Fluxbox funkified?
Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: Fluxbox funkified?
started by: libretto
Posted by libretto on July 08 2004,18:36
Is it possible to do some of the funky effects that are on the screenshots page < (fluxbox.org/sacreenshots) > or is it limited by the version of fluxbox in DSL and or the X server? As it would really kick ass, with a slick looking fast linux system and a chance to individualise my system even more 
If someone has managed to do these things have the got any screenshots of their own?
Posted by clivesay on July 08 2004,18:53
Libretto -I was just looking at that same thing this morning!
I was also curious if it hurts anything to update to the latest fluxbox. I see that they have a .deb package for the latest release!
Chris
Posted by cbagger01 on July 08 2004,22:03
Only one way to find out. Try it and see if it works...If I were you, my first attempt would be on a livecd system so that changes can be easily undone.
Good Luck.
Posted by hasty on July 09 2004,08:20
Looks like Chris & Lib have been volunteered to try them out. 
Look forward to downloading them.
Posted by clivesay on July 09 2004,13:00
I tried. It complains about a file being newer than something that has to do with the kernel I think.I know, I know, a real technical explanation isn't it?!! Well, I just kinda tried it on the fly. It kept telling me to run apt-get update. When I backed out of X I couldn't restart it. When I have some more time I will give it a try and document my messages.
Having too much fun playing with .7.2 right now! I didn't think I was ever going to get myself to go to bed last night!!
Chris
Posted by libretto on July 09 2004,23:09
Just had a quick check of the fluxbox number in DSL and its seems consistent with the latest stabel fluxbox release 0.1.14.So it should be possible to set things like transparencies and round corners with out updating fluxbox!
< http://www.fluxbox.org/docbook/en/html/fluxstyle-man.html > so by adding the right commands to a style file should enable these options (I will try it soon)As for supporting programs, terminals like eterm and aterm (noticed theres a new .dsl out
) can have transparency turned on.[EXTRA!] Tried the DSL-aterm.dsl using the desktop icon transparency is as standard, so we're a little way there! Although, if aterm is called up manually, you have to pass options to enable the transparency (couldn't see anything obvious in the icon link file).
Also, tried in vain to turn on the rounded corners and alpha (transparancy) but to no avail
If the absolute latest install of fluxbox could be tried or at least to ensure the latest is installed, it may give us a better chance 
[EXTRA!]
Posted by libretto on July 10 2004,00:12
Found this in the fluxbox FAQ:2. How do I make my menus transparent?
You can make your menus transparent if you are running a recent version of fluxbox (0.9.2 or above) by changing the "Menu Alpha" value in the configure menu. 255 = Opaque, 0 = Invisible (completely transparent). A value around 160 seems to satisfy most people.
3. I've set a transparency value, but nothing is transparent?!
Here are some things to check:
Fluxbox must be restarted for changes in the alpha value to take effect (just choose restart in the menu).
You need to have the XRender extension enabled in X, and compiled into fluxbox. Running fluxbox -i and xdpyinfo | grep RENDER should both say "RENDER".
You must have set the background with an XRender-compatible tool. fbsetbg comes with fluxbox and tries to make this easy for you, try it (the web page also has list of transparency supporting background tools). Run fbsetbg -i to see if it can find a suitable tool.
Posted by hasty on July 11 2004,14:51
Lib I run aterm with -tr -trsb -sh 95-/+tr transparency on/off
-trsb transparent scrollbar
-sh shading/fadeing set to 95% (almost total transparent background)
HTH
Posted by ke4nt1 on July 12 2004,07:55
Here's another screenshot of the DSL-aterm.dsl with a background.< Perfect-Blue Theme >
Did anyone get a new widget set to work with this version of flux?
Rounded corners on the windows would be nice.
I'm working on removing the borders in the terminal.... no luck so far..
Any ideas??
73
ke4nt
Posted by libretto on July 12 2004,19:15
As I said earlier, AFAIK the fluxbox version in DSL is the latest form the website. I suspect a few reasons why the transparencies and round corners are not working are:~Fluxbox was not compilied fully when put into DSL
~The x server used by DSL is limiting it in someway (unlikely as aterm shows)
Unfortunately my linux knowledge stops there.
Posted by ke4nt1 on July 13 2004,00:41
In reviewing many "googled" sites about customizing fluxbox,it seems the "development" version, currently 0.9.6 or higher,
is much more adept at being manipulated than the stable 0.1.14
that DSL is using. The 0.9.X versions include many more
options for fluxbox changes than the stable version does.
73
ke4nt
Posted by mikshaw on July 14 2004,01:12
This is correct. I'm a Fluxbox junkie, and kinda miss some of the features from the development version in DSL. However, the stable version is noticably faster than development, it's smaller and uses less RAM.Some things you can't do with Fluxbox stable:
transparent menus
rounded corners
remember per-application settings
What you CAN do:
transparent terminal (DSL-aterm extension)
toggle decorations (~/.fluxbox/keys)
Root-tail!
What I'm still trying to figure out:
Mod3 and Mod4 hotkeys
place a terminal at +0+0 or +0-0
Try out a ~/.Xdefaults file for your aterm settings...it's much simpler than using multiple command options.
Posted by ke4nt1 on July 14 2004,01:27
Thanks for the tip, mikshaw........I'll include it in the next revision of DSL-aterm...
I was thinking about building a "fluxbox 0.9.6.dsl" ...
Just to play around with...
What do you think?
Do you anticipate any troubles?
73
ke4nt
Posted by hasty on July 14 2004,15:45
Please go for it Ke4nt 
And thanks for the tip also mik. I didn't think of that........
Posted by libretto on Aug. 01 2004,16:59
I'll seocnd that, if the nice graphics of the unstable fluxbox can be made to work it would be soo cool BTW what sort of files would this fluxbox.dsl change?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 01 2004,18:34
That's one of the things I was hoping to get some feedback on, but so far no response.Fluxbox dev could be compiled to install into /opt, using the dependencies already available in DSL. I'm pretty sure this will work, as I went from stable to dev on my workstation without needing to upgrade anything else. The only things affected this way would be files in your $HOME/.fluxbox directory....styles stored locally may need to be modified to work with the newer version, and there would be an additional file or two (not required, but ~/.fluxbox/apps is quite useful). Installing in /opt would mean having both versions of Fluxbox available.
Another option is overwriting the current stable fluxbox. Other than the fact that you wouldn't be able to go back to stable, and performance may suffer slightly, I can't see this being too troublesome....also styles may be a bit different, as I mentioned above.
If I'm overlooking something, well....I wouldn't be too surprised
Posted by libretto on Aug. 02 2004,12:59
I think having the two fluxbox versions would be better, just in case Maybe having a different command code, eg 'fluxboxdev' ?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 02 2004,14:18
Exactly what I was thinking...we Linux people don't like our options displaced =o)For myself, I'd be using only the dev version, but if it were a .dsl created for others I suppose making it optional would be the best route.
The next rainy day (probably tomorrow, from the way the weather's been this summer) I'll see what I can put together. I know ke4nt1 was considering this, but I'm guessing he's quite busy already.
As for the command, it need not change, as it would be /opt/fluxbox_dev/bin/fluxbox instead of just fluxbox. The menu entry would be a bit different as well....instead of [exec] it would be [restart] ...as long as the stable version supports restarting as a different window manager (can't remember at the moment).
Posted by TyphoonMentat on Aug. 02 2004,16:14
That would add quite an amount to the DSL ISO however, as the Fluxbox 0.9.7 binary is about 1.2Mb as it is, without all the other supporting files.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 05 2004,03:47
As an extension it would not be a part of the ISO...1.2mb isn't bad for an extension.The supporting files I'm not sure of. I did a quick test today with 0.9.9, and ran into dependency issues that I didn't feel like dealing with right now. I compiled it on a different distro which has different versions of some files than those in DSL. It might be fixed easily with a symlink or two, but as I said, I didn't want to bother working it out today.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 05 2004,05:01
I did the same thing today with the 0.9.9-1...Same issues.... libXft.so.2 ... It already exists in the base .iso
I think the lib that it links to will need to be updated...
May need to manually update xinit, since running it fails...
More tomorrow...
73
ke4nt
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 05 2004,05:26
I tried adding "[restart] (fluxbox-0.9.9) {/opt/fluxbox-0.9.9/bin/fluxbox}" to the menu as an option to manually editing the .xinitrcIt failed, but I'm not sure if it's just because of the libX or if fluxbox stable doesn't support restarting to another window manager...I don't recall seeing an error when using this menu item.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 06 2004,00:37
Just a suggestion, ke4nt, if you get this working before I get my lazy butt motivated...I was thinking about how to use fluxbox-dev as a completely separate application from stable, including the $HOME/.fluxbox files. Using the command option -rc you can specify a different init file to use (such as ~/.fluxbox-dev/init). In this file you can specify where to find the menu, slitlist, groups, and default style, so all of these files can be placed separate from $HOME/.fluxbox/
I'm not sure about the apps file, though, as I haven't seen any documentation about changing the default on that one....I'm assuming it would be the same "session.appFile: ~/.fluxbox-dev/apps", but since I haven't tested this I can't be sure.
You probably already know all this, but I thought I'd put it in print just in case.
Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 06 2004,04:42
Nope, I've got my hands full for now...I didn't know the half of what you posted about fluxbox running in another env.
Familiar enough from playing with it to follow your post with some intelligence.
It would be a good thing to move it to a "/opt/$HOME" since it is already writable.
73
ke4nt
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 06 2004,20:46
/opt is user-writable in DSL?I was thinking of just making a separate hidden directory in $HOME for the fluxbox-dev configs, such as ~/.fluxbox-0.9.9/
Posted by ke4nt1 on Aug. 06 2004,22:29
If I understand correctly.../opt , /home/dsl , and /tmp are writable to the ramspace.
That's why most all the .tar.gz files write to the /opt,
like firebird, OOo, xbubble, xgammon, aterm, etc...
73
ke4nt
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 08 2004,00:04
I've got Fluxbox-0.9.9 working in DSL, but I still need to do some work to make it small and easy to run for an extension.The libXft relates to antialiased fonts, which I believe only affects the menu and toolbar. Disabling this feature during configuration doesn't seem to mess anything up.
There is also libXrandr (The X Resize and Rotate Extension). I'm not sure what this is...it might be annoying not to have it. In order to get Fluxbox working initially, I copied this file into /usr/X11R6/lib, but I'm presently compiling with this disabled...hoping it's not too terribly important =o) I'm trying to get it to run without needing to add anything except in /opt and /home
Yet to do is create a menu which includes the default DSL applications as well as some of the new menu items (such as menu alpha and background switching), and then try to figure out a way to easily switch between the two fluxboxen. I think the built-in restart for additional window managers works in fluxbox stable, but I don't know for sure.
Now...should I include fbrun, or leave it with grun? I guess they're pretty much the same?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 08 2004,01:18
On second look, the background switching is part of fluxbox-generate_menu, so I won't be adding that bit.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 08 2004,04:48
Ok...so disabling those two features during configure allowed me to get a working Fluxbox-dev into DSL using only /opt and /home/dsl.There are a few things I still need to work out, though...
Styles are slightly different...the stable styles still work, but the new features make some parts look odd, such as the background of the toolbar.
Currently there is no way to easily load fluxbox-dev. ~/.xinitrc needs to be edited to run "/opt/fluxbox-0.9.9/bin/fluxbox -rc ~/.fluxbox-0.9.9/init". The -rc part isn't vital, but the dev init has some additional features added to it.
I don't know how to get the apps file into ~/.fluxbox-0.9.9/. It's always written into ~/.fluxbox/. This isn't a huge problem, since Fluxbox stable doesn't use apps, but it's just a bit disorganized that way.
This new Fluxbox has its own menu, which I assume is not affected by the mydsl-load script...so no myDSL menu items until I can work this out. The easiest solution is just to use the default ~/.fluxbox/menu. The only things I ended up adding were a new styles directory for dev styles and a menu item to restart into fluxbox stable.
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 08 2004,20:49
So apparently the [restart] {fluxbox-dev} doesn't work in fluxbox stable, so the only way I know to switch to development is to restart X manually.The myDSL menu item replaces the "fluxbox" line of ~/.xinitrc with "/opt/fluxbox-0.9.9/bin/fluxbox -rc ~/.fluxbox", so after clicking it, you should be able to restart X and automatically go into fluxbox-dev with the appropriate config files. If anyone can think of a cleaner way to do this, please let me know.
I've just got to go through the archive once more to make sure everything is cool, then I'll send it to ke4nt1.
Oddly enough, though, the extension is 2MB, where the original source archive is 700k? That's weird....
Posted by raw on Aug. 20 2004,19:54
to put it in layman's terms for a linux newb... it is possible to have transparecy?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 20 2004,20:03
You should be able to use transparency with any application which includes this feature, provided it doesn't depend on some external library which may not be a part of DSL. The aterm extension in the < MyDSL Repository > was created with transparency as the default.Transparency in Fluxbox itself (menus), however, is not possible with the stable version.
Posted by raw on Aug. 21 2004,11:45
ok thanks.so is it possible to replace it with the newer, unstable version? or is that something. only a linux guru should do?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 21 2004,14:13
It is possible....are you responding to this thread because you read it, or because it has a great title?
Posted by raw on Aug. 21 2004,14:36
it does have a damn fine title! nah i have read it but i was just wondering how hard it is?
im gonna try it on a new partition, i just need to find a boot manager now
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 21 2004,16:01
ke4nt just added a fluxbox-dev extension to the < MyDSL Testing Area >Feel free to test that out....with a liveCD preferably, just to be safe.
Posted by libretto on Aug. 22 2004,13:55
Goody! testing it now :S
Posted by clivesay on Aug. 22 2004,17:23
Seems to work well. Thank you!!I have to figure out how to configure everything. I already like the transparent menu!
Chris
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 22 2004,17:50
There is some documentation for fluxbox-dev at < http://www.fluxbox.org/version-0.9.php > and < http://www.fluxbox.org/docs/en/faq-dev.php >
I don't really care for the menu item as it is. I'm thinking a future package will have:
A wrapper instead of the long menu/xinitrc line.
An easier way to switch between versions.
Maybe include fluxconf or whitebox specifically configured for fluxbox-dev.
Hide the "enable fluxbox-0.9.9" menu item while flux 0.9.9 is running
or
Find a different/better way to enable it
or
Just let the user manually edit .xinitrc
From the rate of development, though, it seems like the big 1.0 is just around the corner...they might have that out by the time I get around to updating this package.
Then again...they may just go to 0.10.0 instead....
Posted by libretto on Aug. 23 2004,17:38
Erm, not to sure how to get the flubox tar.gz to unpack properly. Managed to use emelfm to unpack it to my dsl directory, but i had to manually copy it to the /opt directory. This meant that there were no config files added to the 'home/dsl' directory. Is there a proper way to unpack the file Nevertheless managed to load up the new xwindow, but had virtually no menu items. Is this what was intended or should the original menu items and other programs like the slit etc... be there
Sory for the nooblike questions, but well done milkshaw
Posted by clivesay on Aug. 23 2004,17:49
libretto -Once you installed the .dsl there should have been two items added to your myDSL menu to configure flux and restart the WM. Did you see them?
Chris
Posted by libretto on Aug. 23 2004,18:58
Well can't see any .dsl just found dsl-fluxbox-0.9.9.tar.gzor do i just rename .tar.gz to .dsl
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 23 2004,19:10
you don't have to rename it. The mydsl-load script will handle it in the same way as a .dsl file.The difference is that .tar.gz extensions are packaged so that they install only to directories which are already writable when you first boot up the liveCD: /opt, /tmp, and /home. This helps with RAM usage and prevents accidentally writing over system files.
The menu item won't be there in the next version of flux extension. I repackaged it last night to use a shell wrapper instead, and it's much less sloppy this way, in my opinion.
BTW, I was trying to figure out what happened to the tabs.
It turns out that they're still there, but instead of being a separate object sticking out of the window they are fused with the titlebar...pretty cool.
Posted by libretto on Aug. 24 2004,17:40
When will the revised package be ready in the testing repository?
Posted by mikshaw on Aug. 24 2004,20:21
No idea. Ke4nt has to check out all the submitted extensions, plus he's testing DSL 0.8. In addition, since it's a Fluxbox replacement he has to be extra certain that it won't mess with the current one.But I should be sending it out tonight...just have a couple of modifications to make first.