General Info

Window Manager

A Window Manager (WM) is what actually controls the window placement and their look and feel. A few examples are: Awesome, Blackbox, bspwm, Enlightenment, i3, Sway, and WindowMaker. There are a few types of WMs:

• Compositing DEs create each window independantly. The only gotcha here is that windows cannot overlap each other.
• Dynamic DEs create window spaces automagically and can actually switch between tiliing or floating layouts.
• Stacking DEs are the most common types of DEs. They are geared to mouse users and windows can easily be moved around. They are similar to Compositing, except, windows can overlap each other.
• Tiling DEs force into moving your windows around so that they connect to each other (commonly called snap). Like Compositing, tiling WMs do not allow windows to overlap. These are for hardcore keyboard junkies.

Desktop Environment

A Desktop Environment (DE) runs on top of a Window Manger. The DE is the software that provides a graphical user interface (GUI) for an end user. This is what gives us the pretty interfaces, icons, toolbars, wallpapers, and overall window interface. Different DEs include veried amounts of additional software. A few examples are: CDE, Gnome, KDE, or Xfce

To get a list of avaialable desktop environments:

sudo dnf group list -v

Display Manager

A Display Manager (DM) manages user logins and graphic display servers and it is used to begin a session on an X server. The user is presented with a login screen in a DM and the session can start when the user enters valid credentials. Commond DMs are listed below.

gdm

Defaut: Gnome

This is the default Display Manager in Gnome. If Gnome is installed on your distribution, then you are probably using this without your knowledge. It is on the heavier side of the display managers. Note, Gnome is heavy on system resources.

Notable features of gdm are: efficient and fast User Switching Support, have accessibility options for specially-abled people, compatible with an X server (Xorg) and Wayland, and allows users to customize settings without touching the Terminal.

lightdm

lightdm is a gdm alternative developed by Canonical. The main feature is that it’s light weight. This means it offers great performance while using little memory. It is also very customizable.

It has Qt and Gtk support. Besides various desktop technologies, it supports various display technology, such as Wayland, Mir, and X windowing systems. The complexity of code in this display manager is not high.

Other features which are supported include remote login, as well as sessions from guest users. Themes are rendered using a web kit. It is completely independent of Gnome.

sddm

Defaut: KDE

Simple Desktop Display Manager (sddm) is the default graphical login program for KDE desktop, also called Plasma. It operates on Wayland windowing systems and X11 systems. It is quick, easy to use, beautifully designed. It also offers customization, with a wide range of themes.

It's base is Qt and the QML language. SDDM is the default DM for KDE. It was written from the ground up in C++11.

Testing

I tried the following WMs and DEs along with any comments.

Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Awesome
Dynamic

sudo dnf -y install awesome Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Blackbox
Stacking

sudo dnf -y install blackbox Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Bspwm
Tiling

sudo dnf -y install bspwm Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Cinnamon
Compositing
Mint OS default
sudo dnf -y group install "Cinnamon Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Cwm
Stacking

sudo dnf -y install cwm Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Deepin
Compositing
Resource heavy
sudo dnf -y group install "Deepin Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: E16
Compositing

sudo dnf -y install e16 Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Enlightenment
Compositing

sudo dnf -y install enlightenment Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: GNOME
Compositing

Based on GTK
sudo dnf -y groupinstall "GNOME Desktop Environment" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: I3
Dynamic

sudo dnf -y install i3 Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: JWM
Stacking

sudo dnf -y install jwm Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: KDE (Plasma)
Compositing
Based on Qt
sudo dnf -y group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: LXDE
Compositing
Based on GTK
sudo dnf -y group install "LXDE Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: LXQt
Compositing
Based on Qt
sudo dnf -y group install "LXQt Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Mate
Compositing

sudo dnf -y group install "MATE Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Openbox
Stacking

sudo dnf -y install openbox Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Pantheon/Gala
Compositing
Eelementry default
sudo dnf -y group install "Pantheon Desktop" Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Sway
Tiling

sudo dnf -y install sway Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: WindowMaker
Stacking
NeXTSTEP
sudo dnf -y install WindowMaker Name:
Type:
Comment:
Install Command: Xfce
Compositing
Manjaro OS default
sudo dnf -y group install "Xfce Desktop"

Desktop Environment Install

Background

Now for the hard part... deciding on which DE to run. It is a very personal decision. Growing up, I started on a IBM AT, to several Macs, to a Windows, etc. So I had already played with different operating systems. Switching from Windows, KDE seemed the most natrual. Back then, Gnome wasn't as robust as it is today. Gnome today, is more like a Mac interface. I have run KDE the longest. When I decided to run Linux on my main PC, I had a bake off between KDE and Xfce.

KDE is extrememly customizeable, almost too much. Histrocially, Xfce has the longest history of being the most lean. KDE has come a long way and I have seen some data to say that KDE is almost as lean as Xfce. Xfce is also very customizable. The core part is a little lacking. In classic fashion (or my preferance) start vanihalla then add as ncessary. So with a few plugins, Xfce will run wide open.

KDE

If you use the group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces" it comes with a lot of helpful tools. To see a list of what is installed in the group, use "group list" command. The following is a sample output on Rocky 8.

• [localadmin@rocky8 ~]$ sudo dnf -y group info "kde-desktop-environment"
• Environment Group: KDE Plasma Workspaces
• Description: The KDE Plasma Workspaces, a highly-configurable graphical user interface which includes a panel, desktop, system icons and desktop widgets, and many powerful KDE applications.
• no group 'libreoffice' from environment 'kde-desktop-environment'
• Mandatory Groups:
• Core
• Fonts
• Hardware Support
• KDE (K Desktop Environment)
• Multimedia
• base-x
• dial-up
• guest-desktop-agents
• input-methods
• networkmanager-submodules
• print-client
• standard
• Optional Groups:
• Firefox Web Browser
• KDE Applications
• KDE Educational applications
• KDE Multimedia support

Some guides say to install "base-x." As you can see from above, it is installed by default.

If you would like to see what is included in the "Optional Group" follow the example below. The output will be the same as above but with another section added for the specific otpional group. An abridged version is below.

• [localadmin@rocky8 ~]$ sudo dnf -y group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces" --with-optional "KDE Applications"
• Group: KDE Applications
• Description: A set of commonly used KDE applications
• Mandatory Packages:
• ark
• digikam
• kde-connect
• kmahjongg
• kmines
• kolourpaint
• konversation
• kpat
• krdc
• krfb
• krusader
• ktorrent

For KDE, I usually do the default. To include the "Optional Groups," you have to speficy the package.

Install KDE (using mandatory only)

sudo dnf -y group install "KDE Plasma Workspaces"

Xfce

To learn more about the various "group install" and "group info" commands, read the KDE section above. For postarity, a sample output is listed below.

• [localadmin@rocky8 ~]$ sudo dnf -y group info Xfce
• Group: Xfce
• Description: A lightweight desktop environment that works well on low end machines.
• Mandatory Packages:
• Thunar
• xfce4-panel
• xfce4-session
• xfce4-settings
• xfconf
• xfdesktop
• xfwm4
• Default Packages:
• NetworkManager-gnome
• gdm
• mousepad
• openssh-askpass
• thunar-archive-plugin
• thunar-volman
• tumbler
• xfce-polkit
• xfce4-appfinder
• xfce4-power-manager
• xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
• xfce4-screensaver
• xfce4-terminal
• Conditional Packages:
• pinentry-gtk

Install Xfce WITH Gnome
As you can see from above, gdm is included in "group install" of Xfce. Remenber that gdm is the default login interface for Gnome. As a result, a light weight version of Gnome is installed. GROSS!!! To avoid this, we use a custom list basied on the "group info" output.

sudo dnf -y group install Xfce

Install Xfce WITHOUT Gnome
"network-manager-applet" is new in Rocky 9

sudo dnf -y install Thunar xfce4-panel xfce4-session xfce4-settings xfconf xfdesktop xfwm4 network-manager-applet openssh-askpass thunar-archive-plugin thunar-volman tumbler xfce-polkit xfce4-appfinder xfce4-power-manager xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin xfce4-screensaver xfce4-terminal sudo dnf -y group install "base-x" Utilities Application Name Description xfce4-panel-profiles Themes - Backup/Restore Panel Config xfce4-screenshooter Screenshot tool xfce4-taskmanager Perfmon tool Themes / Customizaion Application Name Description adwaita-cursor-theme adwaita-gtk2-theme adwaita-icon-theme breeze-cursor-theme Cursor Themese (icons included in dependency) breeze-icon-theme xfwm4-themes Themes Panel Plugins The following plugins are purely optional. Application Name Description xfce4-cpufreq-plugin CPU xfce4-cpugraph-plugin CPU xfce4-diskperf-plugin Disk xfce4-netload-plugin NIC xfce4-sensors-plugin System sensors (temp, speed) xfce4-systemload-plugin TOP xfce4-wavelan-plugin WiFi

Display Manager Install

LightDM

Validate if the system is booting to a terminal window or a graphical user interface.

sudo systemctl get-default

To change boot target to the text mode (reboot required):

sudo systemctl set-default multi-user.target

To change boot target to the GUI mode (reboot required):

sudo systemctl set-default graphical.target

In the cases above, the DM runs as a service. So make sure you only have one enabled at a time.

sudo systemctl disable gdm sudo systemctl disable sddm

Install Light DM and set it to start at system boot time.

sudo dnf -y install lightdm sudo systemctl enable lightdm

Show the config file without comments.

sudo cat /etc/locale.conf | egrep -v "^\s*(#|$)"

Update the startx command to use: KDE.

sudo echo "exec /usr/bin/startkde" >> ~/.xinitrc

Update the startx command to use: Xfcce.

sudo echo "exec /usr/bin/xfce4-session" >> ~/.xinitrc

Copy the default hammondent logo to the following path and make sure it is a png.

/usr/share/backgrounds/

Make some backups before change the Light DM config.

sudo cp /usr/share/backgrounds/default.png /usr/share/backgrounds/default.png.bak sudo cp /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf.bak

Update the Light DM background image.

sudo sed -i 's/background=\/usr\/share\/backgrounds\/default.png/background=\/usr\/share\/backgrounds\/hammondent.png/g' /etc/lightdm/lightdm-gtk-greeter.conf

Start the KDE Window Manager.

startkde

Start the Xfce Window Manager.

startxfce4

After the changes in this section have been applied, a reboot is a good idea.

sudo reboot

KDE Modding

Performance

KDE Optimizations - Disables Annimations. This will disable the translucent abilities.

Go to: System Settings > Hardware > Display and Monitor > Compositor

Enable compositor on startup: Unchecked

Menu Changes

KDE Optimizations - Startup and Shutdown

Go to: System Settings > Startup and Shutdown > Background Service

Bluetooth: Unchecked Network Proxy Config: Unchecked Plasma Valut module: Unchecked Removeable Device Automount: Unchecked Thunderbolt Montior: Unchecked Touchpad: Unchecked

Shortcuts

Bring up a desktop search bar

ALT+F2

Map the meta (Windows) key in KDE. This seemed to be required if you switch between KDE and Xfce.

1. Right click on the Start menu icon.
2. Click on Configure Application Launcher.
3. Go to Keyboard Shortcut tab.
4. Click on the None icon.
5. Type: ALT+F1
6. Click Apply in the window.
7. Test the Start menu icon.

Konsole

Create a new profile and use the following settings:

Appearnce Tab Colors: Green on Black Font: 12pt
Open Dyslexic Mono or Px437_IBM_ISO9 Misc Tab Darken: Checked Slidebar: 50%

Restore the menu bar if removed.

Ctrl+Shift+M Ctrl+Shift+F10

Panel Setup

Lock the Panels and Widgets

KDE used to have a way to lock panels but for whatever reason, some genious decided to remove it. The following command will lock the widgets so the shortcuts can't accidently be moved.

qdbus org.kde.plasmashell /PlasmaShell evaluateScript "lockCorona(true)" # Lock Widget qdbus org.kde.plasmashell /PlasmaShell evaluateScript "lockCorona(false)" # Unlock Widgets

Panel 01

Go to: Right click on Desktop > Add Panel > Empty Panel

On the Panel diaglog box:

Position tab Left column: Center Settings tab More settings Panel Height: 60 Auto-Hide: Checked Center: Checked Floating Panel: Checked Translucent: Checked

Add the following Widgets (in order):

Add Spacer Quicklaunch: Settings: Columns: 1 Widget Itmes: Konsole
Dolphin
Bitwarden
Brave
Firefox
Thunderbird
Sublime
Remmina
Secure CRT
ASA Manager
Libre Writer
Libre Calc
Slack
Signal
Spotify
Zoom
System Settings Add Spacer

Panel 02

Go to: Right click on Desktop > Add Panel > Empty Panel

On the Panel diaglog box:

Position tab Bottom: Center Settings tab More settings Panel Height: 75 Auto-Hide: Checked Center: Checked Floating Panel: Checked Translucent: Checked

Add the following Widgets (in order):

Pager: Settings: General Desktop Num: Checked Task Manager: Settings: Apperance Max rows: 2 Sort: Alphabetically

Panel 03

Go to: Right click on Desktop > Add Panel > Empty Panel

On the Panel diaglog box:

Position tab Bottom: Center Settings tab More settings Panel Height: 100 Auto-Hide: Checked Center: Checked Floating Panel: Checked Translucent: Checked

Add the following Widgets (in order):

Add Spacer System Tray: Settings: Entries Show all: Checked Notifications: Disabled Battery and Brightness: Disabled Bluetooth: Disabled Touchpad: Disabled Disk Quota: Disabled Valuts: Disabled Kate Sessions: Disabled Weather Report: Disabled Digital Clock: Settings: Appearnce Date Form ISO Date Calander Holidays mu_fr_catholic Checked us_en-us Checked Lock/Logout: Settings: Shutdown: Checked Reboot: Checked Lock: Checked Add Spacer

Xfce Modding

Shortcut Commands

For a great list of shortcut commands, check out: https://defkey.com/xfce-shortcuts.

Go to: Right click on the desktop > Applications > Settings > Keyboard > Application Shortcuts tab.

1. Click the Add button.
2. You will be prompted to add the command.
3. Click Ok
4. You will then be prompted to select the key combonation you would like to use.
5. Use the settings in the table below.

Optional Shortcut Commands Command Combination xfce4-appfinder --collapsed Alt+F2 or Super+R xfce4-appfinder Alt+F3

Terminal Settings

Go to: Open Terminal > Edit > Preferances.

General Tab Show Unsafe paste dialogue: Unchecked Auto copy selection: Checked Apperance Tab Use system font: Unchecked OpenDyslexicMono
Px437 IBM DOS ISO9 12pt
14pt Backgournd: Transparent background: 50 Default geometry: 100col 25row Color Tab Presents: Green on Black

Panel Setup

Panel 01

I started out with "Window Menu" and figured to give it a shot. After using it for a year plus, I have come to really like it. I have always liked lists of text. Figure it is easier to navigate. There are still small icons, so that helps too.

Go to: Right click on the desktop > Applications > Settings > Panel > Use the pulldown to select Panel 01.

Display Tab Mode: Deskbar Output: Primary Span Monitors: Unchecked Lock panel: Checked Auto Hide: Intelligently Don't Reserve Boarder Space: Checked Row size: 100 Rows: 1 Length: 1 Auto Increase: Checked Apperance Tab Dark mode: On Style: None Adjust size auto: Off Fixed icon size: 16 Opacity Enter: 90 Opacity Leave: 80 Items Tab Window Menu Button Layout: Icon Workspace Actions: Unchecked Workspace Names : Checked Urgancy notification: Checked Filtering: Checked Separator Status Tray Plugin: Auto size: Off Fixed size: 22 Single row: Unchecked Hide items by default: Unchecked Square items: Unchecked Primary action: Unchecked Symbolic icon: Unchecked PulseAudio Plugin: Defaults Separator Clock: Timezone: America/Chicago
America/Detroit Layout: Digital Tooltip Format : Day Date Month Year Format: Custom Format
%I:%M %p%n%B%n%Y-%m-%d # HR:MIN AM/PM fullMonth YY-MM-DD
%I:%M %p%n%A%n%B%n%Y-%m-%d # HR:MIN AM/PM day fullMonth YYYY-MM-DD Separator Action Buttons: Appearance: Session Menu Title: Username Actions: Check the following (these items can be dragged)
Lock
Restart
Shutdown
Confirmation: Unchecked

Panel 02

Go to: Right click on the desktop > Applications > Settings > Panel > Use the pulldown to select Panel 02.

Display Tab Mode: Vertical Output: Primary Span Monitors: Unchecked Lock panel: Checked Auto Hide: Intelligently Don't Reserve Boarder Space: Checked Row size: 55 Rows: 1 Length: 1 Auto Increase: Checked Apperance Tab Dark mode: On Style: None Adjust size auto: On Fixed icon size: NA Opacity Enter: 90 Opacity Leave: 80 Items Tab Launcher Items: Xfce Terminal
Thunar
Bitwarden
Brave
Firefox
Thunderbird
Sublime
Remmina
Cisco ASDM*
Libre Writer
Libre Calc
Slack
Signal
Spotify
Zoom
Settings Manager

* To create a Cisco ASDM Shortcut in the Panel Setup 02, add a new Launcher item with the following settings:

Name: Cisco ASDM Comment: Cisco ASDM Command: Working Dir: /usr/cisco_asdm/asdm-7181/asdm.sh Icon: /home/thammond/asdm.svg Options: Use startup: Checked Run in term: Unchecked

Look n Feel

For some fantastic themse, check out: https://www.xfce-look.org. One of my favorites is the CDE theme. RIP Sun OS.

The following commands are more genearl referance rather than explicit examples.

Themes

Desktop Themes

1. cd ~/Downloads
2. tar -xzvf cdetheme*.tar.gz
3. sudo mv ~/Downloads/cdetheme*/cdetheme-solaris/ /usr/share/themes/
4. sudo chmod 755 -R /usr/share/themes/cdetheme*
5. sudo chown root:root -R /usr/share/themes/cdetheme*
6. rm -rf ~/Downloads/cdetheme*

Icon Themes

1. cd ~/Downloads
2. cp /home/thammond/mnt/software/sw-linux/themes/icons/* /home/thammond/Downloads
3. sudo mv ~/Downloads/* /usr/share/icons/
4. sudo chmod 755 -R /usr/share/icons/
5. sudo chown root:root -R /usr/share/icons/

Tip/Trick

If you go on a downloading spree, beacuse I would never do that... here are some cool commands to extract a ton of different packages.

for i in *.tar.gz; do tar -zxvf "$i" ;done for i in *.tar.xz; do tar -xf "$i" ;done for i in *.zip; do unzip "$i" ;done

Don't forget to cleanup after yourself.

rm *.tar.gz rm *.tar.xz rm *.zip

Thunar Mods

Thunar color updates based on CDE theme.

tee -a ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css >/dev/null <<EOF /* sidebar */ .thunar .sidebar .view { background-color: #AEB2C3; } /* main view */ .thunar .standard-view .view { background-color: #AEB2C3; } /* status bar */ .thunar grid paned grid { background-color: #AEB2C3;} /* toolbar */ .thunar toolbar, .thunar toolbar entry { background-color: #AEB2C3; } EOF

Add Meld Compare Menu

This can be done manually through menus by opening Thunar. Go to Edit > Configure custom actions. Add a new custom action called "Compare with Meld" and use the command "meld %F" and in the "Appearance Conditions" tab, select: directories, text files, and other files.

• For a specific user: ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml
• For system wide changes: /etc/xdg/Thunar/uca.xml
• sudo sed -i 's/<\/actions>/<!-- <\/actions> -->/g' ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml

sed -i '/<\/actions>/d' ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml tee -a ~/.config/Thunar/uca.xml >/dev/null <<EOF <action> <icon>org.gnome.meld</icon> <name>Compare with Meld</name> <unique-id>1661979853382577-1</unique-id> <command>meld %F</command> <description>Compare two or more files/dirs</description> <patterns>*</patterns> <directories/> <other-files/> <text-files/> </action> </actions> EOF

It is probably best to close Thunar after making the previous changes. Then re-open the Thunar to verify the changes were applied.

thunar -q

Fonts

Note: This section is optional.

On some machines, the default console text is really small. To change console terminal font, check out this article:
https://martin.rpdev.net/2017/01/21/setting-console-font-size-on-hidpi-screens-in-fedora.html

I have become obsessed with fonts lately because it drives me up a wall on what is the differeance between: 0Ol1 etc. In my travels, I sumbled upon: The Old School PC Font Resource. My favoriet front is the: Px437_IBM_ISO9.

I was clinically diagnosed with dyslexia while I was early grade school. God bless my parents! I wouldn't be anything that I am today without their love and kindness. They found a news article about a really cool group of people that were creating a font specifically for people with dyslexia. To read more, checkout: OpenDyslexic: A typeface for Dyslexia. For our needs, we will want: Open Dyslexic Mono.

IBM_ISO9

1. Download the "FULL" zip file from: https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts.
2. Extract them to ~/Downloads.
3. Find all fonds that contain "ISO9."
1. cd ~/Downloads
2. unzip oldschool_pc_font_pack_*.zip
3. find ~/Downloads -name "*ISO9*"
4. Copy the files you want to: /usr/share/fonts

sudo cp "/home/thammond/Downloads/ttf - Ac (aspect-corrected)/Ac437_IBM_DOS_ISO9.ttf" /usr/share/fonts sudo cp "/home/thammond/Downloads/otb - Bm (linux bitmap)/Bm437_IBM_DOS_ISO9.otb" /usr/share/fonts sudo cp "/home/thammond/Downloads/ttf - Mx (mixed outline+bitmap)/Mx437_IBM_DOS_ISO9.ttf" /usr/share/fonts sudo cp "/home/thammond/Downloads/ttf - Px (pixel outline)/Px437_IBM_DOS_ISO9.ttf" /usr/share/fonts

5. Update the font cache.

sudo fc-cache -f /usr/share/fonts/

Open Dyslexic

1. Extract them to ~/Downloads
2. cd ~/Downloads
3. unzip "OpenDyslexic2 Alt*.zip" -d openDyslexic2_alt_a
4. unzip "OpenDyslexic2 (Windows*.zip" -d openDyslexic2
5. unzip "OpenDyslexic Mono*.zip" -d openDyslexic_mono
6. Copy the files you want to: /usr/share/fonts

sudo cp /home/thammond/Downloads/openDyslexic2/OpenDyslexic-*.otf /usr/share/fonts sudo cp /home/thammond/Downloads/openDyslexic2_alt_a/OpenDyslexicAlta-*.otf /usr/share/fonts sudo cp /home/thammond/Downloads/openDyslexic_mono/OpenDyslexicMono-Regular.otf /usr/share/fonts

7. Update the font cache.

sudo fc-cache -f /usr/share/fonts/