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XFCE

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Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for UNIX-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and low on system resources, while still being visually appealing and user friendly.


Contents

XFCE

Xfce.png

Xfce (pronounced as four individual letters) is a free software desktop environment for Unix and other Unix-like platforms, such as Linux, Solaris and BSD. It aims to be fast and lightweight, while still being visually appealing and easy to use.

The current version, 4.6, is modular and reusable. It consists of separately packaged components that together provide the full functionality of the desktop environment, but which can be selected in subsets to create the user's preferred personal working environment. Xfce is mainly used for its ability to run a modern desktop environment on relatively modest hardware.

It is based on the GTK+ 2 toolkit (the same as GNOME). It uses the Xfwm window manager, described below. Its configuration is entirely mouse-driven, and the configuration files are hidden from the casual user.

Xfce will be included with the upcoming Pandora handheld gaming system.

Xfce desktop-capture.png

Why use Xfce?

Here is a (subjective) list of reasons to use Xfce:

  • It's fast; faster than the other major DEs.
  • It's stable. In the long time Xfce-4 has been out, only a relatively small handful of bugs has been discovered, despite it having a rather large following.
  • It's pretty. It uses GTK2 and is themable. You can make Xfce look very nice. The fonts are completely AA as well.
  • It works great with multiple monitors. Xfce's Xinerama support is arguably the best out of any WM/DE.
  • It doesn't get in your way. You'll find Xfce helps your work flow, rather than always making itself "present."
  • It comes with a built-in compositor which allows for true transparency, among other cool things.

Why not use Xfce?

Here is a (subjective) list of reasons not to use Xfce:

  • Doesn't contain all the features and integration of the major DEs.
  • Slower development cycle.
  • Because it's based on the CDE design, the layout may not be as familiar.

Installation

To install the base Xfce system, run:

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S xfce4 xfce4-core


If you want extras, like panel plugins, run this:

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S xfce4-extra xfce4-goodies


Suggested Applications

  • Terminal Vte based/gtk+-2 lightweight X-terminal
  • Slim Desktop-independent graphical login manager for X11
  • Orage Modern calendar application
  • Midori A lightweight web browser based on WebKit
  • Postler A lean mail reader with an opinionated interface
  • Parole Media player based on GStreamer
  • xfburn An easy to use CD/DVD burning program. Supports images and data discs so far.
  • Ristretto Image viewer
  • Mousepad Lighweight xfce text editor
  • Squeeze An archive manager for Xfce

Tips

Panel

How to customize xfce panel background

Edit ~/.gtkrc-2.0. Note that you must place the image in the same directory as the configuration, which is ~/. You can not specify the path to the image, or it won't work.

 style "panel-background" {
   bg_pixmap[NORMAL]        = "foo.bar"
   bg_pixmap[PRELIGHT]      = "foo.bar"
   bg_pixmap[ACTIVE]        = "foo.bar"
   bg_pixmap[SELECTED]      = "foo.bar"
   bg_pixmap[INSENSITIVE]   = "foo.bar"
 }
 widget_class "*Panel*" style "panel-background"


Desktop

Use a transparent background for desktop icon titles

To change the default white background of desktop icon titles to something more suitable, edit the .gtkrc-2.0 file in your home directory (or create the file if needed) and add the following:

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 10
base[NORMAL] = "#000000"
base[SELECTED] = "#71B9FF"
base[ACTIVE] = "#71FFAD"
fg[NORMAL] = "#ffffff"
fg[SELECTED] = "#71B9FF"
fg[ACTIVE] = "#71FFAD" }
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

App suggestions

A drop down console like in quake

See tilda page or Guake page.

How to add themes to XFCE

1. Go to xfce-look.org and click "Themes" in the left navbar. Look around for a theme you want and click "Download".

2. Go to the directory where you downloaded the tarball/file and extract it using Squeeze/Xarchiver/CLI.

3. Move the extracted folder to /usr/share/themes (for all users) or ~/.themes (for just you). Inside /usr/share/themes/abc, there is a folder that you create called xfwm4 that will contain whatever files that is included with that theme.

4. GTK theme is available here:

Menu --> Settings --> Appearance

You select your xfwm theme in:

Menu --> Settings --> Window Manager

Fonts

If you find the standard fonts rather thick and or slightly out of focus open Settings>Appearence click on the Fonts tab and under Hinting: change to Full

You could also try using a custom DPI setting.=== Screenshots ===

Using print-screen key

A simple way is to use a command-line screenshot utility:

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman -S scrot


Then

XFCE Menu  -->  Settings  -->  Keyboard  >>>  Application Shortcuts.

Add the "scrot" command to use the "PrintScreen" key.

All screenshots will be placed in your home folder with unique names like

"2009-02-19-063052_1280x1024_scrot.png".

Screenshooter

There is also an a screenshot plugin for the Xfce panel, which can be used instead of scrot, that is available in extra:

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman -S xfce4-screenshooter


You can add a keyboard binding for it using the command

User terminal 48px.png
$ xfce4-screenshooter -f

instead of "scrot". You'll get a dialog window after pressing "Print" where you can copy the image to the clipboard or save it.

Change volume with keyboard volume buttons

Just install xfce4-volumed

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S xfce4-volumed


Removable Device support

devmon is a configuration-less bash wrapper script for udisks which automounts optical discs and removable drives. It can also selectively autostart apps or execute commands after mounting, ignore specified devices and volume labels, and unmount removable drives.

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S devmon


or use the Gnome support for removable devices (need reboot)

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S gnome-disk-utility

Terminal tango color theme

Open with your favorite editor

~/.config/Terminal/terminalrc

And add(replace) this lines:

ColorForeground=White
ColorBackground=#323232323232
ColorPalette1=#2e2e34343636
ColorPalette2=#cccc00000000
ColorPalette3=#4e4e9a9a0606
ColorPalette4=#c4c4a0a00000
ColorPalette5=#34346565a4a4
ColorPalette6=#757550507b7b
ColorPalette7=#060698989a9a
ColorPalette8=#d3d3d7d7cfcf
ColorPalette9=#555557575353
ColorPalette10=#efef29292929
ColorPalette11=#8a8ae2e23434
ColorPalette12=#fcfce9e94f4f
ColorPalette13=#72729f9fcfcf
ColorPalette14=#adad7f7fa8a8
ColorPalette15=#3434e2e2e2e2
ColorPalette16=#eeeeeeeeecec

Thunar does not display any thumbnail

Thunar relies on Tumbler to generate thumbnails.

Root terminal 48px.png
# pacman-g2 -S tumbler


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