Manjaro #3: XFCE desktop

ArchLinux: customizing the XFCE desktop

XFCE Vertex light GTK theme / Tilix terminal

See also:

• Manjaro #1: dual boot Windows10
• Manjaro #2: system and drivers

Compton window compositor

Change the default XFCE compositor for Compton [optional / if tearing issue]

• Deactivate the Compositor in “Window Manager Tweaks” (last tab)
• Install Compton and open the configuration file:

> sudo pacman -S compton
> mousepad ~/.config/compton.conf

• Modify the values for transparency and shadow, and add the following parameter to avoid any shadow issues while running GTK3 apps : shadow-exclude = [ "_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c" ]
• Test the settings by launching compton: compton -b
• Add the same command to your application list in “Session and Startup” in order to launch Compton at login.

Suppress tearing

This method works for an Intel / Nvidia dual GPU with latest no-free drivers. Add the following lines to your config files:

Intel config file:

> sudo mousepad /etc/X11/mhwd.d/intel.conf
[...]
Section “Device”
  Identifier “Device0”
  Driver “intel”
   BusID “PCI:0:2:0”
  Option “AccelMethod” “sna”
  Option “DRI” “true”
  Option “TearFree” “true”
EndSection
[...]

Nvidia config file:

> sudo mousepad /etc/bumblebee/xorg.conf.nvidia
Section “Device”
  Identifier “Device1”
  Driver “nvidia”
  VendorName “NVIDIA Corporation”
  Option “NoLogo” “true”
  Option “UseEDID” “false”
  Option “ConnectedMonitor” “DFP”
  Option “metamodes” “nvidia-auto-select +0+0 { ForceFullCompositionPipeline = On }”
  Option “AccelMethod” “uxa”
EndSection

Compton config file [optional / if using Compton]:

> sudo mousepad .config/compton.conf
# Backend GLX
backend = “glx”;
glx-no-stencil = true;
glx-copy-from-front = false;
glx-swap-method = “buffer-age”;
vsync = “opengl-swc”;
sw-opti = false;
# Shadows
clear-shadow = true;
shadow-ignore-shaped = false;

Reboot.

Clearlooks GTK / Greybird Xfwm / Compton

Terminal

Customizing .bashrc with a better PS1

PS1=’${debian_chroot:+($debian_chroot)}\[\033[01;32m\] [\A] \[\033[01;97m\]\u\[\033[01;34m\] \w \[\033[01;32m\] >\[\033[00m\] ‘

Create a nice Neofetch display

> sudo pacman -S neofetch w3m
> mousepad .config/neofetch/config.conf

Use w3m to display a image rather than the distribution logo, and call it with an alias in .bashrc:

alias neo='neofetch --w3m --source ~/mdk.jpg -s'

Neotfetch

Softwares

• File Manager: Thunar, SpaceFM
• Music: Quod Libet / Ex Falso (tags) / Rhythmbox
• Office: LibreOffice 6
• Image manipulation: Gimp, Gpick, ImageMagick
• Photos viewer: Ristretto
• Light dimmer: Redshift
• Terminal info: Neofetch
• Virtualization : KVM

Arc theme

XFCE Evolution Graphite theme