Editing Xmonad/Using xmonad in XFCE (section)

=== Xfce Settings ===

We're going to utilise Xfce's Session Manager to make sure that xfwm4 (Xfce's default WM) is no longer started.  Preferably, it'd be nice if we could have XMonad started this way as well (or even set in a configuration option like with Gnome or KDE), but the former isn't possible until XMonad supports the required Session Management Protocol and the latter isn't possible in Xfce at all.

==== Backing up your settings ====

If you're already using Xfce, you may wish to first backup your ~/.config directory.  Whilst Xfce isn't the only application/library/etc. to utilise the ~/.config directory to store it's settings, it does so in a few different sub-directories (i.e. in some cases specific applications have their own settings directory), it's easier to backup the whole thing.

Note that as far as I know, it isn't possible to have for the same user both a standard Xfce login and an XMonad Xfce login.  Whilst you can have different sessions to determine whether you use XMonad or not, there are some settings - such as the panel layout - that aren't saved on a per-session basis.

==== Start a new session ====

For backup purposes in case something goes wrong with your XMonad settings, it is recommended to create a new Xfce session.  To do so, open the "Sessions and Startup" option dialog either from the "Settings" section of the Xfce menu, or in Xfce's Settings Manager (xfce-setting-show).  Enable the the session chooser and automatic saving of sessions, then logout and log back in again.  When the session chooser appears, choose to create a new session.

A word of warning: I found that the session chooser kept crashing Xfce on a freshly installed Xfce-4.4.2.  If this happens to you, delete the ~/.config/xfce-session directory.

==== Setting up Xfce ====

Open up the Xfce settings manager.  There, you can customise Xfce to your hearts content.  Note that the following settings dialogs won't be applicable once we start XMonad:
* Window Manager
* Window Manager Tweaks
* Workspaces and Margins
The last option isn't required, as Xfce will happily use XMonad's workspaces.

These options are recommended:
* Under "Desktop", let Xfce manage the desktop, but under Behaviour set the Desktop Icons to "None".  This way, Xfce will control your wallpaper, etc., allowing you to have random lists, different wallpapers for different screens for multi-head setups, etc.
* The Keyboard settings can be used to set keyboard shortcuts for those multimedia keys (e.g. XF86AudioMute) found on many keyboards, since these types of keys are currently difficult to create shortcuts for in XMonad.  Simply setup the various keyevents to these keybindinds for use with xmodmap in ~/.Xmodmap and Xfce will read these on start.
* Mouse: if you don't have or want to use a mouse, there's a limited type of mouse emulation available where you can use the Numpad arrow keys to move the cursor.
* For "Preferred Applications", set whichever terminal emulator you plan to use.  I find that Xfce's own Terminal application to work quite nicely with XMonad and to resize rather well.

If you so wish, you can now disable the session chooser, though I suggest you leave it enabled until you've successfully managed to login to your Xfce/XMonad environment several times.

==== Xfce's Panels ====

If you so wish you can now customize the panels and the plugins on them.  This can be safely left to later, however.  With XMonad, I typically only have one panel rather than the default two.  In terms of panel plugins, I've removed the Task List, but kept the pager: with the EWMH settings in XMonad, Xfce's pager acts as a mini-preview of your various layouts!

==== Ensure Xmonad gets started ====

Run Xfce's Autostarted Applications manager (either under the Settings section in the Xfce menu (Menu -> Settings -> Setting Manager -> Sessin and Startup -> Application Autostart tab) or run <code>xfce4-autostart-editor</code>). Add an entry for xmonad and set the command to <code>xmonad --replace</code> (assuming xmonad is in your path). Ensure that the new autostarted application entry you just created is ticked.