Using kwin effects (Compiz replacement) in Xfce4

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viking60
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Using kwin effects (Compiz replacement) in Xfce4

Postby viking60 » 30 Nov 2013, 15:16

I love the Kwin desktop grid effect but I prefer Xfce4 over KDE. So I would like to have it in Xfce4.
Kwin turns out to be a great replacement of Compiz +1
The first thing I do is to copy the file to my home:

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cp /etc/xdg/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml


That way it does not matter if I fubar since I can simply copy it again in that case.

Then I edit it:

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nano ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-session.xml

And find this section:

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 <property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="xfwm4""/>
      </property>

And replace xfwm4 with kwin so it looks like this:

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<property name="Client0_Command" type="array">
        <value type="string" value="kwin"/>
      </property>

Save and log out and log in and hit CTRL+F8 to activate the grid.

For this to work you need to install kdebase-workspace (if you do not already have KDE on your system).
Here you have Xfce4 with whisker menu and desktop grid and Window handling from Kwin.
Xfce stays lightweight and you still have those fancy efects from the way more "heavy" KDE.
:A

The distro is Manjaro in this case

If you want to switch between kwin and xfwm4 you can assign the commands

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kwin --replace

and

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xfwm4 --replace

To a button on your panel - this works well.
(Or you can simply switch between the two in a terminal)
Here I have created a button to easily switch between the two:
:A
Manjaro 64bit on the main box -Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz and nVidia Corporation GT200b [GeForce GTX 275] (rev a1. + Centos on the server - Arch on the laptop.
"There are no stupid questions - Only stupid answers!"

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viking60
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Posts: 9351
Joined: 14 Mar 2010, 16:34

Re: Using kwin effects (Compiz replacement) in Xfce4

Postby viking60 » 10 Dec 2013, 17:18

Is this Gnome with compiz? Is it KDE?
Nope it is Xfce4 with kwin :-D
Image
:A

Ahh feels good to be able to present those propaganda snapshots again that makes every Windows user want to use Linux...+1
Manjaro 64bit on the main box -Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 920 @ 2.67GHz and nVidia Corporation GT200b [GeForce GTX 275] (rev a1. + Centos on the server - Arch on the laptop.
"There are no stupid questions - Only stupid answers!"


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