Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

josh000 · 2010-04-19 12:43:38

Hi. I am having some problems with finding a decent terminal program.

I am using Fluxbox, and so I don't want any DE specific terminal programs.

I have xterm by default, and have been playing with urxvt, aterm and mrxvt as well.

I originally wanted a terminal program with tabs and transparency, however tabs don't matter to me anymore and fluxbox has native support anyway. Now, just proper transparency is important to me. I understand Fluxbox can induce real transparency with xcompmgr, but this has the effect of making the entire window transparent. I am looking for a terminal that supports real transparency naively so the window bar and border will not be transparent, while the "terminal part" will be.

I'm not 100% sure, but out of these I think only urxvt fits the bill, with aterm and mrxvt only supporting pseudo transparency. Is this correct?

Second to this, and my more urgent problem, is that none of the terminals except xterm seem to fresh properly. in xterm I can do everything I can do in a real tty, I can edit with vi, use curses programs etc...no problems. However each of urxvt, mrxvt and aterm behave the same way, and do not refresh properly. If I try to edit a file in vi in any of these, I can only see maybe one or two lines of the file, and can't scroll through or anything...it's impossible to actually edit.

I also note in urxvt, mrxvt and aterm the home and end keys don't work, however they work in xterm just as they do on a tty. For example in each of the non xterm terminals pressing home just gives a tilde, which means I have to hold down the left arrow to get to the end of the line, which can be frustrating.

Obviously the other 3 terminals are are emulating a different terminal type to what xterm does...perhaps. However I have not found a way to test this. For those people using a non xterm terminal, how did you solve this?

I also had some somewhat related questions that I hope I don't need to make a separate post for(they seem so trivial but really bug me)

1. How would I press alt + enter inside a terminal? For example running wicd-curses from a terminal(Even an xterm) you need to press alt + enter to save settings, however from a terminal alt + enter has no effect. Is their any way to force this key combination?

2. I notice when starting a terminal, the shell lacks a prompt. Why do terminals start interactive shells by default, and why do interactive shells not have a prompt? Is their a way to make interactive shells inherrit the same prompt that login shells use? I use both zsh and bash. Is their any practical difference between using a login and interactive shell?

3. If I am running an X session as a normal user, and su to root in a terminal, is their any way I can start X programs as root and get them to display in the X session of my normal user? I normally get an error similar to unable to open display

3a. I just tested...I normally 'su -' out of habbit, and then I get an "unable to open display" error. I just used su, so roots profile was not loaded, and I can start X programs as root. Why does this work?

4. I was wondering if it was possible to have the titlebar of a terminal show the current command or path? Something more unique than just every window open saying urxvt or whatever.

Many thanks for any help!

Last edited by josh000 (2010-04-20 07:27:55)

josh000 · 2010-04-22 08:45:49

There must be some people out there who use urxvt, aterm or mrxvt and use vi without problems, and perhaps even have transparency working....

would it be better if I split this post up into separate posts?

VCoolio · 2010-04-22 09:34:48

josh000 wrote:

I'm not 100% sure, but out of these I think only urxvt fits the bill, with aterm and mrxvt only supporting pseudo transparency. Is this correct?

Urxvt does both real and pseudo transparancy, but this still needs your wm to have composite enabled. Also roxterm or evilvte may be an alternative. For urxvt set transparancy in .Xdefaults like this (I'm not too sure anymore what it all does but you can google it):

URxvt*depth:32
URxvt*background: rgba:2500/2500/2500/cccc  #for semitransparancy
# or:
URxvt*inheritPixmap: true
URxvt*tintColor: white
URxvt*shading: 40

josh000 wrote:

I also note in urxvt, mrxvt and aterm the home and end keys don't work, however they work in xterm just as they do on a tty.

Try stuff like this:

*VT100.Translations: #override \
              <Key>BackSpace: string(0x7F)\n\
              <Key>Delete:    string("\033[3~")\n\
              <Key>Home:      string("\033[1~")\n\
              <Key>End:       string("\033[4~")

josh000 wrote:

4. I was wondering if it was possible to have the titlebar of a terminal show the current command or path? Something more unique than just every window open saying urxvt or whatever.

I think this has more to do with shell than terminal. You have zsh and bash examples here

As for your other issues: I never had them, don't know. Hope this helps a bit.

Last edited by VCoolio (2010-04-22 09:45:56)

josh000 · 2010-04-22 23:15:38

Hmm, thanks so much, I will try out everything you said.

I wonder why I need an Xdefaults though? Can I not just pass options to the programs? Why does xterm work perfectly "out of the box" and the other terminals do not?

Does anyone have any idea about the terminals not outputting properly...ie I can only sue vi in xterm, or how to get a shell prompt on interactive terminals?

schen · 2010-04-23 00:36:19

Xdefaults is the method to configure some programs and default X applications, such as xcalc, xclock, and others.

josh000 · 2010-04-23 04:40:12

I know, thats why I wonder why I would need it for something likke urxvt as opposed to passing options...

VCoolio · 2010-04-23 18:39:44

You can also pass options, read 'man urxvt'; where it says 'resource blah' in the description you can use that same setting in .Xdefaults like 'URxvt*blah <value>'. I just think using .Xdefaults is easier, you can comment stuff so you don't forget what you used etc.

PoZiTPoH · 2010-04-23 19:58:50

I cant get *rxvt 32bit transparency, cuz fluxbox dont support 32bits, only 24 (pseudotransparency). But I can get real transparency with composite manager (cairo-compmgr, xcompmgr) and set transparency using fluxbox settings (right click on window title).

josh000 · 2010-04-23 20:21:46

Hi PoZiTPoH, that's the same as me. Hmm.

The thing is if you use fluxbox to set transparency for urxvt then you may as well just use any terminal and make it transparent with fluxbox.

Not the ideal solution.

VCoolio · 2010-04-23 23:04:51

'man 7 urxvt', line 145 ff., there are four ways of having transparancy in urxvt. Check them out.

PoZiTPoH · 2010-04-24 11:57:39

VCoolio wrote:

'man 7 urxvt', line 145 ff., there are four ways of having transparancy in urxvt. Check them out.

But u cant get REAL transparency in fluxbox using Xdefaults settings, either with composite manager...

moljac024 · 2010-04-24 12:14:49

Only VTE-based terminals offer decent transparency support. urxvt is bugged in that aspect.
As someone else suggested - roxterm, or lxterm are nice DE-agnostic terminals you could use.

josh000 · 2010-04-24 17:19:33

VCoolio wrote:

'man 7 urxvt', line 145 ff., there are four ways of having transparancy in urxvt. Check them out.

Yup....no luck. Dang Fluxbox.

The first option which is meant to be real transparency acts just as pseduo transparency. Not surprising the option for pseduo transparency also acts like pseduo transparency. The third option for ARGB values doesnt work wit fluxbox, and using xcompmgr is a cop out. So as it stands, no possibility of real transparency with urxvt in fluxbox. Disapointing, but oh well.

josh000 · 2010-04-25 00:33:15

Although I am curious if anyone could explain why if the problem is fluxbox not supporting 32bit why tint2 can have real transparency nativley, and why xcompmgr is able to work?

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-19 12:43:38

Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#2 2010-04-22 08:45:49

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#3 2010-04-22 09:34:48

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#4 2010-04-22 23:15:38

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#5 2010-04-23 00:36:19

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#6 2010-04-23 04:40:12

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#7 2010-04-23 18:39:44

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#8 2010-04-23 19:58:50

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#9 2010-04-23 20:21:46

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#10 2010-04-23 23:04:51

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#11 2010-04-24 11:57:39

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#12 2010-04-24 12:14:49

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#13 2010-04-24 17:19:33

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

#14 2010-04-25 00:33:15

Re: Terminal transparency and proper refreshing

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