Programming approaches to Alternative Appmenu icon effects, Setting default workspace per qube, Additional label colors

Melanie · September 12, 2025, 4:58am

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to travel to Berlin, so I would really like to know if this is the latest software version and how to install it in QubesOS 4.3.
Are there instructions on how to install this software?

Download it as a ZIP file:

https://github.com/alimirjamali/personal-qubesos/archive/refs/heads/main.zip

Tezeria · September 12, 2025, 1:04pm

Move the .zip file to dom0:

Move the file in a Folder (like Documents for example)
Extract the zip file
move in the folder personal-qubesos-main.
Open a terminal in the folder
and do make install to install the scripts and make remove to remove it

If you just want to install one script, move in the script’s folder and do the same thing.
The scripts will be install in the ~/bin folder.
To launch the scripts, go to the folder ~/bin do, for example ./qubes-label-tt to launch qubes-label-tt.

If it doesn’t work do a chmod +x the_script .

Tezeria · October 27, 2025, 2:17pm

hi @alimirjamali ,
I just installed i3wm + xfce. I’m very happy with it. Unfortunately, the colors I configured are not displaying. I tried to configure them in the file ~/.config/i3/config but without success. Do you have any suggestions to help me solve this problem?

alimirjamali · October 27, 2025, 2:51pm

Oh. That bug. Sadly the (patched) i3wm has the colors hard coded at this moment. And fixing it has been on my TODO list. One user has done a custom i3wm build only to fix this specific issue. Some more information here:

github.com/QubesOS/qubes-issues

i3wm patch has hard-coded labels (colors)

opened 11:12AM - 14 Apr 25 UTC

alimirjamali

C: desktop-linux-i3 P: default diagnosed affects-4.2 affects-4.3

[How to file a helpful issue](https://www.qubes-os.org/doc/issue-tracking/) ###… Qubes OS release r4.2, r4.3 but most probably dates back to the 1st release of i3wm support ### Brief summary As reported by @FabrizioRomanoGenovese originally [here](https://github.com/alimirjamali/personal-qubesos/issues/2), if custom label (colors) are created via community tools through `admin.label.Create` API call, the tiles border colors for qubes with custom labels are not correct This is because the patch to i3wm has hard-coded colors: https://github.com/QubesOS/qubes-desktop-linux-i3/blob/main/0001-Show-qubes-domain-in-configurable-colored-borders.patch ### Steps to reproduce Install and switch to i3wm. Create custom labels with community tools or `admin.label.Create` API call. Switch a qube label to the new label. Start a window from the new qube Observe that the tile border color is wrong ### Expected behavior Dynamically getting the colors values via `admin.label.Get` API call. Tile border color for custom labels should be correct ### Actual behavior Hard-coded color values Wrong tile border colors for custom labels. ### Additional information I will work on a patch. I have not used i3wm (maybe tried it once or twice). But should be no problem as the documents are sufficient.

Qubrick · October 27, 2025, 3:50pm

Summary

Hi Alimir,

I’m so sorry but it’s not working
I don’t know what I did wrong because I know, it’s my fault. That’s why I decided to write everything down step by step. I should point out that I wanted to install everything except perhaps the update
I followed all the steps recommended by @Tezeria (in dom0 oc)
I received confirmation that all the scripts had been installed in the terminal and that I needed to reboot. Which I did

After rebooting, I went straight to check my qubes settings and ‘create qubes vm’, but nothing had happened with the labels.
I then opened a terminal in subdirectory
‘qubes-label-tt’, ‘qubesimgconvertertt’ and ran ‘make install’ and in the “icons” folder ‘make all’ with another reboot.
But nothing happened…

I also tried running the scripts with ‘qubes-label-tt’ in terminal, directly in the subdirectory, for example

So I uninstalled everything, but I got two errors:
rm: cannot remove “/home/qubrick/.config/autostart/qubes-icon-receiver.desktop”: Not a directory
rm: cannot remove “/home/qubrick/.config/autostart/qubes-icon-receiver-tt.desktop”: Not a directory
So I deleted the autostart file, which is not a directory

I hope to find a solution. Thank you for reading and sorry for the inconvenience
I wonder if I missed something? The tool was nowhere to be found

I’m on 4.2.4

edit : I tried a another installation
During installation, i got this at the end :
Installing icon-receiver Tweak Tool. Reboot for changes to take effect
‘icon-receiver-tt’ → ‘/home/qubrick/bin/icon-receiver-tt’
removed ‘/home/qubrick/.config/autostart’
‘qubes-icon-receiver.desktop’ → ‘/home/qubrick/.config/autostart’
removed ‘/home/qubrick/.config/autostart’
‘qubes-icon-receiver-tt.desktop’ → ‘/home/qubrick/.config/autostart’

the rest seems good

FINAL EDIT : Nevermind. All I had to do was run “make all” in “icons” and WAIT to get the labels. I feel so stupid. I thought that “make install” was enough to install everything

I put a shameful spoiler tag

It’s remarkable work, you are a legend. I’m so happy with these colors combinations

Tezeria · October 27, 2025, 4:04pm

i’ll try but it’s cleary not easy!

Tezeria · November 6, 2025, 6:16pm

@alimirjamali I just managed to add new colors to the borders for i3 Everything works perfectly As I wrote on github, I just tried with 4.2 but I’ll probably try with 4.3 this weekend if I have some time.

alimirjamali · November 6, 2025, 6:19pm

Hi. Saw your post on Github right before this post on forum. Excellent progress.

In the meantime, there has been significant overall progress with i3 (not just label colors). There are new automated openQA tests now (and two bugs are already found).

Tezeria · November 6, 2025, 8:28pm

I think it’s too complicated for me! I admit I don’t understand everything I’m not a developer

Tezeria · November 10, 2025, 4:10pm

I just tried it with 4.3rc2 (i don’t upgrade to rc3) and it work like a charm with i3

edit: work also for 4.3rc3

Tezeria · January 12, 2026, 5:54pm

Hi, @alimirjamali i3 just be upgrade to 4.24 and i lost the additionnals colors
I try to recreate the patch like FabrizioRomanoGenovese . I do like the version 4.23. I compiling after adding the colors. I had no errors.
Unfortunately, when installing the packages i3-4.24-1.fc41.x86_64.rpm and i3-devel-4.24-1.fc41.x86_64.rpm, there is no change, the borders remain without colors
I know you don’t use i3 but do you have any leads to tell me?

disp6969 · February 14, 2026, 7:38pm

How to make xpad hide all notes from the taskbar and window decorations without installing it in dom0?

Melanie · June 29, 2026, 7:45pm

Hi, is there already a ready-to-use version of Qubes OS 4.3.1 that doesn’t require much installation?

Because I’m still having a bit of trouble installing something like that.

Melanie · July 27, 2026, 9:17pm

Is this the latest app menu icon effect?

Is there a new guide on how to implement this in QubesOS 4.3.1?

Programming approaches to alternative app menu icon effects, setting the default workspace per qube, additional label colors

gist.github.com

https://gist.github.com/FabrizioRomanoGenovese/49bb098e771cf8861c1d411aded2504d

gistfile1.txt

diff --git a/include/config_directives.h b/include/config_directives.h
index f910d59..37e0057 100644
--- a/include/config_directives.h
+++ b/include/config_directives.h
@@ -71,7 +71,7 @@ CFGFUN(ipc_kill_timeout, const long timeout_ms);
 CFGFUN(tiling_drag, const char *value);
 CFGFUN(restart_state, const char *path);
 CFGFUN(popup_during_fullscreen, const char *value);
-CFGFUN(color, const char *colorclass, const char *border, const char *background, const char *text, const char *indicator, const char *child_border);
+CFGFUN(color, const char *colorclass, const char *labelqube, const char *border, const char *background, const char *text, const char *indicator, const char *child_border);

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