How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

actinium226 · 2024-01-20 21:52:53

I'm looking to modify my desktop environment such that instead of a desktop I have a fully functional terminal the background, but also still have graphical apps. I've made a very crude photoshop mockup of what I'm trying to do: https://imgur.com/a/2CU5wvf

I spend a lot of time in the terminal, but I still use graphical apps so I want to combine both.

I haven't seen any DE's that do this. I'm not afraid to modify a DE to try to implement this, but I'm not sure where to start. I'm looking either for suggestions on DE's that are easy to modify, but also I know nothing of DE's, the words "compositor" and "window manager" mean nothing to me, so some pointers as to what to modify would be great.

Trilby · 2024-01-20 22:12:38

So you just want a full screen terminal - pretty much any of them would work. But do you want it to stay below all other windows even when you are typing in the terminal?

actinium226 · 2024-01-20 22:25:24

No, I do not want a full screen terminal. I want to replace the desktop with a terminal. I do not want something close, I want to implement this, and I made this post hoping some people who know about building DEs might have some tips and pointers because I'm not sure where to start.

Trilby · 2024-01-20 23:14:55

actinium226 wrote:

because I'm not sure where to start.

I'm telling you where to start.

I could answer this at much a different level referencing the EWMH protocols for desktop windows for X11 or the Desktop=0 layer of the layer-shell protocol for wayland. Either of these would be what you'd do to create a program that provides the "desktop". Then you'd need to implement a pseudo-terminal and rendering of the text and handling input, etc. All of these already exist in existing software, though, so why build your own (especially when you have no relevant experience to do so).

seth · 2024-01-20 23:19:58

The desktop is just a full-sized window that's flagged as _NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP - at least on X11, what brings us to the first question you need to answer: for what kind of WM?

Here's a lousy hack for urxvt & wmctrl

urxvt -tr -sh 50
wmctrl -i -r $WINDOWID -b add,sticky,fullscreen # inside that terminal
wmctrl -i -r $WINDOWID -b add,below,skip_taskbar
wmctrl -i -r $WINDOWID -b add,skip_pager

Arch Linux

#1 2024-01-20 21:52:53

How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

#2 2024-01-20 22:12:38

Re: How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

#3 2024-01-20 22:25:24

Re: How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

#4 2024-01-20 23:14:55

Re: How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

#5 2024-01-20 23:19:58

Re: How might I replace the desktop with a fully functional terminal?

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