XFCE Post installation Tips

[theRaven131]

Kaddie,

I installed compiz on my Sabayon 8 xfce. Do you know how to set it where compiz starts when you boot up the comp????

[Linux4UnMe]

@theRaven131

I don't hvae xfce anymore... but i'm sure there was an "autostart" gui for setting it up where you can tick compiz......

[actionpackedPIVII]

@theRaven131 you can go into "settings manager" --> "Session and startup" --> autostart and then create a new entry with the command "compiz --replace" without the quotes of course :)

[BelaFleckFan]

@theRaven131 2 ways I can think of, session and startup / application autostart / add name compiz Command /usr/bin/compiz

Or the safest way with xfce is to install fusion-icon then session and startup / application autostart / add name compiz Command fusion-icon

[Linux4UnMe]

@theRaven131

yeah what BelaFleckFan said... I forgot I used fusion-icon for this.... that is the easiest way... install fusion-icon, select compiz/emerald etc.... then add "fusion-icon" to autostart in the session/startup gui

[TheProgrammingWorld]

Hey I am in serious trouble. Can you please help me what programs do you use to record your desktop? I used Desktop Recorder and the output was fine. When I tried to convert it with devede and uploaded it on youtube, the quality was very bad and there were also black sqaures on the converted file. Your video quailty is great.

[Linux4UnMe]

@TheProgrammingWorld

Forget that... just use ffmpeg in a terminal window.... /watch?v=BuKo0l3ZfEE&feature=w­atch_response

[chrnoc]

Question concerning XFCE. I have been using mainly gnome, and would just like to know if the same or equivalent programs are available for XFCE also. Also if it matters, I'm using Arch.

[Linux4UnMe]

@chrnoc

xfce is built upon gtk. Gnome is built upon gtk... a library native app to gnome is native to xfce.... in saying that... It doesn't matter if you use gtk or qt (kde) apps etc... they all work flawlessly on any setup with eachother

[chrnoc]

@Linux4UnMe Really?? I should have done some more research on the matter.

Thank you, time allowing and if I am able to get laziness out of the way I think I will try the other ones.

[youarenotalone1222]

If you had tumbler already installed and weren't getting any thumbnails on video files or pdf. Then you should check to see if you have gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg installed. Also see if you have gstreamer0.10-plugins-bad,base and good installed. I had that little problem, thought it was a bug but found out on a Debian website that it was just missing a dependency.:)

[Linux4UnMe]

@youarenotalone1222

cheers for the info

[HomerHotDog]

For thumbnails in Thunar, installing "tumbler" is what worked for me.

As far as themes, I always stick 'em in ~/.themes and never have any problems.

Great video, by the way, looks like I'll be giving all these desktop effects a try once again.

[Linux4UnMe]

@HomerHotDog

I sometimes have issues with some themes if i stick it in ~/themes..... but never do when I stick it in /usr/share/themes.... that's why I choose that dir. Tumbler eh? cheers.... thanx for comment

[HomerHotDog]

0:09...or XFeces / XFaeces.

All shit aside, it's pretty swell. I run Openbox in Arch and the XFCE panel is the only one I like. (The annoying dock behavior is there if I want it, not an issue if i don't.)

My Slack partition is XFCE only and looks great with a few icons and Conky. None of that Compiz funny business here, though. XFWM is just enough and nothing more.

[BelaFleckFan]

Debian are pushing out 6.0.4 either January 21st or 28th, so I might install xfce as I have to reboot anyway. I'll do a base install of xfce and goodies cause I don't need synaptic, office and a login manager.

[cubesolverpro900]

You just have to check "window decorations" in ccsm and emerald should automaticly handle it from there.  Then just choose a them in emerald. That did it for me in fedora and arch.

[You0wnAStore]

I tried the new Xubuntu when it came out and I solved the missing window decorations with Emerald. But since I had to download emerald only themes I didn't like it and ended up moding a theme from DeviantArt to look like the default Bluebird theme. Does anyone know of a way to use the stock XFCE themes with compiz?

[RobLoach]

Can I help you buy a better microphone and webcam?

[Linux4UnMe]

@RobLoach

it's not thatttttt bad is it? Wouldn't mind a new car though. lol

[GSNTube5]

@Linux4UnMe Nice one.lol

[KrimsonSkies]

Have you ever tried the Crunchbang distro?

[sugeci]

the dock looks like unity

[Linux4UnMe]

@sugeci

Awn has been around wayyyyy b4 unity.... Unity looks like awn :P

but awn is much more useful

[andamat]

I always find the trick to Xfce is to customize it just enough, without overdoing it;-) Nice trick with the application launcher shortcut, I might give that one a go. I use Gnome Do at the moment in Xfce (running Fedora), but I'm not really using all of it's functionality anyway.

[dlnsane]

For compiz I usually just install the 'compiz-fusion-gtk' package group and use emerald. When installing themes to avoid requiring root access just extract the theme to '~/.themes' and icons to '~/.icons', simply create these folders if they don't exist. And to remove those annoying desktop icon text highlights, edit or create a '~/.gtkrc-2.0' file and add:

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {

XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 0

}

widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

Cheers.

[BinaryLinux]

What widgets are you using on XFCE there mate?

[Linux4UnMe]

@BinaryLinux

screenlets

[BinaryLinux]

@Linux4UnMe thank you kind sir.

[NightspiritHacker]

Awesome. I didn't know you could install compiz without installing gnome as well. I might switch back to arch.

[Linux4UnMe]

@NightspiritHacker

you can install compiz on any distro without install gnome.... I was referring to the gtk window decorator that pulls in gnome as a dep

[kawreaVII]

@NightspiritHacker You can also install compiz as a standalone wm its really cool

[lokye40]

what kind of specs do you have on your computer?

[Linux4UnMe]

@lokye40

nothing special... amd dualcore 3ghz, 4 gigs ram, nvidia 7800gtx

[BulitPC]

nice setup man...

[AlavHar]

Hi Kaddy, what distro would you recommend to install on a dual-core 1.8 ghz 1gb ram laptop? it's my secodrary laptop, that I don't wanna let laying around, thanks in advance :)

[Linux4UnMe]

@AlavHar

there is lot's to choose from.... really depends on your own preferences...

maybe Xubuntu 11.10 or Lubuntu 11.10 since your hardware is oldish...

[AlavHar]

@Linux4UnMe Thanks :)

[clays121]

@Linux4UnMe I tried Lubuntu on my charity build, and it kept locking up for me when in LiveCD mode, and during the install, but I did like what I saw, and it's a shame it kept on freezing up on me.

[clays121]

@AlavHar That's not that bad for a spare laptop, and if you can bump the ram up to at least 2GB, I would try LinuxMint12, it runs fine on my charity desktop build, which only runs a single core AMD Sempron CPU , 2GB Ram, 80GB HD, ASUS Nvidia EN210 512mb silent GPU, and a old IDE DVD drive. :-)

[AlavHar]

@clays121 to be honest, I couldn't stand trying gnome-shell distro on the laptop, as I like it a lot, so I installed lisa, and it uses somewhere around 300 megs of ram... The highest point of ram usage I detected was 500 megs, but that's because I had software manager, chromium, firefox, libreoffice and clementine opened :D ... I don't know why, but the fan is a little bit more noisy, however, if the os contiunes behave this way, I may stick with it, till version 13 with xfce comes up

[clays121]

@AlavHar If your up to the task, I would take the laptop apart, and try cleaning the fan/s, and replacing the thermal pads/grease/paste on the CUP/GPU/North Bridge/etc.. As I've done that not long ago on my MSI Wind U230 Light, and it made a world of difference. Also the loud fan could be a bad barring, and it needed to be replaced, and I don't blame ya for waiting till 13 with XFCE, I just like to have my software always updated to the latest, sense it's free.

[AlavHar]

thanks for the advice :) I'm afraid I'll break something while doing that, as the only thing I ever did to a laptop was changing the hard drive and the keyboard :) I think I'll take it to a computer repairing store and get it done :) happy computing :)

[rayyanputra]

Great man! Even I don't like XFCE for its ancient look, but after watching this video I will consider to install it..

[Linux4UnMe]

@rayyanputra

yeah it can be made to look really nice with themes.... 

[BelaFleckFan]

XFCE takes a little bit longer to tweak compiz than it does with gnome2x but its still a damn good DE. Thumbs up :D

[Linux4UnMe]

@BelaFleckFan

indeed :D

[dmn1n]

replace with mint menu

[Linux4UnMe]

@dmn1n

could easily be done ;)

[ctsfiddler]

by adding compiz, wouldn't that make xfce heavy and defeat the reason for xfce in the first place

[Linux4UnMe]

@ctsfiddler

not on a decent machine... if you are on an older machine then probably

[bamdadkhan]

if i have a quuestion to you and i'd like a more elaborate reply, should i head over to the forums, or just ask it here? :)

[Linux4UnMe]

@bamdadkhan

lol depends if my reply would fit in the comment section or not without having to post multiple comments. lol. up to you

[ipodpunker]

XFCE is alot better over the years.... and it is pretty light weight.. very good for users that have a old desktop.... or if u justl ike the that classic gnome 2 look... well.... i find unity a pretty nice gnome shell the only problem i find is compiz not to friendly with unity lol so its cool to see the nice effects on the classic gnome eh :)

[Linux4UnMe]

@ipodpunker

yeah... might take a while for unity and compiz to work as well as it did on gtk2/gnome2/xfce...

[TheDraver48]

i am the 1st wiever XD

[Linux4UnMe]

@TheDraver48

lol. No rewards :P