dsl ext problems

Forum: myDSL Extensions (deprecated)
Topic: dsl ext problems
started by: iscraigh2

Posted by iscraigh2 on Sep. 03 2004,05:54

I seem to have trouble with 8.0 not loading the desktop theme that is in my root directory, 7.3 would load it 8.0 I have to select after boot. (the rox theme seems to work though) any ideas?

Posted by iscraigh2 on Sep. 08 2004,00:25

Does anyone else have this problem or can someone test it and let me know.

thanks

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2004,03:38

I have an "init" file in the rox theme.
I don't always add one to all the themes I make.
Many downloaded themes don't include one..

But it's easy to take the one out of rox,
and edit the lines that you need to change ( background, etc. ) ..
Then tar it back up with your included init file.
You should be in business..

What theme did you want to use..
I'll add a correct init to it, and post it up in the repository.

73
ke4nt

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 08 2004,13:35

yikes....is this ~/.fluxbox/init you're talking about?
Remind me to edit your themes before I install them :laugh:

Posted by mpie on Sep. 08 2004,15:00

can't say I've experienced that one.......

when you look at an init file it states is auto generated by the
bsetbg command that's why none of mine include one

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 08 2004,23:19

Quote

mikshaw Posted on Sep. 08 2004,08:35yikes....is this ~/.fluxbox/init you're talking about?
Remind me to edit your themes before I install them :laugh:

Yikes!?
Uh oh ? ..

Ok, your the fluxbox guy, so give up the beans...
Will we lose "huge tracts of land" by including this file?

Sometimes things don't look right until you exit X and startx,
If I include an init file, this goes away..
( It's a copy of the autogenerated one using that theme )

73
ke4nt

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,01:00

I'm just saying that init contains a lot of settings for the look and behavior of Fluxbox. If a user has gone to the trouble of making changes, and then a theme overwrites these changes, he may not be very happy with it. I'm not sure the tradeoff is worth it when the styleFile is a single line among many....particularly when changing a style should be easy enough to do from the menu.

Quote

Sometimes things don't look right until you exit X and startx

hmmm...not sure what you mean here. It sounds a little like it might be a problem with X

Posted by iscraigh2 on Sep. 09 2004,01:25

The curiosity is why does a theme that autoloaded in 7.3 not act that way in 8.0

Try the striking-theme for instance

I have found this Feature/Bug/Issue with every theme but Rox

So maybe it is something to do with the init file
I will try playing a bit I guess I am a linux noob but I like to play.

Craig

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 09 2004,01:33

Ok, I can see that..
I thought with it autocreating, how could someone keep changes in it ?
( at least I think so, because even using the default themes, lines like bsetbg
get updated automatically, without an included "init" file in those themes. )

So, is there a Master Copy that fluxbox pulls from, that you can edit, that
is used as the template when the ~/.fluxbox/init file is recreated automatically
after a theme change?

73
ke4nt

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,03:36

I don't think bsetbg does anything to flubox/init. As far as I know, init is copied from /usr/share/fluxbox/ if there isn't already one in ~/.fluxbox/, and when a style changes, fluxbox edits only the "styleFile" line.
If init is already found in ~/.fluxbox/, then Fluxbox doesn't copy it from the master...all your settings will remain untouched from one X session to the next.
This is the way it has worked for me on other distros, anyway.

oooohh...wait a minute. I think I know what might be happening. Do you include a "rootCommand" line in init? You mentioned bsetbg in init, which shouldn't be there unless you are using a global root command. If you have a bsetbg root command in init, Fluxbox will ignore whatever root command you have in your style file, so in that case the only way to change your background is to change the root command in init.
If you have no root command in init, you should have no trouble changing backgrounds using only a style file.

Quote

The curiosity is why does a theme that autoloaded in 7.3 not act that way in 8.0

Do you mean autoload as in "get extracted to your styles directory"? If so, this is a completely different issue. I assumed that any extension added to the root of a CD would load automatically.

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 09 2004,03:58

No, your right... I'm confused, and I'm confusing this thread..
The bsetbg line I'm refering to is in the STYLE file, NOT the init. My bad..
There is not an init file in /usr/share/fluxbox .
The only one in DSL is in the /home/dsl/.fluxbox directory...

I should pull those init files out of the themes..
Thanks for the heads up..

Still doesn't answer the question about why only the rox theme is
working for iscraigh2 ?

73
Kent

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,04:48

it doesn't....it's a strange thing.
Maybe the rox theme is doing something it shouldn't, and preventing other themes from working? The only thing I can think of that would do this, though, is if the root command was something other than "bsetbg imagefile". It is possible to add a script as the root command, and make changes to other configs this way. I'm guessing it's unlikely that this is the problem, though.

Posted by iscraigh2 on Sep. 09 2004,04:49

Okay you guys are over my head!!

So to spell it out....

If I put a theme in my root directory in 7.3, when I boot up that is the theme that automatically loads. I do the same thing with 8.0 and I get the default theme loading and the theme that was in my root directory appears in the styles menu for selection.

Except the rox theme if it is in the root directory it comes up on bootup.

Things that make you go Hmmm

(if they call it Peanut Butter why is there no butter in it... Hmmmm.)

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,05:02

Oh.

Well, to be honest, fluxbox styles aren't typically built to automatically become the default. There's something about rox that goes beyond the standard. Fluxbox styles are generally made so that you have a bunch of styles in your styles directory and you choose one to use from your menu. That style then gets added to fluxbox/init and will stay there until you choose a new style.

I think that if you want to put a style into the root, and have it become your default automatically, that should be part of the mydsl-load script (or whatever it is that loads extensions at boot time).

I'm gonna go get this rox style and check it out...this is bugging me...

Posted by iscraigh2 on Sep. 09 2004,05:12

Bugging me to I can't figure out why it would be different between 7.3 and 8.0 but hey I'm not that bright

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,05:21

The ~/.fluxbox/init file IS the answer. You've included an init which contains the line:
session.styleFile: /home/dsl/.fluxbox/styles/Rox

This init overwrites the original if the extension is added to the root of the CD, and when Fluxbox starts it uses that styleFile.

Now...I've already told you why I think it's a bad idea (in my opinion) to overwrite the init. However, it could be avoided by using a symlink as the default style. This may require a change to the original DSL system in order to be usable for all users, but at this point it's just something that popped into my head and could be developed beyond what I'm currently thinking.

If the init contained a styleFile line that pointed to a symlink (~/.fluxbox/styles/default, for example) instead of an actual style, then style extensions could harmlessly replace this symlink instead of replacing the whole init file. It might require some cooperation with the creators of other styles to really be efficient, but it's an idea that could be built upon.

Posted by mikshaw on Sep. 09 2004,05:26

Still doesn't explain any difference between 0.7.3 and 0.8 though...

Posted by ke4nt1 on Sep. 11 2004,00:53

The themes have had all instances of "init" removed..

73
ke4nt