Hello, I really like Xfce, but I have a few questions.

Which tree-based note-taking applications do you use (Joplin, CherryTree, Zim)?

And what about mind-mapping applications (Minder, VYM, etc.)?

Which calculator application do you use?

I would really like the Xfce team to develop these kinds of applications, because it seems that the only options available are either outdated applications or GTK3 applications that feel completely out of place with the Xfce desktop. Even when using gtk3-nocsd, these applications still look and feel strange.

It would be great to have modern Xfce-native applications for these purposes, following the same design principles and integration as the rest of the desktop.

Hi! I’m the maintainer of Angujanú and Kesú, two small projects I’ve been working on to bring the classic GnoMenu experience back to modern XFCE.

What started as a menu inspired by GnoMenu eventually turned into a compatibility project. Instead of only recreating the appearance, I’ve been comparing the current implementation against the original GnoMenu source and restoring its old theme behaviour where it still makes sense.

At this point:

• Angujanú runs the classic GnoMenu-style menu on GTK3/Python 3.
• Kesú is a native XFCE panel plugin for the original GnoMenu button themes.
• Original Background, hover and pressed button states are supported.
• Top="1" themes now use the original two-window model, allowing the upper part of an orb/button to extend outside the XFCE panel.
• The second window follows the real position of the panel button instead of assuming it is on the left side.
• Top and bottom panel orientation is supported.
• The protruding part of the button remains interactive and stays above the menu, matching the old GnoMenu behaviour.
• Existing GnoMenu Button themes can be reused without converting their artwork.

The funny part is that the old design still works surprisingly well once the GNOME 2-specific infrastructure is removed. The theme engine itself was much more portable than I expected.

This is not the original GnoMenu project, and I’m not affiliated with its original developers. It is a modern compatibility/porting effort based on studying the old GPL source and preserving its theme format and behaviour.

There are still some smaller legacy details to audit, but the classic GnoMenu menu + two-part orb are now running together on a current XFCE desktop.

https://github.com/Renetrox/kesu-button

https://github.com/Renetrox/Angujanu

I couldnt type and it switches on and off continuously. I'll be rebooting it tho as I cant go back in Timeshift.

I'm using Arch so I can't just use Update-alternatives, so how do I change the default file manager from Thunar to XFE? I tried deleting Thunar but that would've removed some of the XFCE files too.

Is the performance gap that great for xfce to be a valid option?

Right now I'm on cachyos with plasma and it idles around 1.3-1.6gb.

How is it on xfce?

theme: Revista
compositor: compiz
WD: Emerald
dock: cairo dock

lmk if yall want my configs and links

Thank you so much for this amazing DE!
After 3+ years of using it, I can confidently say that I can’t use any other... It is definitely the greatest DE!

If anyone is interested

https://github.com/6aru/Dotfiles/tree/main/Xfce%20Dynamic%20Notch

• ⁠Global theme: Redmond97 installed in `/usr/share/themes
• ⁠Theme variant: Redmond97 no-csd, optimized for XFCE
• ⁠Color scheme: Redmond97 Slate
• ⁠Icons: Redmond97 icon theme installed globally in /usr/share/icons
• ⁠Terminal: Transparent background enabled with background-mode = 2
• ⁠GTK engines: Installed gtk2-engines-murrine, gtk2-engines-pixbuf, and gtk3-engines-xfce

Hey there!

So I just got Debian installed today with XFCE, works great! Then I see sub-reddits like r/xfce and r/unixporn, and there are a lot of great desktops posted on both pages, often with all the configs/files they used. I'm super inspired to customize my own desktop cause it looks awesome, but I guess as a beginner, this is all a little confusing.

But I guess my question is, how do people actually design these themes? Where do people go to find these themes/icons/wallpapers/taskbars/widgets/window managers/etc? And how do you know where to install or place these things when you are ricing your desktop?

I've spent a couple hours today doing my own searching, and it's hard to just find any good, definitive, non-outdated "how-to" guide or "start here" for this stuff, specifically with xfce. I also watched some videos of others doing it, but I notice discrepancies sometimes, specifically as to where files should go (Example: For placing themes, I've seen some guides say to place it in "/usr/share/themes", others say "~/.local/themes", one said "~/.themes").

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

HELP Hi everyone,

I'm trying to troubleshoot a reproducible suspend/resume display problem on an HP Victus 15-fa1xxx.

After suspending with the lid / entering s2idle and then waking the laptop, the internal display often takes 20–30 seconds to return. Sometimes it takes several minutes, and sometimes the display never properly recovers and continues blinking/going black until I reboot.

The system itself appears to resume, but the internal eDP display fails to come back normally.

HARDWARE

Laptop: HP Victus 15-fa1xxx

CPU: 12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-12450H

iGPU: Intel Alder Lake-P GT1 [UHD Graphics] PCI ID: 8086:46a3 Driver: i915

dGPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2050 Driver: nvidia / nvidia-drm

Internal display: 1920x1080 144 Hz eDP-1 Physically connected to the Intel iGPU

BIOS: F.23 (03/30/2026)

SOFTWARE

OS: EndeavourOS / Arch Linux

Desktop: XFCE

Session: Wayland

Suspend mode: s2idle only

Kernels tested: 7.1.11-arch1-1 6.18.48-1-lts

NVIDIA driver: 610.57.04

Current kernel parameters include: i915.enable_psr=0 i915.enable_dc=0 nvidia-drm.modeset=1

THE PROBLEM

After suspend/resume, the internal eDP display may remain black or blink repeatedly.

The kernel repeatedly reports:

[i915] [drm] ERROR [CONNECTOR:...:eDP-1][ENCODER:...:DDI A/PHY A][DPRX] Failed to enable link training

The error can repeat roughly every 12 seconds while the display is trying to recover.

I also get this during BOOT, before the desktop is fully running:

[i915] [drm] [ENCODER:...:DDI B/PHY B] failed to retrieve link info, disabling eDP

Immediately around that boot-time error I also get:

drm_WARN_ON(intel_dp->pps.vdd_wakeref)

WARNING: intel_pps_vdd_on_unlocked

The call stack points into:

intel_pps_vdd_on_unlocked() intel_pps_vdd_on() intel_dp_detect() intel_display_driver_register() i915_driver_probe()

After some suspend/resume failures I have also seen:

i915 raw-wakerefs=1 wakelocks=1 on cleanup

and:

intel_runtime_pm_driver_release

WHAT I HAVE TESTED

1. i915.enable_psr=0

   • Did not fix the problem.
   • Resume still took around 2.5 minutes on one test.

2. i915.enable_dc=0

   • Did not fix the underlying problem.
   • On some cycles it reduced the very long hangs, but the system still took around 25 seconds to recover.
   • The kernel still reported the eDP link-training failure.

3. Tested both kernels:

   • linux 7.1.11-arch1-1
   • linux-lts 6.18.48-1-lts
   • Both reproduce the same basic problem.

4. Tested 144 Hz vs 60 Hz

   • 60 Hz did not solve it.
   • One test still resulted in a >10 minute display failure.

5. Tested NVIDIA runtime power management

   • The NVIDIA GPU was successfully put into runtime suspended state.
   • The internal panel still failed to resume correctly.

6. Tested the Intel Xe driver experimentally

   • Forced the Intel GPU to Xe with: i915.force_probe=!46a3 xe.force_probe=46a3
   • This did NOT solve the problem.
   • Instead I got PSR AUX errors, severe display corruption and another very long/infinite-looking recovery loop.
   • I therefore returned to i915.

The laptop only supports s2idle:

cat /sys/power/mem_sleep

returns:

[s2idle]

Attempting "deep" gives:

Invalid argument

IMPORTANT OBSERVATION

The internal display is driven by the Intel iGPU, not directly by the NVIDIA GPU.

The DRM devices show:

card0 -> NVIDIA card1 -> i915

and the internal connector is:

card1-eDP-1

QUESTION

Has anyone seen this combination on an HP Victus 15-fa1xxx or similar Alder Lake/Raptor Lake HP laptop?

In particular, I'm interested in whether the following messages point to a known i915 PPS / panel-power-sequencing / firmware issue:

failed to retrieve link info, disabling eDP
drm_WARN_ON(intel_dp->pps.vdd_wakeref)
intel_pps_vdd_on_unlocked()
Failed to enable link training

Could this be an HP BIOS/firmware interaction with Intel i915 during s2idle?

Is there a known kernel patch, quirk, or workaround for this particular PPS/VDD wakeref + eDP link-training problem?

I'm especially interested in advice from anyone familiar with i915/eDP/DRM power sequencing or HP Victus hybrid Intel/NVIDIA systems.

I would prefer to fix the underlying suspend/resume problem rather than simply disable suspend or lid handling.

ADDITIONAL ACPI WARNINGS

There are also ACPI BIOS errors in the kernel log, including:

AE_NOT_FOUND involving: _SB.PC00.CNVW.IFUN _SB.PC00.CNVW._DSM

and:

AE_AML_BUFFER_LIMIT involving: _SB.WMID.WQBZ _SB.WMID.WQBE

I'm not sure whether these are related to the display problem or are unrelated HP WMI/ACPI issues.

Thanks!

Basically whenever I lock my system audio stops playing. Is there any way to have this not happen (basically have audio keep playing even though the system is locked)? I did see this but none of the three solutions I tried worked. I'm also pretty new to Linux so any help would be appreciated!