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pearmypie

Member

Registered: 2024-09-10

Posts: 9  

Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Hello!
Please don't suggest Wayland. I really like and do use X11 as a network protocol.

I am using KDE Plasma 6, I just installed Devuan testing and made sure everything is up to date. The experience out of the box is not ideal. KDE is configured not to have keybinds for increasing or decreasing volume (you can set them, but loading the default values will remove these keybinds). There aren't many trackpad gestures set out of the box (such as changing workspaces and whatnot). I will investigate if they can be set, but I don't have high hopes.

Gnome is worse. Even if libinput does support multi touch gestures, Gnome does gestures using their Wayland compozitor and won't work without the `touchegg` package.

Should I migrate to XFCE or Cinammon? Is anyone using X11 on laptops and can share their advice?

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 193  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Cinnamon works perfectly well on Devuan 5 (Daedalus) and Excalibur, and all this on X11 (Xorg).
XFCE works as well, but Cinnamon is the way to go when looking for comfort. All this "out-of-the-box" - and can be tweaked too.
I have no intention to burn my fingers with Wayland.

Last edited by Andre4freedom (Yesterday 07:58:17)

pearmypie

Member

Registered: 2024-09-10

Posts: 9  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

I think I'll install both since they use the same display manager by default. Do you know if it's possible to switch workspaces using three finger gestures?

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 193  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Sorry, here I'm lost. I should first get to know what a three finger gesture is. I use mostly a desktop computer and a laptop only when out of office.

ralph.ronnquist

Administrator

From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS

Registered: 2016-11-30

Posts: 1,428  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

E.g. ctrl-alt-$something

Andre4freedom

Member

Registered: 2017-11-15

Posts: 193  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Just a hint:
https://www.debugpoint.com/cinnamon-5-8-features/

Devuan Excalibur is at Cinnamon v. 6.4
Devuan Daedalus at 5.6
Good luck.

Last edited by Andre4freedom (Yesterday 13:55:14)

steve_v

Member

Registered: 2018-01-11

Posts: 450  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

should first get to know what a three finger gesture is

Hmm... One finger is very rude, two fingers is "I can still shoot you", three fingers is... More fun?

E.g. ctrl-alt-$something

Close... While those do often require 3 fingers... they're not "gestures".

trackpad gestures
...
multi touch gestures

Methinks OP is referring to those newfangled things you drag your phalanges around on smear grease all over. Sometimes they're part of the display so the grease blurs your terminal and you scratch the tube trying to wipe it off, but more often they're in the palmrest of a luggable so as to catch coffee and be as irritating as possible while you're trying to type.
Horrid idea all around if you ask me, but that's what the kids are into these days.

@OP: I have no idea, I hate trackpads with a passion. Best try it and find out, push-comes-to-shove just use touchegg or similar (which I expect you will need to build yourself) to convert hand-waving into proper keybinds. That should work with any DE or WM, and any action you can bind keys to (provided libinput supports multi-touch for your hardware to begin with).

As for X on laptops, sure... A thinkpad with real mouse buttons and a nipple nub whatever the red rubber thing is that makes it so I don't have to take my fingers off the keyboard to move the cursor around.

Last edited by steve_v (Yesterday 13:12:16)

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Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action. Four times is Official GNOME Policy.

greenjeans

Member

Registered: 2017-04-07

Posts: 1,012  

Website

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Surprised nobody mentioned Mate, Devuan's Mate version is very nice. Not sure about the touchpad stuff as I never use it.

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ralph.ronnquist

Administrator

From: Battery Point, Tasmania, AUS

Registered: 2016-11-30

Posts: 1,428  

Re: Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

Last millennium we talked like this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Control-Alt-Delete