Fluxbox 0.9.10 NEW


Forum: X and Fluxbox
Topic: Fluxbox 0.9.10 NEW
started by: Patrick

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 02 2004,07:46
I just deleted my old fluxbox0.9.9.tar.gz and replaced it with 0.9.10 (from repository testing)

(i removed all lines in filetool.lst which where refurring to the old fluxbox and did a new backup so that there are no traces left of the old fluxbox when rebooting)

Rebooted. Saw that flux0.9.10 was installed and then... JUST the prompt (can't find START_FLUXDEV)

Did a <whereis start_fluxdev> but couldn't find it
Did a cd to fluxbox (in opt) and tried to run <fluxbox> (in bin)message: (connection to x-server failed)

HELP?

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 02 2004,13:56
Please ALWAYS read the documentation provided with an application.  In this case it is the info file (also i thought my PM explained this ??? )...

I removed the wrapper because it's no longer needed.  The 0.9.9 extension had one because I couldn't figure out any other way to keep it from messing with the configuration files of Fluxbox stable.  Since I got that problem solved, starting 0.9.10 is done in the same way any other window manager would be in a standard setup:
1) Open $HOME/.xinitrc
2) Change the line "fluxbox" to "/opt/fluxbox-0.9.10/bin/fluxbox"
3) Start X with the "startx" command

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 02 2004,14:32
Hello again,

Some notes: there is NO entry in my .xinitrc for fluxbox (there is a "start_fluxdev" command in my ~/.bash_profile:

#!/bin/bash
export IRCNICK=DSL
SSH='env: | grep SSHCONNECTION'
# if [ z "$SSH" ]; then startx; fi
start_fluxdev

(i removed the last line but it didn't help me)

Please help?  :(

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 03 2004,01:33
Ok, I get it....you added start_fluxdev to bash_profile so it would auto start.  But start_fluxdev uses it's own xinitrc file, so you didn't need to edit xinitrc.

Remove the fluxdev line from bash_profile and uncomment the previous line.
This way startx will be run instead of start_fluxdev (it was a startx replacement).  The last line in .xinitrc should be "fluxbox" or "exec fluxbox", so if it's not, then make it so.

Sorry, I tried to make 0.9.9 easy to use without editing anything, but maybe that made it even more confusing.  From now on all my window manager extensions will be the standard "edit xinitrc and restart x".

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 03 2004,01:58
Here's a hint for using multiple window managers with startx...
Personally I don't care for having ~/.xinitrc limited to one wm at a time, so I wrote something which will allow me to send arguments to xinit, and if no arguments are passed it defaults to fluxbox:

Code Sample
      ARG="$@"

       # specify the default wm argument here:
       DEFAULTWM="fluxbox"

       if [ ! $ARG ]; then
           ARG=$DEFAULTWM
       fi

case $ARG in
       evil)
       fbsetbg -f ~/image/paper/firepenguin.jpg
       root-tail --noinitial --font snap -f --color red4 --whole --cont ........ --cont-color black -g 512x384+4+0 \
       ${HOME}/.fluxbox/log,red4,'general' \
       /var/log/warn,DarkOrange4,'warn' \
       /var/log/XFree86.0.log,tomato4,'XFree86' \
       /var/log/smpppd/ifcfg-ppp0.log,orange4,'pppd' &
       WM='/opt/evilwm/evilwm -term aterm'
       ;;
       ion)
       Esetroot -f ~/.fluxbox/backgrounds/doom3.jpg
       WM=ion
       ;;
       bb)
       WM=blackbox
       ;;
       ob)
       WM=openbox
       ;;
       twm)
       xterm &
       xclock -digital -bg black -fg gray -update 1 -geometry -0+0 &
       xsetroot -solid MidnightBlue
       WM=twm
       ;;
       kde)
       WM=kde
       ;;
       wmi)
       WM=/opt/wmi/bin/wmi
       ;;
       xwnc)
       WM='Xwnc -ac -geometry 1024x768 :1'
       ;;
       *)
       xsetroot -solid Black
       WM="$ARG"
       ;;
esac

       # Start the window manager  
       exec $WM &> ~/.fluxbox/log

This is put at the end of .xinitrc in place of the fluxbox line.
You could simplify it to just this:
Code Sample

       ARG="$@"
       DEFAULTWM="fluxbox"

       if [ ! $ARG ]; then
           ARG=$DEFAULTWM
       fi
       WM="$ARG"
       exec $WM

The difference is that the first one allows for abbreviated WM names and additional commands...the second one just launches whatever you use as an argument.  For example, you could do "startx firefox" to start an X session with just firefox and no window manager.

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 03 2004,07:36
Thnx for all the inout Mikshaw..

I actually  figure it all out before i read your latest replies but was confused because my fluxbox appearance was just the same as before with 0.9.10 (no icons in the flux menu for instance) . I guess i have to start reading manuals more... (i assume i have to edit some config-files to get icons there)

Something else: The reason for me wanting to "upgrade" from 0.9.9 to 0.9.10 is because 1) i want icons in the fluxmenu's and 2) I want the fluxmenu to autohide/send to bottom when i open some other application. (but i am not sure that is possible with 0.9.10) With your help i now know how to bind keys (which is great! I use it a lot now) But i am still not sure how i can use that to "kill" the rootmenu (i can open the rootmenu now with a "hotkey" but i still don't know how to kill it using a "hotkey")

Anyway: You've been a great help.. Thnx man

Posted by ico2 on Dec. 03 2004,13:17
to the second one add bsetbg -solid yellow to change the background colour. and you can put xtdesk after firefox to put the desktop icons there :)
Posted by Patrick on Dec. 03 2004,13:47
ico2,

Can you be a little bit more specific? Right now i am editing the file: menu (fluxbox) and adding <~/pixmaps/pixname.xpm> to the end of all lines so that i get icons in the fluxmenu. (is working)

I can't make up from your comment wether you know a way to auto-hide/send to the back, the fluxmenu when i am opening an other application.

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 03 2004,14:42
I included a style with 0.9.9 to show a few of the new features.  I was in kind of a rush to get this one out because I'd put it off so long, so I didn't bother with the style and just used the same one that DSL uses by default.

You say you got icons working in the menu?  That's what it sounds like.

I don't think you can bind a "menu close" to a hotkey, but you should be able to right-click on the menu's titlebar to close it if you don't have any visible desktop space.  This works for me on my suse box, but I haven't tried it on DSL yet.  There are a couple of apparently minor things left out of the extension to get it working in DSL (xft and randr), and perhaps this feature was affected.

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 03 2004,20:45
Yes icons work in the menu! (but is a lot of work, only xpm-files are allowed so i had to convert the png and gif files from xtdesktop to xpm)

Something else: eversince i choose a style for fluxbox (and saved it with filetools.lst/backup) that style overrules xplanet which i run in the root background.. (because i added -wait 60 my xplanet does show after a minute). Xplanet used to show right away at boottime...

Something else:  part of my filetools.lst

home/dsl/.fluxbox
home/dsl/.fluxbox-0.9.10/keys
opt/fluxbox-0.9.10/share/fluxbox

(changes i make in fluxbox only stay after a reboot because i back these maps/files up)

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 04 2004,03:02
Try removing the "rootcommand" line from the style you use.  I don't know if this will fix it, but it's the only thing I can think of.
Posted by Patrick on Dec. 05 2004,10:00
That did the trick! (i changed the path in the fluxbox-init, and then made a new/changed style-file: Cthulhan in which i added a "#" in front of the root-command line) (/KNOPPIX/usr/share/fluxbox/styles/Cthulhan can't be overwritten/changed)
Posted by Patrick on Dec. 06 2004,14:29
Something else,

Does anybody know where fluxbox saves the "layer" info of the "toolbar"? (i can't find it in the "init" that fluxbox uses)

I like to have the toolbar of fluxbox autohiding (which IS written in the init) and, when it is not hidding, on top of all windows/layer: above dock)

??

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 06 2004,22:53
it's in init:
"session.screen0.toolbar.layer"
But the easiest way to configure this feature is to right-click on the clock or workspace name.

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 07 2004,07:46
That's odd, that line wasn't in my init! (and that is why my changes to the toolbar-layer never stuck, it never got written down in the init because that entry wasn't there..) Did i f%^k up my init somewhere or could this be a little bug in fluxbox-0.9.10.tar.gz?

By the way: fluxbox uses opt/fluxbox-0.9.10/share/fluxbox/init to write changes to (i would have expected this to be: ~/.fluxbox/init OR ~/fluxbox-0.9.10/init)

What is also strange is that the file: keys (which holds the key-bindings/hotkey-settings) has to be in ~/.fluxbox-0.9.10!)

Greetings from Holland...

:D

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 07 2004,08:22
Errata: (i made a mistake)

the file that fluxbox uses to save the keybindings to IS: ~/fluxbox/keys (and NOT ~/.fluxbox-0.9.10/keys like i earlier said) And the init that is used IS ~/.fluxbox-0.9.10/init

silly me


sorry.. :p

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 07 2004,22:43
I didn't want this extension to affect the fluxbox stable installation at all, particularly the init file since there are new/different settings in it.  The menu is an exception, since the myDSL entries wouldn't show up in a ~/.fluxbox-0.9.10/menu file.

So is the layer thing working?  Most of the suggestions I've given have been confirmed on my workstation only, and not in DSL, so there's a possibility of some bugs.  It's unlikely, though, since the only things left out of the extension have to do with font rendering and something about root window manipulation.

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 08 2004,05:19
yep, the layer thing worked! Thnx
Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 09 2004,03:34
0.9.11 still has the same same sticky menu behavior you mentioned.

I just thought I'd mention another option to close the menu.  You said you have the menu set to a hotkey, so you should be able to hit that key to refresh the menu and give it focus, and then press Esc to close it.

Posted by Patrick on Dec. 09 2004,08:53
I've just written a mail to one of the developers of fluxbox to do something about the fact that the fluxbox-menu is a ABOVE DOCK-layer application and that i need to get it:

to desktop-layer

OR

to auto-sense/auto-hide whenever it is not needed...


(i hope for a response)

PS: the fastest way to kill the RootMenu right now is to right-click on it... Unfortunetly RootMenu isn't a command that you can kill with: killall -9 RootMenu

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 10 2004,04:19
I think I've created a bug in the 0.9.10 extension where it doesn't read the appropriate apps file.  It will save your apps settings to ~/.fluxbox-0.9.10/apps, but it seems to read ~/.fluxbox/apps.  With 0.9.11 they've added a session.appsFile resource to init, so this will be sorted out with the 0.9.11 extension.
I hope to get it out this weekend.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Dec. 14 2004,14:03
I saw the fluxbox 0.9.11 posted up at freshmeat.net today...  :)

73
ke4nt

Posted by mikshaw on Dec. 14 2004,15:08
The 0.9.11 extension is ready for use, and has been for 2 days =o)
I'm just waiting for one thing.

I spent a lot more time on this one than I did with the last release, and as a result discovered an odd behavior with the way the 0.9.10 extension was built...nothing serious, but it was enough to make me raise an eyebrow for a minute (Mr. Spock style).  
Additionally, I included something which was unnecessary but I felt it was a very cool feature...window menu.  This feature allows you to specify in init a custom menu when right-clicking on an application titlebar or icon bar.  Not all menu actions work from this menu yet (I was hoping to add a "switch to fluxbox stable" item), but it's a handy thing to have when your root window is completely filled.

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