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fant

Member

Registered: 2020-10-07

Posts: 21

xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

Hi,

my keyboard shortcuts for arranging windows in Xfce 4.18 and earlier versions:
Arrange left: SUPER+left
Arrange right: SUPER+right
To open whiskermenu with only SUPER I used xcape.
Works as intended.

Now since xfce 4.20, xcape is no longer required to open Whisker with just SUPER. Which is great.
BUT SUPER does not work with the arrow keys to tile windows to the left, right, top, bottom, or corners.

I prefer to use SUPER (= Windows) to arrange windows and my brain is hard mapped to it 
It could be restored if using xcape again... but I wonder why this is not working without such a tweak.
Now I have to use ALT instead... but I don't want to.

Do you experience the same?
Is this intentional or is it a “bug”?

Thanks for reading. Looking forward to your answer 

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,252

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

See: https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/xfwm4/-/issues/571.

Go to Settings Manager > Window Manager > Keyboard, and make sure the shortcut points to Super+Right/Left and not the keypad versions.

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fant

Member

Registered: 2020-10-07

Posts: 21

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

ToZ, thanks a lot.

I reassigned the shortcuts to the "normal" left+right arrow ... because I have no number-keypad (laptop).

xfconf-query -c xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts -lv results in:

custom:
/xfwm4/custom/<Super>Left                    tile_left_key
/xfwm4/custom/<Super>Right                   tile_right_key

default:
/xfwm4/default/<Super>KP_Left              tile_left_key
/xfwm4/default/<Super>KP_Right             tile_right_key

I removed the values in default, but does not help even after restart.

As described in the provided link, only changing the mapping for the whiskermenue (for example SUPER+a) will allow tiling as I intended.
Strangly <super>+(some letter), like <super>+t for opening the terminal works, even if <super> only is assigned to whiskermenu.
Then, why not with the arrows?
Will/Can this be fixed?

Another solution would be to use xcape again, thus <super> only is not assigned to whiskermenu.
Unfortunately it's not so snappy. I expirence a short delay from keypress to the opening of whisker. Let's say 250 to 500 ms.
Hm, I thought we can get rid of xcape 

Last edited by fant (2025-09-22 09:46:35)

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,252

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

Don't make the changes directly to that file. Instead, change the mappings in the Settings Manager > Window Manager > Keyboard GUI. When I do this, the change survives a reboot.

If you directly edit the file while Xfce is running (or rather the xfconfd process), they will get overwritten/neglected.

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fant

Member

Registered: 2020-10-07

Posts: 21

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

probably I can't see the forest for the trees... 

I haven't changed it in the settings editor nor in the .config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts.xml

I had changed it in the Settings Manager > Window Manager > Keyboard GUI

But, when I assign xfce4-whiskermenu-plugin to <super> the tiling with arrow keys (not keypad) stops working.

I also tested it in a fresh VM installation.

ToZ

Administrator

From: Canada

Registered: 2011-06-02

Posts: 12,252

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

Sorry, I wasn't testing with the whiskermenu on just Super key. Now I can replicate the problem. It might be worthwhile creating a bug report here to bring more attention to it.

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fant

Member

Registered: 2020-10-07

Posts: 21

Re: xfce 4.20 - tiling windows with super

Done.
https://gitlab.xfce.org/xfce/libxfce4ui/-/issues/136

Thanks ToZ. 👍

Added later 20 h 44 min 18 s:
Just to let everybody know, please find the answer to my bug report below:

Yes, this is a known limitation, there is nothing we can do about it. If the Super key is used alone as an application shortcut, it is grabbed by libxfce4ui and can no longer be used by xfwm4. To avoid this, the definition of global shortcuts would need to be centralized either in libxfce4ui or in xfwm4, but this is unlikely to happen on X11.
We can leave this issue open though, as documentation of the problem.

Thus, I have to rewire my brain