Hello,
Very new to Rocky Linux (and Red Hat/CentOS, gnome, xfce, xfwm).
I followed this guide to create a minimal Rocky installation, followed by this guide to install the xfce desktop (this brought in a bunch of gnome dependencies).
All went well, but I’m having trouble locating the appropriate configuration files for the window manager. It is not clear whether I am running xfce or gnome (or what the relationship is between the two).
My immediate goal is to use my current setup, but have windows display a “Hide” (minimize) button. (Right now, they only display a “Close” button.)
This guide has some suggestions for configuring xfwm4 [note: xfwm4 ver = 4.16.1], but…
- There is no .themes folder in my home folder
- There are no xfwm configuration files in my home directory (even under .config)
- There is a config file located at /usr/share/xfwm4/defaults
… which contains the line…
button_layout=O|SHMC
… which I intepret to mean that the window title bar should display an Option button on the left side of the window, a title bar in the middle of the window, and Shade, Hide, Maximize, and Close buttons on the right side. The only things that appear on my windows are the title and the close button. So apparently, this is not the correct configuration file.
$ dnf list --installed | grep xfce
--------------------------------------
libxfce4ui
libxfce4util
xfce-polkit
xfce4-appfinder
xfce4-panel
xfce4-power-manager
xfce4-pulseaudio-plugin
xfce4-screensaver
xfce4-session
xfce4-settings
xfce4-terminal
$ dnf list --installed | grep gnome
------------------------------------------
gnome-bluetooth
gnome-bluetooth-libs
gnome-control-center
gnome-control-center-filesystem
gnome-desktop3
gnome-keyring
gnome-keyring.pam
gnome-menus
gnome-online-accounts
gnome-session
gnome-session-wayland-session
gnome-session-xsession
gnome-settings-daemon
gnome-shell
gnome-themes-standard
libgnomekbd
This forum thread suggests that my problem might be a “feature” of gnome and that I’m not running xfce at all.
$ ehco $GNOME_SHELL_SESSION_MODE
$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
gnome-custom-session
$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
x11
From the LightDM login screen I have the option to select:
- Custom
- Standard (Wayland display server)
- Standard (Wayland display server)
- Standard (X11 display server) [not selectable]
- Standard (X11 display server)
- Xfce Session
“Custom” is selected, by default.
If I select “Xfce Session”, I see a “traditional” desktop with desktop icons, an application launcher, taskbar, etc. (Also, the button layout matches the above configuration file.) All of the other options display a more streamlined desktop with no desktop icons and a single bar at the top of the screen showing: “Activities” a clock/message area, and a simple status area.
Does this mean I’m running gnome? And if so, how do I configure the windows manager to show a Hide button?
Or… is this a non-editable “feature” of gnome?
Cheers,