[winswitch] xpra full desktop

basd basd1 at fastbk.com
Wed May 27 03:46:51 BST 2015


So, now I have a one-click launcher that runs this script:

#!/bin/bash
xpra start --start-child="Xephyr :200 -screen 1300x700" :100 &
sleep 20
DISPLAY=:200 icewm &
xpra attach :100
exit

That starts an icewm desktop session on :100, which I then retrieve on my other computer via

xpra attach ssh:192.168.85:100

I can retrieve it back by xpra attach :100.  It doesn't appear that I can send it into limbo by
exiting the window, that seems to kill the X session.

I picked 1300 x 700 since it will fit on most of my physical monitors.

I installed arandr and lxrandr, so I can resize the running screen to the available pre-sets.  This
works, although it's not as convenient as dragging the corner of the window to re-size it.

I still haven't figured out a method for clean shut down.  As a result, the script is only good for
one run after I reboot the server.  I know there are the Xephyr -terminate and xpra
--exit-with-children option, but not certain how to implement them so that I can pass the running
session from computer to computer but shut the session down when I want it ended.  (In TigerVNC I
can usually run a "logout" but I noticed "logout" in the xpra/Xephyr session will trigger a logout
of the running desktop session on the server.)

I don't know if "sleep 20" is necessary, maybe it can be shortened to 10 or 15 seconds, but if the
DISPLAY command runs too quickly after the xpra start, the windowmanager will not find a running X
session and so will fail.

The attached screenshot shows the running desktop, with an icewm panel at the bottom and a kde3
kicker panel at the top, with the launcher open.



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