This page contains key files and configs for setting up the jonaburg Compton fork, Picom, as the compositor in Regolith Linux.
Regolith is a distro which uses the i3 Window Manager. If you're using another distro, the snippets on this page might not be as useful.
First of all, make sure to carefully read through the directions in Picom repo on GitHub. User jonaburg provides some great documentation. Basically the repo is a cleaned merge of 3 or 4 other Compton forks.
If you follow the repo's directions, you should end up with an executable file named compton. Move that to a PATH-sourced location.
Regolith uses a compton executable to run another Compton fork. So when I ran which compton, bash echoed back:
/usr/local/bin/compton
I made a backup, and replaced this executable with the new Picom-generated one.
I replaced the default compton compositor (default with Regolith, at the time of writing) with the new compton executable after following the build instructions in the GitHub repo. Regolith's config files are still pointing to the original config file, however.
So, I had to make a new config for Picom and tell Regolith where to look for that.
Around line 690 in my Regolith's i3 config is where it calls the init script for the compositor. This line number will vary, because my i3 config isn't the default. You should be able to find it by searching for:
set_from_resource $i3-wm.program.compositor i3-wm.program.compositor /usr/share/regolith-compositor/init
This is what my edited init file looks like:
#!/bin/bash
# See https://regolith-linux.org/docs/customize/compositors/
compositor_PID=$(pidof picom)
while [ ! -z "$compositor_PID" ]; do
kill $compositor_PID
sleep .1
compositor_PID=$(pidof picom)
done
if [[ -f "$HOME/.config/regolith/picom/config" ]]; then
/usr/local/bin/compton --config "$HOME/.config/regolith/picom/config"
else
/usr/local/bin/compton --config /etc/regolith/picom/config
fiYou can see in the script above that it's finding whether or not the process already exists. If it doesn't exist, start it. Look for a config file in one location (~/.config/regolith/picom/config). If that config doesn't exist, then run with the config located at:
/etc/regolith/picom/config
Other sample picom configs can be found in the jonaburg/picom repo.
-> /etc/regolith/picom/config/
#################################
# Animations #
#################################
# requires https://github.com/jonaburg/picom
# (These are also the default values)
transition-length = 350
transition-pow-x = 0.35
transition-pow-y = 0.35
transition-pow-w = 0.35
transition-pow-h = 0.35
size-transition = true
#################################
# Corners #
#################################
# requires: https://github.com/sdhand/compton or https://github.com/jonaburg/picom
corner-radius = 10.0;
rounded-corners-exclude = [
#"window_type = 'normal'",
"class_g = 'i3bar'",
"class_g = 'notification'",
"class_g = 'awesome'",
"class_g = 'URxvt'",
"class_g = 'XTerm'",
"class_g = 'Polybar'",
"class_g = 'code-oss'",
#"class_g = 'TelegramDesktop'",
"class_g = 'Thunderbird'"
];
round-borders = 1;
round-borders-exclude = [
#"class_g = 'TelegramDesktop'",
];
#################################
# Shadows #
#################################
# Enabled client-side shadows on windows. Note desktop windows
# (windows with '_NET_WM_WINDOW_TYPE_DESKTOP') never get shadow,
# unless explicitly requested using the wintypes option.
#
# shadow = false
shadow = true;
# The blur radius for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to 12)
# shadow-radius = 12
shadow-radius = 10;
# The opacity of shadows. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0.75)
shadow-opacity = .75
# The left offset for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to -15)
# shadow-offset-x = -15
shadow-offset-x = -10;
# The top offset for shadows, in pixels. (defaults to -15)
# shadow-offset-y = -15
shadow-offset-y = -10;
# Avoid drawing shadows on dock/panel windows. This option is deprecated,
# you should use the *wintypes* option in your config file instead.
#
# no-dock-shadow = false
# Don't draw shadows on drag-and-drop windows. This option is deprecated,
# you should use the *wintypes* option in your config file instead.
#
# no-dnd-shadow = false
# Red color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).
# shadow-red = 0
# Green color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).
# shadow-green = 0
# Blue color value of shadow (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0).
# shadow-blue = 0
# Do not paint shadows on shaped windows. Note shaped windows
# here means windows setting its shape through X Shape extension.
# Those using ARGB background is beyond our control.
# Deprecated, use
# shadow-exclude = 'bounding_shaped'
# or
# shadow-exclude = 'bounding_shaped && !rounded_corners'
# instead.
#
# shadow-ignore-shaped = ''
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should have no shadow.
#
# examples:
# shadow-exclude = "n:e:Notification";
#
# shadow-exclude = []
shadow-exclude = [
"! name~=''",
"name = 'Notification'",
"name = 'gnome-flashback'",
"name = 'Plank'",
"class_g = 'Conky'",
"class_g = 'popup'",
"class_g ?= 'Notify-osd'",
"class_g = 'notification'",
"class_g = 'Kupfer'",
"class_g = 'Synapse'",
"class_g = 'Cairo-clock'",
"class_g = 'Cairo-dock'",
"class_g = 'Rofi'",
"class_g = 'slop'",
"class_g = 'Polybar'",
"_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c"
];
# Specify a X geometry that describes the region in which shadow should not
# be painted in, such as a dock window region. Use
# shadow-exclude-reg = "x10+0+0"
# for example, if the 10 pixels on the bottom of the screen should not have shadows painted on.
#
# shadow-exclude-reg = ""
# Crop shadow of a window fully on a particular Xinerama screen to the screen.
# xinerama-shadow-crop = false
#################################
# Fading #
#################################
# Fade windows in/out when opening/closing and when opacity changes,
# unless no-fading-openclose is used.
# fading = false
fading = true;
# Opacity change between steps while fading in. (0.01 - 1.0, defaults to 0.028)
# fade-in-step = 0.028
fade-in-step = 0.1;
# Opacity change between steps while fading out. (0.01 - 1.0, defaults to 0.03)
# fade-out-step = 0.03
fade-out-step = 0.1;
# The time between steps in fade step, in milliseconds. (> 0, defaults to 10)
fade-delta = 13.5
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should not be faded.
# don't need this, we disable fading for all normal windows with wintypes: {}
fade-exclude = [
"class_g = 'slop'", # maim
"class_g = 'Rofi'"
]
# Do not fade on window open/close.
# no-fading-openclose = false
# Do not fade destroyed ARGB windows with WM frame. Workaround of bugs in Openbox, Fluxbox, etc.
# no-fading-destroyed-argb = false
#################################
# Transparency / Opacity #
#################################
# Opacity of inactive windows. (0.1 - 1.0, defaults to 1.0)
# inactive-opacity = 1
inactive-opacity = 0.5;
# Opacity of window titlebars and borders. (0.1 - 1.0, disabled by default)
# frame-opacity = 1.0
frame-opacity = 0.5;
# Default opacity for dropdown menus and popup menus. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 1.0)
# menu-opacity = 1.0
# menu-opacity is depreciated use dropdown-menu and popup-menu instead.
#If using these 2 below change their values in line 510 & 511 aswell
popup_menu = { opacity = 0.8; }
dropdown_menu = { opacity = 0.8; }
# Let inactive opacity set by -i override the '_NET_WM_OPACITY' values of windows.
# inactive-opacity-override = true
inactive-opacity-override = true;
# Default opacity for active windows. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 1.0)
active-opacity = 0.80;
# Dim inactive windows. (0.0 - 1.0, defaults to 0.0)
# inactive-dim = 0.0
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should always be considered focused.
# focus-exclude = []
focus-exclude = [
"class_g = 'mpv'" ,
"class_g = 'vlc'",
"class_g = 'icecat'",
"class_g = 'notification'",
"class_g = 'Cairo-clock'",
"class_g = 'Bar'", # lemonbar
"class_g = 'slop'" # maim
];
# Use fixed inactive dim value, instead of adjusting according to window opacity.
# inactive-dim-fixed = 1.0
# Specify a list of opacity rules, in the format `PERCENT:PATTERN`,
# like `50:name *= "Firefox"`. picom-trans is recommended over this.
# Note we don't make any guarantee about possible conflicts with other
# programs that set '_NET_WM_WINDOW_OPACITY' on frame or client windows.
# example:
# opacity-rule = [ "80:class_g = 'URxvt'" ];
#
# opacity-rule = []
opacity-rule = [
"0:_NET_WM_STATE@:32a *= '_NET_WM_STATE_HIDDEN'" ,
"99:class_g = 'mpv'" ,
"99:class_g = 'icecat'",
"99:class_g = 'vlc'",
"100:class_g = 'i3bar'",
"100:class_g = 'Bar'", # lemonbar
"50:name = 'gnome-flashback'",
"100:class_g = 'slop'", # maim
#"100:class_g = 'XTerm'",
#"100:class_g = 'URxvt'",
#"100:class_g = 'kitty'",
#"100:class_g = 'Alacritty'",
"80:class_g = 'Polybar'",
"100:class_g = 'code-oss'",
"100:class_g = 'Meld'",
"70:class_g = 'TelegramDesktop'",
"90:class_g = 'Joplin'",
#"100:class_g = 'firefox'",
"100:class_g = 'Thunderbird'"
];
#################################
# Background-Blurring #
#################################
# Parameters for background blurring, see the *BLUR* section for more information.
# blur-method =
# blur-size = 12
#
# blur-deviation = false
# Blur background of semi-transparent / ARGB windows.
# Bad in performance, with driver-dependent behavior.
# The name of the switch may change without prior notifications.
#
# blur-background = true;
# Blur background of windows when the window frame is not opaque.
# Implies:
# blur-background
# Bad in performance, with driver-dependent behavior. The name may change.
#
# blur-background-frame = false;
# Use fixed blur strength rather than adjusting according to window opacity.
# blur-background-fixed = false;
# Specify the blur convolution kernel, with the following format:
# example:
# blur-kern = "5,5,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1";
#
# blur-kern = ''
# blur-kern = "3x3box";
blur: {
# requires: https://github.com/ibhagwan/picom
method = "kawase";
#method = "kernel";
strength = 7;
# deviation = 1.0;
# kernel = "11x11gaussian";
background = false;
background-frame = false;
background-fixed = false;
kern = "3x3box";
}
# Exclude conditions for background blur.
blur-background-exclude = [
"window_type = 'dock'",
#"window_type = 'desktop'",
#"class_g = 'URxvt'",
#
# prevents picom from blurring the background
# when taking selection screenshot with `main`
# https://github.com/naelstrof/maim/issues/130
"class_g = 'slop'",
"_GTK_FRAME_EXTENTS@:c"
];
#################################
# General Settings #
#################################
# Daemonize process. Fork to background after initialization. Causes issues with certain (badly-written) drivers.
# daemon = false
# Specify the backend to use: `xrender`, `glx`, or `xr_glx_hybrid`.
# `xrender` is the default one.
#
experimental-backends = true;
backend = "glx";
#backend = "xrender";
# Enable/disable VSync.
# vsync = false
vsync = true
# Enable remote control via D-Bus. See the *D-BUS API* section below for more details.
# dbus = false
# Try to detect WM windows (a non-override-redirect window with no
# child that has 'WM_STATE') and mark them as active.
#
# mark-wmwin-focused = false
mark-wmwin-focused = true;
# Mark override-redirect windows that doesn't have a child window with 'WM_STATE' focused.
# mark-ovredir-focused = false
mark-ovredir-focused = true;
# Try to detect windows with rounded corners and don't consider them
# shaped windows. The accuracy is not very high, unfortunately.
#
# detect-rounded-corners = false
detect-rounded-corners = true;
# Detect '_NET_WM_OPACITY' on client windows, useful for window managers
# not passing '_NET_WM_OPACITY' of client windows to frame windows.
#
# detect-client-opacity = false
detect-client-opacity = true;
# Specify refresh rate of the screen. If not specified or 0, picom will
# try detecting this with X RandR extension.
#
# refresh-rate = 60
refresh-rate = 0
# Limit picom to repaint at most once every 1 / 'refresh_rate' second to
# boost performance. This should not be used with
# vsync drm/opengl/opengl-oml
# as they essentially does sw-opti's job already,
# unless you wish to specify a lower refresh rate than the actual value.
#
# sw-opti =
# Use EWMH '_NET_ACTIVE_WINDOW' to determine currently focused window,
# rather than listening to 'FocusIn'/'FocusOut' event. Might have more accuracy,
# provided that the WM supports it.
#
# use-ewmh-active-win = false
# Unredirect all windows if a full-screen opaque window is detected,
# to maximize performance for full-screen windows. Known to cause flickering
# when redirecting/unredirecting windows. paint-on-overlay may make the flickering less obvious.
#
# unredir-if-possible = false
# Delay before unredirecting the window, in milliseconds. Defaults to 0.
# unredir-if-possible-delay = 0
# Conditions of windows that shouldn't be considered full-screen for unredirecting screen.
# unredir-if-possible-exclude = []
# Use 'WM_TRANSIENT_FOR' to group windows, and consider windows
# in the same group focused at the same time.
#
# detect-transient = false
detect-transient = true
# Use 'WM_CLIENT_LEADER' to group windows, and consider windows in the same
# group focused at the same time. 'WM_TRANSIENT_FOR' has higher priority if
# detect-transient is enabled, too.
#
# detect-client-leader = false
detect-client-leader = true
# Resize damaged region by a specific number of pixels.
# A positive value enlarges it while a negative one shrinks it.
# If the value is positive, those additional pixels will not be actually painted
# to screen, only used in blur calculation, and such. (Due to technical limitations,
# with use-damage, those pixels will still be incorrectly painted to screen.)
# Primarily used to fix the line corruption issues of blur,
# in which case you should use the blur radius value here
# (e.g. with a 3x3 kernel, you should use `--resize-damage 1`,
# with a 5x5 one you use `--resize-damage 2`, and so on).
# May or may not work with *--glx-no-stencil*. Shrinking doesn't function correctly.
#
# resize-damage = 1
# Specify a list of conditions of windows that should be painted with inverted color.
# Resource-hogging, and is not well tested.
#
# invert-color-include = []
# GLX backend: Avoid using stencil buffer, useful if you don't have a stencil buffer.
# Might cause incorrect opacity when rendering transparent content (but never
# practically happened) and may not work with blur-background.
# My tests show a 15% performance boost. Recommended.
#
# glx-no-stencil = false
# GLX backend: Avoid rebinding pixmap on window damage.
# Probably could improve performance on rapid window content changes,
# but is known to break things on some drivers (LLVMpipe, xf86-video-intel, etc.).
# Recommended if it works.
#
# glx-no-rebind-pixmap = false
# Disable the use of damage information.
# This cause the whole screen to be redrawn everytime, instead of the part of the screen
# has actually changed. Potentially degrades the performance, but might fix some artifacts.
# The opposing option is use-damage
#
# no-use-damage = false
#use-damage = true (Causing Weird Black semi opaque rectangles when terminal is opened)
#Changing use-damage to false fixes the problem
use-damage = false
# Use X Sync fence to sync clients' draw calls, to make sure all draw
# calls are finished before picom starts drawing. Needed on nvidia-drivers
# with GLX backend for some users.
#
# xrender-sync-fence = false
# GLX backend: Use specified GLSL fragment shader for rendering window contents.
# See `compton-default-fshader-win.glsl` and `compton-fake-transparency-fshader-win.glsl`
# in the source tree for examples.
#
# glx-fshader-win = ''
# Force all windows to be painted with blending. Useful if you
# have a glx-fshader-win that could turn opaque pixels transparent.
#
# force-win-blend = false
# Do not use EWMH to detect fullscreen windows.
# Reverts to checking if a window is fullscreen based only on its size and coordinates.
#
# no-ewmh-fullscreen = false
# Dimming bright windows so their brightness doesn't exceed this set value.
# Brightness of a window is estimated by averaging all pixels in the window,
# so this could comes with a performance hit.
# Setting this to 1.0 disables this behaviour. Requires --use-damage to be disabled. (default: 1.0)
#
# max-brightness = 1.0
# Make transparent windows clip other windows like non-transparent windows do,
# instead of blending on top of them.
#
# transparent-clipping = false
# Set the log level. Possible values are:
# "trace", "debug", "info", "warn", "error"
# in increasing level of importance. Case doesn't matter.
# If using the "TRACE" log level, it's better to log into a file
# using *--log-file*, since it can generate a huge stream of logs.
#
# log-level = "debug"
log-level = "info";
# Set the log file.
# If *--log-file* is never specified, logs will be written to stderr.
# Otherwise, logs will to written to the given file, though some of the early
# logs might still be written to the stderr.
# When setting this option from the config file, it is recommended to use an absolute path.
#
# log-file = '/path/to/your/log/file'
# Show all X errors (for debugging)
# show-all-xerrors = false
# Write process ID to a file.
# write-pid-path = '/path/to/your/log/file'
# Window type settings
#
# 'WINDOW_TYPE' is one of the 15 window types defined in EWMH standard:
# "unknown", "desktop", "dock", "toolbar", "menu", "utility",
# "splash", "dialog", "normal", "dropdown_menu", "popup_menu",
# "tooltip", "notification", "combo", and "dnd".
#
# Following per window-type options are available: ::
#
# fade, shadow:::
# Controls window-type-specific shadow and fade settings.
#
# opacity:::
# Controls default opacity of the window type.
#
# focus:::
# Controls whether the window of this type is to be always considered focused.
# (By default, all window types except "normal" and "dialog" has this on.)
#
# full-shadow:::
# Controls whether shadow is drawn under the parts of the window that you
# normally won't be able to see. Useful when the window has parts of it
# transparent, and you want shadows in those areas.
#
# redir-ignore:::
# Controls whether this type of windows should cause screen to become
# redirected again after been unredirected. If you have unredir-if-possible
# set, and doesn't want certain window to cause unnecessary screen redirection,
# you can set this to `true`.
#
wintypes:
{
normal = { fade = true; shadow = true; }
tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = true; opacity = 0.75; focus = true; full-shadow = false; };
dock = { shadow = false; }
dnd = { shadow = false; }
popup_menu = { opacity = 0.8; }
dropdown_menu = { opacity = 0.8; }
};