Identifying the Window Manager and Desktop Environment in Linux

1. Introduction

Customizing or troubleshooting a Linux system often requires understanding its graphical components. However, many of us find it challenging to distinguish between the Window Manager (WM) and Desktop Environment (DE), two key elements that shape how the system looks and works.

In this tutorial, we’ll first break down the differences between a Window Manager and a Desktop Environment. Later, we’ll discuss different methods to identify each.

2. Understanding the Window Manager and Desktop Environment

A Window Manager is a program that controls the placement, appearance, and behavior of windows on the screen. It determines how windows are arranged, resized, opened, or closed. The window manager also manages keyboard shortcuts for window navigation and can influence how applications behave when launched. For example, it handles the tasks of dragging a window, maximizing it, or switching between different windows.

On the other hand, a Desktop Environment is a complete suite of tools and applications that provide a fully functional graphical user interface (GUI). It includes the WM along with additional components like panels, menus, icons, and file managers. While WMs focus only on window handling, DEs enhance the user experience by integrating essential tools such as notification systems, system trays, and settings managers.

Some popular DEs are GNOME, KDE Plasma, XFCE, and MATE. Each DE has its unique look, feel, and set of features. For example, GNOME focuses on simplicity and modern design, while XFCE is lightweight and ideal for old hardware.

3. Identifying the Window Manager and Desktop Environment in Linux

In this section, we’ll explore different methods to determine the active Desktop Environment and Window Manager.

3.1. Using XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP Command

XDG, short for X Desktop Group, refers to a set of environment variables defined by the freedesktop.org project. These variables are crucial in identifying the current DE and ensuring compatibility and communication among various graphical components in Linux. Since this method relies on an environment variable, it provides a quick way to check the DE without requiring extra tools or permissions.

One such variable is XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP which we can use to determine the active Desktop Environment:

$ echo $XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP
XFCE

The echo command displays the value stored in the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP, which stores the name of the active DE. The dollar sign ($) ensures the shell interprets it as a variable instead of plain text.

In this case, the output XFCE confirms that we’re using the XFCE Desktop Environment.

3.2. Using /usr/bin/session Path

We can also check session files in the /usr/bin directory to identify the active DE. These files help determine which session manager is in use:

$ ls /usr/bin/*session

For instance, if XFCE is in use, the output might be:

/usr/bin/xfce4-session

Similarly, we can also list all available session files using:

$ ls /usr/share/xsessions
xfce.desktop

This command lists .desktop files associated with installed Desktop Environments. These files contain session-related configurations used by the display manager to start the appropriate DE.

3.3. Using the wmctrl Command

The wmctrl tool can be used to identify the Window Manager. It’s a command-line utility that interacts with the X Window system to fetch system-related information.

We can install it on a Debian-based distribution using:

For example, we can install it on a Debian-based distribution using:

$ sudo apt install wmctrl

and then running:

$ wmctrl -m
Name: xfwm4

Here, Name specifies the active Window Manager: xfwm4. This the default Window Manager for XFCE. The -m fetches the information directly from the system.

3.4. Using neofetch Command

Neofetch is a lightweight tool that gathers detailed information about the system and can identify both the DE and the WM.

It’s not installed by default, but we can install it depending on the Linux distribution.

For example, we can install it on a Debian-based distribution using:

$ sudo apt install neofetch

Once installed, running neofetch is simple:

$ neofetch | grep -e DE -e WM
DE: XFCE 4.18
WM: XFWM4

Here, the output specifies the DE as XFCE and the WM as XFWM4.

3.5. Using a Graphical User Interface (GUI)

Many DEs provide built-in system information tools to check both the DE and the WM through a graphical interface.

For example, in XFCE we can find this information in the system settings under the About section:

The image confirms that we’re using XFCE Desktop Environment and xfwm4 Window Manager.

4. Conclusion

Identifying the Desktop Environment and Window Manager in Linux is essential for customization, troubleshooting, and performance optimization.

In this article, we first discussed the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP variable, which provides a quick way to check the DE. We also used the /usr/bin/session and /usr/share/xsessions directories to find session-related files that indicate the installed and active DE.

For identifying the Window Manager, we used the wmctrl command, which directly fetches the name of the active WM. Additionally, neofetch provides a simple way to display both DE and WM together. Lastly, we noted that, given our distribution, there may be a GUI that tells us this information.