Post installation annoyances

zxspectrum2000 · 2025-12-12 12:00:44

Hi people!

Just registered in this forum after installing a fresh Devuan 6, I was about to install Debian, but then heard about this project and liked more.

I'm using with xfce, and there's some annoyances that I couldn't discover how to fix them:

01: How to make the super key open the xfce menu?

02: I don't want any screensaver or automatic putting the display to sleep, so I disabled everything in Power Manager, but it's still turning off the display after some minutes, regardless if I am logged in or in the login screen. I also disable XScreenSaver and it's daemon isn't even running.

03: When I logon and play some audio for the first time, or turn off the computer, there's a loud pop, I mean, really LOUD pop in the audio.

04: How to make windows launch with the previous location? For example, I like the terminal in the center of the screen, but everytime I launch it appears on the top left side.

05: How to make the menu height larger? You can seen above that I could make the window title larger, but the menu bar is tiny:
menulibre error

06: How to edit the xfce menu? I've installed alacarte and menulibre. alacarte does nothing, menulibre throws this error:
menulibre error

07: Are we ever gonna have fractional scaling in xfce without blur? I've seen a lot of threads in forums people complaining about this for years. So, I've setup only larger DPI font for the moment, it's working fine, but how to apply also to the login screen? It reverts to a tiny little font.

08: Other thing that I also have seen people complaining but haven't found a solution so far: when you click a dropdown menu, you have to click and not move a single pixel with the mouse, otherwise it automatically closes, which is super annoying. It's ok if you are a robot, but for humans not really.

09: I have two audio output devices: a wireless headset and the regular analog lineout in the motherboard connected to speakers. I regularly use the headset for calls and the speakers for listening to music, but everytime I logon, I have to reset the default device to the speakers (using the mixer), it always revert to the headset.

10: I have a keyboard with 10 custom keys, three are configured as: open calculator, play/pause music and mute audio, but only mute is working, how to make the others work too?

Thanks very much in advance!

Devarch · 2025-12-12 14:17:15

1 Try to assign hotkey to xfce4-popup-whiskermenu. If it's not present install it.
2 Strange. Disabling power for display screensaver etc is usually enough.
7 Are we ever gonna have fractional scaling in xfce without blur? - Not now, not in X11 xfce
9 I believe it's linked with pipewire settings not with xfce

If you install Devuan from live iso (XFCE) you get precooked XFCE which is much better cooked than the default one instaled via tasksel or apt.

or choose another DE

Altoid · 2025-12-12 14:41:57

Hello:

Welcome to Dev1.

zxspectrum2000 wrote:

... don't want any screensaver or automatic putting the display to sleep ...
... still turning off the display after some minutes ...

Open a terminal and run this:

$ xset -q

In a section labelled [Screen Saver:] you will see the working settings.
I understand that they override all other settings.

See [man xset] for details on how to set them.

Best,

A.

greenjeans · 2025-12-12 14:50:49

I don't use a power manager in the mini's I make, nor in my own installs, I have a small script that runs once on startup that turns it all off.

#! /bin/sh

xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
xset s off

GlennW · Yesterday 00:22:27

Nice one greenjeans :-)

steve_v · Yesterday 07:53:57

03: Probably chipset power management. You don't say what (if any) sound server you are using or provide any details of your audio hardware, so generic answers assuming pulseaudio it is: here, and here. TLDR: Disable audio device PM, first for the sound server, and if that doesn't solve it do the same by passing the relevant parameter for (whatever hardware you have) as module options or via sysfs.

09: Again assuming pulseaudio: get sinks with 'pactl list-sinks', put 'set-default-sink [index you found with pactl]' in /etc/pulse/default.pa (see e.g. here)...
Or use a less gimped DE that has a GUI for configuring this and persists settings across logins.

If you're running pipewire the answers are similar, STW for correct config syntax.

10: If they're standard keys (i.e. not some vendor-specific nonsense), get the scancodes with xev - then assign them to do something with XKB or xmodmap... Or use a less gimped DE which supports media keys directly and provides a GUI for configuring them.
If they are special vendor-specific voodoo (i.e. xev doesn't spit out a scancode), they might emit ACPI events instead - for which there is acpid.

The rest: All XFCE problems. I don't use XFCE, I don't like XFCE, and I have no idea why it is the default desktop since it's not even particularly "lightweight" these days.

Altoid · Yesterday 10:11:53

Hello:

steve_v wrote:

... don't like XFCE, and I have no idea why it is the default desktop ...

+1

Devuan Linux could very well use what #!++ and BunsenLabs have as default: a customised Openbox WM.
To do that would probably mean much less work for the devs at Devuan.

Those who want / need a desktop could install Mate.
As always, YMMV.

A.

Camtaf · Yesterday 11:18:27

XFCE as default is obviously the choice of whoever creates the live version, I don't mind it, it's better than the heavy DEs.

If a move to an alternative, I would suggest JWM. I used to use Fluxbox everywhere myself, until I found JWM, it made for a better looking 'desktop'.

greenjeans · Yesterday 14:19:55

Devuan Linux could very well use what #!++ and BunsenLabs have as default: a customised Openbox WM.
To do that would probably mean much less work for the devs at Devuan.

Have to disagree with that a bit, BunsenLabs is actually quite complex and takes a lot of work for them to produce, and for the upcoming release it's mostly XFCE now though the WM is still Openbox.

It takes a lot of work in my experience to craft a 'box system that is user-friendly to garden-variety users. There's a lot of dots to connect to make it comfy.

I still think Mate would be a better choice for Devuan and be easier for the devs to deal with.

HardSun · Yesterday 23:06:02

greenjeans wrote:

I don't use a power manager in the mini's I make, nor in my own installs, I have a small script that runs once on startup that turns it all off.
#! /bin/sh

xset dpms 0 0 0
xset -dpms
xset s off

Im curious about this, ive always used below code to disable DPMS and prevent screen from blanking, what is yours doing differently?

xset s off -dpms

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#1 2025-12-12 12:00:44

Post installation annoyances

#2 2025-12-12 14:17:15

Re: Post installation annoyances

#3 2025-12-12 14:41:57

Re: Post installation annoyances

#4 2025-12-12 14:50:49

Re: Post installation annoyances

#5 Yesterday 00:22:27

Re: Post installation annoyances

#6 Yesterday 07:53:57

Re: Post installation annoyances

#7 Yesterday 10:11:53

Re: Post installation annoyances

#8 Yesterday 11:18:27

Re: Post installation annoyances

#9 Yesterday 14:19:55

Re: Post installation annoyances

#10 Yesterday 23:06:02

Re: Post installation annoyances

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