# Tiling Window Managers XComposite No Windows Found



## beastwick (Aug 13, 2015)

Hi, I am using Obs on Linux and prefer to use tiling window managers. I've noticed that under Xmonad I cannot select a window (xcomposite). The window list remains empty and I suspect this has to do with the way Xmonad handles or spawns those windows. They might not be given titles, etc. as there are no title or handle bars.

I am not sure if this problem occurs in other tiling managers, but it is something I wanted to point out.


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## Ranko Kohime (Aug 17, 2015)

Even windows without title bars should still have some xproperties.  Run xprop from a terminal, and click on a window to see these properties for a specific window, if you're curious.

That being said, I'm running Awesome with nothing else, and it picks up windows just fine.  It might be something that Xmonad specifically is doing?


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## zenobs (Sep 14, 2015)

Having the same problem with i3-wm.org. OBS does not show up any window (xcomposite). Shall try with awesome (though I like i3 better).


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## admalledd (Sep 14, 2015)

I have no problem with xcomposite showing list of things/tiles/windows to capture on i3-wm. Only issue is "background" windows (which are listed but cannot be captured) which render as giant red blocks (see: https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/obs-xcomposite-problem.23652/ for more info)


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## zenobs (Sep 19, 2015)

For i3-wm users, I posted a workout:

https://obsproject.com/forum/thread...-issues-ubuntu-gnome-14-04.35811/#post-165955


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## pjf (Jan 2, 2017)

Apologies that I'm raising an old thread here, but it's also the first result in many search engines for "xmonad obs", and I come bearing a solution. :)

By default, xmonad doesn't enable support for Extended Window Manager Hints (ewmh) which is used by obs and other tools like wmctrl to list active windows. Luckily, it's pretty easy to add with the following steps:


import `Xmonad.Hooks.EwmhDesktops` into your xmonad.hs
When creating the xmonad object, use `ewmh defaultConfig` which will add appropriate ewmh support hooks as required.
You can see a working example in this commit to my own xmonad.hs file.

Enjoy!


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