How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

EboniLM · 2017-06-03 00:50:19

I've been Googling this like crazy, but I have only found outdated instructions. The main thing I keep coming across is to enable drop-shadow under the Compositor tab in Window Manager Tweaks. The problem is, i do not have a Compositor tab in Window Manager Tweaks.

My Window Manager Tweak tabs are: Cycling - Focus - Accesibility - Workspaces - Placement

Can someone here help me add a drop shadow to my panel?

ToZ · 2017-06-03 01:21:07

Hello and welcome.

Which distro and which version of Xfce are you running?

Can you post back the results of the following commands:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -lv

ps -ef | grep xfwm

xfwm4 -V

Also, can you run:

xfwm4-tweaks-settings

...in a terminal window and post back what messages display in the terminal window?

EboniLM · 2017-06-03 02:03:19

Hello and thank you for your response.

here are the outputs of each command:

xfconf-query -c xfwm4 -lv

/general/activate_action bring
/general/borderless_maximize true
/general/box_move false
/general/box_resize false
/general/button_layout |HMC
/general/button_offset 0
/general/button_spacing 0
/general/click_to_focus true
/general/cycle_apps_only false
/general/cycle_draw_frame true
/general/cycle_hidden true
/general/cycle_minimum true
/general/cycle_preview true
/general/cycle_tabwin_mode 0
/general/cycle_workspaces false
/general/double_click_action maximize
/general/double_click_distance 5
/general/double_click_time 250
/general/easy_click Alt
/general/focus_delay 250
/general/focus_hint true
/general/focus_new true
/general/frame_opacity 100
/general/full_width_title true
/general/horiz_scroll_opacity false
/general/inactive_opacity 100
/general/maximized_offset 0
/general/mousewheel_rollup true
/general/move_opacity 100
/general/placement_mode center
/general/placement_ratio 20
/general/popup_opacity 100
/general/prevent_focus_stealing false
/general/raise_delay 250
/general/raise_on_click true
/general/raise_on_focus false
/general/raise_with_any_button true
/general/repeat_urgent_blink false
/general/resize_opacity 100
/general/scroll_workspaces false
/general/shadow_delta_height 0
/general/shadow_delta_width 0
/general/shadow_delta_x 0
/general/shadow_delta_y -3
/general/shadow_opacity 50
/general/show_app_icon false
/general/show_dock_shadow true
/general/show_frame_shadow true
/general/show_popup_shadow false
/general/snap_resist false
/general/snap_to_border true
/general/snap_to_windows false
/general/snap_width 10
/general/sync_to_vblank false
/general/theme Agualemon
/general/tile_on_move true
/general/title_alignment left
/general/title_font TakaoPGothic 10
/general/title_horizontal_offset 0
/general/titleless_maximize false
/general/title_shadow_active false
/general/title_shadow_inactive false
/general/title_vertical_offset_active 0
/general/title_vertical_offset_inactive 0
/general/toggle_workspaces false
/general/unredirect_overlays true
/general/urgent_blink true
/general/use_compositing true
/general/workspace_count 3
/general/workspace_names <<UNSUPPORTED>>
/general/wrap_cycle false
/general/wrap_layout false
/general/wrap_resistance 38
/general/wrap_windows true
/general/wrap_workspaces false
/general/zoom_desktop true

ps -ef | grep xfwm

xxxxx 1426 1364 0 12:01 ? 00:00:44 xfwm4
xxxxx 13708 1581 0 19:48 ? 00:00:00 xfwm4-tweaks-settings
xxxxx 23242 23189 0 20:52 pts/2 00:00:00 grep --color=auto xfwm

xfwm4 -V

This is xfwm4 version 4.12.3 (revision 7fdcb53) for Xfce 4.12
Released under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Compiled against GTK+-2.24.30, using GTK+-2.24.30.
Build configuration and supported features:
- Startup notification support: Yes
- XSync support: Yes
- Render support: Yes
- Xrandr support: Yes
- Embedded compositor: No
- KDE systray proxy (deprecated): No

xfwm4-tweaks-settings

This only opened Window Manager Tweaks, no terminal outputs.

ToZ · 2017-06-03 02:18:19

- Embedded compositor: No

Your version of xfwm4 was built without compositor support. Which distro are you running? Did you build the package yourself? If so, make sure you "--enable-compositor" in your config/autogen script.

EboniLM · 2017-06-03 02:32:48

I am running Gallium OS, it uses Xubuntu as its base.

I did not build the package myself.

ToZ · 2017-06-03 02:43:36

It looks like they add patches to the xfwm4 source (that would make it not the xubuntu version of xfwm4). I can't seem to find their build logs anywhere. Perhaps you can ask on their support boards why the compositor is disabled in the build?

EDIT: There it is. They hide the compositor tab on purpose (and probably disabling the compositor in the build).

Edit2: And they disable the compositor during build. Only they would be able to tell you why they do that.

Final Edit: This might be of interest. Looks like they currently use compton as the compositor.

EboniLM · 2017-06-03 03:02:03

Wow, that is really strange...

Would reinstalling the package re-enable the compositor?

ToZ · 2017-06-03 03:45:58

EboniLM wrote:

Wow, that is really strange...
Would reinstalling the package re-enable the compositor?

No. You need to build the package from source with the compositor enabled. However, it appears that galliumOS uses compton for compositing. Perhaps you can configure it to give you the effects that you want. I've never used compton, but here is the Arch wiki page on compton that has info about the configuration parameters.

EboniLM · 2017-06-03 03:47:19

Yes, I just came here to respond that it appears that Compton is used as the compositor for GalliumOS. I will use that to configure my panel, Thank you so much for your time and help!

MountainDewManiac · 2017-06-03 21:24:10

Is there any way for him to simply download and install (from a third party, perhaps a PPA) a version of Xfwm that does not use a third-party compositor, perhaps giving that source highest priority so that it was used regardless of actual version numbers? Or would that open up an entire can of worms that simply compiling it himself wouldn't?

Regards,
MDM

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#1 2017-06-03 00:50:19

How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#2 2017-06-03 01:21:07

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#3 2017-06-03 02:03:19

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#4 2017-06-03 02:18:19

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#5 2017-06-03 02:32:48

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#6 2017-06-03 02:43:36

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#7 2017-06-03 03:02:03

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#8 2017-06-03 03:45:58

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#9 2017-06-03 03:47:19

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

#10 2017-06-03 21:24:10

Re: How to Enable Drop Shadow on xfce4-panel?

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