Run Applications

In i3wm, the best choice is dmenu.

The following tools are only for Xfce Desktop Environment.

The built-in Application Finder on Xfce4 has a collapsed version, which is activated with shortcut key Alt-F2. It's by far the most convenient app launcher. It can remember you input history and auto-complete next time you input it. And it can run any executable scripts in your $PATH.

So you can easily run you custom scripts with Alt-F2 in Xfce DE.

Some examples

First add PATH="$PATH:$HOME/.local/bin" into you ~/.zshenv file.

Chromium with proxy settings:

cat << EOF > ~/.local/bin/chrom
export http_proxy=https://localhost:1080
export https_proxy=https://localhost:1080
chromium-browser
EOF
chmod 755 ~/.local/bin/chrom

For the first time run chromium browser, press Alt-F2 and input chrom. Next time just press Alt-F2 and input ch, app finder will auto-complete and press key to start the browser.

Wechat (微信) wrapped in electron:

cat << EOF > ~/.local/bin/wechat
$HOME/apps/electronic-wechat-linux-x64/electronic-wechat
EOF
chmod 755 ~/.local/bin/wechat

Start the app with Alt-F2 and wechat.

Wiznote in AppImage format:

cat << EOF > ~/.local/bin/wiznote
$HOME/apps/WizNote-2.5.9-x86_64.AppImage
EOF
chmod 755 ~/.local/bin/wiznote

Start the app with Alt-F2 and wiznote.

File browser and web searcher

The best one is Ulauncher. Download its deb installer and install manually. The default activation key shortcut is Ctrl-Space, which may conflicted with input method. You can modify it to Alt-j for example.

The following exo-open also works. But the UE and extensibility can't compared with ulauncher.

exo-open

exo-open is a powerful and build-in command-line launcher in Xfce, like Executor on Windows. You can see man exo-open or http://docs.xfce.org/xfce/xfce4-appfinder/preferences for details. For example, the difference of %s and %S.

Custom Actions

You can define some custom actions in Application Finder, then trigger it with "Alt + F2" and some text. Defining custom actions like as follows:

Application Finder(Alt + F3) -> Preferences(A button on Application Finder window) -> Custom Actions:

search things with web browser

Type: Prefix Pattern: s. Command: firefox 'http://www.bing.com/search?q=%s'

or: exo-open --launch WebBrowser 'http://www.google.com.hk/search?q=%s' note: you can try to start google search from command line by some script, see http://www.if-not-true-then-false.com/2009/google-search-from-linux-and-unix-command-line/

Run a terminal command

this is a build-in example in Mint 14. Type: Prefix Pattern: ! Command: exp-open --launch TerminalEmulator %s note: so you can write a file in vi by this: Alt + F2, !vi

open a directory

Type: Prefix Pattern: / Command: exo-open --launch FileManager %S

Note1: here if you input "/opt/jre-1.6", then the first charactor "/" is part of your command, so you have to use %S instead of %s.

Note2: you can use keyboard to location folders in Thunar, the file manager of Xfce.

Open SVN Repository with rabbitvcs

Type: Prefix Pattern: svn. Command: rabbitvcs browser http://10.0.2.59:8118/svn/%s

Note: you have to install rabbitvcs with apt-get.

Run a GUI app

Application Finder(Alt + F3) -> keyboard -> Application Shortcuts:

1. Click "Add";

2. Command: "exo-open --launch FileManager /home/chad/apps/eclipse-java-juno-SR2-linux-gtk/eclipse", or "exo-open './docs/learn_you_erlang.pdf'", or "exo-open --launch TerminalEmulator xfce4-terminal --fullscreen" to open terminal in fullscreen mode, man xfce4-terminal for full launch options;

3. Press "OK";

4. Shortcuts: press key combinations you choose;

gmrun (deprecated)

Install it with the name "gmrun" in Software Manager;

You can use ! to turn on "Search" mode to search in your command history;

Ctrl+Enter works fine for terminal command (like vi, or you can append "read -p somePromp" to your command to prevent window vanish);

verve

It can be embedded into pannel;

Add a command "verve-focus" to "Keyboard -> Application Shortcuts" to focus verve with a keyboard shortcut;

Install it with the name "verve" in Software Manager (full name is "xfce4-verve-plugin);

Ctrl+Enter (run command in terminal) does not work;