Xfce for Slackware Users

As the title says, a Xfce thread for Slackware users.

Here we can discuss all things Xfce as they pertain to Slackware. Tips and tweaks, bugs, scripts and whatever floats your boat.


The big news this morning is, Catfish is now a Xfce project,
and version 1.4.6 has been released.

The story is here, https://bluesabre.org/2018/07/15/cat...-xfce-project/

I've built it and installed it and it is running as advertised.

(You will have to edit the SBo script as it is, at the moment,
still set for version 1.4.2)

I am a relatively new Xfce user in Slackware. I run Xfce on my Slack laptop, and I think it looks awesome on desktop too. Nice idea for a thread, I'm looking forward to seeing how this develops. It's the best DE for Slackware, in my opinion.

Originally Posted by Lysander666 It's the best DE for Slackware, in my opinion.

I agree. XFCE is feature rich without using a lot of RAM. I like XFCE on OpenBSD as well.

Around 2004 I switched from Debian to Xubuntu and fell in love with Xfce. Got tired of Ubuntu and switched back to Debian a few months later. BUT, I have been using Xfce on every distribution I install ever since. Sure, from time to time I try out KDE or a stand alone window manager. I always go back to Xfce. These days Xfce is very feature rich. Slackware 14.2 has a great balance in its Xfce packages. One of the main reasons I chose Slackware when I switched from Debian was because Xfce is included on the Slackware installation DVD.

Slackware is missing a few applications and plugins within Xfce to allow it to remain a stand alone desktop environment. It would be great if Xarchiver, Xfburn, Ristretto, Mousepad, thunar-archive-plugin and Xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin were included in Slackware. Those are the first things I install on all fresh installations. I find that those fill the gap for when the kde/ package set is omitted during the installation process.

You could easily make the argument that parole media player should be included too. However, mplayer, audacious, xine, and xmms are already included if you install the xap/ package set, which you should anyway.

EDIT: I forgot to mention the xfce4-notes plugin. In the theme of a complete desktop environment.

Catfish is now a Xfce project,and version 1.4.6 has been released. .. I've built it and installed it and it is running as advertised.

Thanks for the info. Did you see an error during catfish compilation, where it was looking for the absent module zeitgeist? It turns out that this depencency, zeitgeist, is not on SBo and requires some others: sparqlwrapper, rdflib that are not on SBo and some that are: flake8 --also depends on a bunch--, html5lib, isodate, or that come with current (pyparsing).

hth

rob

Originally Posted by mralk3 Slackware is missing a few applications and plugins within Xfce to allow it to remain a stand alone desktop environment. It would be great if Xarchiver, Xfburn, Ristretto, Mousepad, thunar-archive-plugin and Xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin were included in Slackware.

You can get some from Salix: http://slackware.uk/salix/x86_64/14.2/salix/xfce/

Originally Posted by Didier Spaier You can get some from Salix: http://slackware.uk/salix/x86_64/14.2/salix/xfce/

I usually build them using the scripts from SlackBuilds.org and keep the packages handy on my LAN repository. It's a handy link for those with slower machines who do not want to build the packages.

Originally Posted by mralk3 Xfce is included on the Slackware installation DVD.

It's interesting I've changed my tune about xfce4 since I started using slackware regularly. I still use a WM most of the time, but there's something about xfce4 on slackware that clicks. Plus I generally use the very well-written xfce4-power-manager on WMs.

Catfish is indeed a useful addition. Using locate piped to grep or awk can get a bit unwieldy.

I've used Xfce for years and almost exclusively from the KDE4 transition. KDE 3.10.x fit my WM workflow, but KDE4 just pissed me off and still does. Nothing is in any sort of logical place - but that's a rant for another time and place. Xfce runs well from the old Atom 4GB netbook to various i5/i7/athlon laptops to my main i7 box. Xfce runs well and is easily configurable. Several KDE program I use regularly work as expected (okular, k3b, kgpg, kcalc, amarok, etc.) There are a few weird items:

1.
I run two indpendent X screens from either a single Nvidia GPU or, as now, two Nvidia GPUs and the proprietary driver via SBo (obviously). Often I will have xfce-terminal running one or more Slackware qemu VMs (testing, compiling, etc) on screen 1 (second monitor). If I open xfce-terminal on screen 0 (primary monitor), all screen 1 terminal session close - closing all programs running in those sesions. Highly annoying. Xterm, kconsole, etc do not exhibit this behavior. If I run a single X screen spanning both monitors this issue does not occur.

2.
If I exit X (as in logout) and then startx, screen 1 window decorations are black instead of the same color as screen 0. Easy enough to set back: Settings - appearance - select another and then select back. Annoying.

3.
Xfce switched to xml menu files and dropped their built-in menu editor. UGH!. Not a fan of this design. Items often end up in weird places. I haven't been able to get a 3rd-party menu editor to work. Freedesktop.org standards in Xfce-4.12: A work in progress I will admit. Hopefully a bit more stable in the next version.

4.
external storage device (optical, usb) generally works well to pop of the device in Thunar and the desktop. However, sometimes Xfce gets lost and either can't umount or mount again once umounted. Fix is to restart xfce (startx). This has never been an issue in KDE.

With Thunar you can select to sort folders first, but that option is not available with Mousepad, AFAIK.

So, after searching the 'Net I found the following,

gsettings set org.gtk.Settings.FileChooser sort-directories-first true

Run it once and you are set.

Originally Posted by brobr Thanks for the info. Did you see an error during catfish compilation, where it was looking for the absent module zeitgeist? It turns out that this depencency, zeitgeist, is not on SBo and requires some others: sparqlwrapper, rdflib that are not on SBo and some that are: flake8 --also depends on a bunch--, html5lib, isodate, or that come with current (pyparsing). hth rob

Many thanks for pointing that out.
OTOH, after reading the following I'm not sure it something I would want to include
,

....Zeitgeist is a service which logs the users's activities and events (files opened, websites visites, conversations held with other people, etc.) and makes relevant information available to other applications. It is able to establish relationships between items based on similarity and usage patterns....

https://launchpad.net/zeitgeist

Originally Posted by mralk3 .....Slackware is missing a few applications and plugins within Xfce to allow it to remain a stand alone desktop environment. It would be great if Xarchiver, Xfburn, Ristretto, Mousepad, thunar-archive-plugin and Xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin were included in Slackware. Those are the first things I install on all fresh installations. I find that those fill the gap for when the kde/ package set is omitted during the installation process......

Agreed. I've built many of those from SBo, but if I had to pick one which, IMHO,
should be "required," it would be the whiskermenu-plug-in.


I've found XnView MP to be a more than adequate, and IMHO, preferred, replacement for Risetto or Gwenview (kde).

https://www.xnview.org/en/

I use Viewnior instead of Ristretto or Gwenview:
https://slackbuilds.org/repository/1...hics/viewnior/

also, i prefer file-roller over xarchiver. The thunar-archive-plugin works with it, and it allows me to select several archives and extract them at once. I was not able to do this when using xarchiver.

I am looking for a Kate editor (KDE) alternative for XFCE.
Does anybody have a nice idea for this ?

Originally Posted by brodo I am looking for a Kate editor (KDE) alternative for XFCE. Does anybody have a nice idea for this ?

I have been using Leafpad as a text editor for ages. It's great.