When I use switch program key, it causes to windows of program to move relative to each other. Like I have 2 brave windows (#1 and #2) and 2 alacritty terminals (#3 and #4) open, If i have windows 2 and 4 minimized and just use this key to switch form brave (1) to alacritty (3) it is going to bring up widows 2 and 4 up. basically it cycles through windows in each program each time it passes a program. I just want to jump from on non minimized window to another with out messing with other things. Is there a way to do that? Is this a bug or I just misunderstanding how this function supposed to work?
I don’t know what you mean by “switch program key”, the usual keybinding to jump from one app/window to another is Alt+TAB or Super+TAB to switch from one window to another within the same app.
The Super + Tab one. Its name in Window Manager settings is switch program.
My bad, I didn’t remember it was named like this.
If the active window is brave, it will switch between both brave windows, if the active window is alacritty, it will switch between both alacritty windows.
If you use a desktop environment like XFCE, then you probably don’t have keybindings that allow you to switch focus to specific windows. The only way that I know of is to use the Alt + Tab key to cycle through your windows, which can be a pain if you have, like, 20 windows open in one session.
If you want that feature in XFCE, I’m afraid you only have two options:
- Use a third-party tool
- Write your own scripts to do that and add keybindings to launch those scripts (this can be done in XFCE via
xfce4-settings-manager; see this article https://www.addictivetips.com/ubuntu-linux-tips/customize-keyboard-shortcuts-on-the-xfce4/)
The custom scripts shouldn’t be too difficult to write, but it does take some work. Let’s say you want a keybinding that allows you to switch to a Firefox window. Inside the script, you can use something like xdotool to get the windowid of Firefox and then switch focus to the window. You can read more about xdotool here: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/trusty/man1/xdotool.1.html
Once you have created the script and made it executable, simply add a keybinding to launch that script.
To be honest, you’re better off using a tiling window manager (i3, bspwm, dwm, etc.) if you want this feature; it’s much easier to set up.
The thing is that , I don’t want to switch to an specific window I want to switch between windows of different programs. Yeah I think using a script is the best solution, I was hoping to find a already made one. I am using one already to send windows between monitors and it is not very good one. XFCE is not bad but the window manager is the part that most annoys me. I am thought about using a different window manager but I am not sure how to do it and if it is going to mess with XFCE as it is the DE after all. I don’t use desktop at all . I use run launcher to open programs. So I don’t mind to use a more basic wm. I thought about using dwm , but sockless programs are a bit hard to use. So I am not sure what should I do. I just don’t want to break the system somehow right now and want to just keep it functional.
You can try i3. It’s extremely easy to use and is very well-documented.
I tried to play with xdo but it is a bit hard to figure out how wm works in linux. I think I have xdotool already and using some other features of it. But never considered writing a script it to do window managing. I may play more with it to see if can do such a thing. What I want to do is so simple.
Then what happens to xfce wm? should I delete it? Is there going to be any conflict?
So if you have two Thunar windows and 4 firefox windows open, ALT + TAB will cycle through each window, but that’s not what you want; you want the keybiding to cycle between the programs. Am I understanding this correctly?
Exactly, I want to have multiple instances of programs minimized but have only one instance of each active/visible and jump between those open instances with a hotkey.
I seem to remember there being a setting to do this when I was using XFCE. Can you go to Settings → Window Manager and scroll down to look for “Switch Application” under the keyboard tab?
This can be done if memory serves me right.
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Look in Windows Manager settings (and advanced IIRC), in XFCE settings utility. There are several configuration settings that might do what you want.
Yes there is a key for that, as I tried to explain in the OP It changes the top window everytime it switches to an app.
Thanks the settings are interesting, I somehow missed this setting, but none of them looks to do what I want to do unfortunately.
Also is there a way to install a dark theme for Thunar? I am looking at this page but don’t see anything related to theme
https://docs.xfce.org/xfce/thunar/start#thunar_plugins
There are in fact 3 themes, one for the window manager in Settings–>Window Manager, one for the desktop Settings–>Appearance and one for the icons Settings–>Appearance.
I think the best way is to search on :
and then search if there is a theme package in the AUR.
The first two I have already set to Arch-Darker theme, which I think only effect head of windows and stuff like that. The other sites I think are just icons? Right? I want the background color of thunar changes.
I already checked both pacman and yay. There are some plugins for Thuanr but nothing theme or color related as far as I can tell.
Not for icons but for the desktop (GTK) and the window manager (Xfwm).
When I installed Endeavour there was Qogir-dark if I remember and you should also have Libadwaita-dark.
You can try nordic-darker-theme, dracula-gtk-theme or sweet-gtk-theme-dark for example (packages are in the AUR).
Edit: once installed you’ll see them in the list in Appearance
So some themes can effect more component of DE and apps (including) Thunar and some can not , and even tho I have chosen a dark theme it is not making thunar background dark for this reason, right?