Xfce 4.16 documentation
This website provides user documentation for the latest stable version of the Xfce desktop environment. Go to Xfce 4.14 for the previous version.
Getting Started with Xfce
Contents
Introduction
Xfce is a lightweight desktop environment for Unix-like operating systems. It aims to be fast and light on system resources, while still being visually appealing and easy to use.
Xfce embodies the traditional UNIX philosophy of modularity and re-usability. It consists of a number of components that provide the full functionality one can expect of a modern desktop environment. They are packaged separately and you can pick among the available packages to create the optimal personal working environment.
Another priority of Xfce is an adherence to standards, specifically those defined at freedesktop.org.
System Requirements
Even though Xfce is very light-weight, there are some distribution specific minimum requirements.
Installation
The Xfce project officially only releases source code for the desktop environment. However, binary packages may have been contributed by other people for your OS or distribution. Here some links to distribution specific installation instructions:
Arch
Debian
Fedora
FreeBSD
Gentoo
Mageia
MidnightBSD ( or possibly
pkg_add -r xfce4? )Mythbuntu: sudo apt-get install mythbuntu-desktop
NetBSD (pkg_add xfce4)
Ubuntu: sudo apt-get install xubuntu-desktop (package description; direct install)
Detailed instructions on compiling Xfce yourself can be found here.
Running Xfce
Display Managers
Xfce4-session installs a file that should add an option for display managers to run an Xfce session. The Xfce Desktop Environment does not have its own DM, but various options are available like gdm, slim, lxdm and lightdm. Check this link for details.
Command line
Use startxfce4 to start an Xfce session or choose Xfce Session from the login manager, which includes the session manager, the panel, the window manager and the desktop manager. See auto login from console for more information.
By default, the Xfce session manager manages the startup of applications. It allows you to save your session when you quit Xfce, so that the next time you log in, the same applications will be started for you automatically.
The Desktop Environment
The Xfce Desktop Environment is not a single entity that provides all functionality, but rather it tries to adhere to the old UNIX tradition of small tools that do one job and do it well.
Default Xfce session, with desktop manager and panel
When you start the Xfce session for the first time, several applications are started by the Xfce session manager:
- Panel
In a default session there is a full width panel at the top of the screen and a smaller one at the bottom. The Panel application manages all panels on the screen. The top panel shows a graphical pager with a miniature view of all workspaces, a task list showing all applications running on the current workspace and a system tray to show status icons that are used for example by some media players or instant messaging applications. The bottom panel contains several application launchers and a clock. You can right-click on any panel item to get a menu that allows you to change its properties, add or remove new items or to change the properties of the panel itself.
- Desktop Manager
The desktop manager provides the desktop background image and two menus when you click on the desktop background. Optionally, it can show icons on the desktop, either for minimized applications or for files in the ~/Desktop folder. The right mouse button opens a menu that allows you to start applications. Look at the manual to find out how to change the menu contents. The middle mouse button (or Shift + left click) opens a list of all applications that are currently running. You can activate an application by clicking on its menu entry.
- Window Manager
The Window Manager is responsible for placing the windows on the screen and provides the window borders and decorations. It allows you to move windows around by dragging the title bar, and provides title bar buttons: for example to close, minimize or maximize a window. Look at the manual for a detailed explanation of the window manager settings.
- Settings Manager
The settings manager runs in the background and ensures that all Xfce applications update their settings when the user changes something within the application. It is also responsible for reading the configuration files on disk at startup. Look at the manual for a detailed explanation of the settings manager.
Common Tasks
This section will explain how to perform several common tasks to quickly get you started working with Xfce and familiar with its applications.
Running Programs
- Xfce Panel
The panel can be used to allow quick access to your most frequently used applications by means of launchers, these application launchers are displayed as icons on your panel that launch your specified program. The Applications Menu on the panel also contains all installed programs.
- Desktop Menu
Another method for starting applications is from the desktop right-click menu. Read the Desktop Manager manual for more information on how to change the menu contents.
- Application Finder
If you know the name of the application you want to launch you can use the Application Finder. To open the dialog, press Alt-F2 or choose the Run Program… option from the desktop menu.
Managing Windows and Workspaces
- Basic window operations
You can move a window around the screen by dragging on its title bar. A window can be closed, minimized, maximized, shaded and made sticky (make it show up on all workspaces) by using the title bar buttons. Right-clicking on the title bar will open a menu that gives access to all window operations. Shading a window, or rolling it up to hide its contents and only show the title bar, can also be accomplished by scrolling the mouse wheel while hovering over the title bar. Mouse wheel up is shade, mouse wheel down is unshade. If you don’t want maximized windows to cover up the entire screen, you can set workspace margins in the Settings Manager.
- Application management
To see what applications are currently running, you can look at the task list on the panel. Clicking on an application in the task list will focus it, and clicking it again will hide it. When you click with the middle mouse button on the desktop background a list of windows is shown, ordered by workspace. You can activate the application or change workspaces by choosing the appropriate menu entry.
- Workspaces
You can change workspaces by clicking on them in the graphical pager on the panel. Pressing Ctrl-Alt-LeftArrow or Ctrl-Alt-RightArrow will cycle through the workspaces. Scrolling the mouse wheel while hovering over the pager or the desktop background has the same effect. To add or remove workspaces, you can use the middle-click desktop menu or the settings dialog (see below).
Using the Settings Manager
The Settings Manager provides access to the global preferences of many aspects of the Xfce Desktop Environment. You can run it by pressing its launcher on the panel, from the desktop mouse menu or by running xfce4-settings-manager.
Refer to the individual manuals of the Xfce components for more information on settings specifically for that application. Don’t be afraid to explore all the settings to find out what options are available that allow you to create the best possible working environment.
Further Reading
This guide provides only a general overview of the Xfce Desktop Environment. More information is available in the manuals of the individual components of Xfce.
Xfce - Frequently Asked Questions
Contents
Xfce - Frequently Asked Questions
General Questions
How to pronounce Xfce ?
“Ecks Eff See Eee”
What does it mean ?
The name Xfce originally stood for XForms Common Environment, but since then, Xfce was rewritten twice and doesn’t use XForms toolkit anymore. The name survived, but the F is no longer capitalized (not “XFce”, but “Xfce”). Currently the abbreviation doesn’t stand for anything (suggestion: X Freakin’ Cool Environment). It’s not pronounced “X-Face”. There is no “a” in it.
What does the logo mean ?
A mouse, obviously, for all kinds of reasons like world domination and monsters and such.
On which platforms does Xfce run currently?
Xfce is developed to be versatile. It is currently supported on Linux, Solaris and BSD, but has been known to run in some shape or form on IRIX, MacOS X, and Windows.
Under which license is Xfce distributed?
Xfce 4 components are licensed under free or open source licenses: GPL or BSDL for applications and LGPL or BSDL for libraries. Read the documentation, the source code, or the Xfce homepage for more information.
How long between two official releases?
There is no set schedule, but there are goals the developers try to meet. That said, the creation of deadlines does not lend itself well to those working without compensation. So the overall goal is to release a new version as certain goals are reached. Unfortunately, that does not allow the advanced statement of any release schedule. Please check back often to read any news releases about the product.
Where can I find Xfce information/support for my specific distribution?
If you are not able to find support on the Xfce Forums, you may want to use a site focused, specifically, on the distribution you are currently running. The following is not an exhaustive list of Xfce resources.
Distribution Specific Xfce Info/Support Pages:
ArchWiki
Debian Xfce
Fedora Xfce Desktop
- FreeBSD Xfce
FreeBSD Xfce FAQ
Manjaro Xfce
Linux Mint Xfce Forums
- Xubuntu
Ubuntuforums
AskUbuntu
General Xfce forum
Xfce on Reddit
Desktop Manager
I want to disable the trash, home and filesystem icons on my desktop, is that possible?
Yes. In Settings > Desktop > Icons > Appearance, select ‘None’.
My Xfce Desktop doesn’t have any shortcut icons, why?
You can adjust this via Settings > Desktop > Icons > Appearance.
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Panel
Is it possible to change the icon used by the icon box or task bar for a given application?
It’s not possible. This setting has to be managed by the application itself.
I’ve installed a plug-in for the panel, but the indicators don’t use different colors. What can I do?
First, try another Gtk theme, since some themes override the color. If it doesn’t solve the problem, you probably have an old ~/.gtkrc-2.0 : remove it and try again.
How do I set the panel layer in Xfce 4.2 and 4.4?
In order to improve focus management this option was removed.
Is there a world clock applet?
You need to add the Orage Clock to the panel. Then you can middle-click the clock to open the “Global Time” window, to which you can add any number of clocks.
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Themes
The gtk-xfce-engine themes do not appear in the “user interface” settings dialog
The gtk-xfce-engine-2 package has to be installed using same prefix as Gtk2 itself. When installed from sources, the engine is, by default, installed in /usr/local, while Gtk2 is often installed in /usr. Just install gtk-xfce-engine-2 again using ./configure –prefix=/usr, and the themes will hopefully become available.
How can I customize my Xfce desktop environment
You can read everything about changing themes in the How to install new themes wiki page.See Xfce Look for a selection of themes geared towards Xfce/Xfwm4.
Where can I find additional backgrounds and wallpapers for my desktop?
Here is a selection of beautiful images and pointers to other sites with quality, high-resolution images.
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Miscellaneous
Why the file chooser is very slow ?
It is more likely that the icon theme you are using renders too many SVGs making it very hard to scroll. Switch to another icon theme.
Why the response to Terminal application is slow?
For NVidia users, add this to your settings:
nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=0 -a GlyphCache=1
For all users, your driver may not support argb visuals very well. You can disable it for Terminal by exporting the environment variable XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1. To disable it for Terminal only, put the next lines inside ~/bin/Terminal for example (given you have a personal bin directory, you can also put it inside /usr/local/bin):
#!/bin/sh
XLIB_SKIP_ARGB_VISUALS=1 /usr/bin/Terminal
How do I enable panel transparency and window shadows?
Enable the Composite extension in the X11 config file and make sure Xfwm4 is compiled with embedded compositor (xfwm4 -V).
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Enable"
EndSection
Pay attention: recent versions of X.org turn composite on by default. If you experience speed problems or any other glitches you have to disable it explicitly:
Section "Extensions"
Option "Composite" "Disable"
EndSection
If you have a reasonably new X.org (7.1, possibly 7.0) and your graphics card is listed as “supported” at X.org’s EXA status page, you should also enable EXA by adding this line to the card’s Device section in your xorg.conf:
Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
Enabling EXA will normally provide a speed increase for compositing and font rendering, but may cause a small reduction in OpenGL rendering speed.
Once the Composite extension is activated, go to Settings > Panel and Settings > Window Manager Tweaks.
ATI users (X.org radeon driver)
ATI R3xx/R4xx (9500 to X850, X1050) users may also need this in the device section for the card:
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"
Option "AccelDFS" "true" # but see radeon(4)
Option "EnablePageFlip" "true"
Option "EnableDepthMoves" "true"
nVidia users
NVidia users may also need this in the device section for the card:
Option "RenderAccel" "true"
Option "AllowGLXWithComposite" "true"
Read /usr/share/doc/nvidia-glx/README.txt.gz (and search for “RenderAccel” and “AllowGLXWithComposite”) to see if they are recommended at all for your system. At least for recent NVidia GLX drivers, “AllowGLXWithComposite” “true” is only for X servers older than X11R6.9.0, and “RenderAccel” “true” is the default setting, and therefore not required. If you are running a recent NVidia driver and a recent xorg-server, you do not need these settings (and should not use the “AllowGLXWithComposite” “true” setting).
How to use a different Window Manager
Please refer to this manual page for instructions and caveats regarding the running of a Window Manager other than fvwm4.
How to use SCIM in Xfce
Refer to this manual
On Login: When I start Xfce a dialog pops up saying “Could not look up internet address for…”
Xfce simply wants your hostname to be in /etc/hosts. Example input: 127.0.0.1 localhost
How can I install a new font in Xfce?
Refer to your distribution-specific support as this is handled by your distro and not, specifically Xfce.
Building Xfce from source
To compile a complete Xfce desktop from source requires some information about the dependency chain and the various configure options available in each module. This page will describe this in detail, so you can compile your own Xfce desktop; both system wide as well as in your $HOME directory.
Contents
Choosing your Xfce version
First you will need to decide on which version of Xfce that you want to compile. Xfce version numbers are constructed like this: 1.2.3 => major.minor.micro. If the minor version is an even number, this means that it is a stable release. An odd numbered minor version indicate a development, or testing snapshots. The micro number increases with each release. Also, it is recommended to keep the major.minor version the same for the core components (some packages don’t follow those numbers) or there will most likely be dependency version problems during compilation.
The latest releases available can be found on the download page. You can also build from the source repositories if you have enough experience. Additional information about this is provided below.
Obtaining the Xfce source code
Once you have decided which version that you want to compile, there are a couple of ways to download the source code. You can either choose to build official released packages, or clone the source repositories. Choosing the released packages is the recommended option. The source repositories could possibly be broken and are not generally suitable for production environments. However, they always contain the latest features, bug fixes and translations.
If you are not sure which to choose, it is easiest to begin with the latest stable fat-tarball of a collection release.
Released packages
Xfce packages have two types of releases: collection releases and individual releases. Click the links below to open the relevant download location.
Collection releases of the core modules From time to time a new collection release of Xfce is made. A collection release consists of a number of individual tarballs and a fat-tarball that contains all of the individual tarballs. The collection releases always contains the correct versions needed to build the other packages in the release. If you want the latest version of each package, you can start with a collection release and then look for individual bug fix releases, explained in the item below.
Individual releases Each package in Xfce is allowed to make development and stable releases at any time, see the release model documentation for more information.
From the code repository
For the latest code, you need to make local copies of the GIT repositories. This is the place where developers submit their code. If you decide to use GIT, try to use the same branch for all the packages to avoid dependency version problems.
Note
For additional information about using Git with Xfce, see the Xfce and git information page.
You first need to make clones of each GIT repository, like the command below, where $category is for example xfce and $module xfce4-panel. If you click on a module in the online repository list, the clone uri is shown at the bottom of the page.
git clone https://gitlab.xfce.org/$category/$module
After the repository is cloned, you will need to choose which branch you want to compile. By default, the master branch is selected, but there are also branches for stable releases like xfce-4.16. The stable branches contain the latest bug fixes without any major new features, the master branch is the development version for the next release of Xfce. Both should not be used in a production environment.
To switch to another branch (git branch -a lists all available branches) run the following command inside the cloned directory to switch to, for example, the xfce-4.16 branch:
git checkout --track origin/xfce-4.16
After this, you can update your local copy of the repository with git pull and switch to another branch with git checkout $branchname. Read the GIT manuals for more information about using GIT.
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Xfce Dependencies explained
Build requirements
Before you can start compiling, you need a couple of packages that are required to compile Xfce. Use your distributions package manager to install those packages. Additional packages are required too for some modules, but we’ll get to that later.
- Gtk+ and Glib headers, in some distributions called the -devel packages
Xfce 4.14 requires Gtk+ 3.22 and Glib 2.50
pkgconfig
Coffee or tea
For history, here are the versions needed for older xfce releases, which are not supported anymore
Xfce 4.16 requires Gtk+ 3.22 and Glib 2.42
Xfce 4.12 requires Gtk+ 2.24 and Glib
Xfce 4.10 requires Gtk+ 2.20 and Glib 2.24
Xfce 4.8 requires Gtk+ 2.14 and Glib 2.20
Xfce 4.6 requires Gtk+ 2.10 and Glib 2.12
Xfce’s dependency chain
The Xfce packages need to be built in a specific order. If you don’t follow this, compile options might not be available or the configure stage will abort because of missing dependencies.
xfce4-dev-tools (only required if you build from GIT)
libxfce4util
xfconf
libxfce4ui
garcon, exo
thunar
xfce4-panel, xfce4-settings, xfce4-session, xfdesktop, xfwm4, xfce4-appfinder, tumbler…
Package specific dependencies
Some core packages in Xfce have additional or optional dependencies, all are listed in the table below for the latest stable version. We only show the top-dependency (so xfce4-panel also requires gtk+, but libxfce4ui already depends on that).
Tip
Note that some of the package-names may vary between distributions.
Dependency(-ies) |
Optional Dependency(-ies) |
|
|---|---|---|
xfce4-dev-tools |
autoconf, automake, intltool, pkgconfig |
|
libxfce4util |
glib2 |
|
xfconf |
libxfce4util, gdbus |
|
libxfce4ui |
libxfce4util, gtk+, xfconf, glibtop |
libstartup-notification, libgladeui |
garcon |
gio, libxfce4util |
|
exo |
libxfce4util, gtk+, perl-uri, libxfce4ui |
|
xfce4-panel |
libxfce4ui, exo, garcon, libwnck |
libstartup-notification |
thunar |
libxfce4ui, exo, libpng, gtk+, glib |
libexif, gdbus, libnotify, libstartup-notification, freetype, libjpeg, libxfce4panel, xfconf |
xfce4-settings |
libxfce4ui, exo, xfconf, gdbus, libXi, libXrandr |
libXcursor, libnotify |
xfce4-session |
libxfce4ui, perl-xml-parser, libwnck, gdbus |
|
xfwm4 |
libxfce4util, libxfce4ui, libxfconf, gdbus, libwnck |
libstartup-notification |
xfdesktop |
libxfce4ui, xfconf, libwnck, exo garcon |
thunarx, garcon, libnotify |
xfce4-appfinder |
libxfce4ui, garcon, gio |
|
tumbler |
dbus-glib, gio, gmodule, gdk-pixbuf |
freetype-config (fonts), jpeg (jpeg thumbnails from exif), libffmpegthumbnailer (video), gstreamer-1.0 (video), poppler-glib (pdf), libgsf (odf), libopenraw-gnome (various raw images) |
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Building the packages
Installation location and variables
Now it is finally time to start compiling the Xfce desktop. Last remaining thing is to choose an installation location. Possible examples are /usr, /usr/local and /opt/xfce4 for a system-wide installation or $HOME/local if you want to install in your home directory (whatever you choose, never put spaces in the name). We will refer to this location as ${PREFIX} in the code examples below!
You need to make sure the PKG_CONFIG_PATH variable include the path to the *.pc files installed by the Xfce libraries:
export PKG_CONFIG_PATH="${PREFIX}/lib/pkgconfig:$PKG_CONFIG_PATH"
You can also set some optimization flags for the compiler. This may speed up Xfce, but can also make debugging impossible on some systems. Even worse, this can also cause gcc to generate broken code, so be careful with this. The line below should be safe for most system.
export CFLAGS="-O2 -pipe"
If you want a debugging environment, unset the CFLAGS and use --enable-debug, see below for the different debug levels.
export CFLAGS=""
Compiling and installing
Next step is compiling the various packages following the dependency chain above. If you have downloaded the tarballs, you will need to unpack them before going on. Inside each package directory you should run the following command:
./configure --prefix=${PREFIX} && make && make install
To build from GIT you need to install the xfce4-dev-tools package first, all other packages should be installed with this command:
./autogen.sh --prefix=${PREFIX} && make && make install
Specific configure options for each package can be shown with ./configure --help. Note that most packages will see a performance benefit if passed the configure option --disable-debug.
However, if you want to provide backtraces or test new code, no $CFLAGS, no binary stripping and --enable-debug=full are recommended. Please note that --disable-debug is not available for xfce4-dev-tools.
Note
When reusing the ./configure script while building from GIT remember to pass the flag --enable-maintainer-mode.
If you install the package in a public prefix, for example /usr or /usr/local, you will need to run make install using sudo. This way, you will be asked for the system administrator password and will have write permissions to install in those locations.
sudo make install
Understanding Debug levels
Most Xfce modules use the m4 macro XDT_FEATURE_DEBUG to manage the debug compiler levels. If so there are a number of options possible for --enable-debug=
no
Cast checks and asserts in the Glib macros are disabled, this might be a tad faster, but it can results in segfaults and unexpected crashes.
minimum
This is the same as
--disable-debug. No additional compiler options are added, but checks in Glib are not disabled. This is the recommended level for users and distributions.
yes
A number of
$CFLAGSare set to check the code for different errors. During configure you’ll see all the options are tested to avoid binaries that do not work.
full
Same as the level above, including
-Werrorso the compilers aborts during compiler errors. The compiler will also generate binaries with debug information suitable for [[:contribute:bugs:|backtraces]] and memory checks. This is the recommended level for developers or users who want to report bugs.
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Finding additional Help
Hopefully everything went fine after reading this guide. If you still have problems or questions you can ask on the Xfce users mailing list, the forum or ask distribution related questions on their forums and mailing lists.
Have fun building Xfce!
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start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
How to contribute to Xfce
Xfce is developed by a small group of hard-working volunteers. There are many ways in which you can contribute to Xfce, all of which are most welcome!
For a more in-depth look at how to contribute to Xfce, it is recommended to read The Ultimate Contributor’s Guide to Xfce for additional helpful information.
If you would like to donate to Xfce, please see the [[start#Donations|Donations]] section.
Contents
Bug Reporting and Testing
One of the most useful tasks that we rely on the community for is testing and reporting of bugs.
You can report bugs on Xfce GitLab site
You can ask on our IRC channel #xfce on Libera.chat for help. A web irc interface is also available if you don’t have an irc client.
Please do not use the forums to report bugs.
Before submitting a bug, please try your best to check if it has already been reported. When writing your bug report, try to be as descriptive as possible, but avoid verbosity; Mozilla has a nice guide on how to write a bug report.
For more information, see [[.:bugs/start|Bug Reporting and Fixing]].
For a list of currently open bugs, see the [[:contribute:bugs:bug-summary|open bugs summary]].
If you want to test the current state of Xfce 4.16, you can look at the Xfce-Test Quick Start Guide, which provides instructions for running a Docker container with the lastest code from git master as well as the ability to run Behave (behaviour-driven development) tests.
As of November 2020, OpenSUSE is now providing a source for “Xfce’s latest builds based on openSUSE’s rolling release Tumbleweed”. This is available as a QEMU based virtual machine.
Xfce Virtual Machine Images For Development provides additional information for its installation and bug reporting instructions.
Communication
There are various ways to get in touch with Xfce developers:
See the Xfce Development Information page for information on contacting the Xfce development team.
Development
See the [[:contribute:dev:start|Xfce Development Information]] page for details on getting a contributor’s account, working with Git and Xfce source code, and instructions for making releases. As well check the Xfce Wiki more development hints, tips and tricks.
Documentation
The Xfce Wiki and Documentation contain many helpful pages that require maintaining and updating with every new release. The wiki is freely available for anyone to edit, refer [[documentation|here]] for information on how to contribute to the documentation. The API reference is automatically updated on a weekly basis based on the latest stable releases.
Financial Contributions
As of May 2021, Xfce has moved its fiscal hosting to OpenCollective. We are now able to accept financial contributions in both US Dollars as well as Euros. If you wish to donate to Xfce in USD or with PayPal, you can do so by visiting Xfce’s OpenCollective page. Alternatively, if you wish to contribute in Euros, visit Xfce’s s EU OpenCollective page. Every donation is greatly appreciated, but please remember, this is an open source project that is 100% run by volunteers, no one is implicitly obliged to act upon your requests.
For contributions in USD (SWIFT transfers / PayPal / credit card):
[[https://opencollective.com/xfce/donate|{{:contribute:oc_donate_button30px.png}}]] Note: For financial contributions to the Xfce Collective, there is a 10% transaction fee.
For contributions in EUR (SEPA transfers / credit card):
[[https://opencollective.com/xfce-eu/donate|{{:contribute:oc_donate_button30px.png}}]] Note: For financial contributions to the Xfce (EU) Collective, there is a 6% transaction fee. Additionally, SEPA transfers may take several business days to process and will not appear in the transaction records immediately.
For a list of our supporters and details on individual transactions, see our [[supporters|Supporters page]].
Feature Requests
Although the philosophy of Xfce is to find the correct balance between features and lightweight, it is still possible to request new features.
If you plan to request a new feature, please first check on our issue tracker if someone else already filed a request for it. If not, open a new issue and describe your idea in detail. Be warned: You might think your idea is brilliant, but there is a high possibility that there are major downsides.
Obviously, the best way to get your new feature integrated is, to provide a merge request that implements it !
Please note that some components are rather unmaintained, so you might not always get a reply.
Translation
Applications, manuals, documentation and many other aspects of Xfce are all translated into different languages. Translations are handled in Transifex, a web-based translation platform. Visit the [[.:translate/start|translation docs]] to get started with translating.
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start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
Bug Reporting and Fixing
One of the most useful tasks that we rely on the community for is the testing and reporting of bugs. Since Xfce runs on various platforms and in a variety of different setups, testing all changes, in every possible situation, is an impossible task. As such, we kindly ask our users to assist us in testing, and reporting all bugs that they may find, using our issue tracker.
[[:contribute:bugs:bug-summary|Current Xfce open bugs]]
Crashes
We always try to make the software as stable as possible, but there is always a possibility a crash or segfault can occur. To problem with crashes is that they are not always reproducible by the developers, this often makes it quite hard to track-down the problem and patch the issue.
Nonetheless, there are a couple of things you can do to help resolve them.
Search First
Search the Open Bug Summary to see if the issue is already known. Also, look through the resolved bugs because the issue might be fixed already, but has not been released or applied downstream. Peeking the GIT repository might help for the latter.
For a list of currently open bugs, see the [[:contribute:bugs:bug-summary|open bugs summary]].
Report
When writing your bug report, try to be as descriptive as possible, but avoid verbosity; Mozilla has a nice guide on how to write a bug report.
If you have not found anything or missed it, report it in the bug tracker. Reports that only say application X crashed will be closed as invalid quickly, so try to provide a way to describe and reproduce the problem: Application X crashed when doing Y.
In the description provide a short way to reproduce the crash. Also run the application in a terminal and look if there are console warnings, put those in the bug as well.
If the developer cannot reproduce it, he might ask for a backtrace, read more about creating backtraces in the next section.
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Backtraces
If you do get an Xfce application to crash, it’s best to detail exactly what you were doing that led to the crash. In addition, we need the //backtrace// of the crash. However most distributions by default make backtrace output useless because there binaries are optimized and do not contain human-readable information to make a relation between the compiled code and the source code (like file, function and variable-names).
The sites below provide guidance from the respective distributions how to remedy this situation so you can provide all the info we need to fix your issue.
In case of panel plugins there is some additional information on [[:xfce:xfce4-panel:debugging|how to start a panel plugin inside a debugger]].
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Fixing Bugs
Once a bug has been found, the cause of the bug needs to be tracked down, and then (obviously) fixed. If you want to get involved in the actual development process of Xfce a great way to start is by solving bugs and attaching a patch file to the reported bug. ( “git format-patch” is the preferred way to create a patch file )
Not familiar with git? [[contribute/dev/git/start|This manual]] will help you to get started.
To get started, best read our [[contribute/dev/coding/example|beginners example on how to fix a simple xfce bug]].
Back To Top
start:|Return to Main Xfce documentation page
Core Modules
Application Finder (xfce4-appfinder) – Application to quickly run applications and commands Configuration Storage System (xfconf) – D-Bus-based configuration storage system Desktop Manager (xfdesktop) – Configure the desktop background image, icons, launchers and folders Development Tools (xfce4-dev-tools) – A set of scripts and m4/autoconf macros that ease build system maintenance. Helper Applications (exo) – Manage preferred applications and edit .desktop files File Manager (thunar) – The fast and easy to use file manager for the Xfce Desktop Menu Library (garcon) – Library used for menu implementation Panel (xfce4-panel) – Application launchers, window buttons, applications menu, workspace switcher and more Power Manager (xfce4-power-manager) – Manage power sources and power consumption of devices Session Manager (xfce4-session) – Save the state of your desktop and restore it on the next startup Settings Manager (xfce4-settings) – The Settings daemon which persists many Xfce settings Thumbnail Service (tumbler) – A D-Bus service for applications to request thumbnails for various URI schemes and MIME types Utility Sharing Library (libxfce4util) – Library used to share commonly used non-GTK+ utilities among the Xfce applications Widget Sharing Library (libxfce4ui) – Used to share commonly used Xfce widgets among the Xfce applications Window Manager (xfwm4) – Handles the placement of windows on the screen
xfce4-appfinder - Application Finder
Contents
The Application Finder is a program to find and launch installed applications on your system, and quickly execute commands. It does this by searching your file system for .desktop files, and displays a categorized list of all the GUI applications on your system.
Tip
You can use the Application Finder to quickly add [[:xfce:xfce4-panel:launcher|launchers]] to your [[:xfce:xfce4-panel:|panel]] - simply drag an item onto your desired panel and it will automatically create a launcher for that application.</note>
General
[[usage|Usage]] – Overview of the Application Finder
[[preferences|Preferences]] – Configure the behaviour of the application and create custom actions
[[examples|Custom Action Examples]] – Examples for custom actions
Debugging Support
xfce4-appfinder currently supports three different levels of debugging support,
which can be setup using the configure flag --enable-debug (check the output of configure --help):
Argument |
Description |
|---|---|
yes |
This is the default for Git snapshot builds. It adds all kinds of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run slower. Use this for development of xfce4-appfinder and locating bugs in xfce4-appfinder. |
minimum |
This is the default for release builds. This is the recommended behaviour. |
no |
Disables all sanity checks. Don’t use this unless you know exactly what you do. |
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfce4-appfinder 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfconf - Configuration Storage System
Contents
Introduction
Xfconf is a hierarchical (tree-like) configuration system where the immediate child nodes of the root are called channels. All settings beneath the channel nodes are called properties.
Valid channel and property names are composed of the ASCII US-English uppercase characters A-Z, lowercase characters a-z, numerals 0-9, the dash (-), and underscore (_). No other characters are allowed for channel names. The less than (<) and greater than (>) characters (aka angle brackets) are also allowed in property names, but not in channel names.
Property names are referenced by their full path underneath their channel, for example: /main/history-window/last-accessed. Of course, when querying a particular property, the channel must be specified separately as well.
Both channel and property names are case-insensitive. For example, the following four all refer to the same property:
Channel: ExampleApp, property: /main/history-window/last-accessed
Channel: EXAMPLEAPP, property: /main/history-window/last-accessed
Channel: ExampleApp, property: /Main/History-Window/Last-Accessed
Channel: exampleapp, property: /MAIN/history-window/last-accessed
Accessing Configuration Data
Settings stored in Xfconf can be accessed in numerous ways:
From within applications of Settings Manager. Most of the time, settings stored in Xfconf and configuration options presented in the GUI are tightly coupled. It means that any action of the GUI settings is automatically and immediately propagated to the configuration system and vice-versa. See also: [[xfce:xfce4-settings:xfsettingsd|Settings Daemon]].
From Command Line Interface (CLI) using [[:xfce:xfconf:xfconf-query:|xfconf-query]].
From GUI. Settings, which are not exposed in configuration dialogs, can be browsed and manipulated using [[xfce:xfce4-settings:editor|Settings Editor]].
If everything else fails, settings can be edited manually. Xfconf stores all its data in [[xml-file-format|XML files]], which can be edited when Xfconf is not running. Be very careful when using this option, as it is easy to make the file unparseable or inconsistent.
Kiosk Mode
System administrators can lock certain values or entire channels to prevent users from changing them. In this case, the administrator may provide default values that will be used regardless of what may appear in a user-writable configuration file. If the sysadmin does not wish to provide values, but only wants to lock a channel/property, the application’s default fallback value will be used instead.
Locking a channel or property is as simple as creating a configuration file and setting either (and only either) the locked or unlocked attribute on <channel> or <property> elements that should be restricted. This configuration file should be placed in a system location that is read by the daemon (see File locations above).
Both the “locked” and unlocked attributes take a semicolon-separated list of system user and group names. User names should be entered as-is, and group names should be entered with an @ symbol prepended to the group name.
The “locked” attribute specifies users and groups who may not modify the property. The unlocked attribute specifies users and groups who may modify the property, with other users locked out. Only one of the two attributes may be specified for a particular channel or property. If both are present, the unlocked attribute is used, and the locked attribute is ignored.
Note that <channel> locking locks all properties under that channel, but <property> locking locks only the property with the locked or unlocked attribute; none of the sub-properties are locked unless they also contain a locked or unlocked attribute.
See [[:xfce:xfce4-session:advanced#kiosk_mode|Xfce-Session Kiosk Mode]] for specific parameter used in configuring kiosk mode.
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfconf 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfconf:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
[[ :xfce:xfce4-settings:start:|Return to main xfce4-settings page]]
[[:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page]]
xfdesktop - Xfce Desktop Manager
Contents
Xfdesktop is a desktop manager for the Xfce Desktop Environment. It handles the following tasks:
background image / color
root menu, window list
minimized app icons
file icons on the desktop (using Thunar libs)
It can bring up an applications menu and a list of all running applications when you click on the desktop with the right or middle mouse button respectively. Settings are available via the [[../:xfce4-settings:|Settings Manager]].
General
[[usage|Usage]] – Overview of the Desktop Manager
[[preferences|Preferences]] – Configuring the desktop
[[command-line|Command-line Options]] – Parameters for using ‘’xfdesktop’’ in the command-line
[[advanced|Advanced]] – Hidden options
Minimum Requirements
intltool 0.31
GTK+ 3.22.0
libxfce4util 4.13
libxfce4ui 4.13
libwnck 3.14
libexo 0.11
xfconf 4.12.1
garcon 0.6.0 (optional; required for apps menu)
thunar 1.7.0 (optional; required for file icons)
tumbler 1.6 (optional; enables thumbnail previews for file icons)
cairo 1.12
Debugging Support
xfdesktop currently supports three different levels of debugging support,
which can be setup using the configure flag --enable-debug (check the output
of configure --help):
Argument |
Description |
|---|---|
yes |
This is the default for Git snapshot builds. It adds all kinds of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run slower. Use this for development of xfdesktop and locating bugs in xfdesktop. |
minimum |
This is the default for release builds. This is the recommended behaviour. |
no |
Disables all sanity checks. Don’t use this unless you know exactly what you do. |
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfdesktop 1 date description 2h}}
Source code repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfdesktop:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfce4-dev-tools
Contents
The Xfce development tools are a collection of tools and macros for Xfce developers and people that want to build Xfce from Git In addition it contains the Xfce developer’s handbook.
xfce-build containerized build environment
This project also contains the code to build and deploy xfce-build to the xfce-build area on Docker Hub. This container is the build environment used by Xfce to build the various projects. It can also be used as your own build environment as follows:
docker run --rm -u $(id -u ${USER}):$(id -g ${USER}) \
--volume $(pwd):/tmp xfce/xfce-build:master /bin/bash \
-c "cd /tmp; ./autogen.sh && make distcheck"
The steps to build the container are encoded in the [Dockerfile](Dockerfile) in this repository, and is built via the build job in [.gitlab-ci.yml](.gitlab-ci.yml).
CI templates for Xfce
The [CI folder](ci/) contains the build_project.yml template for building the various
Xfce projects, as well as supporting scripts such as build_libs.sh which handles
building any needed dependencies. This helps us avoid repeating the same build
code in each project.
Release notes for 4.15.0
[Please note that this is a development release.]
New macro XDT_VERSION_INIT(SEMVER[, TAG])
This macro takes care of setting up the version numbering. It will define the following macros based on SEMVER and TAG:
xdt_version
xdt_version_major
xdt_version_minor
xdt_version_micro
xdt_version_tag
xdt_version_build
xdt_debug_default
If TAG isn’t specified, the xdt_version_tag and xdt_version_git will be empty and xdt_debug_default will be set to “minimum”, otherwise the xdt_version_build will contain a git hash and xdt_debug_default will be set to “yes”
Example usage:
XDT_VERSION_INIT([4.15.3],[git])
AC_INIT([xfce4-someproject], [xdt_version()])
...
XDT_FEATURE_DEBUG([xdt_debug_default])
XDT_I18N macro will now automatically find the linguas if none are
specified during the autoconf run.
Install m4 macros in default search dir. This makes autoconf find the
macros by default.
By setting version via XDT_VERSION_INIT and using XDT_I18N without arguments, this is no longer necessary to use a separate configure.ac.in and a plain configure.ac can be used ! A big thank to Natanael Copa (ncopa) for his work on this part !
xfce4-dev-tools now also handle the CI (docker container,
.gitlab-ci.yml templates files etc) on our new gitlab instance. A merge request or a push to master to any of our projects automatically trigger a build. This will help us to catch errors quicker and have better quality. Thanks to Jason Yavorska and Simon Steinbeiss.
New helpers are also available (xfce-get-release-notes,
xfce-get-translations, xfce-update-news) to help our maintainers to do releases
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfce4-dev-tools 1 date description}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfce4-dev-tools:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
Exo - Helper Applications
Contents
Exo is an extension library used in the Xfce desktop, originally developed by os-cillation. It has some helper applications that are used throughout the entire Xfce desktop to manage preferred applications and edit .desktop files.
exo is targeted at application development and is considered ready for production use. You no longer need to define the EXO_API_SUBJECT_TO_CHANGE preprocessor symbol.
Applications
[[desktop-item-edit|Desktop Item Editor (exo-desktop-item-edit)]] – Editor for .desktop files
[[preferred-applications|Preferred Applications (exo-preferred-applications)]] – Select the default applications to be used for various services, i.e. the web browser that should be used to open hyperlinks
Required Packages
gthread
gio-unix
Debugging Support
libexo currently supports four different levels of debugging support, which
can be setup using the configure flag -enable-debug (check the output of
configure --help):
`full' This is the strongest option. Deprecation and some coding style
checks are made and will cause the build to fail for any errors
or warnings.
`yes' This is the default for Git snapshot builds. It adds all kinds
of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run slower.
Use this for development of libexo and locating bugs in libexo.
`minimum' This is the default for release builds. This is the recommended
behavior.
`no' Disables all sanity checks. Don't use this unless you know
exactly what you are doing.
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/exo 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
Thunar File Manager
Contents
Introduction
//Thunar// is a modern file manager for the Xfce Desktop Environment. //Thunar// has been designed from the ground up to be fast and easy to use. Its user interface is clean and intuitive and does not include any confusing or useless options by default. //Thunar// starts up quickly and navigating through files and folders is fast and responsive.
[[the-file-manager-window|The File Manager Window]] – working with the Thunar window and modifying the layout
[[working-with-files-and-folders|Working with Files and Folders]] – basic file handling
[[using-removable-media|Using Removable Media]] – working with removable devices
[[preferences|File Management Preferences]] – details of the different file manager preferences
[[faq|Frequently Asked Questions]] – some random things you probably want to know
[[hidden-settings|Advanced Settings]] – The xfce4-settings-editor, customize gtk3 css and more possible tweaks
[[unix-filesystem| The UNIX filesystem]] – understanding the UNIX File System
[[send-to|The “Send To” Menu]] – how to customize the send to menu
Thunar Plugins
Thunar plugins can be installed as separate, additional packages in order to extend the functionality of Thunar. Most Thunar plugins offer additional options on files in the context menu or via shortcut. The interface which is used by thunar plugins is the thunarx API.
[[.:bulk-renamer:|Bulk Renamer]] – rename multiple files at once
[[custom-actions|Custom Actions]] – custom commands associated with common mime-types or extensions
[[archive|Archive Plugin (thunar-archive-plugin)]] – allows to create and extract archive files
[[media-tags|Media Tags Plugin (thunar-media-tags-plugin)]] – improved support for ID3 tags
[[thunar-shares-plugin|Shares Plugin (thunar-shares-plugin)]] – Quickly share folders using Samba without requiring root access
[[thunar-volman|Volume Manager (thunar-volman)]] – Automatic management of removable devices in Thunar
[[thunar-vcs-plugin|VCS Plugin (thunar-vcs-plugin)]] – adds Subversion and GIT actions to the context menu
Other Thunar Related Packages
[[unix-filesystem#gnome_virtual_file_system|Gnome Virtual File System]] – required for trash support, mounting removable media, and [[unix-filesystem#remote_file_systems|remote filesystems]]
[[:xfce:tumbler:start:|Tumbler]] – the remote thumbnail service for Thunar
Debugging Support
Thunar currently supports four different levels of debugging support, which can be setup using the configure flag --enable-debug (check the output of configure --help):
Argument |
Description |
|---|---|
full |
Use this if you want to debug Thunar to locate a bug. The build will most probably be noticably slower. This is also recommended for people that want to develop Thunar stuff. |
yes |
Adds all kinds of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run slower. Use this if you want to develop for Thunar (e.g. writing Thunar extensions and such). |
minimum |
This is the default for release builds, and presents the recommended behaviour. |
no |
Disables all sanity checks. Don’t use this unless you know exactly what you do. |
For some additional build & debug hints, as well check the Thunar Wiki pages.
Standards compliance
Thunar supports the following standards/specifications:
Required Packages
Thunar depends on the following packages:
Thunar can optionally be build with the following packages:
D-Bus (strongly suggested, required for inter process communication)
xfce-panel (required to build the trash panel applet)
gudev (required for thunar-volman)
libnotify (required for mount notification support)
For concrete information on the minimum required versions, check configure.ac.in
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/thunar 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/thunar
For additional build, test and debugging tips, see [[https://wiki.xfce.org/thunar/dev/build_and_run|this page]] for more suggestions.
Reporting Bugs
[[bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfce4-panel - Xfce Panel
Contents
The Xfce Panel is part of the Xfce Desktop Environment and features application launchers, panel menus, a workspace switcher and more. Many aspects of the panel can be configured through the GUI, but also by GTK+ style properties and hidden Xfconf settings.
General
[[getting-started|Getting Started]] – Starting the Xfce Panel for the first time
[[add-new-items|Add New Items]] – Add new plugins to the Xfce Panel
[[preferences|Preferences]] – Configure the Xfce Panel
[[https://wiki.xfce.org/howto:customize-menu|Customize the Xfce menu]] – Customize menu entries
[[theming|Theming]] – Styling the Xfce Panel
Internal Plugins
[[actions|Action Buttons]] – Adds system action buttons to the panel
[[applicationsmenu|Applications Menu]] – Adds a menu containing categories of installed applications
[[clock|Clock]] – What time is it? – a clock plugin for the panel.
[[directorymenu|Directory Menu]] – Show a directory tree in a menu
[[launcher|Launcher]] – Program launcher with optional menu
[[systray|Notification Area]] – Area where notification icons appear
[[separator|Separator]] – Adds a separator or space between panel plugins
[[showdesktop|Show Desktop]] – Hide all windows and show the desktop
[[tasklist|Window Buttons]] – Switch between open windows using buttons
[[windowmenu|Window Menu]] – Switch between open windows using a menu
[[pager|Workspace Switcher]] – Switch between virtual desktops
External Plugins
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-battery-plugin:start|Battery]] – A battery monitor panel plugin for Xfce4 compatible with APM and ACPI, for Linux and *BSD.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-calculator-plugin:start|Calculator]] – a calculator plugin for the Xfce4 panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-clipman-plugin:start|Clipman]] – A clipboard manager for Xfce
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-cpufreq-plugin:start|Cpufreq]] – shows information about the CPU governor and frequencies supported and used by your system.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-cpugraph-plugin:start|Cpugraph]] – offers multiple display modes (LED, gradient, fire, etc…) to show the current CPU load of the system.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-datetime-plugin:start|Datetime]] – shows the date and time in the panel, and a calendar appears when you left-click on it.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-diskperf-plugin:start|Diskperf]] – displays instant disk/partition performance (bytes transferred per second).
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-docklike-plugin:start|Docklike]] – A modern, minimalist taskbar for Xfce.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-embed-plugin:start|Embed]] – Embed arbitrary application windows into the panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-eyes-plugin:start|Eyes]] – Eyes that spy on you.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-fsguard-plugin:start|Fsguard]] – checks the chosen mountpoint for free disk space.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-genmon-plugin:start|Genmon]] – spawns the indicated script/program, captures its output (stdout) and displays the resulting string into the panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-indicator-plugin:start|Indicator]] – small plugin written by Mark Trompell to display information from various applications consistently.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-mailwatch-plugin:start|Mailwatch]] – multi-threaded, multi-mailbox, multi-protocol plugin for checking mails periodically.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-mount-plugin:start|Mount]] – a mount/umount utility for the panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-mpc-plugin:start|Mpc]] – client plugin for MPD, the Music Player Daemon
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-netload-plugin:start|Netload]] – displays the current load of the network interfaces, currently works on Linux, *BSD, Sun Solaris, HP_UX and MacOS X.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-notes-plugin:start|Notes]] – provides sticky notes for your desktop.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-places-plugin:start|Places]] – a menu with quick access to folders, documents, and removable media.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin:start|PulseAudio Plugin]] – Adjust audio volume and control media players on the Xfce desktop
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-sample-plugin:start|Sample]] – Sample plugin developers can use as a base for new panel-plugins
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-sensors-plugin:start|Sensors]] – a hardware sensors plugin for the panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-smartbookmark-plugin:start|Smartbookmark]] – allows you to do a search directly on Internet on sites like google or debian bugzilla.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-statusnotifier-plugin:start|Statusnotifier]] – provides a panel area for status notifier items (application indicators).
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-stopwatch-plugin:start|Stopwatch]] – Keep track of elapsed time.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-systemload-plugin:start|Systemload]] – Displays the current CPU load, the memory in use, the swap space and the system uptime.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-timer-plugin:start|Timer]] – Lets the user run an alarm at a specified time or at the end of a specified countdown period.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-time-out-plugin:start|Time-out]] – for taking breaks from the computer every X minutes.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-verve-plugin:start|Verve]] – A comfortable command line plugin for the Xfce panel.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-wavelan-plugin:start|Wavelan]] – Display stats from a wireless lan interface (signal state, signal quality, network name (SSID)). It supports NetBSD, OpenBSD, FreeBSD, and Linux.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-weather-plugin:start|Weather]] – Shows the current temperature and weather condition, using weather data provided by xoap.weather.com.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin:start|Whiskermenu]] – A menu that provides access to favorites, recently used, and searching installed applications.
[[:panel-plugins:xfce4-xkb-plugin:start|Xkb]] – Setup and use multiple (currently up to 4 due to X11 protocol limitation) keyboard layouts.
Advanced
[[debugging|Debugging]] – Debugging plugins and the panel
Required Packages
libwnck
For specific information on the minimum required versions, check configure.ac.in
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfce4-panel 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfce4-panel:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfce4-power-manager - Power Manager
Contents
Introduction
Xfce4 Power Manager manages the power sources of the computer and connected devices (wireless mice, keyboards, media players etc.). It also allows users to control the display backlight brightness and set power-saving modes for displays and monitors.\ In addition, xfce4-power-manager provides a set of freedesktop-compliant DBus interfaces to inform other applications about the current power level so that they can adjust their power consumption, and it provides the inhibit interface which allows applications to prevent automatic sleep actions via the power manager; as an example, the operating system’s package manager should make use of this interface while it is performing update operations.
Additional Information
[[:xfce:xfce4-power-manager:getting-started|Getting Started]] – Starting the power manager and some command-line options.
[[:xfce:xfce4-power-manager:preferences|Preferences]] – Customizing the settings of the power manager.
[[:xfce:xfce4-power-manager:faq|Frequently Asked Questions]] – Some random things you probably want to know.
[[:xfce:xfce4-power-manager:panel-plugin|Power Manager Panel Plugin]] – Display your battery’s load status, connected devices and control your display backlight brightness.
Required packages
Xfce Power Manager depends on the following packages:
Gtk 3.14 or above.
Glib 2.42 or above.
DBus 1.1 or above.
libxfce4ui 4.12.0 or above.
libxfce4util 4.12.0 or above
libnotify 0.4.1 or above.
xfconf 4.12.0 or above.
libxfce4panel 4.12.0 or above (optional, for the Xfce panel plugin).
XRandR 1.2.0 or above.
DPMS X11 extension (DPMS support, required).
UPower 0.99.0 or above.
Polkit 0.91 or above (optional but recommended).
Consolekit (optional but recommended).
LoginD/SystemD (optional).
Pm-utils (for suspend & hibernate on Linux).
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfce4-power-manager 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfce4-session - Session Manager
Contents
Introduction
//Xfce4-session// is a session manager for Xfce. Its task is to save the state of your desktop (opened applications and their location) and restore it during a next startup. You can create several different sessions and choose one of them on startup.
General
[[preferences|Preferences]] – Configure the behaviour of the session manager
[[logout|Logout Dialog]] – The logout dialog and more information about power management handling
[[faq|Frequently Asked Questions]] – Tips and tricks related to xfce4-session
[[advanced|Advanced]] – Advanced information about environment variables and kiosk mode
[[knownProblems|Known Issues]] – Read this if xfce4-session causes trouble
Latest Release
{{rss>https://archive.xfce.org/feeds/project/xfce4-session 1 date description 2h}}
Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfce4-session:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfce4-settings - Settings Manager
Contents
The xfce4-settings component provides a daemon, manager, and editor to centralize the configuration management of the Xfce system.
Settings
[[xfsettingsd|Settings Daemon]] – A daemon that runs in the background to apply all the settings
[[manager|Settings Manager]] – Dialog that lists all the settings dialogs provided by this package (listed below) or other core modules of Xfce
Dialogs
[[accessibility|Accessibility]] – Improve keyboard and mouse accessibility
[[appearance|Appearance]] – Customize the look of your desktop
[[color|Color]] – Manage the color profiles of your devices
[[display|Display]] – Configure screen settings and layout
[[keyboard|Keyboard]] – Edit keyboard settings and application shortcuts
[[mouse|Mouse and Touchpad]] – Configure pointer device behavior and appearance
[[editor|Settings Editor]] – Editor that allows to modify all the various setting channels
[[mime|MIME Type Editor]] – Editor to modify application associations with MIME types
Other Dialogs
The following items are often visible in the settings manager, but not part of the //xfce4-settings// package. You can click the links below to redirect to the correct place on this website.
[[:xfce:xfce4-panel:preferences|Panel]] – Configure the Xfce Panel
[[:xfce:xfwm4:workspaces|Workspaces]] – Set number and names of workspaces
[[:xfce:xfwm4:preferences|Window Manager]] – Handles the placement of windows on the screen
[[:xfce:xfwm4:wmtweaks|Window Manager Tweaks]] – Specified tuning of the window manager
[[:xfce:xfce4-session:preferences|Session]] – Applications that are started on login
[[:xfce:xfdesktop:preferences|Desktop]] – Desktop icons and background
[[:apps:xfce4-terminal:preferences|Xfce Terminal]] – Configure Xfce Terminal
Latest Release
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Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[xfce:xfce4-settings:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
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Tumbler - Thumbnail Service
Contents
Introduction
Tumbler is a D-Bus service for applications to request thumbnails for various URI schemes and MIME types. It is an implementation of the thumbnail management D-Bus specification described on
https://wiki.gnome.org/DraftSpecs/ThumbnailerSpec
written in an object-oriented fashion using GLib and GObject. Its modular architecture makes it very flexible and useful in many situations. It provides plugin interfaces for extending the URI schemes and MIME types for which thumbnails can be generated as well as for replacing the storage backend that is used to store the thumbnails on disk. Tumbler’s functionality can also be extended via specialized thumbnailer services implemented in accordance to the thumbnail management D-Bus specification.
Tumbler is used by Thunar, Ristretto, Xfce.
Configuration
You can override the default cache directory $HOME/.cache in which, besides other non-essential files, thumbnails are stored:
- D-Bus/ systemd
create a file below ‘’~/.config/environment.d/’’ and inside set XDG_CACHE_HOME. E.g:
‘’XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.my_new_cache’’
- Other
Extend $HOME/.profile, $HOME/.bash_rc or similar
‘’export XDG_CACHE_HOME=$HOME/.my_new_cache’’
After that, re-login, make sure the variable is set, and check if it works fine.
Tumbler has a configuration file tumbler.rc described in a [[available_plugins#configuration|dedicated page]].
Available Plugins
Tumbler allows to load a number [[:xfce:tumbler:available_plugins:|additional tumbler plugins]] to support different file formats. Most plugins are loaded by default, if the required libraries are provided.
Standards compliance
Tumbler supports and implements the following standards/specifications:
Debugging Support
Tumbler currently supports four different levels of debugging support,
which can be setup using the configure flag --enable-debug (check the
output of configure --help):
`full' Use this if you want to debug Tumbler to locate a bug. The
build will most probably be noticably slower. This is also
recommended for people that want to develop Tumbler stuff.
`yes' This is the default for git snapshot builds. It adds all
kinds of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run
slower. Use this if you want to develop for Tumbler (e.g.
writing Tumbler extensions and such).
`minimum' This is the default for release builds, and presents the
recommended behaviour.
`no' Disables all sanity checks. Don't use this unless you know
exactly what you do.
Required packages
Tumbler depends on the following packages:
GLib >= 2.50.0
Tumbler can optionally use the following packages:
gdk-pixbuf >= 2.14.0 (various image formats, some of them requiring the installation of optional libraries specific to gdk-pixbuf; also required for all other plugins below)
FreeType >= 2.0.0 (font)
FFmpegthumbnailer >= 2.0.0 (video)
GStreamer >= 1.0.0 (video)
Poppler >= 0.12 (PDF/PS)
libgsf >= 1.14.9 (ODF)
libopenraw >= 0.0.4 (RAW images)
libpng >= 1.2.0 (for the Thumbnail Managing Standard storage backend)
libgepub >= 0.6.0 (EPUB)
Latest Release
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Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:tumbler:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
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libxfce4util - Utility sharing library
Contents
Libxfce4util is used to share commonly used non-GTK+ utilities among the Xfce applications.
Latest Release
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Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:libxfce4util:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
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libxfce4ui - widget sharing library
Contents
The libxfce4ui library is used to share commonly used Xfce widgets among the Xfce applications.
Required packages
Libxfce4ui depends on the following packages:
GTK+ 3.18.0 or above
GLib 2.42.0 or above
Libxfce4util 4.12.0 or above
Debugging Support
Libxfce4ui currently supports four different levels of debugging support, which
can be setup using the configure flag --enable-debug (check the output of
configure --help):
`full' Use this if you want to debug libxfce4ui to locate a bug. The
build will most probably be noticably slower. This is also
recommended for people that want to develop Xfce applications.
`yes' This is the default for SVN snapshot builds. It adds all
kinds of checks to the code, and is therefore likely to run
slower. Use this if you want to develop for Xfce.
`minimum' This is the default for release builds, and presents the
recommended behaviour.
`no' Disables all sanity checks. Don't use this unless you know
exactly what you do.
Latest Release
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Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:libxfce4ui:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
xfwm4 - Window Manager
Contents
xfwm is the window manager for Xfce
General
[[introduction|Introduction]] – General information about //xfwm4//
[[getting-started|Getting Started]] – Handling windows and workspaces with //xfwm4//
[[faq|Frequently Asked Question]] – Tips and tricks related to xfwm4
[[standards|Supported Standards]] – List of freedesktop, Gnome, & KDE specifications supported by xfwm4
[[https://wiki.xfce.org/howto/install_new_themes|Installing themes]] – How to install new themes
[[https://wiki.xfce.org/howto/xfwm4_theme|Styling themes]] – Styling the Xfce Window Manager
[[https://wiki.xfce.org/howto/gtk_theme|Xfce GTK Engine Theme How-To]]
Configuration
[[preferences|Preferences]] – Configure window behavior and shortcuts
[[wmtweaks|Window Manager Tweaks]] – Fine-tune window behavior and effects
[[workspaces|Workspaces]] – Set number and names of workspaces
Latest Release
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Source Code Repository
Reporting Bugs
[[:xfce:xfwm4:bugs|Reporting Bugs]] – Open bug reports and how to report new bugs
:start|Back to main Xfce documentation page
Applications
Getting Started
:ref::Getting Started with Xfce – Starting point for anyone who wants to use Xfce
Frequently Asked Questions – General questions relating to Xfce and their answers
Building Xfce – Instructions on how to compile Xfce from source
How to Contribute – Detailed information for new contributors
Bug Reporting and Fixing
Documentation for Xfce Applications
Core Modules
Application Finder (xfce4-appfinder) – Application to quickly run applications and commands
Configuration Storage System (xfconf) – D-Bus-based configuration storage system
Desktop Manager (xfdesktop) – Configure the desktop background image, icons, launchers and folders
Development Tools (xfce4-dev-tools) – A set of scripts and m4/autoconf macros that ease build system maintenance.
Helper Applications (exo) – Manage preferred applications and edit .desktop files
File Manager (thunar) – The fast and easy to use file manager for the Xfce Desktop
Menu Library (garcon) – Library used for menu implementation
Panel (xfce4-panel) – Application launchers, window buttons, applications menu, workspace switcher and more
Power Manager (xfce4-power-manager) – Manage power sources and power consumption of devices
Session Manager (xfce4-session) – Save the state of your desktop and restore it on the next startup
Settings Manager (xfce4-settings) – The Settings daemon which persists many Xfce settings
Thumbnail Service (tumbler) – A D-Bus service for applications to request thumbnails for various URI schemes and MIME types
Utility Sharing Library (libxfce4util) – Library used to share commonly used non-GTK+ utilities among the Xfce applications
Widget Sharing Library (libxfce4ui) – Used to share commonly used Xfce widgets among the Xfce applications
Window Manager (xfwm4) – Handles the placement of windows on the screen
Applications
CD Burning application (Xfburn) – A simple CD/DVD burning tool.
Dictionary (xfce4-dict) – allows you to search different kinds of dictionary services for words or phrases and shows you the results
File Search Utility (catfish) – a versatile file search utility for the Xfce desktop
Image Viewer (ristretto) – Image viewer for the Xfce desktop
Media player (parole) – Media player for the Xfce desktop
Music Player Daemon (xfmpc) – A graphical GTK+ Music Player Daemon (MPD) client focusing on low footprint
Notification service (xfce4-notifyd) – Notification service for the Xfce desktop
Remote filesystem Utility (gigolo) – A frontend to easily manage connections to remote filesystems.
Panel Profiles (xfce4-panel-profiles) – A simple application to manage Xfce panel layouts
Screensaver Utility (xfce4-screensaver) – A simple, secure screen saver and locker.
Screenshot application (xfce4-screenshooter) – Take screenshots of your Xfce desktop
Taskmanager(xfce4-taskmanager) – Easy to use task manager
Terminal Emulator (xfce4-terminal) – Terminal emulator for the Xfce desktop
Text Editor (mousepad) – A simple text editor for Xfce
Volume Control & Mixer (xfce4-mixer) – A volume control application based on GStreamer & panel-plugin
Xfdashboard – Provides a Gnome shell-like dashboard for Xfce
Take a look at the list of recommended applications for more light-weight applications, recommended by Xfce users.
Check the sitemap of this wiki to see all available wiki pages.