Startup Script

[elmer624]

So, I usually do the same thing on startup:
1. Load email in workspace 1
2. Start Browser in workspace 2
3. Start an alternate browser in workspace 3
Is this something that can be automated with a script? I think it's a bit beyond the capabilities of "launcher."
Thanks.

[mikeflan]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I think it's a bit beyond the capabilities of "launcher."

Probably not. Start with this and tell us where it goes wrong:
https://unix.stackexchange.com/question ... -workspace

Forget about devils pie for the moment and try wmctrl.

[vanadium]

For single-time autostart on a specific workspace, use wmctrl indeed to first switch to the desktop where you want the application to appear (e.g. wmctrl -s 1 to switch to the second desktop (counting starts at 0), then launch the application. Launchers only support a single command. You can, however, use the construct "sh -c" to combine multiple commands in a launcher if you do not want to work with a separate script. The "Exec=" line thus could read something like

Code: Select all

Exec=sh -c "wmctrl -s 1 && firefox %u"

to start your browser on Workspace 2.

This will happen automatically after login if your launcher is located in ~/.config/autostart.

If you have multiple programs starting this way, it will be advised to load them all sequentially using a single script instead. That avoids that one launcher moves to workspace 1, while another one a split second later moves to workspace 2.

If you want this to happen anytime you launch the application, copy the systemwide launcher of the application to ~/.local/share/applications and edit the copy the same way. Then, each time you launch Firefox from the menu, it will automatically be placed in Workspace 2.

devilspie or devilspie2 comes in more handy when you want a certain type of window to be placed in a certain way anytime it is created.

[mikeflan]

Launchers only support a single command

But that single command can be a shell script, a Perl script, a python script, etc.