PCLinuxOS Openbox Bonsai 2010.11<s>.13</s> who wants to test ?

[melodie]

You will be happy to know that Midori has been updated from git and it fixed the dropdown menu crash.

Hello Texstar,

Most happy thanks ! I'll look for it in the repos.

Else I was thinking about asking again (I think I did last year) a new package for Kazehakase. I liked it some time ago : http://kazehakase.sourceforge.jp/

[jlf001]

Hi Mélodie,

The new PCMan you had me test, is great.  I had to reconfigure your autostart.sh file and removed your .xsession file from the /home/user folder, but now when I right click on the desktop, I am able to add wall paper using PCMan.  By the way, a right click no longer shows the openbox menu.  You get a desktop manager with a Desktop Preferences option.  There are other options available also, like New and Paste.  I've also added Icons to the desktop.

Jeff

[melodie]

Hi Mélodie,

The new PCMan you had me test, is great.  I had to reconfigure your autostart.sh file and removed your .xsession file from the /home/user folder, but now when I right click on the desktop, I am able to add wall paper using PCMan.  By the way, a right click no longer shows the openbox menu.  You get a desktop manager with a Desktop Preferences option.  There are other options available also, like New and Paste.  I've also added Icons to the desktop.

Jeff

Jeff, restore the .xession file from /etc/skel, and just keep the autostart.sh file reconfiguration. Openbox is started *from .xession* which is started itself *from GDM*. (Do you still have windows ? )

Do as USER:

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$ cp /etc/skel/.xsession /home/user
Then check permissions. It should belong to user.user and be 755.

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$ ls -l .xsession
-rwxr-xr-x 1 melodie melodie 51 2010-08-13 19:16 .xsession*
What did you change exactly in the .autostart.sh file ? To know this would help me a great deal to figure out how to get all this up with a new PCManFM. I am seriously thinking of putting theses testing packages in the next Openbox Mini. You may have noticed Lxpanel is now the newest as well, as is pulled in along with other testing packages.

To get back the Openbox right click menu, this should be done with "openbox --reconfigure" and right-click menu should appear again (unless you deactivated menu-cached in autostart.sh file).

[nixer]

I wanted to say that I have installed RC 1.5, added some simple programs, and been browsing the web for a couple of hours now and I have not had a problem at all. 

The resolvconf and opendns servers are working fine.  It is working great and I will test it more later on.

[melodie]

I wanted to say that I have installed RC 1.5, added some simple programs, and been browsing the web for a couple of hours now and I have not had a problem at all.  

The resolvconf and opendns servers are working fine.  It is working great and I will test it more later on.

Thanks nixer.

I am still hoping Jeff will tell us his secret about autostart.sh file with PCManFM 0.9.7 ^^
I would start from that in the Virtualbox install, then try it on hard drive, and if all gets to work normally, then maybe remaster to RC2 ?

What do you think ? Jeff ?

/Edit : I found out where to start with this new PCManFM. I'll give news soon.

[jlf001]

I am still hoping Jeff will tell us his secret about autostart.sh file with PCManFM 0.9.7 ^^
I would start from that in the Virtualbox install, then try it on hard drive, and if all gets to work normally, then maybe remaster to RC2 ?

What do you think ? Jeff ?

/Edit : I found out where to start with this new PCManFM. I'll give news soon.

Hi Mélodie,

I just got home from work and have a couple of chores to do.  Mow the yard for one!    I'll get back to you soon.

Jeff

[melodie]

Hi Jeff, don't mow too low ! Be nice with ants and butterfly eggs ! ^^

It's all ok, I have succeeded to fix things in Virtualbox, I'll do a test with a RC2 next, to see if I can now remove the sleep options to start pcmanfm. I even got back a "Home" as before on Desktop. (I made a desktop file for this purpose).

See you all soon.
Regards,
Mélodie

[gseaman]

I'm finally caught up enough to test features. I have rc1 installed. No desktop wallpaper after installing, but was there with the livecd. I have tried to follow all of the discussion, but without a working desktop, I was not able to make sense of most of it. I can re-read it and apply any recommended changes or just wait for rc2 and try to help from there.

Galen

[jlf001]

Hi Jeff, don't mow too low ! Be nice with ants and butterfly eggs ! ^^

It's all ok, I have succeeded to fix things in Virtualbox, I'll do a test with a RC2 next, to see if I can now remove the sleep options to start pcmanfm. I even got back a "Home" as before on Desktop. (I made a desktop file for this purpose).

See you all soon.
Regards,
Mélodie

Ok, I'm back.  Glad I have a small yard.  Here's my autostart.sh file:

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# D-bus
if which dbus-launch >/dev/null && test -z "$DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS"; then
       eval `dbus-launch --sh-syntax --exit-with-session`
fi

## Desktop environment

# Desktop icons - home made script
# Icones du bureau - script maison

# Commented out
# /usr/local/bin/pcmanfm-start.sh &

# Added
pcmanfm --desktop &

# a panel is useful but in this version it is started from ~/.xsession file
# un panel est utile mais dans cette version il est demarre depuis le fichier
# ~/.xsession -qui tient lieu de .xinitrc
# tint2 &
# fbpanel &
# /usr/local/bin/lxpanel-start.sh &
# sleep 1

# menu-cache for openbox-menu
# menu-cache pour openbox-menu

# Commented out
#/usr/lib/menu-cached &

# Commented out
# sleep 1

# a random desktop background. There can be one only, it
# works with the same command line
# un fond d'écran pris au hasard dans le dossier wallpapers
# feh --bg-scale "$(find ~/.local/wallpapers -type f)" &
# feh --bg-scale "$(find ~/.local/wallpapers -type f |sort -R |tail -1)" &

# Added
lxpanel &

# volume of sound
# réglage du son
# volumeicon &

#sleep 1

# Added Clipboard manager
parcellite &

#sleep 1

# net_applet
net_applet &

#sleep 1

# nice transparency and fadings
# jolis fondus et transparence
# xcompmgr -CfF &

# conky
# conky &

# no fadings - with transparency
# sans fondus et avec transparence
# xcompmgr -C &

# the screen will be off if inactive during 10 minutes
# on éteint l'écran après 10mn d'inactivité
# xset dpms 0 0 600 &

# Added Gkrellm
gkrellm &

Note that I have a complete desktop and do not need the .xsession file.  Also, on initial logon, I had no wallpaper. Once I right clicked and selected the new "Desktop Preferences" option, I was able to add wallpaper to the desktop.  By the way, a new file was created in /home/guest/pcmanfm called pcmanfm.conf that held my desktop wallpaper.

Jeff

Edit:  It looks like your .xsession file is what starts openbox.  Since I don't have the .xsession file, what is starting openbox?

[jlf001]

Here's a snapshot of my latest Desktop:

http://img10.imageshack.us/i/pcman097.png/

Jeff

[melodie]

Hi Jeff,

It's probably GDM that starts openbox when no .xsession is at work. The lxpanel can still be started from .xsession though, it seems that at least  in Virtualbox this is the most sure way to get it started the right way (that's to say with several desktops on the pager).

For next version I'll keep the .xsession, the autostart.sh, with a slight change that I also found out and without changing the right-click menu. Btw, menu-cached also allows Lxpanel to update it's menus... I'd leave it.

Else, a panel is not really needed nor the panel menus and the /usr/local/bin/shutdown-dialog.py script : they are here just for decoration, but the right-click menus function are provided by the program openbox-menu, and that is the lightest on resources. You can see that here.

To start the PCManFM Desktop preferences window, you can type from console:

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$ pcmanfm --desktop-pref
(This option seems not to be available in pcmanfm 0.5.2)

To get all help options : "pcmanfm --help-all". Just great ! There is a bunch of possibilities, and I don't have the first idea what they can be used for.

See you for the next version !!! ^^
(I will use "--desktop --daemon-mode &" pcmanfm options in autostart.sh ).

By the way, there is a bug at my install : on laptop thinkpad T30, with wireless card and Ethernet, the wireless is chosen first and covers the Ethernet (which is plugged in). Would someone have an idea why eth0 is up first and tries to reach the wireless connection, preventing me from accessing the web as long as I don't "ifconfig eth0 down" in root console ?

The card is a Intersil Corporation Prism 2.5 Wavelan chipset. The Ethernet card is Intel ICH3 that uses e100 driver.

I'd be curious to know more about the mechanism of auto detection in PCLinuxOS, for what this subject is concerned...

[melodie]

I'm finally caught up enough to test features. I have rc1 installed. No desktop wallpaper after installing, but was there with the livecd. I have tried to follow all of the discussion, but without a working desktop, I was not able to make sense of most of it. I can re-read it and apply any recommended changes or just wait for rc2 and try to help from there.

Galen

Thank you very much Galen. Well with Openbox, even if the background is black it doesn't mean you can't get anything. In fact, thanks to openbox-menu there are fully functional menus when you right-click anywhere on the desktop.

Otherwise, you would get classic Openbox menus that are considered hard to deal with because all entries are written in files and many don't work if the program isn't installed, or if you don't configure the files yourself : one menu by one menu, be it with obmenu (gui) or whatever editor. (edit menu.xml and rc.xml files to get each and one application you use in the right-click menu : for me no joy and that's the only reason why I waited very long before coming to Openbox Window manager as a standalone environment).

So what happens when you right-click on the black desktop ? Please look at theses menus...
(And do start the File Manager ?)

RC2 : I am remastering now but I may have to remaster it several times before uploading it, incase the setup for panel and background in live mode needs polishing and refining again.
I have added PCManFM 0.9.7, and you can browse in all directories from the list mode view, as Jeff told us. That works...

[gseaman]

Yes, I can get complete menus from right clicking on the black desktop, and from the panel at the bottom of the screen. I may play around with Jeff's autostart.sh if I have time before the next release. I will update if I discover anything interesting.

Galen

[melodie]

Yes, I can get complete menus from right clicking on the black desktop, and from the panel at the bottom of the screen. I may play around with Jeff's autostart.sh if I have time before the next release. I will update if I discover anything interesting.

Galen

Hi,

He upgraded pcmanfm from testing, so the situation is very different (The commands for the new version are different). In your case with this RC1 version just edit this file as root:

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# /usr/local/bin/pcmanfm-start.sh
It's a simple script I made following an advise parnote gave me. To do this you can open a console as root and start leafpad:

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#leafpad /usr/local/bin/pcmanfm-start.sh
Change "sleep 4" (or was it "sleep 3" ? to "sleep 6" or even "sleep 10" if your machine has a really very slow cpu. Then let us know how it goes. The "sleep" tells how long "pcmanfm -d" must wait before starting.

I suppose in RC2 the problem might come back because I don't know if the new PCManFM is much faster to start than the old one, or not... I will test it in live vbox and installed vbox anyhow, and on Live USB as well before uploading it.

Regards,
Mélodie


PS: speaking of CPU : what are the specs for this machine please ?

[jlf001]

See you for the next version !!! ^^
(I will use "--desktop --daemon-mode &" pcmanfm options in autostart.sh ).

Thanks for all the information you provided.  I'm learning a lot here.

I look forward to RC2,

Jeff