February 11, 2013

Exposé in Debian Linux XFCE


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Updated 2016 Nov 4.

Compiz is fantastic, but i don’t want it. I only want an Exposé like feature. Thanks to Skippy-XD I can have it.

Firstly, you will need some dependencies:

sudo aptitude install libimlib2-dev libfontconfig1-dev libfreetype6-dev libx11-dev \
libxext-dev libxft-dev libxrender-dev zlib1g-dev libxinerama-dev libxcomposite-dev \
libxdamage-dev libxfixes-dev libxmu-dev

Now, install the currently maintained code from github:

cd ~/Downloads
git clone https://github.com/antonio-malcolm/skippy-xd.git
cd skippy-xd
make
sudo make install

Based on previous versions, I found it to crash occasionally, so I created a wrapper script to maintain it in a running state. Save the following script to ~/scripts/expose.sh or whatever your preference may be and mark it executable with chmod +x ~/scripts/expose.sh.

#!/bin/sh
while true
do
  echo [re]start
  killall skippy-xd
  rm /tmp/skippy-xd-fifo
  /usr/bin/skippy-xd --start-daemon
  echo "Died"
  echo
done

You can run it in the background with ~/scripts/expose.sh& or set it to autostart with login: In XFCE go to Applications->Settings->Session and Startup->Application Autostart tab: Add a new item named “Skippy-XD” with the command pointing to your new script.

Test it by running sleep 0.5 && /usr/bin/skippy-xd --activate-window-picker. If it works, proceed.

Now you need to set a keyboard shortcut: Go to Applications->Settings->Keyboard->Application Shortcuts: Add a new command containing /usr/bin/skippy-xd --activate-window-picker and set the key to your preferred keystroke (I chose F9).

If it ever seems to hang, you may wish to see if it is running with ps aux | grep [s]kippy and kill any processes before launching it again.

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Good Luck!


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5 comments:

  1. Please note: https://github.com/antonio-malcolm/skippy-xd seems to be a more maintained fork.

    ReplyDelete
  2. /usr/include/X11/Xft/Xft.h:39:22: fatal error: ft2build.h: File o directory non esistente
    Debian Testing .

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. /usr/include/X11/Xft/Xft.h exists on my Debian 8 Stable. Did you install prerequisites? (I assume it's from libx11-dev)

      Delete
  3. Try this fork: https://github.com/antonio-malcolm/skippy-xd ; Follow the directions on it's page. It has more dependencies. I will update my blog.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks! It's working fine in Debian Nine. Don't know yet if your script will be needed. The script included with the version of Skippy that I downloaded on 2017-08-31 has a script "skippy-xd-toggle" that seems like it might address the same issue. We'll see. (This is the one thing I seriously missed after switching from KDE to XFCE.) - Wm. A. Weezel

    ReplyDelete

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