In a previous post, I provided steps to install skippy: Linux software that provides OS X Expose-like functionality in a Linux distribution.
However, skippy is no longer in development and has been forked into a more advanced and modern Linux software called skippy-xd.
The following post will provide steps to compile, install, and use skippy-xd.
Compile from Source
The following compile process has been successfully tested on Fedora 17.
Install the following repository packages:
yum install libXcomposite libXcomposite-devel libXdamage libXdamage-devel libXfixes libXfixes-devel libXft libXft-devel libXinerama libXinerama-devel libXmu libXmu-devel libXrender libXrender-devel mercurial
Checkout the latest source code:
hg clone https://code.google.com/p/skippy-xd/
Change into the checked out directory:
cd ~/skippy-xd/
Compile and install the binary:
make
sudo make install
User Setup
A default skippy-xd configuration file is included in the source and needs to be copied to your user’s .config directory (this may be different on non-Fedora distributions) with the following command:
cp ~/skippy-xd/skippy-xd.rc-default ~/.config/skippy-xd/skippy-xd.rc
Unlike skippy, mapping skippy-xd to a hotkey is not done through the skippy-xd.rc file; it is done through whatever window manager you are currently using.
Using skippy-xd
To begin using skippy-xd, run skippy-xd from your shell. skippy-xd will run once and then quit. This can be mapped to a hotkey through your window manager’s hotkey configuration.
skippy-xd does not render the active windows properly. Basic functionality works such as window selection and displaying window labels on mouse over, but windows are not fully rendered when skippy-xd is running.
