Replace metacity by xfwm4

[theine]

Since metacity became the default window manager for gnome, I've always been bugged by the absence of some very useful features such as edge resistance towards other windows and vertical/horizontal maximization. The latter is actually somewhat implemented, but in a poor way, and appearently, the developers of metacity don't seem to see a desperate need for properly implementing the above features anytime soon.

Fortunately, there are alternatives to using metacity as window manager under Gnome. For a while I was using Openbox, which is great but I always had minor issues with it (e.g. the Gnome panels stayed visable when watching a video in fullscreen mode with VLC), so I kept looking and found xfwm4, which is the default window manager under XFCE. xfwm4 works absolutely fabulous for me, and it fits very nicely into Gnome since it also uses GTK. For anybody interested in trying it out, here's how to set it up under Gnome...

First, make sure the universe repository is enabled and then do

sudo apt-get install xfwm4 xfce4-mcs-manager

Next, edit /usr/bin/gnome-wm and add xfwm4 to the entry line that already contains openbox, i.e.

sudo sed -i "s/openbox)/openbox|xfwm4)/" /usr/bin/gnome-wm

Last thing to do is to set the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable so that Gnome is aware of it. This can be accomplished by

echo export WINDOW_MANAGER=/usr/bin/xfwm4 >> ~/.gnomerc

Done. Next time you log into Gnome, xfwm4 should manage your windows.

Setting the WINDOW_MANAGER environment variable won't have any effect if you saved your Gnome session at some point in the past. In that case, /usr/bin/gnome-wm isn't even invoked anymore when you log into Gnome. The solution is to either

rm ~/.gnome2/session

and start over with the default Gnome session next time you log in, or save a new session after doing the

killall metacity && xfwm4

routine. Thanks to the posters in this thread for pointing this out.

To adjust the settings for xfwm4, execute

xfce-setting-show

If you would like to do this with /usr/bin/gnome-window-properties (System -> Preferences -> Windows) you need to write a little .desktop file:

theine@cosmo:~$ cat /usr/share/gnome/wm-properties/xfwm4.desktop
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Xfwm4
Exec=xfwm4

# name we put on the WM spec check window
X-GNOME-WMName=Xfwm4

# our config tool
ConfigExec=xfce-setting-show
theine@cosmo:~$

Could be that you need to execute

sudo /etc/init.d/readahead start

before Gnome will be aware of xfwm4's configuration tool. The above .desktop file is identical to the one from the openbox package apart from the substitution openbox -> xfwm4.

[LaSSarD]

thanks, i've been looking for this for ages

[sailor420]

Is there an easy way to uninstall this, ie revert back to metacity should things not work?

[LaSSarD]

hey theine, now i had the opportunity to test it and it doesn't work at all
metacity is still running, no xfwm4

[majikstreet]

I'd like to see a screenshot, if possible.

[samwyse]

Is there a way to start the Gnome Run Dialog using xfwm4? xfrun is slow to start.

[theine]

Originally Posted by majikstreet I'd like to see a screenshot, if possible.

http://www.nordita.dk/~theine/images/Screenshot.png

[theine]

Originally Posted by LaSSarD hey theine, now i had the opportunity to test it and it doesn't work at all metacity is still running, no xfwm4

Check /usr/bin/gnome-wm if the entry for xfwm4 looks OK. Also, try

echo $WINDOW_MANAGER

and see whether it says xfwm4. If not, check ~/.gnomerc

[LaSSarD]

Originally Posted by theine Check /usr/bin/gnome-wm if the entry for xfwm4 looks OK. Also, try echo $WINDOW_MANAGER and see whether it says xfwm4. If not, check ~/.gnomerc

the entry for xfwm4 looks ok on /usr/bin/gnome-wm, see:

if [ ! -z "$SMID" ] ; then
  case `basename $WINDOW_MANAGER` in
    sawfish|sawmill|metacity)
      OPT1=--sm-client-id=$SMID
      ;;
    openbox|xfwm4)
      OPT1=--sm-client-id
      OPT2=$SMID
      ;;

but now, that's strange:

:~$ echo $WINDOW_MANAGER
/usr/bin/xfwm4

it looks perfect, but metacity is already running (perfectly, no strange errors)

[theine]

Originally Posted by sailor420 Is there an easy way to uninstall this, ie revert back to metacity should things not work?

Yes, just export WINDOW_MANAGER=/usr/bin/metacity in ~/.gnomerc or delete that line all together.