[Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

xfce-tux · 2011-06-19 00:53:08

hello archers!

im in love with xfce4 DE, but the annoying thing is that i can place the desktop icons only in a invisible "grid" of tiles.

i changed the display manager to gdm, but it didn't help. i tryed changing the WM, but didn't not find out how to do that.

Yes, i dont understand how DE's working internal, cause there are so many parts, as DM, WM, session-manager, and so on, which confuses me.

So how i can place my icons individually on the desktop?

Thanks in advance!!

Last edited by xfce-tux (2011-09-12 21:13:34)

Kilzool · 2011-06-19 05:50:54

I can do this two ways... one way is with an existing program in the menu. For instance, Firefox. So I would click the menu, then goto Network, and see Firefox there. I would click and HOLD the firefox menu item, and drag it to the desktop.

Another way, is I can create a ".desktop" file in the Desktop folder of my home folder. /home/kilzool/Desktop/
I can make one to launch my HoN game. Below is the example:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Value=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Heroes of Newerth
GenericName=Multiplayer Game
Comment=Heroes of Newerth
Icon=/home/kilzool/games/HoN/icon.png
Exec="/home/kilzool/game/HoN/hon.sh"
Categories=Game

---------------end
I would save this file as "hon.desktop" in my /home/kilzool/Desktop/ folder

Last edited by Kilzool (2011-06-19 05:51:56)

FrozenFox · 2011-06-19 06:26:07

I think the poster is asking how they can move their desktop icons freely instead of in a defined set of tile regions as xfdesktop does.

I can't directly answer your question, but perhaps I can be of some assistance on the way.

Let me explain:

DM: Display Manager.. as far as the end user is concerned, it is basically the graphical login screen and behind-the-scenes authentication stuff..
DE: Desktop Environment... this is the desktop experience altogether: DE-centric apps, desktop metaphor app, window manager, panels, etc.
WM: Window Manager.. as far as the end user is concerned, it is basically the window title bar, can allow/disallow desktop effects, and includes window-manipulating behavior (tiling, moving, minimize, maximize, switch desktops, etc)
Session manager: Remembers the stuff you were running last time you left the environment, if i am not mistaken.
Desktop metaphor: this is what you are asking about. an app will draw the desktop and allow you to manipulate icons therein. in gnome2, nautilus drew the desktop. in kde3, konqueror drew the desktop iirc. in kde4, plasma draws the desktop. in xfce, xfdesktop draws the desktop. in gnome3, i am reasonably certain nautilus still does this. I think if you right click on the nautilus desktop, it has an option for free-movement.

You want to replace what draws the desktop, xfdesktop, with something else. I am not sure if nautilus will do what you speak of, but it is worth a look. try gnome3 in fallback mode and see if it does. If it does, start your search there. I know it can be done in xfce with nautilus, as I have done it on accident before, but could not tell you specifically how to do it.

Last edited by FrozenFox (2011-06-19 06:34:35)

thisoldman · 2011-06-19 11:18:07

Isn't the desktop managed by Thunar? I'm not sure of this since I don't use Xfce, except on other people's computers.

Does this help?
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.p … 66#p101253

Last edited by thisoldman (2011-06-19 11:21:50)

FrozenFox · 2011-06-19 17:55:48

No desktop appears for me without xfdesktop running, which is what the checkbox in that post does.

It appears the answer is somewhere in the middle. pacman -Qi xfdesktop shows that it depends on thunar. So most probably, xfdesktop uses parts of thunar to draw the desktop.

I completely forgot about pcmanfm..

Last edited by FrozenFox (2011-06-19 18:10:40)

xfce-tux · 2011-06-19 19:23:21

First of all: Thank you!!

@FrozenFox
Thanks for your explanations about the resources in general!

I still can not find an option "Allow XFCE to manage the desktop", and I don't know how to turn of xfdesktop.

I have installed pcmanfm-git, but where to change what so that pcmanfm is managing my desktop?

grillermo · 2011-09-03 20:25:19

Hey xfce-tux i don't know if you are still having this problem, but i found the solution, if you want pcmanfm to manage your desktop put in your startup applications this line
pcmanfm --desktop
I'm in gnome and i had to use the configuration editor(gconf-editor) to change this lines
/apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop
/desktop/gnome/background/draw_background
To false.
Hope it helps

xfce-tux · 2011-09-12 20:03:01

Again Thank You all!

psmanfm-mod (from AUR) is the (my) solution.

HOWTO:

get your display name and save it somewhere by

echo $DISPLAY

NOTE: Let the terminal window stay open, as you need it later on again.

After installation of pcmanfm-mod from AUR enter xfce4's Settings/Preferences Menu (menu names may incorrect here cause I am a german and so I've a german DE)
There enter Session and Applications->Session submenu and both kill xfdesktop and Thunar.
Not only xfdesktop but Thunar also runs as a daemon and therefore needs to be killed! The desktop (and all it's icons) will disappear but you stay calm.

In the terminal start pcmanfm (which is a symlink to pcmanfm-mod by installaion)

pcmanfm --display=(your display name, which you've saved above) --daemon-mode

NOTE: There's a equal sign '=' in the display option (an error which cost me a hour of time!)

pcmanfm starts up and now you can setup your desktop in Edit->Preferences->Desktop submenu.
DONOT forget to save your currently running session by xfce4's Preferrences-menu:
in Session and Applications->Session submenu press Save Session

Now logout and back in again.
Voila!

Padfoot · 2011-09-13 08:44:13

You certainly can adjust the icon grid size on Xfce. The smaller you set the grid size, the more "free layout like" (as requested in the original post) you will have.

Icon spacing is controlled by xfwm4. Although there is a configuration dialog for xfwm4 you will have to specify these settings in the file .config/xfce4/xfwm4/xfwm4rc

There are 2 commands

IconGrid
IconSpacing

So in ~/.config/xfce4/xfwm4/xfwm4rc you would put something like
IconGrid=8
IconSpacing=8

Cheers.

xfce-tux · 2011-09-13 16:44:26

Thank you, Padfoot!!

Could you please tell me where you got this options?
I've looked in the arch wikis and xfce{-look,wiki,Desktop} but found nothing

Thanks

Padfoot · 2011-09-14 06:49:05

I can't remember where I learnt the icon spacing from.

I have been using Xfce for a very long time (besides a brief few months earlier this year testing gnome 3). In my pre Arch days (running that *buntu distro) I got sick and tired of going on to the forums and seeing the vast majority of Xfce questions being answered with Gnome or KDE solutions, much to the frustration of the OP when the solution failed to work (and much to my frustration wanting to tell people to read before answering but biting my tongue being the good netizan that I am ). Since then, I have made it my mission, where possible, to answer Xfce questions with Xfce solutions.

Cheers.

jeff story · 2011-12-27 01:52:43

Another way to adjust the desktop grid size settings and more.

Source: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfdesktop/tree/README

  
HIDDEN CUSTOMISATIONS
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you're using the icon view, and would like to change how the text looks,
you have three things you can change: the opacity (transparency) of the
rounded text background, the color of the rounded text background, and the
color of the text itself.

You'd want to add something like this to your ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file:

style "xfdesktop-icon-view" {
    XfdesktopIconView::label-alpha = 75
    XfdesktopIconView::selected-label-alpha = 100
    XfdesktopIconVIew::ellipsize-icon-labels = 1

    XfdesktopIconView::shadow-x-offset = 1
    XfdesktopIconView::shadow-y-offset = 1
    XfdesktopIconView::shadow-color = "#ff0000"
    XfdesktopIconView::selected-shadow-x-offset = 2
    XfdesktopIconView::selected-shadow-y-offset = 2
    XfdesktopIconView::selected-shadow-color = "#00ff00"

    XfdesktopIconVIew::cell-spacing = 6
    XfdesktopIconView::cell-padding = 6
    XfdesktopIconView::cell-text-width-proportion = 2.5

    base[NORMAL] = "#00ff00"
    base[SELECTED] = "#5050ff"
    base[ACTIVE] = "#0000ff"

    fg[NORMAL] = "#ff0000"
    fg[SELECTED] = "#ff0000"
    fg[ACTIVE] = "#ff0000"
}
widget_class "*XfdesktopIconView*" style "xfdesktop-icon-view"

The first three entries set the opacity of the rounded text background
(allowed values are from 0 (totally transparent) to 255 (totally opaque),
and whether or not unselected icons get their labels ellipsized
(truncated) to fit on one line.  (The 'selected-' version controls the
opacity of icons that have been selected with the mouse.)

The second six entries can be used to enable a text shadow to be painted
with the icon labels.  The offsets are in pixels.  Setting them to 0 (the
defaults) will disable the shadows entirely.  Again, the 'selected-'
versions apply to icons that have been selected with the mouse.

The third four entries set spacing and sizing for individual icons on
the grid.  The 'cell-spacing' property specifies the spacing between each
'cell' in the grid of icons.  The 'cell-padding' property sets extra
padding placed around each icon+text.  The units for these two are in
pixels.  The 'cell-text-width-proportion' property specifies the maximum
width of the text label underneat the icon, as a multiplier of the icon
width (so for 30px icons, '2.5' would leave a 75px wide area underneath
for the text).

The fourth three entries set the color of the rounded text background.
* NORMAL sets the color for the regular, unselected state.
* SELECTED sets the color for when the icon is selected, and the desktop has
  keyboard/mouse focus.
* ACTIVE sets the color for when the icon is selected, but the desktop does
  not have keyboard/mouse focus.

The final three entries set the color of the label text.  See above for the
differences between NORMAL, SELECTED, and ACTIVE.

Arch Linux

#1 2011-06-19 00:53:08

[Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#2 2011-06-19 05:50:54

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#3 2011-06-19 06:26:07

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#4 2011-06-19 11:18:07

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#5 2011-06-19 17:55:48

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#6 2011-06-19 19:23:21

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#7 2011-09-03 20:25:19

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#8 2011-09-12 20:03:01

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#9 2011-09-13 08:44:13

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#10 2011-09-13 16:44:26

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#11 2011-09-14 06:49:05

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

#12 2011-12-27 01:52:43

Re: [Solved] wy i can place xfce4 desktop icons in a "grid" only?

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