Xfce Forum

gdesilva

Member

Registered: 2018-07-10

Posts: 3

[Solved] Compiz woes

Hi, I am using Ubuntu Studio 18.04/xfce desktop. No problems at all with the xfce itself but if I run Compiz as the WM my themes get all screwed up. I tried to force Compiz to use a metacity theme by specifying the window decorator command 'gtk-window-decorator --metacity-theme <Theme name>'. In some cases the theme colors are preserved but the window buttons go back to default style or in some cases only the Window Close button is shown.

I understand that this is not a problem with xfce but one with the way gtk-window-decorator handles the themes.

I would appreciate if anyone can give me some pointers either to solve this problem or to work around it.

Many thanks!

Last edited by gdesilva (2018-07-14 07:01:15)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,492

Re: [Solved] Compiz woes

Hello and welcome.

If you don't get a reply, you might want to ask at your distro's forums. Compiz isn't an Xfce component and I'm not sure if the expertise exists here.

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gdesilva

Member

Registered: 2018-07-10

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Compiz woes

@ToZ, thanks very much for the response. I guessed this would be a likely scenario but thought of trying it out anyway. Tried to post the issue on Compiz forum (which probably is the most logical place) but it is riddled with spammers so thought of keeping away from it! As you know Ubuntu now has Gnome DE and UbuntuStudio which I am running has the Xfce DE so unlikely I will get much help there either. I have stopped using Compiz until I resolve this issue and if I do, I will certainly post the solution here.

gdesilva

Member

Registered: 2018-07-10

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Compiz woes

As it turns out gtk-window-decorator used by the decor module in Compiz, only uses metacity themes and if any other themes are in use, gtk-window-decorator uses its own defaults - which are not very nice.

So the solution is to pick a metacity theme and specify it as 'gtk-window-decorator --metacity-theme <theme name>' when configuring the decor module or alternatively manually invoke it from cli. If the buttons do not get displayed correctly then use 'gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout "menu:minimize,maximize,close" (thanks to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vULUByYRSUg )