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Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 08 Dec 2011, 17:31
by Ahau
Thanks, justwantin, and you're welcome!

I agree about mousepad. it's included for now, but may not stick around.

A module containing the following apps is now up (for both 32 and 64-bit):
midori+adobe flashplayer
mousepad (text editor)
postler (mail client -- probably broken, but give it a shot)
ristretto (image viewer)
squeeze (archiver)
xfburn (cd burner)

Enjoy!

Posted after 1 day 21 hour 31 minute 47 seconds:
I've just pushed an updated module for XFCE, I'm calling this a second beta. See the changelog in the first post of this thread for more info, and for a download link.

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 09 Dec 2011, 17:17
by Hamza
Hello,

I have a problem using FileZilla 3.5.2 (x86_64).
If I uses it for auto sync with the server..when I did 5 or 6 syncs, I get a freeze from FileZilla GUI.
I think this bug is related to GTK or something else and not directly related to wonderful Ahau's works.

I can't give you more information about the issue, before to use the Ahau's XFCE Desktop. I didn't got this type of freeze with Fz 3.5.2.

Regards,

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 09 Dec 2011, 21:56
by crashman
hi ahau

Your job is excelent XFCE 4.8 work without problems !!!

I like Midori is great idea, medit is better than mousepad or leafpad.

I dont like big menu right clicked on konqueror or thunar 'mount' tool in menu is neccesery ?

Best regards

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 10 Dec 2011, 04:10
by fanthom
few bugs/suggestions and notes about XFCE-4.8 beta.

small bugs:
- PPM from the taskbar started when i thicked 'run from terminal'
- had to wait long time for thunar to start up when run from taskbar (waited 5 mins and it started immediatelly after click)
- xfce menu: 'Mail Reader' and 'Web browser' asks for choosing default application (could be set already)
- Clippman is an usefull app and could be launched automatically when XFCE starts
- 'slackyd -d' found 15 missing deps (devel and firefox modules were not activated during check). kcm_adobe_flash_player.so (flash settings which works only with KDE settings centre) is calling for Qt and KDE libs so could be stripped off perhaps? that would solve half of missing deps.
- default page in midiori could be set to porteus forum - same as in firefox
- number of workspaces could be reduced to 2 (to take less space on the taskbar)

most serious bug:
- xfce-apps contains /etc/ld.so.conf which overrides one from 001-core!!

upstream changes which gonna affect /etc/rc.d/init.d/xfce.sh
- (as you know already) dbus session is not exported in 64bit .bashrc anymore
- all 'su - -c ' references in scripts like activate/deactivate and /usr/share/applications/*.desktop are replaced with 'ktsuss application' (not sure how it will deal with xfce panel)

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 10 Dec 2011, 18:09
by Ahau
Thanks, all! I'll get to work on those bugs and other fixes :)

@crashman, I like medit too, I've been trying to compile it for 32-bits (all repos I've seen only have it for 64), and have had a little trouble there -- it's compiling for me now, but it's twice as big as the binary I downloaded for 64-bit, so I have some tweaking to do :) I also don't use the 'mount module' and 'unmount module' menu items in konqueror/thunar. I think I'll drop them unless someone complains. I do this from the command line with mloop.

@fanthom, I'd picked up on an affect of /etc/ld.so.conf (slackyd -d was giving me crazy missing dependencies), and already fixed that on my end without updating on the server (I din't realize this was the issue). One of the packages I built must include it, because I resolved it just by changing the way I built the module. Instead of putting all packages in a directory and using installpkg --root /path/to/fakeroot *.txz, I started doing: for x in `ls |grep txz`; do txz2xzm $x $x.xzm; done, followed by: mkdir temp; for x in `ls |grep xzm`; do xzm2dir $x temp; sleep 2; done, and finally dir2xzm temp module.xzm. The txz2xzm script must not copy over the ld.so.conf :)

can you give me a little more detail please, on this one:
"- PPM from the taskbar started when i thicked 'run from terminal'"
I can't recreate it, I don't see anything in my task bar that says 'run from terminal', and the closest thing to that I see is "Run Program..." at the top, and it seems to function normally.

I haven't been able to recreate the thunar bug (long wait to start) but I'll keep trying...

I found another bug, and I'm not sure if it's related to my build, upstream XFCE, or poor slack package creation -- when I install some txz packages via installpkg, if they include /usr/share/icons/hicolor/index.theme and a doinst.sh that calls /usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/hicolor, then it messes up several icons in XFCE. This does not appear to be the case in KDE. Running this as /usr/bin/gtk-update-icon-cache -f /usr/share/icons/hicolor resolves the issue, so I'm working on a global fix, maybe a bashrc alias to force the -f option.

Thanks again, everyone!

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 11 Dec 2011, 03:17
by francois
For your information.
A great idea to build xfce 4.8 for porteus. For your information this version of the desktop is available on debian wheezy (debian testing).

They are still debugging 4.8. But it is already functional.

Wallpapers.
It comes with an array of wonderfull wallpapers. Are wallpapers gnu also? If its the cas we could borrow some.

Ahau's xfce.
Congratulations. With xfce 4.8 we could say that porteus is on the bleeding edge in terms of desktop environment. With transparency it xfce looks very good.

Contrary to the first version with which I worked from optional folder, I have been trying Ahau's xfce 4.8 beta2 with a save changes folder. At second boot, I get into cli mode. And then, I am unable to keep the changes, except by building thoses changes into a module. Brokenman as announced such a feature for rc 1.1 from CLI:
save-changes /path/to/save/your/changes.xzm
http://forum.porteus.org/viewtopic.php? ... 6&start=10

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 11 Dec 2011, 03:35
by fanthom
@Ahau
can you give me a little more detail please, on this one:
"- PPM from the taskbar started when i thicked 'run from terminal'"
right mouse click on thunar icon -> go to properties -> mark 'run from terminal' option
I haven't been able to recreate the thunar bug
i have tried XFCE on one PC (so far) without internet access - could it be this issue? i'll try to reproduce it on another one.

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 11 Dec 2011, 17:36
by Ahau
@francois, thank you so much for testing! I've not been able to reproduce the issue you are having with logging in the second time with saved changes. I suspect it has something to do with my modifications to /etc/rc.d/rc.4, but I can't seem to reproduce it here. If you have time, would you please tell me the following:
-whether this is occurring in the 32-bit edition, 64-bit edition, or both
-whether your saved changes folder is newly created when you start, or if it contains saved changes from kde and/or lxde, etc
-what version of Porteus you are running (1.0, or 1.1)
-what filesystem you are using for your saved changes folder
-whether you are running as guest or root
-what modules you have active (uploading the output of psinfo to pastebin would be useful)
Please also watch the text that rolls through your screen during bootup. Just after module activation/insertion, but before "going multiuser" you should see a couple lines that mention modifying the system to boot properly into XFCE; done, system should start when you enter init 4". If there are any errors shown there, please let me know what they say, and also any errors that show up when you would expect the system to start loading the desktop environment.

While trying to reproduce this bug, I did find another one, and have fixed it on my snapshot -- if you use saved changes and the 'toroot' cheatcode, the system will continue to boot into root user on subsequent boot-ups, even if you don't use the 'toroot' cheatcode. I added a line to change this back to guest if 'toroot' is not in place.


@fanthom - When I check the box to make Thunar run in terminal mode, it does not launch PPM. It opens a Terminal very quickly and then shuts it down as soon as Thunar opens. This doesn't seem to be appropriate behavior, but apparently Thunar is set to always run in the background -- if I run it from a Terminal, even without '&', it opens Thunar and returns a prompt in the Terminal.

Regarding the slow startup, your lack of internet access may be related, because thunar is set to find remote volumes. Please do test on a different machine (I've run it without internet access here without issues) - I also wonder if it might have something to do with the bug present in the apps module. Please also test it with 'noload=xfce-apps'.

Thanks again, everyone!

EDIT: Another bug found in xfce-apps: flashplayer won't work without the firefox module activated. This is because flashplayer can't find the seamonkey libs. I've added symlinks to point to them in /usr/lib{64}; I've also added commands to remove the kde-only library from my flashplayer package. Thanks fanthom!

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 13 Dec 2011, 15:19
by Rava
francois wrote:For your information.
A great idea to build xfce 4.8 for porteus. For your information this version of the desktop is available on debian wheezy (debian testing).

They are still debugging 4.8. But it is already functional.
I know I jump in here quite late, but...

What's with http://connie.slackware.com/~rworkman/x ... es/x86_64/
It's Slackware based, x86-64 and XFCe 4.8. :)

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 13 Dec 2011, 15:34
by Ahau
@ Rava, I'm using Robby Workman's sources and slackbuilds to put together my XFCE module, and I have no reason or intention of switching to another source, unless someday he stops updating the files on his server.

That said, I'm very open to inspiration, and I'll check out other implementations of XFCE (I have Vector linux installed on my flash drive --it's Slackware based and uses Robby's XFCE build as well, and I will probably look at Xubuntu as well, which is probably similar to Debian's version).

I just rebuilt all of the XFCE deps and core packages yesterday for an upcoming 3rd beta, but have a number of fixes and customizations to add before it will hit the server...

Thanks!

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 13 Dec 2011, 16:29
by Rava
Just to clear all uncertainties here.... with "Robby Workman's sources" you mean the same source that I posted as URL, yes, since that one is called "~rworkman".

Did I get that right?

//edit
Silly me, you posted the very same URL in the initial post of this thread. Please just ignore me being... strange. :)

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 13 Dec 2011, 22:54
by Ahau
No worries :)

Yes, that is the site from which I am downloading the source code and the build scripts (not the binary packages). I have written a script that makes some modifications to the build scripts and runs them all sequentially, so I enter a couple of directory paths and wind up with 50+ packages. Mr. Workman seems to be very much on top of keeping everything up to date.

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 14 Dec 2011, 21:08
by brokenman
Thumbs up from me. You are all doing a great job with xfce. I hope to learn the ins and outs of it after i compile the next Trinity.

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 16 Dec 2011, 07:16
by Ahau
New release has hit the google code page -- beta 3 for the XFCE module.

Notable changes: rc.4 is now directly overwritten -- francois, hopefully this resolves your saved-changes issues.
New SLiM theme with a porteus wallpaper -- thanks to brokenman for creating the image (I swiped it from 32-bit standard porteus)
New wallpaper and theme

New cheatcode -- 'opaque'. enter this if you would like to disable all compositing effects on startup (in case you don't like transparency and shadows, or have older equipment that doesn't play nice with it).

I wrote a helper script that tries to guess your sound hardware and sets up the mixer and mixer-plugin for it. please, please test this, and let me know if your sound card is correctly identified and set up, or if you have to change to another sound card.

Thanks, all!

Re: XFCE - collaboration thread to produce a Porteus module

Posted: 17 Dec 2011, 13:11
by francois
@Ahau:
1) Testing xfce 4.8 porteus 1.1 rc with frugal install.
Using 3rd Beta release for the 32-bit core XFCE module does a better job. But there is still problems.

Working without no other than xfce module in /module folder hhis was and this is still the menu.lst that I use:

Code: Select all

title porteus v11_32 on sda7/32bit_v11rc1 XFCE 4.8 from modules with changes
kernel (hd0,6)/32bit_v11/boot/vmlinuz from_dev=/dev/sda7 from_dir=/32bit_v11/porteus toroot xfce changes=/mnt/sda7/32bit_v11/XFCE_cfg autoexec=xconf;telinit~4 max_loop=256
initrd=(hd0,6)/32bit_v11/boot/initrd.xz
boot
A. AFTER A FIRST ROUND OF SAVING AND REBOOTING XFCE

1.1) Bugs.
None.

1.2) Great asset.
Adding ca to /root/.config/autostart/xkb.desktop:

Code: Select all

Exec=setxkbmap -layout ca,us,de,ru -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
I get the multilingual keyboard (includes french in Canada). It has never been that easy. 8)


2) Looking at other xfce 4.8 distributions:
You will say that the following comment is no surprise. None of the other distribution is as fast booting and as easy to work with in root mode as porteus. However, it is good to look around. Ubuntu offers a very large array of packages that could be easily installed with the apt-get or synaptic package manager.

I wonder if this could be offset with some good slackware sources lists for already built slackware packages?

- debian wheezy xfce 4.8 is based on gnome3. There is no way you could work root within the desktop environment. Or if there is a way no one is ready to give the information on the debian forum. I found no way to get rid of the login manager called gnome-control-center-data.
- debian without gnome3 would be possible. It seems quite simple to achieve according to the following comments by xfcelav:
http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=5926
-xubuntu 11.10 xfce 4.8 as wheezy is based on gnome3 with the same problem. However xubuntu xfce 4.8 was already present in the xubuntu 11,04 in the last spring that came with gdm. For gdm it is possible to boot root directly:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=73368

- I might try zenlive 7.0 that came with the xfce 4.8 desktop environment since last spring.

3) Transparency and movies.
The feature that I like most with xfce 4.8 is transparency. However, there was a comment written by gradinaruvasile stating that transparency ask for high CPU usage and causes tearing in movies. This happens with nvidia cards and nvidia drivers for both xv and vdpau:
http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=73432

Posted after 5 hours 56 minutes 57 seconds:
B. AFTER A FEW BOOTUPS OF SAVING AND REBOOTING XFCE.

1) First boot up.

To keep changes you need to xfce panel > settings > Session and Startup > logout Settings > automatically save session on logout
1.1) Bugs.
- In xfce panel > panel > add new items:
. the calculator icon is mega huge in size
. the icons fow window button and window menu are missing
- clicking on an item of the panel to remove it the dialog box is caught under the already opened windows of the desktop save file XFCE_cfg and restart anew the modifications of the desktop environment.
- xkb.desktop file is not read after changes at next bootup, but still an asset for me to access canadian multilingual keyboard. After some time I loose the functionality of the ca keyboard and get the message:
Plugin "Keyboard Layouts" unexpectedly left the panel, do you want to restart it?
It will not restart. Next bootup the keyboard icon is no more on the xfce panel. But Clicking on the file /root/.config/autostart/xkb.desktop I get the ca keyboard function, but the icon does not still show in the panel
- /root/.config/autostart does not seem to work because my script for dual display which is in it has to be executed manually after bootup to get the dual display option.
2) After a few boots.
. I do not get no more into the X environment. A cli login is proposed. There is an error message before the login:
Starting up X11 session manage Slim: another instance is already PID 5478.
If I reboot, the message does not necessarily appear a second time. It reboots in the xfce desktop environment.
. the partitions are no longer mounted with their content in tunar. They have to be mounted manually in cli mode:

Code: Select all

root@porteus:~# mount /dev/sda7 /mnt/sda7
root@porteus:~# 
1.2) Great asset.
- Adding ca to /root/.config/autostart/xkb.desktop:

Code: Select all

   Exec=setxkbmap -layout ca,us,de,ru -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle"
I get the multilingual keyboard (includes french in Canada). It has never been that easy. I have to double-click on the xkb.desktop file to get the ca keyboard. It will not be there after saving changes at the next session though the file still include ca.

C. INCLUDING PROGRESSIVELY SOME MODULES.
- eventually, I am waiting for some feedback to move to this step.