Xfwm
Related articles
xfwm is the window manager for the Xfce environment.
Installation
Install xfwm4 from the official repositories.
Starting Xfwm
To run xfwm as stand-alone, edit Xinitrc and add the following line:
exec xfwm4
Configuration
Most xfwm settings can be accessed through xfwm4-settings
, for window behavior and shortcuts, xfwm4-tweaks-settings
, for advanced settings and compositing, and xfwm4-workspace-settings
, for the number of workspaces and their names.
Composite manager
To enable the Xfwm compositor and adjust its settings, go to Window Manager Tweaks:
$ xfwm4-tweaks-settings
Alternatively, it can be enabled with --compositor
. For example:
~/.xinitrc
exec xfwm4 --compositor=on
Window roll-up
Double clicking the titlebar, or clicking roll window up in the window menu, causes the window contents to disappear leaving only the titlebar. To disable this functionality with xfconf
, run:
$ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/mousewheel_rollup -s false
Window tiling
Xfwm can "tile" a window automatically when it is moved to an edge of the screen. It does so by resizing it to fit the top half of the screen. To enable or disable this behaviour with xfconf
, run:
$ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/tile_on_move -s false $ xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -p /general/tile_on_move -s true
Alternatively, (un)check Window Manager Tweaks > Accessibility > Automatically tile windows when moving toward the screen edge.
Extra settings provided by the xfce settings manager
Install xfce4-settings from the official repositories
Additional Themes
Install xfwm4-themes from the official repositories
The themes installed will be shown in the xfwm4-settings
window.
Tips & Tricks
Hide the titlebar when window is maximized
Install xfwm4-titleless-dev from the AUR.
After installation, run xfwm4-tweaks-settings
, go to Accessibility
and check Hide title of windows when maximized
.
Troubleshooting
No icons shown in browser for downloaded items
This is fixed by installing xfce4-settings from the official repositories.
Double titlebars with GTK3+ applications
Xfwm has trouble recognizing GTK+#Client side decorations and may add a second decoration to applications. Enabling Xfwm's compositor may solve this problem.
Number of workspaces changes unexpectedly
Keep in mind Xfwm assigns shortcuts to adding and removing workspaces. By default these are Alt+Delete
and Alt+Insert
, respectively.
If the number of workspaces resets at login, change the amount after Xfwm is started. This is ensured by the sleep
command. [1]
~/.xinitrc
(sleep 3 && xfconf-query -v -c xfwm4 -p /general/workspace_count -s number) & exec xfwm4
or, from xfce4-session:
~/.config/autostart/workspace.desktop
[Desktop Entry] Exec=sh -c "sleep 3 && xfconf-query -v -c xfwm4 -p /general/workspace_count -s number"
See also: Logout alters workspaces