A panel task switcher for XFCE on Debian

In Gnome of course you can see all your open windows and switch between tasks with Alt+Tab. In Windows you can do this with a panel button - something which I wondered a decade ago whether might be possible in Linux. Always prompt to find and answer to issues, I offer you, ten years later, Skippy-XD, full screen task switcher for X11.

Skippy-XD is not available from the Debian repositories. You can compile it from source, or cheat like me and get it from MX Linux as a Debian package. I tested the MX 19 package on Debian Testing. It works, but may not necessarily be as stable as something from the Debian repository.

To add Skippy to the XFCE panel, add a launcher to the panel with the command

skippy-xd –activate-window-picker

The screenshot above is not the default appearance. By default, the uppermost window on the desktop is tinted and the lower windows are slightly transparent,  windows are without icons, and windows appear on the screen as is when Skippy is activated, so if you have multiple windows visible on the desktop, Skippy will display the same windows on top of themselves, but transparent, which can be a bit difficult to view. I have edited the configuration file to remove transparency and tint, have an icon on the windows, and use the desktop wallpaper as a background.

To change settings, copy the configuration file from /etc/xdg/skippy-xd.rc to ~/.config/skippy-xd/skippy-xd.rc 

I edited these lines of the configuration file:

clientDisplayModes = thumbnail-icon icon filled none 

[Displays an image of open windows with the icon of the application superimposed, and falls back to just an icon when an image is not available - if the window is minimised or on another workspace.]

background = tile /home/<user>/homeworld.png 

[.svg wallpaper files don't work.]

[normal] 

# tint = black 

tintOpacity = 0 

opacity = 255 

[highlight] 

#tint = #101020 

tintOpacity = 0 

opacity = 255 

[No transparency, no tint.]

[tooltip]

border = #404040 

background = #404040

[No white border.]

For anyone curious, the dock in the screenshot and video above is the XFCE docklike plugin, also available for Debian from MX Linux.

No internet connection in Debian Testing install

I installed Debian Testing on a separate partition on this computer recently and found I had no internet connection. I could connect to my router but not to any web sites. I had used the Debian Testing installer which does not contain non-free firmware, and selected not to configure wifi during install, as my wifi won't work without iwlwifi. However, I'd installed the package manually after the installation completed.

To cut a long story short, after a day of looking into it, I found that my /etc/resolv.conf file was a broken sim link. resolv.conf is used by Systemd and Network Manager to resolve IP addresses - hence no internet connections. I fixed it by editing /etc/resolv.conf  and adding the location of my access point, the router:

# Generated by NetworkManager
nameserver 192.168.2.1

I can't remember whether my internet connection started working right away, or I restarted Network Manager or rebooted. 

The file is apparently reset/overwritten by systemd-resolved/Network manager with an address from the DNS server, which in my case is the ISP via the router: the file now contains an entry for OpenDNS, which I'm guessing the ISP uses.

Anyway, I assume the problem occurred because I didn't configure the wireless connection during the install, but it might be a bug in the Debian testing installer.

LinuxHint 

Edit: added another link I used.

Red Hat Customer Portal

Edit: Corrected LinuxHint link and adding a link to a bug report I found at the time but forgot to add to this post.

resolv.conf symlink is broken

Borked my swap file

I installed Debian Testing on this computer to play with, but allowed the installation to use the swap partition. When I booted into the main installation (Debian Bullseye Gnome), I found it did not have swap memory available, which is not good because with only 4GB of RAM, it needs swap memory if I have a browser and other applications open. (Unfortunately it has one card slot, so upgrading the memory would involve purchasing an expensive 8GB card, unlike my laptop which had a free slot so I could drop in am extra 4GB card for not too much money).

The solution was to get the main installation to share the swap partition by updating the UUID.

# blkid /dev/sda3

Got me the UUID given to the swap partition on this computer by the new install.

I then replaced the old, now non-working UUID with the working UUID from the command above.

# nano /etc/fstab

askubuntu

Apparently it's OK for the two installations to share the swap partition, as long as it is not used for hibernation, which it is not.

askubuntu again.