HOWTO: Automating Gnome with Devil's Pie

[sup]

Hello, for some time I have been noticing a freeze down (Ubuntu just stopped coming up, the programs that are listed in system>preferences>sessions>startup programs would not start) during startup just after that update manager (priority 50 I believe) seemed to have been lounched. Lounching of any application (for example gnome-terminal that I can start with ALT+F3) would solve this and the system would start up after that without any further problem.
Recently I realized that devilspie has a priority 51 so I deleted its entry from startup programs and suddenly I enountered nomore freezedowns. Has anyone come across something similar? I saw people reporting starting devilspie upon startup without any problems here in the forum.
I am using version 0.16, Ubuntu breezy.

[Wolki]

I'm sure there's something really simple I'm messing up here... any ideas?

OK, i tried it out. It works here with "window_role" matching "gnome-terminal", but you need to capitalize the "True". I recommend this against matching the title, as this may chang depending on the program you're running/ the directory you're in. You could also set a custom title in gnome-terminal and match against that, but that only seems useful if you want different types of terminals behave differently.

Recently I realized that devilspie has a priority 51 so I deleted its entry from startup programs and suddenly I enountered nomore freezedowns. Has anyone come across something similar? I saw people reporting starting devilspie upon startup without any problems here in the forum.
I am using version 0.16, Ubuntu breezy.

I had a big slowdown when devilspie had a very low startup number, but with 50+ it works without problems here. Didn't try 0.16 on breezy yet, though. Can you try setting the number a little higher?

Oh, does devilspie startup correctly (and fast) if you run it from the command line directly? If not it might be a problem with your rules.

[sup]

Well, I set it to 65 so that it starts as the last appllication anw it does not freezes anymore, but tha bad side of it is that the devilspie rules are applied after all the applications were started up... but I think I can live with that.

(I think the problem could be in the fact that devilspie runs in terminal, not as a daemon)

[Kasanax]

Success!! Thanks Wolki - I knew it was something simple like that...

Thanks for all the help!

[sabrewolf2006]

This is a fantastic HOWTO. Windows now appear where I want them to

I just have one problem. I'm trying to pin a terminal that I've created to the first two desktops only. How would one go about doing this?
This is what I have so far:
(if
(is (window_name) "Desktop Terminal")
(begin
(wintype "desktop")
(set_workspace 1)
(pin)
(set_workspace 2)
(pin)
(set_workspace 3)
(unpin)
)
)
This appears to pin the terminal to desktop three only.
(Desktop Resized for easy viewing)

[Wolki]

This is a fantastic HOWTO. Windows now appear where I want them to

Thanks. I really should fully update this guide for dapper, but I don't think i'll find the time right now :-/.

I just have one problem. I'm trying to pin a terminal that I've created to the first two desktops only. How would one go about doing this?

pin puts on all workspaces, so you can't have it only on some all workspaces I guess that last unpin is what devilspie actually takes, so it's put only on the last workpace you selected.

I doubt what you plan to do is possible with devilspie. It should probably not be impossible to write something that does that by hand using wnck (check when the user moves to a workspace whether that workspace is one where the window is supposed to be put, and if it is move it there), but even in python wnck can be a bit problematic. Can'T really help you much with this right now, but maybe someone else will?

[sabrewolf2006]

Its not that much of a problem really, its just that on desktop three I have either rhythmbox or quodlibet running in fullscreen (not party mode in rhythmbox, it follows the focus round) so I figured it'd be a waste of cycles in having a terminal behind.

[jeff_]

I'm using devilspie version .16-1 and having trouble getting it to recognize the window_name of openoffice documents. It will recognize the "OpenOffice" part of the document, but if I open a document called DocumentName so the window name appears as "DocumentName - OpenOffice.org Writer" and have a matcher for contains "DocumentName" it wont work. If I change the matcher to contains "OpenOffice" then it does work. The following is basicly what I have:

 (if (and (contains (application_name) "OpenOffice") (contains (window_name) "DocumentName")) (set_workspace 4))

Thanks --Jeff

EDIT: I'm now fairly certain the problem is that when openoffice first launches a document, say MyDocument, the window title is initially just OpenOffice.org and then it changes to the full "MyDocument - OpenOffice.org Writer". I'm guessing since devilspie starts before this happens it only looks at the initial window title and not the title after it changes. If this is so, can anyone thing of a possible workaround for this? Thanks again --Jeff

[Wolki]

EDIT: I'm now fairly certain the problem is that when openoffice first launches a document, say MyDocument, the window title is initially just OpenOffice.org and then it changes to the full "MyDocument - OpenOffice.org Writer". I'm guessing since devilspie starts before this happens it only looks at the initial window title and not the title after it changes. If this is so, can anyone thing of a possible workaround for this? Thanks again --Jeff

Yes, it sounds like that is the problem. Unfortunately I can't think of a workaround for this, except restarting devilspie. Long-term, OOo could be fixed to set the correct window title immediately if possible, or devilspie could be enhanced to support matching on window changes. (I'm not a good enough coder to do any of them -_-)

[jeff_]

Yes, it sounds like that is the problem. Unfortunately I can't think of a workaround for this, except restarting devilspie. Long-term, OOo could be fixed to set the correct window title immediately if possible, or devilspie could be enhanced to support matching on window changes. (I'm not a good enough coder to do any of them -_-)

When I installed the devilspie package did it install the source code as well? If so where and if not what's the best way to take a look at it? I'm new to the whole linux open source thing, but I do have plenty of experience coding. Thanks -- Jeff