The XFCE thread...

[mips]

I just formatted my notebook and reinstalling Arch. I intend to install XFCE as the DE.

What I would like to know is what applications people use in XFCE for normal use. Stuff like torrent client, cd/dvd burner, web browser etc.

Any good themes that have narrow title bars for windows etc. The default theme seems to take up to much real estate.

[mali2297]

See http://wiki.xfce.org/recommendedapps

The browser midori is now a 'Xfce Goodie'. It might be worth a try.

For a minimal xfwm4 theme, check out prelude-4 (http://xfce-look.org/content/show.php/prelude-4?content=69300).

[ratmandall]

I just formatted my notebook and reinstalling Arch. I intend to install XFCE as the DE.

What I would like to know is what applications people use in XFCE for normal use. Stuff like torrent client, cd/dvd burner, web browser etc.

Any good themes that have narrow title bars for windows etc. The default theme seem to take up to much real estate.

Just use firefox, transmission etc.. same as gnome in ubuntu.

[mips]

Just use firefox, transmission etc.. same as gnome in ubuntu.

Lol, that's part of my problem, I have not touched Gnome in years. I'm a KDE user most of the time so this is all foreign to me. I'm used to K3B, K9copy, Dolphin, Ktorrent etc.

[chucky chuckaluck]

the kupo window decorations are 'normal' sized and are beautiful. you can get them from xfce-look.org.

one thing that irritates me about xfce is not being able to load a wallpaper from thunar. that seems almost immoral to me.

[SomeGuyDude]

I don't use XFCE but I use all GTK apps, so here goes.

Browser: Firefox. I've tried all the forks and everything else, but I never stick with 'em long.

Torrents: rTorrent. I run it on another workspace. It's perfect. CLI, though.

Disc burning: Brasero

Video: Gnome-Mplayer (actually doesn't require GNOME libraries)

Music: MPD + GMPC

Chat: Pidgin

Anything I missed?

[fwojciec]

EDIT: Post removed.

[handy]

I use the following:

Transmission - torrents
Firefox -
Mousepad - text editor
Mirage - image viewing
Gcolor2 - colour ID tool
NeroLinux -
VLC -
FileZilla - ftp
Vidalia - Tor & Privoxy GUI
Zenmap - network & security exploration
ePDFviewer -
DVDshrink3.2 - ripping DVD's
Smartripper - when DVDshrink has difficulty
GParted -
htop - process observation & elimination :-)
emelfm2 - dirutil
squeeze - & associated (de)compression tools
ROX Filer - dirutil

I also use some from the XFCE-Goodies (http://goodies.xfce.org/) project.

[handy]

You can use thunar's ability to define custom actions to be able to set the wallpaper from thunar right click menu. This is a script that I user for this (requires zenity and feh):

#!/bin/sh
# set_wall.sh

METHOD=`zenity --list --title="Set wallpaper..." --radiolist --column="Set" --column="Scale method" TRUE Scale FALSE Tile FALSE Center`

case $METHOD in
Scale)
feh --bg-scale "$1"
;;
Tile)
feh --bg-tile "$1"
;;
Center)
feh --bg-center "$1"
;;
*)
exit 1
;;
esac

Save it as set_wall.sh somewhere in $PATH, make it executable, and add a custom action in thunar:

Name: Set Wallpaper
Description: Whatever
Command: set_wall.sh %f

In "Appearance Conditions" tab set "Image Files".

It tries hard to work, but all I get is a grey background, no pic, I have tried the 3 different options with no change.

Another side effect is that I have lost my RMB desktop menu in xfce which is all but a show stopper. :lolflag:

My screen is 24" running 1920x1200

[Edit:] I just ctrl alt backspaced out of trouble, but on the way there was a flash of the chosen wallpaper?

I wonder what is blocking the image display?

[fwojciec]

It tries hard to work, but all I get is a grey background, no pic, I have tried the 3 different options with no change.

Another side effect is that I have lost my RMB desktop menu in xfce which is all but a show stopper. :lolflag:

My screen is 24" running 1920x1200

[Edit:] I just ctrl alt backspaced out of trouble, but on the way there was a flash of the chosen wallpaper?

I wonder what is blocking the image display?

I installed xfce (I normally use thunar with openbox or compiz-fusion standalone) and I was able to confirm that feh doesn't play nice with some part of xfce that's responsible for drawing the desktop. I'll remove the script from the above post, to avoid confusion. The experience of loosing right click menu when feh sets the wallpaper can be a bit disconcerting, I suppose.

Sorry for the trouble caused by this solution.

[handy]

I installed xfce (I normally use thunar with openbox or compiz-fusion standalone) and I was able to confirm that feh doesn't play nice with some part of xfce that's responsible for drawing the desktop. I'll remove the script from the above post, to avoid confusion. The experience of loosing right click menu when feh sets the wallpaper can be a bit disconcerting, I suppose.

Sorry for the trouble caused by this solution.

Thanks for your incredibly quick reply.

I thought I may have done something unusual (unconsciously) in the system which was the cause of it.

When you know you don't know much, you don't know what effects you may have unknowingly caused by something that you didn't know that you did... :lolflag: [Edit:] I'm referring to my ignorance, certainly not yours fwojciec :-)

[cardinals_fan]

Xfce is my second choice, behind dwm. I think it's very good.

I use the same apps I'd use anywhere:

* vim
* urxvt
* gqview
* vimperator
* conky
* leafpad (mousepad is included with Xfce and does the same stuff)
* notecase
* consonance
* emelfm2
* clex
* alpine
* xpad

[C!oud]

When I go for a full fledged DE xfce is always there for me :)

-Opera
-Pidgin
-Nicotine+
-Brasero
-Songbird
-Sonata
-Tilda
-Cairo-Clock
-Mousepad
-Abiword
-Squeeze
-and file management is between Thunar and Pcmanfm
-plus all those nice CLI apps: Irssi, rTorrent, Vim etc etc

I think that's everything :-k

[mips]

Just some feedback so far. I have a fresh install of arch+xfce+firefox+plugins/codecs, no other apps yet.

First thing I did was change my fonts to bitstream vera sans as the default ones are horrid.

I find the Panel extremely annoying as it takes up real estate on my 1024x768 display and would like to somehow integrate it with the Taskbar so I only have a single thin panel/taskbar. Is this possible?

After that I will have to change the Icons to nicer ones. I also hate how the icons have a border/bubble around the name of the icon, I suspect this is a setting I can change somewhere.

After the icons will be looking for some nice themes. Thanks for the suggestions so far.

Thunar is a POS, reminds me of Nautilus. Suppose I will have to use emel2fm. I wish there was an equivalent to Dolphin or Konqueror.

[mali2297]

I find the Panel extremely annoying as it takes up real estate on my 1024x768 display and would like to somehow integrate it with the Taskbar so I only have a single thin panel/taskbar. Is this possible?


Do you mean that you want to reduce the number of panels from two to one?

If so, just remove one of them and add items such as a tasklist to the other one. Right-click on the panel and there will pop up a settings menu. You can adjust position, size and transparency via Customize Panel.

[handy]

Mips, there are apparently ways to make the panel(s) background transparent leaving the icons & what have you visible. I'll have a look for details on this, the transparency available in Customize Panel is only good for the intensity of the entire panel.

I really enjoy using XFCE it is quick & simple to do everything, with the exception of a few areas that are still handled in a clumsy fashion:

Editing the menu

Installing/managing themes

Modifying the colours of text & backgrounds

I spent some hours yesterday after doing some house work & deleting everything to do with Openbox, trying to find a dark theme that suited my eyes & taste.

I have a compromise that I can live with, but it is not how I would do it for myself.

I'll post some theme links below, something you may or may not know when you are using GTK2 themes, create ~/.themes & unpack any themes you want to test out into that directory, as it takes precedence over the other one in /usr/share/themes & you have the benefit of not having to go to root:

http://art.gnome.org/themes/gtk2/

http://jp.bizet.free.fr/themes/gtk2.html

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/i686/gtk2-themes-collection/

http://daelstorm.thegraveyard.org/themes.php

http://www.linuxhaxor.net/2008/10/10/10-finger-licking-linux-desktopthemes/

http://www.ubuntu-art.org/index.php?xcontentmode=100&PHPSESSID=f88a7c779d53c33f7aa368f741f1af62


The following link is good for a basic understanding of the pain in the RRRs that modifying themes is, no matter what DE/WM you are using:

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=243476#243476

This may also be useful to those who like to switch themes often:

http://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/gtk-theme-switch2/

[chucky chuckaluck]

in case the horse is just in a coma... when i still used thunar in openbox, i had custom actions set up, using feh, to load a wallpaper from my wallpaper directory. it was a very simple thing to do. someone on the xfce forum gave me some kind of hack to use it in xfce (not using feh) and it really didn't work well. i could only choose scaled, or tiled, but not both. one can load wallpapers from nautilus, konqueror and even gwenview (oh wait, that was in kde3). it seems this should be an easy thing in xfce. after all, what's the point of a DE if it can't do stuff like that?

[handy]

in case the horse is just in a coma... when i still used thunar in openbox, i had custom actions set up, using feh, to load a wallpaper from my wallpaper directory. it was a very simple thing to do. someone on the xfce forum gave me some kind of hack to use it in xfce (not using feh) and it really didn't work well. i could only choose scaled, or tiled, but not both. one can load wallpapers from nautilus, konqueror and even gwenview (oh wait, that was in kde3). it seems this should be an easy thing in xfce. after all, what's the point of a DE if it can't do stuff like that?

Horses for courses, I haven't used a screen background (apart form a black background) in Arch, ever. :popcorn:

I rarely look at the screen, only when flicking to another desktop to open something on it.

The next bug bear I have to squash is editing the colours of themes. Which I intend to do real soon now.

[chucky chuckaluck]

Horses for courses, I haven't used a screen background (apart form a black background) in Arch, ever.

whenever i use tiling wm's (and it seems like it'll be for a while now), i get away from wallpapers, as well, but i don't think that excuses xfce from having the option of selecting a wallpaper from its file manager. integration between its major components is the only reason i can see for using a DE and this seems like a requirement to me (of course, i really can't see any reason to use a DE at all, so maybe it's pointless for me to even talk about it).

[Koori23]

if you want to get rid of the panel completely

In your terminal type kill xfce4-panel

that'll kill it for your current session

If you want it to remain that way (nonexistent) you'll need to get to the logout screen

On the logout screen, check the "save session" box and logout and log back in, the panel won't be there anymore.

If you want the panel back, ALT+F2 -> xfce4-panel save the session again

[mips]

I think I have come to the conclusion xfce is not for me, it just does not feel right.

I'll keep it on the laptop for a while and play with it but right now I'm installing kdemod 4.2.

Tanks for all the input, much appreciated.

[chucky chuckaluck]

right now I'm installing kdemod 4.2.

kdemod has 4.2?!? (why did i read this? resist, resist, resist!)

[medic2000]

Why do you like 4.2 that much? It is still very buggy and and not complete environment.

[chucky chuckaluck]

Why do you like 4.2 that much? It is still very buggy and and not complete environment.

i don't. i just need a break from dwm and terminal apps.

[mips]

kdemod has 4.2?!? (why did i read this? resist, resist, resist!)

Only in the unstable repo. I hit a snag though, http://kdemod.ath.cx/bbs/viewtopic.php?id=1295

It's still Alpha though.

[cardinals_fan]

i don't. i just need a break from dwm and terminal apps.
You mean you need a break from quality? :D

[handy]

You mean you need a break from quality? :D

You may be half right... ;-)

I shouldn't have said that, as Hagrid would say. :lolflag:

[Edit:] I think you may have missed the allusion to half left, being an temporary adversary in another thread... :-)

[chucky chuckaluck]

You mean you need a break from quality? :D

oh no, using linux instead of windows me took care of that.

[medic2000]

I just installed Xfce. Unlike Gnome it's blazing fast. But i have a problem with Turkish characters with usb drives like "ğ,ü,İ,Ç" doesnt display correctly. How i can fix that. In Gnome i could solve it in gconf-editor.