How to snap qubes with start + arrow keys?

User Support General
1

How can I get Qubes OS to snap windows to portions of my display like how in Windows when you press and hold the Start Key + Arrow, the app you are on snaps to a side of the display?

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2

You can configure this in XFCE window manager GUI and go in keyboard tab.

3

What would be the name of the command/action which snaps windows/qubes?

4

I don’t know the English names, I guess something like “Tile the window to the upper”, “bottom”, “left right corner” etc… You have 4 sides and 4 corners to map, I also recommend to set a keybinding to maximize/maximization a window, and one to lower it to the task bar.

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5

Ah, I didn’t know it was called “tiling.” According to Brave’s Leo A.I.,

"Qubes OS does not have a built-in tiling window manager. However, there are workarounds and alternatives mentioned:

  1. i3: One user successfully installed i3, a tiling window manager, on Qubes OS and made patches to make it work. The patches are available on GitHub: GitHub - SietsevanderMolen/i3-qubes: qubes rpm for i3.
  2. Awesome: Another user suggested packaging the Awesome desktop environment, which includes a tiling window manager, for easy installation from dom0. This idea was discussed on GitHub issue #1756.
  3. Shell scripts: A user created shell scripts using xdotool and wmctrl to arrange windows without dragging them with the mouse. These scripts can be bound to keyboard shortcuts for tiling window management.

Unfortunately, there is no single command name for tiling windows in Qubes OS, as it does not have a native tiling window manager. Instead, users can explore the above alternatives or create their own custom solutions."

I’ll avoid installing third party software so I’ll pass on this for now. Thank you for your time!

6

although xfce is not a tiling window manager, I just explained to you how to configure key bindings to tile windows to a corner / side.

7

I use kde instead of xfce because customizing key bindings in it is easy

8

FWIW for this topic, KDE window manager has a real tiling mode, but in regular mode there are keybindings for tiling to corner/sides

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9

Are there any risks or downsides to switching to KDE?

10

Q->Gear->System Settings->Settings Editor
Select xfce4-keyboard-shortcuts in the Channel
Select the xfwm4 Property. You may need to search around in this tree, but you will see the key bindings for:
‘tile_down_key’
‘tile_left_key’
‘tile_right_key’
‘tile_up_key’
…
and so on.

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11

It’s less tested on Qubes OS, but it should work. No security risk, mostly stability risks, you could still easily go back to XFCE.

thanks! I didn’t have the English words as my system is in French

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12

That’s a bit of a loaded question, but for simplicity’s sake, no.

FYI, you can switch between window managers (after activating them) at the login screen. There should be an article on here somewhere on how to install/switch. I don’t have a link handy at the moment.

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13

Thank you, I found the “move_window_left_key” and similar values but when I click edit, I’m only allowed to change the value and not the property which seems to be where the key bindings are specified.

I then went to Keyboard > Application Shortcuts > Add > entered “move_window_left_key” and set it to “Right” but when I enter the two keys, it says “failed to launch shortcut. Failed to execute child process “move_window_left_key” (No such file or directory).” I’ve tried replacing the underscores in the command with dashes but that didn’t change the outcome.

14

You’re right. I apologize! Been awhile since I went down this rabbit hole.

Q->Gear->System Settings->Window Manager
Select ‘Keyboard’ tab at the top.
Modify to your heart’s content.

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15

If it hasn’t been brought to your attention already, there appears to be a known ‘issue’ or ‘conflict’ where binding anything to just the Super (Windows) button will supersede any other Super+KEY binding. Unless someone else knows a workaround.

16

Yes, this is true and also it seems that only one arrow key can be used per shortcut. This is a shame since the combinations (e.g. top-right) would ideally allow for Super + two direction keys. Either way, I ended up removing Super as a shortcut for the app/Q menu since manually resizing tabs takes more time than clicking on the Q menu.

17

Quick note for anyone looking to follow these steps: Q > Gear > System Settings > Window Manager > Keyboard > select any of the “Tile window to the (top/bottom/left/right)” options > Edit > enter your desired shortcut keys.

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