons such as dropbox, spideroak
I have nvidia card, I'm using "nvidia" driver on X
here's the output of X.log
[ 3448.882] (EE) 0: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (xorg_backtrace+0x52) [0x81df452]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 1: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x19b662) [0x81e3662]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 2: linux-gate.so.1 (__kernel_rt_sigreturn+0x0) [0xb7732b94]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 3: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x1453b5) [0x818d3b5]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 4: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (WriteEventsToClient+0x84) [0x8084b04]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 5: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (TryClientEvents+0xfe) [0x8084e3e]
[ 3448.882] (EE) 6: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (DeliverEventsToWindow+0x254) [0x8088584]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 7: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x40fab) [0x8088fab]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 8: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x122072) [0x816a072]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 9: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x1224d9) [0x816a4d9]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 10: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (XkbHandleActions+0x202) [0x8195592]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 11: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (XkbProcessKeyboardEvent+0xb6) [0x8195b76]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 12: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (AccessXFilterPressEvent+0x26d) [0x818e3ed]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 13: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x14de7a) [0x8195e7a]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 14: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x177ae7) [0x81bfae7]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 15: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (mieqProcessInputEvents+0x111) [0x81bfcc1]
[ 3448.883] (EE) 16: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (ProcessInputEvents+0x20) [0x80b9a70]
[ 3448.884] (EE) 17: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x3159d) [0x807959d]
[ 3448.884] (EE) 18: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x35a1a) [0x807da1a]
[ 3448.884] (EE) 19: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x1f80a) [0x806780a]
[ 3448.884] (EE) 20: /usr/lib/libc.so.6 (__libc_start_main+0xde) [0xb729fe5e]
[ 3448.884] (EE) 21: /usr/bin/Xorg.bin (0x8048000+0x1f838) [0x8067838]
[ 3448.884] (EE)
[ 3448.884] (EE) Segmentation fault at address 0x70
[ 3448.884] (EE)
I've cut only (EE) lines
Sincerely
Last edited by gecici90 (2014-12-17 20:46:09)

Does it still crash when using the non-proprietary drivers?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Nouveau
Is there any more information in the systemd journal?
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Systemd#Journal

Install various Desktop Environments

Hi everybody,
I have been using Arch with Mate DE with lightdm for a while now.
Now I would like to try different DEs like Gnome and KDE on my laptop. In the wiki it explains how to install these desktop environments,
but it is not clear to me whether this requires deleting Mate or not.
In Ubuntu I could install several DEs and select the one I wanted to use when logging in. I guess it is possible to do this in Arch as well,
but I can't understand how.
Coule somebody help me/point me to the right wiki page?
Thanks in advance for the help,
Cheers,
Luca

Only thing I'd warn you about is that when you install a new DE, it might import the autostart settings from the most recently run DE on the very first run (I had this going from MATE to Cinnamon and then into Plasma 5). After that, their autostart settings should be independent.

[SOLVED] SLiM no longer able to switch desktop environments

So after the latest upgrade of slim (1.3.5 -> 1.3.6) I am no longer able to switch between desktop environments using F1. Now it just boots my default environment (dwm). I had it configured fine and it worked before this update. Is there a fix?
Last edited by life_enjoyer (2013-10-06 17:46:52)

xinitrc:
#!/bin/sh
# ~/.xinitrc
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)
if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
[ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
done
unset f
fi
case $1 in
kde)
exec startkde
xfce4)
exec startxfce4
openbox)
exec openbox-session
dwm|*)
#xcompmgr -c &
while true; do
xsetroot -name "$( date +"%m-%d-%Y %R" )"
sleep 1m # Update time every minute
done &
nitrogen --restore &
/usr/bin/xscreensaver -no-splash &
exec dwm
esac
and slim.conf
# Path, X server and arguments (if needed)
# Note: -xauth $authfile is automatically appended
default_path /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin
default_xserver /usr/bin/X
xserver_arguments -nolisten tcp vt07
# Commands for halt, login, etc.
halt_cmd /sbin/shutdown -h now
reboot_cmd /sbin/shutdown -r now
console_cmd /usr/bin/xterm -C -fg white -bg black +sb -T "Console login" -e /bin/sh -c "/bin/cat /etc/issue; exec /bin/login"
#suspend_cmd /usr/sbin/suspend
# Full path to the xauth binary
xauth_path /usr/bin/xauth
# Xauth file for server
authfile /var/run/slim.auth
# Activate numlock when slim starts. Valid values: on|off
# numlock on
# Hide the mouse cursor (note: does not work with some WMs).
# Valid values: true|false
hidecursor false
# This command is executed after a succesful login.
# you can place the %session and %theme variables
# to handle launching of specific commands in .xinitrc
# depending of chosen session and slim theme
# NOTE: if your system does not have bash you need
# to adjust the command according to your preferred shell,
# i.e. for freebsd use:
# login_cmd exec /bin/sh - ~/.xinitrc %session
login_cmd exec /bin/bash -login ~/.xinitrc %session
# Commands executed when starting and exiting a session.
# They can be used for registering a X11 session with
# sessreg. You can use the %user variable
# sessionstart_cmd some command
# sessionstop_cmd some command
# Start in daemon mode. Valid values: yes | no
# Note that this can be overriden by the command line
# options "-d" and "-nodaemon"
# daemon yes
# Available sessions (first one is the default).
# The current chosen session name is replaced in the login_cmd
# above, so your login command can handle different sessions.
# see the xinitrc.sample file shipped with slim sources
sessions kde,xfce4,openbox,dwm
# Executed when pressing F11 (requires imagemagick)
screenshot_cmd import -window root /slim.png
# welcome message. Available variables: %host, %domain
welcome_msg Welcome to %host
# Session message. Prepended to the session name when pressing F1
# session_msg Session:
# shutdown / reboot messages
shutdown_msg The system is halting...
reboot_msg The system is rebooting...
# default user, leave blank or remove this line
# for avoid pre-loading the username.
default_user sebastian
# Focus the password field on start when default_user is set
# Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#focus_password no
# Automatically login the default user (without entering
# the password. Set to "yes" to enable this feature
#auto_login no
# current theme, use comma separated list to specify a set to
# randomly choose from
current_theme archlinux-simplyblack
# Lock file
lockfile /var/lock/slim.lock
# Log file
logfile /var/log/slim.log

Which desktop environments allow different backgrounds for workspaces?

I've just installed a brand-new Arch linux - all lovely - and to try to save memory (as my laptop as only 512 Mb) I thought I'd use a smaller desktop environment than KDE, which I was using previously, with my old distribution. So I installed Xfce. It's nice except for one thing - it only allows one background, so the same image appears on all virtual desktops (workspaces).
What environments, other than KDE, allow each workspace to have its own background?
Thanks,
-A.

moljac024 wrote:is WindowMaker still being developed ?
Yes; rather 'again' than 'still', but there is a lot of activity on dev mailing list for the last few months. There's a new group of developers that took development over. For now, they are gathering miscellaennous patches floating around the world for the next release.
moljac024 wrote:How does it stand with NetWM/EWMH compliance ?
Honestly, I don't know.

Switching desktop environments without restarting X

easiest way is obviously editing .xinitrc and restart X and you're done. but what if you feel you're bored of gnome and want to use kde for a while. but crap you have ed2k, gnutella, fasttrack, and bittorrent going!!! noooo i can't restart X or all my downloads are toast!
so...what's the easiest and safest way to switch environments without restarting X. is it safe killing all processes and running a new one?
btw, i would try this, but last time i tried running gnome and kde at the same time and all the settings got screwed up and i couldn't boot into either one anymore.

I've written crap!!!
This is the way:
gdmflexiserver --xnest
if you want a window with a new login!!!
and
gdmflexiserver
if you just want another x session (Tere will be two of them in the same time).
You should .xinitrc alon, and use a display manager (such as gdm)
if you want this just modify in /etc/inittab
:x:5:respawn:/opt/gnome/bin/gdm -nodaemon
it should be the last line.
respawn means that if you close the x serv, it will restart

[S]Consequences of installing libs from multiple desktop environments?

Right now I'm using xfce4. But I found myself wanting to install some software that has KDE libraries as its dependencies. In the past I restrained myself and searched of an alternative software that would not pull a whole array of libraries from some other desktop environment. But now I started to think whether or not it would be a bad thing.
E.g. right now I want to install okular. It will pull "kdebase4-runtime" (which will pull "kdelibs4" and so on). I wonder what would be the consequences of installing those libraries, considering that I already use xfce4. In particular I'm interesting in following (and please sorry if those questions are too noobish):
1) Will I actually accidentally install the full k desktop environment by automatically installing all those dependencies and the only way I'll be able to use any software that wants to pull some KDE dependencies is if I actually will use full KDE?
2) Whether those libraries will be "passive" and be used only to support the applications that require them or will they actively slow down the system even if they not used and not being called?
And will there be any other problems or drawbacks if I'll install those dependencies?
Thanks in advance!
Last edited by CoolArchBro (2013-12-19 18:14:12)

CoolArchBro wrote:1) Will I actually accidentally install the full k desktop environment by automatically installing all those dependencies and the only way I'll be able to use any software that wants to pull some KDE dependencies is if I actually will use full KDE?
Accidentally? No. Not unless you put on a blindfold and start pecking at the keyboard while running pacman. If a package does actually require all of KDE as a dependency, then you will either install the full desktop intentionally, or not at all. In the former case, there will still be no need to "use" KDE. One can have many desktops installed on the same computer - they don't run by just being installed, you have to invoke them.
CoolArchBro wrote:2) Whether those libraries will be "passive" and be used only to support the applications that require them or will they actively slow down the system even if they not used and not being called?
They'll be as passive as any of the data on your hard drive. If drive space is at a premium, this might be an issue, but if you are not filling up your drive, then having something installed will have no effect what so ever.
I have a bit of an OCD minimalism: I track down any unused packages and eliminate them - I've even removed several 'base' packages. But this does absolutely nothing to improve performance on my system, it's more of just a 'hobby' or chance to learn what all the different pieces do.

Multiple Desktop Environments

I am currently running Arch 32bit with XFCE Desktop Environment, no login manager... I followed the instructions that setup "startx" from the terminal after bootup.
I have recently been checking out "enlightenment" as a Desktop Environment, and would like to set up a possible session without wrecking my XFCE session.
So, my question is: Can I do this? Backtrack linux starts up with options like that, where you can choose DE's from a startup terminal. Maybe like a "starte" entry added to my .xinitrc?
Any info would be helpful. Thanks.

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php … 68#p971168

OpenGL ES compatible desktop environments?

I have a Beagleboard XM, an ARM platform with an SGX GPU that only supports OpenGL ES. Beagleboard's CPU isn't too shabby, but it immensely struggles with anything graphical. I've tried LXDE since that is very easy on system resources, but it has no GPU acceleration, making all programs run terribly slow. So what I'm wondering is, are there any DEs out there with OpenGL ES support, and would getting one of these DEs help with the performance issue (assuming I don't do any big special effects)? I heard Mutter (for GNOME 3) might but I can't seem to get a definite answer on that.

schmidtbag wrote:
skottish wrote:
schmidtbag wrote:To answer your question, programs really only run slow when they're refreshing the majority of the screen, such as scrolling the page in a web browser, or watching a video. If I run any CLI based programs, they perform great.
If you want to fix your actual problem, then you may want to let everyone know about your hardware, drivers, and how things are setup. It seems that you're trying fix symptoms and not working on the problem itself.
I mentioned I have a Beagleboard-xM with an SGX GPU and I can only use openGL ES and I need a desktop environment compatible with OGLES. Based on that information, it is pretty safe to assume the platform is not x86 (it's ARM). That's all that's necessary to know. Specifying anything else is completely irrelevant, and I'm willing to start a fresh new install. The problem at hand is I'm not aware of any DEs (except maybe GNOME 3) that can utilize OGLES, so my way of working on the problem is to know which DE is proven to work with OGLES. Setting up beagleboard is a somewhat tedious process and I really don't feel like wasting time with trial and error.
Understood. I setup a netbook with an Intel 1.2GHz processor with poulsbo (GMA-500) using the xf86-video-modesetting driver and scrolling isn't an issue under XFCE. There is no hardware acceleration at all. That's why I posted what I did.

Problems with Desktop Environments

Hello all,
I have now updated to xfce4 2.0 from the Arch Repos. And before I did when I was using xfce4 RC3 my panel stoped working. No matter what my panel won't start on it's own, I have to go in and manually start the xfce4-panel my self. Once I moved from xfce4 RC3 to the xfce4 stable, I tought that this problem would be fixed but it's not.
The second problem that I am having might be an easy fix but I don't know much about it. For some reason today I turned my computer on and all of the sudden on ALLLLLLL and I mean ALLLLLL my icon themes the image file-browser is missing. I tried re-installing the themes with no luck what's so ever.
The third and final problem is with my computer logging me out at random times.... I have been checking the CPU temp. to see if it might have to do anything with it but not. I will be typing or doing something and it just randomly log me out.
In the mean time I'm triying to figure this all out and what can be causing it, but still no luck, so I decided to post if anything is having the same problems......
-Luis

Well, it seems that the cause of the problem was that my DVD image was just corrupted - I didn't check it vs MD5 codes supplied by Sun assuming it went automatically OK. I downloaded the image again (this time it was OK), reinstalled the system and successfully logged into JDS. However, I am still puzzled why Solaris doesn't offer to create a default non-root user during the installation process.

Desktop environments, window managers and xinit

in the beginner's tutorial, it says that xinit would default to the global xinitrc file in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc if the one in the user's home directory is not found and the global xinitrc would invoke twm. So my question would be is the twm window manager installed together with xorg when i do pacman -S xorg?
Another question i have would be whether compiz would work better with compiz fusion than with the default window manager gnome(metacity) or kde(kwin) (less crashes, instability, etc) since its the same entity which developed both softwares (correct me if I am wrong) ?
Between gnome and kde, which is more unstable and prone to more crashes?
I've only really used kde before and ive experienced many crashes so far(It may be distro specific - the only distro i tried and never had any crashes with kde whatsoever was slackware so I'm not sure if kde in arch behaves the same way too, can someone enlighten me how its like in arch?)
and was wondering if gnome would be a better bet.
I do like the panel layout and eyecandy in kde and I'm not sure if the panel in gnome can be adjusted to the bottom or not?
like i said ive never used gnome much before
Last edited by unregistered (2008-05-15 08:57:34)

unregistered wrote:So my question would be is the twm window manager installed together with xorg when i do pacman -S xorg?
yes, xorg-twm is in the xorg group. You can see that in the PKGBUILD which you can access via the web interface or via ABS.
unregistered wrote:I do like the panel layout and eyecandy in kde and I'm not sure if the panel in gnome can be adjusted to the bottom or not?
like i said ive never used gnome much before
yes you can.
About the stability questions, a lot depends on your hardware and your configuration.

Desktop environments

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