Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

pearmypie · 2025-07-11 07:50:55

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 · 2025-07-11 07:57:15

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 (2025-07-11 07:58:17)

pearmypie · 2025-07-11 08:20:52

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 · 2025-07-11 11:22:10

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 · 2025-07-11 11:29:52

E.g. ctrl-alt-$something

Andre4freedom · 2025-07-11 11:45:04

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 (2025-07-11 13:55:14)

steve_v · 2025-07-11 12:37:44

Andre4freedom wrote:

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?

ralph.ronnquist wrote:

E.g. ctrl-alt-$something

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

pearmypie wrote:

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 (2025-07-11 13:12:16)

greenjeans · 2025-07-11 14:50:13

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

ralph.ronnquist · 2025-07-12 00:28:59

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

spliskin · 2025-11-10 20:27:23

XFCE, IceWM, Trinity, is all I can think of... I'll let you know when I finally roll up the one I forked into a package for devuan. Might be a little bit on that one..

I'm not sure about the state of Trinity on devuan, nor IceWM but I'm sure Ice would be the closest to working outside of XFCE. There's also openbox but it's more suited to those that want to create a fully custom environment than most are confortable with.

bunnymnemonic · 2025-11-10 21:45:13

I would recommend LXQt, it was upgraded to QT6 in Excalibur, but it still follows a more traditional approach to the desktop metaphor than GTK4. Also, LXQt is committed to maintain X11 support, as far as I know.

Last edited by bunnymnemonic (2025-11-10 21:46:40)

zapper · Yesterday 00:28:57

@steve @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).

Well theres one thing we have in common I guess, I prefer trackpoint over touchpad as well... I also detest the touchpad as well.

So much easier to write stuff down in a word document or similar with the trackpoint. Otherwise, as one like yourself would guess, you can easily lose sight of where your pointer is on your screen because you accidentally touch the pad and it goes off doing something highly annoying.

So yes, I agree there.

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

I am using X11 myself also but I don't typically use desktop environments, so I am not sure if what I will say will help,

But MATE, LXDE, XFCE4, Lumina Desktop are all ones you could look at.

I don't know how they will work, but worth a try.

Last edited by zapper (Yesterday 00:32:23)

stargate-sg1-cheyenne-mtn · Yesterday 09:12:30

i try to stay with whatever the standard/stock/image/iso delivers/installs.

i do this so i can assist others who also have done a basic/standard installation and have run into some sort of issues/problems/situations/etc.

fortunately i don't have any objections to xfce... _yet_ (but that will change someday)

rations · Yesterday 13:04:41

Finally convinced the misses to install linux a few days ago, she's got a dell inspiron. Not sure what model but its got an i3. Put devuan 5 with xfce on it and she wasn't happy until I turned the touchpad on in the mouse/touchpad setting and i haven't heard any complaints since. The thing that impressed me was that it's also a touchscreen, you can use it like a tablet and the little time I had on it, it just worked. The great thing is you can try one or try them all. For me xfce is great and it is not hard to customise it.

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#1 2025-07-11 07:50:55

Good X11 environment for laptops? Plasma 6 is not ideal

#2 2025-07-11 07:57:15

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

#3 2025-07-11 08:20:52

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

#4 2025-07-11 11:22:10

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

#5 2025-07-11 11:29:52

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

#6 2025-07-11 11:45:04

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

#7 2025-07-11 12:37:44

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

#8 2025-07-11 14:50:13

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

#9 2025-07-12 00:28:59

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

#10 2025-11-10 20:27:23

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

#11 2025-11-10 21:45:13

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

#12 Yesterday 00:28:57

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

#13 Yesterday 09:12:30

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

#14 Yesterday 13:04:41

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

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