Ubuntu – How to change the Xfce4 default window manager

(Tested on Xubuntu 12.04, but with the ppas for Xfce 4.10 and 4.12 installed; however this will work from Xfce 4.8 onwards (default 12.04 version))

You can either run awesome as the window manager in an Xubuntu or Xfce session (which I think is what you want), or run it from its own awesome session (once installed that becomes an option in lightdm).

First install awesome from the repositories with

sudo apt-get install awesome

Now, if you want to run awesome as window manager in an Xfce or Xubuntu session, you can edit the relevant xfconf setting with:

xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /sessions/Failsafe/Client0_Command -t string -s "awesome" -a

This command changes the default window manager in the Xfce session to the awesome window manager. With other window managers such as metacity, you would instead use -t string -s "metacity" -t string -s "--replace" -a as the second part of the command. The --replace option is not available or needed anyway with awesome.

Now logout and login again by choosing the normal Xubuntu or Xfce session if you want to run awesome within an Xfce session.

To return to xfwm4 as default window manager, run

xfconf-query -c xfce4-session -p /sessions/Failsafe/Client0_Command -t string -s "xfwm4" -t string -s "--replace" -a

You may need to configure the various options in awesome by creating a personal rc file in $HOME/.config/awesome and tweaking the various options:

mkdir $HOME/.config/awesome
cp /etc/xdg/awesome/rc.lua $HOME/.config/awesome/

You will need to set up your themes and manually tweak how windows will appear, as the normal Xfwm4 window manager settings and tweaks will obviously not work when using awesome.

The screenshot below is of awesome running in a Xubuntu session, with the rest of Xfce still installed. If you have an Xfce panel at the top of the screen it will obscure the awesome panel, so you will have to move it elsewhere.

For more information on awesome and its keybindings, see man awesome and the Ubuntu manpages online.

Note: This does not work at least as of Ubuntu 13.10. Bug report against XFCE4 opened.

The default window manager is called compiz. Open a terminal and type

which compiz

to get the full path. Type

dpkg -l | grep compiz

to see in which packages it is replaced. Unlike what was suggested in a deleted comment, metacity is not responsible for Compiz window decoration, but a Compiz plugin called aptly "Decorations".

If, however, you log in using the "Unity 2D" option, you will be using a different window manager, called metacity.