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treeman1111

Member

Registered: 2013-01-28

Posts: 109

Openbox and Compton

Over the past few days I have been working on a custom desktop built around Openbox and Compton. I have come up with two somewhat interrelated questions regarding my setup.

1. What is the class_g or name of the window that shows up when you change workspaces in Openbox? (I have tried using xprop to identify it, but it returns nothing.)

2. I have three applications (Conky, tint2, and urxvt) that I want to have a blurred background. Using compton.conf, how do I exclude all other windows from having a blurred background?

# Configuration file for the desktop compositor.

### Get Compton working with ati drivers ###
# Set the backend that Compton should use to render things on the desktop.
backend = "glx";
# Paint on the composite overlay window instead of painting on the root window. 
paint-on-overlay = true;
# Avoid using the stencil buffer. Improves performance by around 15%.
glx-no-stencil = true;
# GLX buffer swap method. Can be:
# [0]: undefined
# [1]: copy
# [2]: exchange
# [3-6]
# [-1]: buffer-age
# 1 is the fastest. Use it if it works.
glx-swap-method = 1;

### Enable and configure shadows. ###
# Enable shadows.
shadow = true;
# Set the default radius (in pixels) of shadows.
shadow-radius = 12;
# The left offset of shadows (in pixels).
shadow-offset-x = -12;
# The top offset of shadows (in pixels).
shadow-offset-y = -12;
# Opacity of the shadow.
shadow-opacity = 1.0;
# Clear shadows behind transparent windows.
clear-shadow = true;
# Do not draw shadows on drag-and-drop windows.
no-dnd-shadow = true;
# Draw shadows on the dock
no-dock-shadow = false;
# Do not draw shadows on shaped windows such as the menu in Firefox.
shadow-ignore-shaped = true;
# Remove ugly shadows from argb windows in Firefox:
shadow-exclude = "class_g = 'Firefox' && argb";

### Configure gaussian blur and opacity ###
# The kernel used to generate the 13x13 gaussian blur.
blur-kern = "13,13,0.236928,0.295230,0.353455,0.406570,0.449329,0.477114,0.486752,0.477114,0.449329,0.406570,0.353455,0.295230,0.236928,0.295230,0.367879,0.440432,0.506617,0.559898,0.594521,0.606531,0.594521,0.559898,0.506617,0.440432,0.367879,0.295230,0.353455,0.440432,0.527292,0.606531,0.670320,0.711770,0.726149,0.711770,0.670320,0.606531,0.527292,0.440432,0.353455,0.406570,0.506617,0.606531,0.697676,0.771052,0.818731,0.835270,0.818731,0.771052,0.697676,0.606531,0.506617,0.406570,0.449329,0.559898,0.670320,0.771052,0.852144,0.904837,0.923116,0.904837,0.852144,0.771052,0.670320,0.559898,0.449329,0.477114,0.594521,0.711770,0.818731,0.904837,0.960789,0.980199,0.960789,0.904837,0.818731,0.711770,0.594521,0.477114,0.486752,0.606531,0.726149,0.835270,0.923116,0.980199,0.980199,0.923116,0.835270,0.726149,0.606531,0.486752,0.477114,0.594521,0.711770,0.818731,0.904837,0.960789,0.980199,0.960789,0.904837,0.818731,0.711770,0.594521,0.477114,0.449329,0.559898,0.670320,0.771052,0.852144,0.904837,0.923116,0.904837,0.852144,0.771052,0.670320,0.559898,0.449329,0.406570,0.506617,0.606531,0.697676,0.771052,0.818731,0.835270,0.818731,0.771052,0.697676,0.606531,0.506617,0.406570,0.353455,0.440432,0.527292,0.606531,0.670320,0.711770,0.726149,0.711770,0.670320,0.606531,0.527292,0.440432,0.353455,0.295230,0.367879,0.440432,0.506617,0.559898,0.594521,0.606531,0.594521,0.559898,0.506617,0.440432,0.367879,0.295230,0.236928,0.295230,0.353455,0.406570,0.449329,0.477114,0.486752,0.477114,0.449329,0.406570,0.353455,0.295230,0.236928";
# Blur the background of transparent windows.
blur-background = true;
# Do not blur the background of these windows..It leads to an ugly effect while fading.
blur-background-exclude = [ "window_type = 'unknown'", "window_type = 'popup_menu'", "window_type = 'tooltip'", "window_type = 'toolbar'", 
	"window_type = 'menu'", "window_type = 'utility'", "window_type = 'splash'", "window_type = 'dialog'", "class_g = 'Thunar'", 
	"class_g = 'Firefox'", "class_g = 'Leafpad'", "class_g= 'Obconf'", "class_g = 'Ristretto'" ];


### Fading ###
# Enable fading
fading = true;
# How long does it take to fade one step (in ms)?
fade-delta = 7.5;
# Do not fade blurred windows. It looks ugly.
fade-exclude = ["class_g = 'Conky'", "class_g = 'URxvt'", "window_type = 'dock'" ];

### Per-window type configuration. ###
wintypes:
{
	unknown = { };
	desktop = { };
	dock = { };
	toolbar = { };
	menu = { };
	utility = {};
	splash = { };
	dialog = { };
	normal = { };
	dropdown_menu = { fade = false; shadow = false; opacity = 0.75; focus = true; };
	popup_menu = { };
	tooltip = { };
	notify = { };
	combo = { };
	dnd = { };
};

Thank you!

Last edited by treeman1111 (2014-09-20 23:20:20)

emeres

Member

Registered: 2013-10-08

Posts: 1,570

Re: Openbox and Compton

Ad. 1. I think you would have to take a look at the source code to find that out.
Ad. 2. I speculate here*, try something like this:

blur-background-exclude = [ "window_type = '*'", "window_type = '*', "window_type = '*', "window_type = '*'];
blur-background = [ "window_type = 'menu'", "window_type = 'utility'", "window_type = 'splash'", "window_type = 'dialog'", "class_g = 'Conky'", 
	"class_g = 'tint2'", "class_g = 'urxvt'" ];

Edit: *I had no errors running something similar, but did not test thoroughly.

Last edited by emeres (2014-09-21 00:33:57)

treeman1111

Member

Registered: 2013-01-28

Posts: 109

Re: Openbox and Compton

Thank you for the reply, emeres! I was not aware that the blur-background parameter took arguments like this. I edited my configuration as you suggested, and no errors were reported. Sadly, however, my Conky, tint2, and urxvt windows were not blurred either.

emeres

Member

Registered: 2013-10-08

Posts: 1,570

Re: Openbox and Compton

 Ah, the 'blur-background' only takes bool, I wanted to use '-include' first, and overlooked that one in the documentation, my bad. It is probably skipped from the configuration. You would have to look at the source code. Have you searched for something similar on the internet?

treeman1111

Member

Registered: 2013-01-28

Posts: 109

Re: Openbox and Compton

I have done some searching and have found very little information that was relevant to the topic. I was wondering if there was a way to change the EWMH standard of the URxvt window to "desktop" instead of "normal." That way, I could exclude all normal windows from being blurred and blur only "desktop" and "dock" window types.

emeres

Member

Registered: 2013-10-08

Posts: 1,570

Re: Openbox and Compton

 Skimming through the code, I only see a blacklist for blur background. Maybe someone could patch a whitelist in. I would consider that would be a long term solution and am not aware of how to change those on the fly, sorry.

treeman1111

Member

Registered: 2013-01-28

Posts: 109

Re: Openbox and Compton

Well, thanks for the help, emeres, I appreciate it!