Xfce Forum

tucker

Member

Registered: 2014-01-06

Posts: 3

[Solved] Re-size workspace?

I installed Ubuntu 13.10 desktop, and then I installed xfce 4.10. I was trying for 4.10.1, but I will figure that out later, along with how to make it the default

My immediate issue is how to resize the workspace - it appears to be much bigger, almost twice as wide, as the montor on my T400 laptop (14"). I liek the resolution, icons small, but I can open up a browser, for instance, and drag it to the right where it disappears off the screen, and is not in the second workspace yet.

It shows 4 space in the horizontal bar in the upper right, which I think is the "Workspace Switcher"(?)

I went in there and tried properties, tried cutting down the margin and that was horrible, and I don't think it is my answer.

Can you tell me what file it gets the size from, please, or how I might otherwise resize the space? I have looked around lightdm, I don't have an xorg.conf file.

Thank you, and thank you to the devs and others. I like this much better than the othe desktops.

ozjd

Member

From: Hawkesbury NSW Australia

Registered: 2012-02-05

Posts: 560

Website

Re: [Solved] Re-size workspace?

In settings select Display and set the correct resolution there.

tucker

Member

Registered: 2014-01-06

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Re-size workspace?

Thank you, but that only changes the desktop resolution. The size of the Workspace stays the same - though the icons are much easier to see

MountainDewManiac

Member

From: Where Mr. Bankruptcy is Prez

Registered: 2013-03-24

Posts: 1,115

Re: [Solved] Re-size workspace?

For your secondary question, I'd add the XFCE 4.10 & 4.12 PPAs; I think the 4.10.1 (and shouldn't that be 4.10.01? I never can figure out what version number a Linux developer will use next, it's like they're generally intelligent, otherwise, but then I'll look at version numbers and picture someone who, after counting the number of digits on one hand and then counting the number of digits on their other hand separately... then has to remove their shoes and use their toes to calculate the answer to the question of how many digits they have on both hands combined - and still gets the answer wrong)...

Anyway, I think those updates will be installed after you add the PPAs. Or maybe they'll be up to 4.11, IDK. But they seem to be the newest versions of XFCE stuff that are available, and they've not caused any issues on the dozen or more computers of friends/family that I more or less support. And those are all running Mint, lol, so I'd expect those meant-for-Ubuntu PPAs to be at least as safe on an actual Ubuntu distro.

You might get newer versions faster if you want to download source files and compile them yourself. But I subscribe to a couple of the XFCE email lists and see the announcements of new versions and (I think) the compiled files hit those PPAs very soon afterwards, so it probably won't save you more than a week or so of wait-time. And I'd guess that time gives me a little safety net, based on my assumption that at least a few people immediately download, compile, and install the new files when they come out, and would reply on the list about any issues that followed. <SHRUGS>    Have had them in my sources list for, IDK, close to a year, haven't seen any problems or received any calls to come deal with anyone else's. YMMV, of course. Just remember to add the 4.10 before the 4.12, as pier directions on the PPA pages.

Regards,
MDM

---

Mountain Dew Maniac

How to Ask for Help <=== Click on this link

tucker

Member

Registered: 2014-01-06

Posts: 3

Re: [Solved] Re-size workspace?

I will do that, and thank you.

Ok, so this screen thing fixed itself. I started playing with various utilties, wmctrl, xwininfo some others, and got tired, so I decided to learn something about other pieces. Looking at the keyboard shortcuts I managed to run xfce4-display-settings --minimal and got that popup, and it had "extend to the right" selected. So I selected the laptop on the left, and closed it, (There is an identical laptop on the right side, (perhaps because I have one of those hybrid dual cards that are in the T400).

Somewhere along the line it shut down all my workspaces, so I rebooted and could not log back in. After a while I managed to get back into the Unity/Ubuntu desktop, did some reading, changed the owner on .Xauthority and ran the lightdm reconfigure, got in, and blew away the .cache directory,. Restarted, and the desktop is the size it should be, and the workspaces are appropriately sized.

Wish I knew what fixed it.

Now I need to figure out where the xfce4-display-settings --minimal util writes its configuration info, and maybe that will tell me.

Anyway, thank you both for your help.