Xfce Forum

random

Member

Registered: 2024-09-05

Posts: 1

Testing and Developing XFCE on Ubuntu?

I've been wanting to get into WM/DE development, and I was wondering how I would go about testing XFCE. I've read the build from source instructions (https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/building), but I couldn't find any resources on how to test (i.e., change something, see it reflected in an environment?) XFCE without rebuilding it from source (and using it as my main WM). Are there any options for running it in QEMU or Docker? I'm on an M2 Macbook (Sonoma 14.6.1), with Ubuntu 22 running in UTM (Linux ubuntu 5.15.0-119-generic). I tried xfce-test (https://github.com/schuellerf/xfce-test), but had issues (I can post the logs if necessary, but it seems that the X11 server is running already? Even if I kill all processes and remove the lockfiles...) with it.

Any resources would be appreciated!

decadenza

Member

Registered: 2026-03-10

Posts: 1

Re: Testing and Developing XFCE on Ubuntu?

Similarly here in 2026. I'm trying to find a way to setup a development environment without touching my stable system.
Currently I am trying to build the latest thunar in isolation. Docker is notoriously messy with graphical forwarding.
It would be amazing to have a guide for this.

Current XFCE developers must do this every day. Or do they use a completely separate machine? Any help much appreciated.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,537

Re: Testing and Developing XFCE on Ubuntu?

There is this official docker guide.

Every developer does it slightly differently and most don't visit here. I have two separate test instances, one running on a libvirtd container on my main system and one on an old laptop (so I can test hardware-specific functionality).

---

Mark solved threads as [SOLVED] to make it easier for others to find solutions.
--- How To Ask For Help | FAQ | Developer Wiki  |  Community | Contribute ---