Configure Grid of Running Apps on Home Screen

General
#1

Hi all,

I would like to change the arrangement of the open apps on the Home screen of my Sailfish X (Xperia XA2). More precisely, I would like to have the 3x3 grid each time when the amount of running apps is smaller than 10. Put differently, if the number of apps running is lower than 5, I would like to have the 3x3 grid view instead of the 2x2 default.

Obviously, I could just randomly start some apps to have 5 to 9 running and the Home screen would display them in the 3x3 grid format, but this would affect power usage. To what extent I am unable to say, but this drawback seems unnecessary and avoidable to me, when simply changing some characters and/or digits in the code could yield a solution.

I came across the following Sailfish OS Cheat https://sailfishos.org/wiki/Sailfish_OS_Cheat_Sheet#Homescreen
and had a look at ~/.config/lipstick/applications.menu , but this seems to relate to the App Grid screen and the order of the apps installed (in contrast to running apps).

Is it possible to change the running app grid and if so, where should I look?

#2

Check https://coderus.openrepos.net/pm2/project/force-3x3 it’s pretty old and might require some tweaking but basic changes should be similar

1 Like
#3

Thank you very much, with your hint I successfully changed the running apps default grid on the Home screen to 3x3, on Sailfish OS 4.0.1.48 (Koli) on Xperia XA2 - Dual SIM.

The linked patch modifies the file /usr/share/lipstick-jolla-home-qt5/switcher/Switcher.qml at two places, one line each.

At lines 403ff,

             }

             function doUpdateColumns() {
                 var cols = switcherGrid.largeColumns
                 if (switcherGrid.allowSmallCovers && switcherModel.itemCount > switcherGrid.largeItemCount)
                     cols = switcherGrid.smallColumns
                 if (cols !== switcherGrid.columns) {

and lines 428ff,

                 NumberAnimation { target: switcherItems; property: "opacity"; to: 0.0; duration: 200 }
                 ScriptAction {
                     script: {
                         var cols = switcherGrid.largeColumns
                         if (switcherGrid.allowSmallCovers && switcherModel.itemCount > switcherGrid.largeItemCount)
                             cols = switcherGrid.smallColumns
                         switcherGrid.columns = cols

change both lines 406 and 431 from var cols = switcherGrid.largeColumns to:

var cols = switcherGrid.smallColumns

Then, standard grid for open apps shown at Home screen will be 3x3, even with less than five open applications.