Skip to content

Latest commit

 

History

History
113 lines (71 loc) · 2.5 KB

window-manager.md

File metadata and controls

113 lines (71 loc) · 2.5 KB
Raw

Window manager

An X window manager interacts with X to do things like:

  • window switching (alt tab / visible list of open windows)

  • maximize, minimize, full screen

  • multiple desktops functionality

  • the title bar, including the application's icon, the buttons to minimize, maximize, close, and what happens on drag (move window) or right click (show window options).

Window managers are X Clients.

It does not take care of:

  • panel
  • desktop
  • what happens inside windows (this is usually managed with a toolkit like gtk or qt)

Implementations:

  • Metacity
  • Compiz

Get currently used window manager info:

wmctrl -m

Openbox

Default for LXDE.

Minimalistic.

Very fast.

Graphical configuration tool.

obconf

You can change themes there, but not all config options are modifiable from there.

Configuration file:

vim ~/.config/openbox/lxde-rc.xml

Possible actions are listed here: http://openbox.org/wiki/Help:Actions

An useful example is to half maximize a windows with Win + Left/Right

<keybind key="W-Left">
    <action name="Unmaximize"/>
    <action name="Maximize">
        <direction>vertical</direction>
    </action>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo">
        <x>0</x>
        <y>0</y>
        <width>50%</width>
    </action>
</keybind>

<keybind key="W-Right">
    <action name="Unmaximize"/>
    <action name="Maximize">
        <direction>vertical</direction>
    </action>
    <action name="MoveResizeTo">
        <x>-0</x>
        <y>0</y>
        <width>50%</width>
    </action>
</keybind>

For the right, the minus sight - indicates that the distance is between the right edge of the window and the right screen edge.

It is possible to bind keys to shell commands as follows:

<keybind key="W-F">
    <action name="Execute">
        <command>wmctrl -a '- mozilla firefox'</command>
    </action>
</keybind>

Restart after changing config file to apply the changes:

openbox --restart

Does not close applications.

mutter

Compiz

Passes window decoration to a Compiz window decorator.

Some Compiz window decorators:

  • gtk-window-decorator: uses GTK for window decoration
  • emerald:

Configurations: gconf-editor under apps.compiz-1.

Restart Compiz after modifying configurations to load them:

compiz --replace

You should do this from a tty other than tty7.

Matchbox

Minimalistic, one window at a time only. Embedded focus. Buildroot 2016-05 has a package for it.