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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Workspaces in xfce4

Hi guys,
So I've seen in the forum that what I am trying to achive might still not be possible (https://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=9319).

What I wan't to do is to have 2 monitors (laptop is the secondary and the bigger one is the primary) and be on the workspace 1 with stuff about work and when change to workspace 2 only the primary monitor changes so this way I would still see whats in the workspace 1 on the laptop side.

Is this still not achivable?
Are there any plans to do this?

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Its not currently possible and doesn't look like much activity on the feature request.

One way to mimic this effect is make all the applications on the laptop "sticky" (Always on Visible Workspace) so that when you traverse workspaces, the same content is always visible on the laptop.

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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Its not currently possible and doesn't look like much activity on the feature request.

One way to mimic this effect is make all the applications on the laptop "sticky" (Always on Visible Workspace) so that when you traverse workspaces, the same content is always visible on the laptop.

Thanks for the reply.
I remember you used a tool called devilspie for make specific program windows always sticky right?
Do you still use it?

My use case is (when turning on the laptop (that is attached to an external monitor)):
- Use some type of profile that opens my work programs and attach the Sticky flag on a few of those

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Yes devilspie could do that. I do use it on one of my systems. If its always the same applications, devilspie can set the sticky bit on those applications. Do you need assistance setting up devilspie?

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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Yes devilspie could do that. I do use it on one of my systems. If its always the same applications, devilspie can set the sticky bit on those applications. Do you need assistance setting up devilspie?

Yes please.
I want to sticky 4 apps (signal, gnome-hamster, brave and thunderbird)

Btw do you know any way to load all these 4 apps, something like a profile thing?
Lets say I turn on my work laptop and I will work as a regular day, I want to open those 4 apps on the laptop monitor and stick those in there and the rest of the applications will be placed in workspaces in the external monitor.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

First, lets see what devilspie says about each of those apps. Start devlispie in debug mode in a terminal window:

devilspie -d

...open each application one at a time, and post back the devilspie output for each.

Btw do you know any way to load all these 4 apps, something like a profile thing?
Lets say I turn on my work laptop and I will work as a regular day, I want to open those 4 apps on the laptop monitor and stick those in there and the rest of the applications will be placed in workspaces in the external monitor.

Will there be a situation where you won't have the external monitor and you don't want those 4 applications stickied?

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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

First, lets see what devilspie says about each of those apps. Start devlispie in debug mode in a terminal window:

devilspie -d

...open each application one at a time, and post back the devilspie output for each.

Btw do you know any way to load all these 4 apps, something like a profile thing?
Lets say I turn on my work laptop and I will work as a regular day, I want to open those 4 apps on the laptop monitor and stick those in there and the rest of the applications will be placed in workspaces in the external monitor.

Will there be a situation where you won't have the external monitor and you don't want those 4 applications stickied?

I got the following error

Devil's Pie 0.23 starting...
Loading /etc/devilspie
/etc/devilspie doesn't exist
Loading /home/brun0/.devilspie
0 s-expressions loaded.
No s-expressions loaded, quiting

And by reading google looks like people are using devilspie2 now since devilspie isn't maintaned anymore?

Will there be a situation where you won't have the external monitor and you don't want those 4 applications stickied?

Yes sometimes If i am working on site i don't have an external monitor

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Interesting that you're missing the default debug file that is shipped with the package. Create the file /home/brun0/.devilspie/debug.ds with the following content:

(debug)

...then again run:

devilspie -d

Yes devilspie2 exists, but I still use the original devilspie and it works well.

Yes sometimes If i am working on site i don't have an external monitor

Do you still want those 4 applications stickied in this instance?

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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Interesting that you're missing the default debug file that is shipped with the package. Create the file /home/brun0/.devilspie/debug.ds with the following content:

(debug)

...then again run:

devilspie -d

Yes devilspie2 exists, but I still use the original devilspie and it works well.

Window Title: 'Signal'; Application Name: 'Signal'; Class: 'Signal'; Geometry: 1920x1026+-15+-15
Window Title: 'Mozilla Thunderbird'; Application Name: 'Thunderbird'; Class: 'thunderbird'; Geometry: 960x749+-15+-15
Window Title: 'Hamster'; Application Name: 'Hamster'; Class: 'Hamster'; Geometry: 1920x1026+0+26
Window Title: 'Mozilla Firefox'; Application Name: 'Firefox'; Class: 'Firefox-esr'; Geometry: 1920x1080+0+0

Do you still want those 4 applications stickied in this instance?

Yes they can be sticked and Ill keep using other workspaces instead

Last edited by zebisnaga (2023-06-16 14:59:02)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 11,485

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

You can create 4 files in /home/brun0/.devilspie:

• signal.ds

  (if
      (is (window_class) "Signal")
      (pin "TRUE")
  )

• thunderbird.ds

  (if
      (is (window_class) "thunderbird")
      (pin "TRUE")
  )

• hamster.ds

  (if
      (is (window_class) "Hamster")
      (pin "TRUE")
  )

• firefox.ds

  (if
      (is (window_class) "Firefox-esr")
      (pin "TRUE")
  )

Then add devilspie to your autostart (Settings Manager > Session and Startup > Application Autostart) and log out and in again. With devilspie running, when you start either four of those applications they should be pinned to every workstation.

---

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zebisnaga

Member

Registered: 2022-12-30

Posts: 38

Re: Workspaces in xfce4

Thank you ToZ