topic title: Rolling my own
Posts: 609
dark-D
Joined: 02 Jun 2008
#16
john, how did you put conky in the pcmanfm desktop ? i don't use desktop icons, but i have 2 friends that i installed antix on their computers and maybe they want it. i played around with it and apart for the conky thing if i put fluxbox on the right click menu i can't edit the desktop. also when when i right click to show the fluxbox menu i can't hide it with left click, only with escape. but it's great for people that use desktops.
Posts: 192
coyotito
Joined: 27 Sep 2007
#17
thanx a couple of good tips for me here.
I tried to install Spartacus on an old spare drive for my laptop, just to see
if that made sense on a slow pc, some here use it for slow laptops it seems. It did not, it's quite slow as i expected.
Synaptic and even apt-get in terminal are VERY slow, just as i remembered from when i used
Spartacus, and a debian based system is faster, you can have a system with mostly
text-based/lightweight apps and tools that is still easy to use/maintain. I'm talking about a base install
and/or minmal debian install f course
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#18
Changelog:

Uninstalled nitrogen. Instead, I'm using pcmanfm to manage the desktop. So my control center button will launch the preferences window from pcmanfm set to the desktop tab.

Solved the conky problem - with a little help from the crunch bang and vector forums. The trick is have conky open in it's own window. Here is the conkyrc mod (this may also work for rox, but I haven't tested it yet):

Code: Select all

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
You also may need to launch conky from your startup file (mentioned in crunch bang but not vector forum):

Code: Select all

conky -d &
john
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#19
If you are going to use pcmanfm to manage your desktop - wallpaper and icons, then you need to add the following line to your startup:

Code: Select all

pcmanfm -d &
john
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#20
Hello. Added audacity, abiword, gnumeric, transmission, gjots2, and evince (installed with gnumeric). I don't know if I'll keep evince or epdfview. Epdfview got a better rating at linux.softpedia.net. Here's a screenshot (taken with mtpaint, scaled, and 75% quality):


john
Posts: 253
mariel77
Joined: 13 Sep 2007
#21
It looks great, john!
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#22
I love your work, John! When you get this to a somewhat steady"build state", even if it still gets changed, I hope you will generate an ISO image and throw it somewhere that interested parties (like me), can grab it and give it a try. I love the way that you take the best ideas from several distributions, experiment with many things, then share your ideas.

I'd love to do something similar, but the hours in the day get pressed into doing other things that keep a roof over my head! __{{emoticon}}__ ouix or ou812ix - anyone have those names yet! __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 54
Rebel
Joined: 22 Mar 2008
#23
Is it possible to use fluxbox in place of lxpanel? Or rather can the panel be made to"disappear" as it can in Fluxbox? Just curious. By the way John you seem to have been reading my mind....it is indeed time for a remaster. Great job! __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 903
plvera
Joined: 11 Oct 2008
#24
John:
that looks really nice. I hope that it will be available to try at some point.

Pedro
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#25
Hello.

1. I might be ready for a release around June - that's when school lets out and I'll have some time to figure out the remaster script. In the meantime, I'm still deciding on the apps.

2. You can use fluxbox + lxpanel. Just use the right click menu and find the fluxbox config options. Look for the option to hide the taskbar. Then install lxpanel from the repo. Add"lxpanel &" to your fluxbox startup file. Then follow these instructions to logout from the lxpanel menu


========= SCRAPER REMOVED AN EMBEDDED LINK HERE ===========
url was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/configure-lxpanel-t780.html"
linktext was:"antix.freeforu ms.org/configure-lxpanel-t780.html"
====================================
" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false

john
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#26
Changelog:

1. Added abiword and gnumeric. Evince got installed with gnumeric. At softpedia, epdfview seems more popular, so evince will be uninstalled.

2. Icedove installed for mail and newsreader capabilities.

3. I couldn't find sbackup in stable or testing. So I'll probably go with luckybackup for backup + sync (so grsync will probably go). It seems a solid app and I'm testing it now.

4. Transmission installed.

5. gjots included. (Wanted notecase but not in stable).

6. Audacity added.

7. Will probably go for firestarter over firehol.

8. Testing some slitaz apps for inclusion.

9. Found a really nice a complementary slim background.

10. Setting up fluxbox - custom menu, wall, etc.

john
Posts: 1,139
masinick
Joined: 26 Apr 2008
#27
Cool stuff, like I said earlier, I can hardly wait to try it out! I'll definitely want to see what comes out in June or whenever, but should there be a snapshot somewhere along the way, I'd love to test it out for you. __{{emoticon}}__
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#28
Actually, I think I may be liking grsync a bit better. I like the options better, and it's a bit easier for me to use. This one will probably make the final cut.

john

P.S. It looks like grsync can handle both backup and sync functions. Compression options, etc. Nice.
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#29
installed wicd, firestarter, tango icons, and galculator.

will install gnormalize soon.

fluxbox doesn't play nice when pcmanfm manages the desktop. will probably not include fluxbox for this reason.

gonna take a break and focus on the 8.1 release.

john
Posts: 1,081
OU812
Joined: 29 Sep 2007
#30
Finished (I think) the screenshot app for 8.1. I will be including it here as well. It uses mtpaint to take a custom screenshot and a revamped version of the full screen script from release 8.0.

installed:
lshw-gtk (terrific hardware lister) - had to edit the .desktop file to launch as root
lxrandr (simple and effective screen resolution and refresh rate app)
partimage

Added tango icons to the exit script.

Nearly finished with the application set. Completely customizing will come next. Then learning the remaster script.

john