Linux Desktop Hacks

Give Your Desktop X-Ray Vision #34

Chapter 4, Related to X

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HACK

xcompmgr is a work in progress, and as such, things change,

so you might have to “go with the flow” if xcompmgr works

differently by the time you read this. As we go to press, at

least one new version is already available that gets its config-

uration settings from a ~/.xcompmgrrc file instead of the

command line.

HACK

#34

Give Your Desktop X-Ray Vision Hack #34

You don’t need X-ray vision to see through the windows of your home, and

now you don’t need it to see through the windows on your monitor.

This hack won’t let you see through anyone’s clothes, but it will make your

applications translucent so that anything behind the applications shows

through, as if you have X-ray vision. You simply issue a command, and then

click a window. Poof!—the window suddenly becomes as translucent as you

want.

Figure 4-3. Firefox and menu with shadows

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Chapter 4, Related to X

#34 Give Your Desktop X-Ray Vision

HACK

If you want to use this hack you need to have a recent version of the Xorg X

Window System, and you need to install xcompmgr, as covered in “Add

Depth to Your Desktop”

[Hack #33]. If you can’t get xcompmgr to work, you

won’t be able to get this hack to work, because this hack needs to have

xcompmgr running in the background.

Once xcompmgr is