Xfce Forum

tinyclave

Member

Registered: 2011-08-17

Posts: 4

Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

Hi, I am trying to create a keyboard shortcut (super key) so that when I press it the autohid xfce4 panel becomes active and unhides. Could someone please tell me the command that I need to bind with the super key shortcut to achieve this effect? Also, can I create this keybinding in settings > keyboard shortcuts area?

Thanks for your time!

Last edited by tinyclave (2011-08-18 18:06:31)

angstrom

Member

Registered: 2011-08-13

Posts: 267

Re: Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

Can you try those command in a terminal ?

xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-0/autohide -s false
xfconf-query -c xfce4-panel -p /panels/panel-0/autohide -s true

Normally, on 4.8, it will raise the panel, then hide it.

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Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

tinyclave

Member

Registered: 2011-08-17

Posts: 4

Re: Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

Thanks very much for your reply, angstrom. On trying the commands you suggested, I get this response from the terminal:

Property "/panels/panel-0/autohide" does not exist on channel "xfce4-panel".  
If a new property should be created, use the --create option.

If I type xconf-query, I get

Channels:
  xfwm4
  xfce4-settings-manager
  xfce4-power-manager
  xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts
  displays
  xfce4-mixer
  xfce4-session
  xfce4-appfinder
  xsettings
  xfce4-desktop

So there is no channel called "xfce4-panel"  there. How do I get around this? What and how do I create that reference to the xfce4-panel?

I looked at this page on xconf-query: http://wiki.xfce.org/settings4.6#panel  and it says

As Xfconf won't list any unset properties on a channel, it is needed to grep the source. This means downloading a project – cf. http://git.xfce.org/ –, and use commands like ”grep xfconf_channel_set *.c.”

From the git link I got to this page: http://git.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-panel/tr … edb77401f8

But I am not quite sure how to proceed from there, especially for my purpose. Any guidance would be really welcome! Thanks for your patience!

Last edited by tinyclave (2011-08-18 18:36:18)

angstrom

Member

Registered: 2011-08-13

Posts: 267

Re: Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

I'm afraid that the old xfce4-panel (for Xfce 4.6) does not interact with xfconf-query ...

When I had 4.6, I searched and tried to make the panel raise from command line (the final aim was to show panel when switching desktop, old habit from kde3.5 ...)  but it was always a dead end ...

Try to ask on the xfce-dev mailing list

Have you consider upgrading to 4.8 ? Normally the migration is fine. Although, I got some problem with the menu ...

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Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...

tinyclave

Member

Registered: 2011-08-17

Posts: 4

Re: Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

Have you consider upgrading to 4.8 ?

Actually, I migrated back from 4.8 to 4.6 because I felt 4.6 was nicer in many ways and had a more complete panel and menu options than 4.8. Unfortunately the simple problem of auto-unhiding the xfce4 panel with a single button has turned so very complex. I spent around an hour reading the specs for xconf-query yesterday. It sounds like it could work if only I could understand how to change its properties etc. I am now wondering how they have implemented this in 4.8.

I joined the development list but have thus far been slightly intimidated with the idea of emailing it... Do you know if they have a forum like this somewhere or if the xfce developers even watch this forum?

angstrom

Member

Registered: 2011-08-13

Posts: 267

Re: Command for activating/unhiding xfce panel (4.6)

I spent around an hour reading the specs for xconf-query

I was on that road ;-p

The panel 4.8 interact with xfconf. So when xfconf modify the autohide setting, the panel acknowledge the change and update his state. On the 4.6, there is no code about xfconf. If I remember well, the only moment where the panel check the autohide parameter, in the configuration file, is when it start and when the Panel properties windows is activated ... So even if you set manually (with vi for example) the autohide to false in the panel configuration file, the panel will not update his state ... unless you restart it ? (I cannot test it now  because I migrated to 4.8 ...)

Do you know if they have a forum like this somewhere or if the xfce developers even watch this forum?

I don't think that exists. There is a tone of new thread per week on the forum. I don't think that the developers have time to take a look, or may be not every day ... plus, you will need the panel specific dev one ... On the mailing list, they may have daily or instant alert of new message.
As I understand, the forum is "user help user". But when no user can help ... your last hope will be the developers :-)

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Xfce is NOT Xubuntu. Bugs in Xubuntu don't mean that Xfce is buggy ...