Virtual Desktops

• Virtual Desktops
  • Pages
  • Desktops

Fvwm splits up its virtual desktops into pages and desks. Starting with fvwm3, DesktopConfiguration can be used to configure if monitors can move through each virtual desk or page independently.

The module /Modules/FvwmPager gives a miniature view of your desks, pages, windows, and monitors location.

Pages

A single fvwm Desktop is split up into an NxM grid of pages. Each page is a single viewport of all the Monitors together. The virtual desktop is then extended in such a way that the current view is of a single page in this much larger virtual screen. The number of pages is configured with the DesktopSize command.

# 4 Desktops split into a 3x2 Grid.
# Pages are identified using two numbers:
# COLUMN ROW
#   +---+---+---+
#   |0 0|1 0|2 0|
#   +---+---+---+
#   |0 1|1 1|2 1|
#   +---+---+---+
DesktopSize 3x2

That will give you a grid of 3x2 Pages where the numbers are the x and y coordinates of each page. You can move through the pages using the GotoPage (and MoveToPage for windows).

In addition to just moving through the page you can scroll or only move part way between two pages. You can also set up functions that will automatically move you between pages when your mouse hits the edge of the screen. For example (note, in fvwm3 all of these commands can be configured per monitor by adding the screen RandRname option):

# EdgeScroll Xpercent Ypercent
# EdgeResistance - Timer before scrolling
# EdgeThickness - size of border for mouse around edge of screen
# Styles for dragging windows over the boundaries.
#
# Set EdgeScroll 0 0 and/or EdgeResistance -1 to disable.
EdgeScroll 100 100
EdgeResistance 450
EdgeThickness 1
Style * EdgeMoveDelay 350, EdgeMoveResistance 350

Additionally you can move around with

GotoPage screen RandRname xPage yPage
GotoDeskAndPage screen RandRname desk xPage yPage

Desktops

Fvwm supports multiple Desktops. The default desktop is 0 and there is no set cap on the number of desktops you can use. Desktops are available on demand and can be moved between using the GotoDesk command (note MoveToDesk, for windows, as the same syntax).

GotoDesk can be configured to go to a specific Desk or just cycle through them. Here are some examples:

# GotoDesk [step] [min] [max]
# One Desk forward, max of 6
GotoDesk 1 0 6
# One desk backwards min of 0
GotoDesk -1 0 6

# GotoDesk [relative] [absolute]
# GotoDesk 5
GotoDesk 0 5
# GotoDesk 2
GotoDesk 0 2

Additionally Desktops can be given names with:

DesktopName 0 Main
DesktopName 1 Web
...