[SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

joasis · 2018-02-27 16:35:05

Hello everyone,

Is it possible to run Chromium in the background (minimize it to tray)? I've checked "Continue running background apps when Chromium is closed" in the settings but it had no effect and closing the window results in closing all instances of background apps.

I'm using Chromium 64.0.3282.186 on 4.15.5-1-ARCH with Gnome 3.26.2.

Thanks for the help!

Last edited by joasis (2018-03-27 01:09:11)

tomsargeaunt · 2018-02-27 17:34:19

Is

chromium --no-startup-window

what you're after?

joasis · 2018-02-28 16:01:59

tomsargeaunt wrote:

Is
chromium --no-startup-window
what you're after?

Not really. Your suggested parameter, if I understand correctly, is only relevant when one has Chromium listed as a startup app. In that case --no-startup-window ensures it starts conveniently minimized on boot.

I'd like to keep Chromium running as a background process at all times (if possible, with a tray icon visible).

I know it's possible to do that with Chrome on Windows, but I can't find any info regarding Chromium on Linux.

seth · 2018-02-28 16:56:06

What's actually the goal here?

To keep "chromium" (it's actually a bunch of processes) running, just keep the window (minimize it, in doubt) - there's not much point in just destroying it.

If it's about "minimize it to tray" (something that technically does not exist*), you could use xdotool

WID=`xdotool search --onlyvisible --class chromium`
xdotool windowunmap $WID
xdotool windowmap $WID

Whether and how to bind this to some GUI icon is a different matter (and depends on your desktop shell)

----
*The window is *not* "minimized" by usually not only unmapped but actually destroyed and the process re-creates it.

R00KIE · 2018-02-28 18:04:10

Have you tried with alltray?

alltray -- chromium --chromium-parameters

joasis · 2018-03-02 00:09:53

seth wrote:

What's actually the goal here?
To keep "chromium" (it's actually a bunch of processes) running, just keep the window (minimize it, in doubt) - there's not much point in just destroying it.
If it's about "minimize it to tray" (something that technically does not exist*), you could use xdotool
WID=`xdotool search --onlyvisible --class chromium`
xdotool windowunmap $WID
xdotool windowmap $WID
Whether and how to bind this to some GUI icon is a different matter (and depends on your desktop shell)
----
*The window is *not* "minimized" by usually not only unmapped but actually destroyed and the process re-creates it.

Thank you for your suggestions.

The goal here is: 1) to have Chromium running at all times, even if one accidentally closes the window; 2) minimize Chromium load time.

I'm using Pushbullet app on my Android device and it's very convenient to have phone notifications displayed by a browser extension using Gnome notifications API.

Xdotool returned the following error:

X Error of failed request:  BadWindow (invalid Window parameter)
  Major opcode of failed request:  10 (X_UnmapWindow)
  Resource id in failed request:  0x0
  Serial number of failed request:  18
  Current serial number in output stream:  20

Alltray successfully puts Chromium icon into tray but it only works for a single session. The behavior is lost after closing the window..

I'll try and look for other solutions and update the thread with my progress.

seth · 2018-03-02 08:16:11

The xdotool output means there was no chromium window.

What you want cannot be achieved by means of the window system.
See eg. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta … ogpmianag/ - but i've not used it.

joasis · 2018-03-27 01:08:38

seth wrote:

The xdotool output means there was no chromium window.
What you want cannot be achieved by means of the window system.
See eg. https://chrome.google.com/webstore/deta … ogpmianag/ - but i've not used it.

Thanks seth! Sorry for a late reply. The extension you suggested does the job. It puts Chromium icon into tray and keeps running the extensions in background.

Arch Linux

#1 2018-02-27 16:35:05

[SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#2 2018-02-27 17:34:19

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#3 2018-02-28 16:01:59

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#4 2018-02-28 16:56:06

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#5 2018-02-28 18:04:10

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#6 2018-03-02 00:09:53

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#7 2018-03-02 08:16:11

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

#8 2018-03-27 01:08:38

Re: [SOLVED] Running Chromium in background on Arch + Gnome

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