LXQt

From postmarketOS
LXQt
LXQt running on samsung-serranove
LXQt running on samsung-serranove
Name LXQt
Graphics stack Openbox on X11
Toolkit Qt 5
In postmarketOS
Package postmarketos-ui-lxqt
Status Available

LXQt is a lightweight and simple desktop environment based on Qt.

Within postmarketOS it's aiming for tablet devices. However, the implementation for touch devices is at a rather early stage, not yet fully mature.

Installation

  • pmbootstrap init
  • User interface: lxqt

Configs

In postmarketOS edge, the default configuration files are stored in /etc/xdg/lxqt-tablet and the local ones at ~/.config. In case you want to reset your configs:

  • sudo rc-service tinydm stop
  • logout
  • via ssh:
    • rm -r ~/.config/lxqt
    • rm -r ~/.config/pcmanfm-qt
    • sudo rc-service tinydm start

For screen lock xfce4-screensaver is used as a temporary solution because it offers virtual keyboard support. To change the background picture of the lock screen:

  • cp /etc/xdg/lxqt-tablet/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/.
  • vi ~/.config/xfce4/xfconf/xfce-perchannel-xml/xfce4-desktop.xml
    • change the line name="image-path"

To change the virtual "onboard" keyboard layout in the lock screen to e.g. "Small" for medium-sized screens, go to Menu -> Preferences -> Xfce Screensaver -> tab "Lock Screen" -> field "On screen keyboard command" and exchange layout parameter "Phone" by "Small".

Things to work on

The default window manager is "Openbox". The default themes of Openbox all have small window buttons, which is not very ideal for touch devices. To increase the window button size, a new Openbox theme would be needed – either a custom-made one or a downloaded one, e.g. from store.kde.org.

There are touchscreen issues. When clicking the clock in the panel, the panel freezes (pmaports#2449). Also right-clicking doesn't work, which would be quite important because right-clicking the panel would call a context menu leading to a panel config window (pmaports#2450). Both issues are somewhere in the chain hardware > libinput > xorg-server > Qt > LXQt. More investigation is needed.

The current setup of postmarketos-ui-lxqt contains several GTK applications. Going to Qt stack application would be a goal. Candidates to work on are "xfce4-screensaver" (replacing by "kscreenlocker"), "network-manager-applet" (replacing by "nm-tray", available in Alpine testing only), "onboard" (replacing by "corekeyboard" or "qt5-qtvirtualkeyboard"). Though, these packages cannot be simply replaced, additional work for better integration of the new applications would be needed.

There are ideas about a mobile version of LXQt: pmaports#2406.

GitLab

Default configs of LXQt desktop environment are managed in the repository antoni.aloytorrens/lxqt-tablet.

They go into the package postmarketos-ui-lxqt.