kwin on xfce

[richb]

And it's possible to select xfce and use kwin?

Yes, but as I said other packages need to be installed.

Okay, I'll try installing KDE Standard and then selecting xfce at the login prompt.

It will be Plasma desktop I believe. But then you will be in a full blown KDE. rather than XFCE with kwin as just one of available packages Of course if that is want you want it will run perfectly OK.

[arjaybe]

Yes, but as I said other packages need to be installed.

Okay, I'll try installing KDE Standard and then selecting xfce at the login prompt.

It will be Plasma desktop I believe. But then you will be in a full blown KDE. rather than XFCE with kwin as just one of available packages Of course if that is want you want it will run perfectly OK.

Thanks, Rich. I'll have to hold off on that, then. I'm facing a trade-off, so I'll have to decide which way I want to go.

[Stevo]

You can also run other desktop environment's window managers in XFCE, such as GNOME 3's mutter and Cinnamon's muffin, along with MATE's, though I forget what it's called at the moment.

[arjaybe]

You can also run other desktop environment's window managers in XFCE, such as GNOME 3's mutter and Cinnamon's muffin, along with MATE's, though I forget what it's called at the moment.

Thanks, Stevo. First, let me acknowledge that these problems are trivial.-) They're just about how I'm used to working, and certain aesthetics. Here's a list of the criteria I'm trying to fulfill:

• Allow me to tell windows where and what size to appear - kwin lets me do that.
  Allow me to configure window decorations - kwin alone doesn't let me do that.
  Allow me to run KDE applications like okular and dolphin - probably not a problem.
  Take the black square out from behind MX-Clocky - compiz and kwin do that, but compiz won't let me "place" windows.
  Allow gkrellm to use a transparent theme - KDE won't.

In the end, window placement trumps a transparent gkrellm, so I have a (not entirely satisfactory) out. I still hope for something better, though. Maybe it will be muffin or mutter.

[Stevo]

Getting rid of the black square behind MX-Clocky means that compositing must be enabled--MX ships with it off, though there are a couple options for it in MX Tweak.

The same goes for any transparent theme, such as those for gkrellm*. You can turn on compositing for KDE under the "desktop effects" settings in systems, but this may require more KDE than you want.

* Our conky themes use a pseudo-transparency to "fake it" without compositing, and may get a black background with it on. This can be fixed with a simple edit in the conky theme file.

[Moltke]

Getting rid of the black square behind MX-Clocky means that compositing must be enabled--MX ships with it off, though there are a couple options for it in MX Tweak.

* Our conky themes use a pseudo-transparency to "fake it" without compositing, and may get a black background with it on. This can be fixed with a simple edit in the conky theme file.

I'd like to know how would that "simple edit" go. What is it exactly I have to look for? I know nothing about conky configurations/tweaks.

You can also run other desktop environment's window managers in XFCE, such as GNOME 3's mutter and Cinnamon's muffin, along with MATE's, though I forget what it's called at the moment.

Thanks, Stevo. First, let me acknowledge that these problems are trivial.-) They're just about how I'm used to working, and certain aesthetics. Here's a list of the criteria I'm trying to fulfill:

• Allow me to tell windows where and what size to appear - kwin lets me do that.
  Allow me to configure window decorations - kwin alone doesn't let me do that.
  Allow me to run KDE applications like okular and dolphin - probably not a problem.
  Take the black square out from behind MX-Clocky - compiz and kwin do that, but compiz won't let me "place" windows.
  Allow gkrellm to use a transparent theme - KDE won't.

In the end, window placement trumps a transparent gkrellm, so I have a (not entirely satisfactory) out. I still hope for something better, though. Maybe it will be muffin or mutter.

Have you tried TDE (trinity desktop ? I don't know if it'll serve your purposes but who knows maybe it does. And it is as light on resources as xfce. In case you feel like trying here's the link for the install instructions https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Debian_ ... structions

[arjaybe]

Have you tried TDE (trinity desktop ? I don't know if it'll serve your purposes but who knows maybe it does. And it is as light on resources as xfce. In case you feel like trying here's the link for the install instructions https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Debian_ ... structions

Isn't Trinity an old fork of KDE?

[arjaybe]

Getting rid of the black square behind MX-Clocky means that compositing must be enabled--MX ships with it off, though there are a couple options for it in MX Tweak.

The same goes for any transparent theme, such as those for gkrellm*. You can turn on compositing for KDE under the "desktop effects" settings in systems, but this may require more KDE than you want.

* Our conky themes use a pseudo-transparency to "fake it" without compositing, and may get a black background with it on. This can be fixed with a simple edit in the conky theme file.

So I didn't need to use compiz or kwin for the compositing? Maybe I'll disable them and try the tweaks.

Yes, "desktop effects" would be one of the things missing from systemsettings, which would seem to require too much KDE. I'll see how it goes with xfwm compositing.

[Moltke]

Have you tried TDE (trinity desktop ? I don't know if it'll serve your purposes but who knows maybe it does. And it is as light on resources as xfce. In case you feel like trying here's the link for the install instructions https://wiki.trinitydesktop.org/Debian_ ... structions

Isn't Trinity an old fork of KDE?

Yes, and no. From TDE website:

The Trinity Desktop Environment (TDE) project is a feature rich desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems with a primary goal of retaining a traditional, efficient and productive user interface.
TDE was born as a fork of the K Desktop Environment version 3.5, which was originally written by the KDE Team, a world-wide network of software engineers committed to Free Software development. The name Trinity was chosen because the word means Three as in continuation of KDE 3. Since then, TDE has evolved to be an independent and standalone desktop environment project.

The TDE project was founded by and is still led by Timothy Pearson. Timothy is an experienced and skilled software developer and was the KDE >= 3.5.11 support coordinator/developer for previous Kubuntu releases.

Over time, continued development has polished off many rough edges that were present in the final release of KDE 3.5.10 and many new and useful features have been added to keep the environment up-to-date.

The current stable release of TDE is R14.0.5, which brings along several improvements over the previous releases.
One of the most notable features of the R14.0 series is the implementation of the Trinity Desktop Hardware Library (tdehwlib) that did away with dependency on HAL. With the HAL dependency removed, R14's foundation now rests solidly on current and maintained libraries and dependencies. For systems still based on HAL (such as *BSD), HAL support is still available as a building option.

So as you can see it was born from old KDE 3.5 but it's evolved since then and it's a complete new thing which is kept up to date and without all of the KDE stuff.

[Stevo]

I left it vague because I had forgotten exactly what it was myself, and was hoping someone would chip in.

Anyway, if you have trouble with the Conky background with compositing turned on, you may look at that theme's config file in MX-Conky or Conky Manager ("Edit") and look for these kinds of setting:

Code: Select all

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus, pcmanfm and rox desktops)
own_window yes
own_window_type Conky
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_argb_visual yes
own_window_argb_value 0
own_window_colour 000000