how to hide UI on Linux

[mrtibs]

Hi,

I wanted to know if there is a way you can "hide" UI programs on Linux. So, I want to start nedit as a background job, but I don't want to see it; I want nedit to be completely invisible, but it has to be running. I do understand the basics of XWindows, but I'm not an expert on Linux.
I also want to know if this can be done in a script or in a program.

Thanks,
TM

[raghaven.kumar]

I found anwser in this link

see if it helps you
background process - The UNIX Forums

[wje_lf]

That won't help. It only addresses output that goes to standard output or standard error. It doesn't begin to deal with XWindow issues.

mrtibs, what's the situation? Why would you want it running if you can't interact with it?

[i92guboj]

That won't help. It only addresses output that goes to standard output or standard error. It doesn't begin to deal with XWindow issues.

mrtibs, what's the situation? Why would you want it running if you can't interact with it?

I don't understand the purpose of this either...

In any case, whether a window is or not mapped depends exclusively on the window manager you are using, it doesn't have anything to do with the X server. And no, I don't know of any WM that runs a program and doesn't map the window.

However, you could emulate this in fvwm (and probably kwin and a bunch of other WMs) by defining a custom style for the given application so it starts without title, without borders, and shaded. You might also need to configure it so it doesn't appear on the taskbar... Each WM has it's own way to do this.

Another way would be to define a style for the window, so it starts outside the screen bounds.

[mrtibs]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all replies.

Here is the exact problem. I'm trying to write my own Skype client. Unfortunately, Skype exposes its API directly through its client, instead of through a set of libraries. So, my program start the Skype client and it takes control of it. I want the Skype client to be invisible, and the good people from Skype didn't program it this way.

The only solution I see is to start a vncserver and to set the DISPLAY of the Skype client to that vnc.

Thanks,
Tiberiu

[i92guboj]

Hi everyone. Thanks for all replies.

Here is the exact problem. I'm trying to write my own Skype client. Unfortunately, Skype exposes its API directly through its client, instead of through a set of libraries. So, my program start the Skype client and it takes control of it. I want the Skype client to be invisible, and the good people from Skype didn't program it this way.

The only solution I see is to start a vncserver and to set the DISPLAY of the Skype client to that vnc.

Thanks,
Tiberiu

I see now. I never used skype really, so I can't be sure about this. But you should look at the sources of kmplayer or any other mplayer based program.

Mplayer does exactly the same: it doesn't have a proper api lib. So, the programs using mplayer just embed it in one or another way. The results are not so good usually, because mplayer acts on its own and it has not been designed to be embedded in any other application, but at least you might get some ideas on how to accomplish what you want.

[rockw99]

Hi Mrtibs,

Any luck in your project?

I also wander that what window manager can Skype support, because KDE and GNOME seem to be too heavy...can Skype run on twm or other light-weight window manager?

The other issue is how to hide or force the window manager to be executed in background. I think it need to search about the shell scripting techniques.