Bookworm 64bit - Disable all effects.

[Abarj]

HI all !!

I am using the Bookworm 64 bit with the Pi 400. The desktop effects are tired my old eyes, how i can disable all of them ? Thanks!

[kerry_s]

you need to be more specific on what you want to disable, there different plugins for different effects.

there's the nuclear option where you just don't load the plugins you don't want or just turning off certain effects.

did you read through the bookworm report thread, it was discussed in there.

[kerry_s]

sorry, had to switch pc's

file you need to edit:

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mousepad .config/wayfire.ini

you need to create a section, this is what mine looks like with only the useful plugins:

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[core]
plugins = autostart autostart-static command pixdecor expo grid move place resize switcher vswitch window-rules wm-actions wort zoom 

this is the system default:

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plugins = alpha animate autostart autostart-static command cube pixdecor expo fast-switcher fisheye grid idle invert move oswitch place resize switcher vswitch window-rules wm-actions wrot zoom winshadows

[Abarj]

file you need to edit:

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mousepad .config/wayfire.ini

you need to create a section, this is what mine looks like with only the useful plugins:

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[core]
plugins = autostart autostart-static command pixdecor expo grid move place resize switcher vswitch window-rules wm-actions wort zoom 

That did the trick, thank you very much !!

[kerry_s]

forgot, you need to reboot to unload some of the plugins.
then it'll just load the ones in the list.

[reukiodo]

Is there a better way to disable these system-wide for all users?

Something like `apt purge wayfire-animate` or similar to just get rid of all the useless fluff?

[reukiodo]

After a lot of digging, I think I found the answer in /etc/wayfire/defaults.ini :

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plugins = autostart autostart-static command pixdecor expo grid move place resize switcher vswitch window-rules wm-actions wort zoom 
plugins_nogl = autostart autostart-static command pixdecor expo grid move place resize switcher vswitch window-rules wm-actions wort zoom 

Aside from basic plugins https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire-wi ... plugins.md I couldn't find a list of what these plugins are and what they are supposed to do.

After making the above changes and rebooting, I'm happy that window minimization is now instant like they were before, though window maximize and especially alt+tab are still very slowly animated.

[kerry_s]

the raspberry version is modified/forked, they cherry picked only what they want.

look in /etc/share/wayfire, you can open the plugins settings file in mousepad & they have a short description inside.

[reukiodo]

After a lot more trial and error, I think I've finally disabled all the animations with editing `/etc/wayfire/default.ini`

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plugins = autostart autostart-static command fast-switcher resize
plugins_nogl = autostart autostart-static command fast-switcher resize
[fast-switcher]
activate = <alt> KEY_TAB
activate_backward = <alt> <shift> KEY_TAB

Even though maximizing windows is still very slowly animated. I can't figure out how to disable that.

And I think I found what most of these dumb plugins do: (seriously, why are these enabled by default? ESPECIALLY on a very limited system like a raspberry pi?)
expo - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhS_axEcveU
grid - "position the windows in certain regions of the output"
move - "move windows around by dragging them from any part (not just the title bar)."
pixdecor - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfpZiI_duOc
place - "to position newly opened windows"
switcher - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PtNzxDsxYM
vswitch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqbjNhIz1nI
window-rules - https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire/wi ... ndow-rules
wm-actions - https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire/wi ... wm-actions
wort - "to rotate windows with the mouse"
zoom - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBLLC5fOy98

EDIT: thanks to the direction provided by kerry_s found the *.xml files in /usr/share/wayfire/metadata/ folder so I can fill in the above.
EDIT2: I guess that means it should be accessible in the code somewhere... like https://github.com/WayfireWM/wayfire/tr ... r/metadata ! So, no wiki, no docs, but you can read through each XML file individually to find out what these plugins do.

[kerry_s]

there's always the option of starting with the lite version & diy'ing your own setup.

you can get a completely normal desktop that's pretty much standardized instead of some fringe window manager.
or
switch to X11 in raspi-config & get a standard lxde desktop, which is a fairly common setup.

[reukiodo]

Alternatively to have snap-to-side functionality without the animations:

Edit /usr/share/wayfire/metadata/grid.xml to use none by default:

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sed -i 's|default>crossfade</default|<default>none</default>|g' /usr/share/metadata/grid.xml

And add back 'grid move' into the plugins list:

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plugins = autostart autostart-static command fast-switcher grid move resize
plugins_nogl = autostart autostart-static command fast-switcher grid moveresize

And make the mouse usable for the snap-to-side:

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mouse_snap = true

[Francesco95]

Hi Everyone,
thanks a lot for contributing to this post. It really changed my Raspberry Pi 4 from an unusable mess to something nice.
I normally wouldn't want most of these effects even on a powerful machine.... let alone on a Raspberry Pi.

On top of your suggestions I also changed the opacity of the fast-switcher.xml from 0.7 to 1.

Now when alt tabbing with the fast-switcher everything looks allright. I still believe there is one animation left to disable as when I alt-tab the "colour" of the window decoration takes a little bit of time to change. I will keep looking to see if I can also disable that.

Just one little thing, do you know how to show a grid with all the open windows with some latency during the alt tab?

Basically the current alt-tab behaviour is perfectly fine and it works. So when I quickly alt-tab no BS is happening to the windows. However if I press alt-tab and then do not release the alt key, it would be nice to have a grid with all the windows appear that highlights the current window and shows the other windows in reverse chronological order (eg current window in top-left, then next to it the last used one, then the last last used one,... and so on).

Of course all of this with no transparency, no animations, no effects.

EDIT:
I realised that there are still 2 "improvements" that can be made but don't know what to touch:
1) disabling content update while dragging a window: so that when I grab a window only the border is updated until i release the border
2) magnetic borders of snapped windows: I called it like this because I don't know the real name. Basically if one or more windows are snapped with each other and to the border of the screen, resizing the internal border of one window should also adapt the adiacent windows accordingly. Of course without updating the content of the windows until I release the mouse button so it doesn't lag on a Raspberry Pi.

[gsh]

It might be worthwhile instead trying labwc which is currently in beta (and we're intending on moving to it in the next couple of months). You can do this by:

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install labwc
sudo raspi-config

Then "Advanced Options" -> "Wayland" -> "Labwc"

Then reboot...

Labwc does not have the animation effects

[Francesco95]

It might be worthwhile instead trying labwc which is currently in beta (and we're intending on moving to it in the next couple of months). You can do this by:

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install labwc
sudo raspi-config

Then "Advanced Options" -> "Wayland" -> "Labwc"

Then reboot...

Labwc does not have the animation effects

Thanks a lot for your suggestion and your help. I will gladly try it.

[kerry_s]

It might be worthwhile instead trying labwc which is currently in beta (and we're intending on moving to it in the next couple of months). You can do this by:

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sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install labwc
sudo raspi-config

Then "Advanced Options" -> "Wayland" -> "Labwc"

Then reboot...

Labwc does not have the animation effects

interesting, now i got to learn a new wm.
but since it's like openbox should be easier to get use to.
i have it running on my crowpi L rpi4-4gb laptop shell.

so far i just moved my startup for my battery to .config/labwc/autostart
haven't messed with it much beyond that, haven't had a chance to read the full docs for labwc yet.

[Francesco95]

So I just tried labwc, it feels overall snappier than the trimmed down version of Wayfire that we configured in this post, however it feels less fluent. Specifically browser scrolling seems to lag a bit more than Wayfire.

Everything else looks amazing and fast.

Can you please provide a link to the documentation?
For now it looks like the mouse and keyboard options do not work at all.

I think in the short term I will keep using the trimmed down Wayfire since the browser is inevitably at the centre of most interactions, but I would like to learn more about labwc in the meantime.

EDIT: it has to be said that the Raspberry Pi 4 is really not suitable for monitors above 1080p and I'm using it on a 4k monitor set to 1440p, so probably I'm also exponentially seeing what would otherwise be small differences on the CPU and GPU workload.

[kerry_s]

https://labwc.github.io/

i also prefer the 1440x900, which is what i'm using on my desktop.
for the rpi4 crowpi L laptop i have no choice but to use 1360x768, it has that dreaded 1366x768 screen the rpi4/400 hates.

[Francesco95]

Many thanks for the link

[kerry_s]

wow!
it's even better on a rpi5-8gb running on a nvme.

hope labwc stays stable, i could get use to this, much better then wayfire.

[cjan]

install labwc, won't into desktop, Pi4

[kerry_s]

install labwc, won't into desktop, Pi4

what ?
i'm running it on a rpi4-4gb & a rpi5-8gb

did you follow the instructions, after install you need to select it in raspi-config.

[cjan]

install labwc, won't into desktop, Pi4

what ?
i'm running it on a rpi4-4gb & a rpi5-8gb

did you follow the instructions, after install you need to select it in raspi-config.

ok, found the issue, comment out #WLR_RENDERER=vulkan.
but, sway/wayfire/hyprland all supported.

[Avocette]

I thought labwc had made my day when I read these posts this morning after a protracted struggle with WayLand and Wayfire. I run astrophotography software on an RPi5/8 and an RPi4/8 and the labwc beta had brought consistency back to the UI……except that when I run up my astro gear, there are many devices which are not listed by lsusb, although happily they return when I switch back to Wayfire again.

[Avocette]

I thought labwc had made my day when I read these posts this morning after a protracted struggle with WayLand and Wayfire. I run astrophotography software on an RPi5/8 and an RPi4/8 and the labwc beta had brought consistency back to the UI……except that when I run up my astro gear, there are many devices which are not listed by lsusb, although happily they return when I switch back to Wayfire again.

A couple of hours later, something I did, or didn’t do, labwc beta is working well and so are my USB connected devices! I did use a different physical RPi4 and RPi5 to do the actual updating/upgrading and installing, so maybe putting the updated software into the RPis attached to the equipment caused the temporary hiccup. Anyway I’m back to looking forward to some clear skies testing tonight!

[cjan]

labwc break keyboard layout, and check the setup nothing wrong