Xfce Forum

DavidS

Member

Registered: 2024-04-28

Posts: 4

[SOLVED] Persistent workspace grid

I have just changed to the xfce4 version of Debian 12, having used various versions of Ubuntu for many years.

The most recent OS I had was xubuntu, which also uses xfce4.  I kept my /home folder intact when installing Debian, so as I expected most of my desktop setup was preserved.

I like to have 6 workspaces arranged in 2 columns and 3 rows.  In xubuntu, having set up 6 workspaces I then added the command
'xprop -root -f _NET_DESKTOP_LAYOUT 32cccc -set _NET_DESKTOP_LAYOUT 0,2,3,0'
to my .profile file, and this meant that I got the required grid of workspaces each time I logged in.

The above 'xprop' command works just the same on Debian when issued on the command line.  But the line in .profile isn't being executed, it seems, so I have to reissue the command manually after each new login.

How can I get the workspace grid layout automatically set up at each log-in?

Last edited by DavidS (2024-04-28 20:11:16)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,079

Re: [SOLVED] Persistent workspace grid

Hello and welcome.

It depends on your shell. If you are using bash, the from "man bash":

       When bash is invoked as an interactive login shell, or as a non-interac‐
       tive shell with the --login option, it first reads and executes commands
       from the file /etc/profile, if that file  exists.   After  reading  that
       file,  it  looks  for ~/.bash_profile, ~/.bash_login, and ~/.profile, in
       that order, and reads and executes commands from the first one that  ex‐
       ists and is readable.  The --noprofile option may be used when the shell
       is started to inhibit this behavior.

However, why not just put the command in Settings Manager > Session and Startup > Application Autostart so that Xfce executes it every login?

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DavidS

Member

Registered: 2024-04-28

Posts: 4

Re: [SOLVED] Persistent workspace grid

Thank you for your reply.  I had thought of simply using Autostart as you suggested, and that is what I have now done.

I still don't understand why the .profile file worked in xubuntu but not in Debian.  In the light of the extract of the 'man bash' output, I tried putting the command in .bash_profile, but that didn't work either.  I don't understand why there is this difference in behaviour between the 2 systems, but it is no longer of great importance.