How to exclude the Fluxbox taskbar from Compton (shadowing)?

Question

I'm using Fluxbox as windowmanager, and wish to use Compton as compositor. But i'm unable to exclude Fluxbox's taskbar from Compton's (shadow) effects.

How can i get Compton to ignore the Fluxbox taskbar, especially for it's shadow effect? As it is now, the taskbar constantly has the same visual appearance as an inactive window.

This is what i got in my compton.conf:

# Shadow
shadow = true; # Enabled client-side shadows on windows.
no-dock-shadow = true; # Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows.
no-dnd-shadow = true; # Don't draw shadows on DND windows.
clear-shadow = true; # Zero the part of the shadow's mask behind the window (experimental).
shadow-radius = 10; # The blur radius for shadows. (default 12)
shadow-offset-x = 5; # The left offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-offset-y = 5; # The top offset for shadows. (default -15)
shadow-exclude = [
    "! name~=''",
    "name = 'Notification'",
    "name = 'Plank'",
    "name = 'Docky'",
    "name = 'Kupfer'",
    "name = 'xfce4-notifyd'",
    "name *= 'VLC'",
    "name *= 'compton'",
    "name *= 'Chromium'",
    "name *= 'Chrome'",
    "class_g = 'Conky'",
    "class_g = 'Kupfer'",
    "class_g = 'Synapse'",
    "class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
    "class_g ?= 'Do'",
    "class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'",
    "class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'",
    "class_g ?= 'Xfce4-power-manager'",
    "_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c"
];

# Fading
#fading = true; # Fade windows during opacity changes.
#fade-delta = 5; # The time between steps in a fade in milliseconds. (default 10).
#fade-in-step = 0.03; # Opacity change between steps while fading in. (default 0.028).
#fade-out-step = 0.03; # Opacity change between steps while fading out. (default 0.03).
# no-fading-openclose = true; # Fade windows in/out when opening/closing

#detect-rounded-corners = true;
### highlighted top window rest dimmed
inactive-dim = 0.2;
inactive-dim-fixed = true;

# Window type settings
wintypes:
{
  tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = true; };
};

And the command used to launch Compton is:

compton -C -G --config ~/.config/compton.conf

In case you don't get an answer here, try https://github.com/chjj/compton/issues/ — DK Bose, Jan 12 '17 at 13:26
@DKBose Going to give it until tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. I've also come across [this fluxbox Mailinglist message](https://sourceforge.net/p/fluxbox/mailman/message/29962078/) , but with no luck still. — DhP, Jan 12 '17 at 17:13

score 3 · Accepted Answer · edited Oct 11 '18 at 00:38

3

You can use the 'role' rule.
Look how is mine:

shadow-exclude = 
[
  "name = 'Notification'",
  "class_g = 'Conky'",
  "class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
  "class_g = 'Cairo-clock'",
  "role = 'fluxbox-toolbar'",
  "_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c"
];

edited Oct 11 '18 at 00:38

zx485

2,249
11
24
34

answered Oct 10 '18 at 20:35

maoamid

46
2

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 03 '18 at 16:18

tl;dr

In your ~/.fluxbox/init, set:

session.screen0.toolbar.alpha:  255

Details

I had the same issue. Compton's setting no-dock-shadow (i.e. parameter -C) does not seem to affect Fluxbox' toolbar. man compton hints a couple of times that the window property _NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY is honoured to set transparency.

With compton started, I did the following to verify it's working properly. xprop and compton-trans have an interactive function specify a window by clicking on it.

$ xprop
(select toolbar)
_NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY(CARDINAL) = 2139062143
WM_WINDOW_ROLE(STRING) = "fluxbox-toolbar"

$ compton-trans 100
(select toolbar)

$ xprop
(select toolbar)
_NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY(CARDINAL) = 4294967295
WM_WINDOW_ROLE(STRING) = "fluxbox-toolbar"

Note the change in the numerical value. As compton-trans was able to set the toolbar transparency, changing the opacity in Fluxbox' config to be later picked up by Compton seems to work.

'session.screen0.toolbar.alpha: 255' was already present in my 'init' ..but i'll be sure to check out your other tips. Ty! — DhP, Mar 05 '18 at 23:37
After trying out your tips. I noticed that _4294967295_ was already the opacity of the `fluxbox-toolbar` . So i'm guessing there's some effect being applied to it other than transparency. My guess would be that it's somehow detected by compton as a background window (bar) — DhP, Mar 06 '18 at 16:40

How to exclude the Fluxbox taskbar from Compton (shadowing)?

2 Answers2