antiX transformation pack – antiX FT 10

[Member marcelocripe]

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Wallon, I tried to submit the URL addresses here in this thread of the latest packages that PPC has made available, but the forum blocked the submission and prevented me from posting for a long time. So I send you by private message.

– – – – –

Wallon, eu tentei enviar os endereços URLs aqui neste tópico dos pacotes mais recentes que o PPC disponibilizou, mas o fórum bloqueou o envio e me impediu de enviar mensagens por muito tempo. Por isso, eu te envie por mensagem particular.

[Member Wallon]

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Dear PPC,

PPC wrote:

Does the extremely wide screen grab show both your monitors, it that it?

Yes it is. My two screens on one very large printscreen. You have to click on it, zoom in and move from right to left to see everything.

PPC wrote:

Edit2; I solved the problem with “debinstaller” comming up in Russian: it’s a bug with it’s .desktop file.
Steps to solve that:
1- In the terminal run this command to edit the .desktop file:
sudo geany /usr/share/applications/debinstaller.desktop
2- Inside the text file change the line nr 4: “Name=[ru]Дебинсталлятор” to “Name[ru]=Дебинсталлятор” and save it – problem instantly solved 🙂

P.

The line 11 should also be modified. “GenericName[ru]Установщик пакетов Дебиан” to “GenericName[ru]=Установщик пакетов Дебиан”. The sign “=” is also missing.

I didn’t know there were Russian hackers on my antiX 21!

Kind regards,
Wallon

[Moderator BobC]

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PPC, maybe instead of the word “Signal”, use an icon? Obviously my folder name is different. Note how I moved those image statements up inside the wifi if statement before the else…

${if_up wlan0}
${voffset -13}${goto 30}ESSID: ${execi 12 iwgetid -r}${goto 140}IP: ${color2}${addr wlan0}${color} ${goto 305}${font Ubuntu:style=Bold:size=9}${color1}${wireless_link_qual wlan0}%${color}${font}
${voffset 7}${goto 95}${voffset -4}Upload: ${font Ubuntu:style=Bold:size=9}${color1}${upspeed wlan0}${color}${font} ${goto 237}Total : ${font Ubuntu:style=Bold:size=9}${color2}${totalup wlan0}${color}${font}
${voffset 4}${goto 95}Down:   ${font Ubuntu:style=Bold:size=9}${color1}${downspeed wlan0}${color}${font} ${goto 237}Total: ${font Ubuntu:style=Bold:size=9}${color2}${totaldown wlan0}${color}${font}
${image $HOME/.conky/wlan100.png -p 30,55 -s 40x40}
${image $HOME/.conky/wifi-strength.png -p 272,40 -s 24x24}
# |--ETH0
${else}${if_up eth0}

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by BobC.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by BobC.

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[Member Wallon]

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Dear PPC,

Here is my second test.

For your information, I can’t turn off one screen because the installation is made with two screens. If I turn off one screen, I only get half the picture. For example, I can’t see the conky that goes on the left screen which is turned off. I also work with Windows 10 on my desktop and if I remove the cables, I also have to reconfigure Windows 10. For my profession (accounting and tax), I work in the office with 3 screens (two 27″ screens in landscape mode and one 32″ screen in portrait mode). Everyone in Belgium has been working with 2 or 3 screens for 10 years in my profession. As we no longer use paper for accounting, we have a bank statement on the left screen, the accounting software on the middle screen, the purchase invoice on the right screen.

antiX is difficult to use with multiple screens because there is no desktop environment. For example, with icewm it is not possible to drag a tab from one browser to another screen.
With fluxbox, it is easier to drag software from one screen to another. But I realise that Mirage with fluxbox does not work well for zooming. The screen shakes when you use the scrollbars at the bottom and side in Mirage and you can’t fix an image.

So, I did purge my previous installation (complete uninstallation with Synaptic of both “FT10-transformation….deb” and “jgmenu-antix….deb” packages.
I ran three commands;
– sudo apt clean,
– sudo apt autoclean,
– sudo apt autoremove — purge.
I deleted the configuration files in the hidden “.config” directory of Tint2 and jgmenu.
I also modified lines 4 and 11 in debinstaller.desktop.
I installed the NVIDIA 460 driver and modified the settings to remove the screentearing.
I did a reboot of antiX 21 and chose the zzz-fluxbox environment at startup.

I reinstalled everything with “debinstaller”. I know, you asked me to type a command line to install the packages but I wanted to do the test with “debinstaller” as a new user who comes from the Windows 10 world and knows nothing about the Linux command line.

I opened a terminal and typed “ft10-start”.
In the first window, I chose this time the Debian presentation.
In the second window (with install zzzfm, clock gnome….), I didn’t activate anything (I removed the two checks in the last 2 lines)

I don’t have quite the same taskbars at the bottom for my two screens.
For example, on the left screen, I have the Belgian flag and no flag on the right screen.
For example, on the left screen, I have an invisible icon between the Belgian flag and the date. When I move my mouse over this area, I get a tooltip that says “Master:89%”. This invisible icon does not exist on the right screen. I think this is not a problem when working with antiX.

I closed the terminal and found that the FT10 installation on fluxbox is permanent. Every time I reboot antiX with fluxbox, I find FT10. It was not like this in my first test.

My opinion about the menu. It is very nice but it is really too small. I can hardly read the lines. I can’t pull the edge of the menu with my mouse. How can I enlarge this menu?

I find Russian in the menu and even in zzz-fm. I think we should not use “debinstaller” anymore. What should I use instead of “debinstaller”?

You have to click on my printscreen and zoom in. You have to go to the left and right of the printscreen to see the two screens.

Kind regards,
Wallon

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[Member Wallon]

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Dear PPC,

Here is the FT10 menu contaminated by the Russian debinstaller.

Kind regards,
Wallon

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   FT10-zzz-fluxbox-russian2a.jpg
   

[Member Wallon]

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Dear PPC,

Here is zzz-fm also contaminated by the Russian debinstaller.

Kind regards,
Wallon

Attachments:

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   FT10-zzz-fluxbox-russian2b.jpg
   

[Member PPC]

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@Wallon – I’ try to address some of you points you raised:

“I can’t turn off one screen because the installation is made with two screens. If I turn off one screen, I only get half the picture.!
-That’s a common problem in antiX- once you change anything about concerning your screen (like resolution, and apparently also the number of screens) you have to restart the Window Manager so the changes produce effects as they should- that’s probably due to the fact that Window Managers (at least the ones I have experience with don’t wast resources by constantly monitoring that stuff- that’s why they run lighter…

“Everyone in Belgium has been working with 2 or 3 screens for 10 years in my profession. As we no longer use paper for accounting, we have a bank statement on the left screen, the accounting software on the middle screen, the purchase invoice on the right screen.”
I understand your work setup – if the bank statement and the invoices are in standard A4 paper size or smaller, you can probably work well with 2 screens- tile, side by side the bank stantement and the invoices in one screen and use the accounting software in another screen- IceWM has now menu driven “tiling” features- click the title bar, select “Tile” and then select where you want the window to be placed (much like in Windows 11). In Fluxbox has far as I know you have to do that using keyboard shortcuts…

” But I realise that Mirage with fluxbox does not work well for zooming. The screen shakes when you use the scrollbars at the bottom and side in Mirage and you can’t fix an image.”
My advice is trying out another image viewer- try out “feh”- it’s simpler, but very powerfull, and it’s included out of the box in antiX (right click an image in zzzfm > Open >Open With > feh. Just hold the mouse to grab the image being displayed in feh to drag it around and use the – and + to zoom out/in.
Another option is using Firefox to view images or installing another image viewer- there are plenty out there, search in synaptic an try them out!

-“So, I did purge my previous installation [—] I opened a terminal and typed “ft10-start”.”
OK- you did everything you should have done, except follow my previous advice to activate FT10 using the menu: activate it using the menu entry “FT10 – Activate FT10…” that you can find in FT10’s menu or in antiX’s menu, under “Preferences”- that is the official way to configure FT in antiX- I’ll have to make some changes to the gitlab page… So run that, select the kind of menu you want and, to avoid any problems, run with the default setting on the windows that comes next (disabling the default volumeicon and Conky) Please follow this directions. This will help out with several things I address below…

-“I don’t have quite the same taskbars at the bottom for my two screens.”- that’s to be expected- let me explain how Ft10’s tint2 toolbar works- the white icons you see next to the clock are not the system tray you are used to see in antiX and Windows! I call that “pseudo system tray”- they are just regular icons, placed there because that’s the place where people expect the network manager, volume manager and USB device’s ejector to be- it also includes the clock itself, the Power icon and the “show desktop” options. – Those all are “fixed” icons or functions (as is the CPU and RAM indicator)- not part of the system tray. That very same space, to the left of the clock also includes the system tray icons themselves.
The “system tray” itself is a particular space in toolbars where icons, or info about some running applications is stored- and, much like the “Highlander”, there can be only one- The system tray is shown of the first screen, counting from the left.
That’s where the “country flag” icon and the regular antiX “volumeicon” are displayed.
The invisible icon you talk about? It’s the regular antiX “volumeicon”- it’s not invisible- but it’s default color is black, that’s why you can’t see it against the default dark toolbar. Unless there’s a particular reason you want to have volumeicon running, you can right click it and close it. If you don’t want to have both volumeicon and the FT10’s volume indicator running, run the FT10’s configurer and use the default settings (that completly disable antiX’s volumeicon and also disables conky for the current session- since most info conky displays is shown by FT10 already).
If you want to see the “invisible” volumeicon try this: right click the “+/-” icon and select the option to switch between dark and light mode – then you’ll be able to see it…

-“I closed the terminal and found that the FT10 installation on fluxbox is permanent. Every time I reboot antiX with fluxbox, I find FT10. It was not like this in my first test.”
Like I said- FT10 is the least invasive possible- it’s enabled just for the current and future sessions of the same Window Manager(s) where it’s configured, until you disable it…

-“My opinion about the menu. It is very nice but it is really too small. I can hardly read the lines. I can’t pull the edge of the menu with my mouse. How can I enlarge this menu?”
Thanks for your input- I don’t have very high resolution screens available, so I have no problem reading info on the toolbar or the menu. Unlike in Windows, you can’t “pull the edge of the menu” to enlarge it- FT10 may be sometimes similar to Windows 10 or 11, but it’s impossible to pack every single feature that a Window Manager that uses about 1gig of RAM (like Windows, Kde, etc) has in about on tenth of that RAM usage…
That being said- there’s a “hidden feature” that allow users to change the font, and font size that FT10’s menu and toolbar uses- it’s hidden by default (not shown in the menus because incorrectly used, it can desconfigure the menu…). Try this either open the termina and run:
“/usr/local/lib/ft10/tint2_fonte.sh”
Or using ZZZfm navigate to /usr/local/lib/ft10/ and run “tint2_fonte.sh”
This allows you to select the font that FT10 uses in both the toolbar and in the menu. Something like “Bitstream Vera San” size “9” should be easier to read and not mess up the default menu layout… You can experiment freely- the font selection menu stays open until you choose to close it- change the font, and open the menu to see how it looks- as you see, I tried to think about any possible problem FT10 users could have and still be careful so users can not easly mess the default configuration…

-“I find Russian in the menu and even in zzz-fm. I think we should not use “debinstaller” anymore. What should I use instead of “debinstaller”?”
Choose what ever .deb package installer you want- gdebi is not used because it has many problems installing dependencies.
At first I though you were kidding about possible “russian hackers”…
Please to do not be scared the the “Russian” menu entry- it’s only a small bug on the debinstaller .desktop file- it’s nothing to do with russian hackers 🙂
You can open, in geany the debinstaller script and see, for yourself how simple it is- it’s a front end to running “sudo apt install” in the terminal, using yad menus to present information or to make selections… It’s as reliable as using the terminal, and much faster on slow devices than using gdebi…
If you want, you can delete it’s entry in the zzzfm contextual menu (that saved the info from the original .desktop file), and re-add it, using the corrected .desktop file… In zzzfm right click a .deb file, and right click the “Russian debinstaller” entry and choose to delete it. Then, if you wish, associate .deb files to debinstaller again- it should work without you ever seeing any Russian text again…

I hope you like Ft10 enough to keep using it as the default antiX interface, and, that you may help localize it to french, if possible!

@BobC – thanks for the suggestion- I though about using an icon (something similar to the signal bars in cell phones) but I ended up with a far simpler set up: the current Network info applet displays the Wi-fi network name, a “-” and it’s signal percentage- I think it’s simple yet easily understandable default, don’t you?
If you have not done so, please test the current tint2rc entry and conky config, included in version 1.0c- from your screen grab I think you are working with the previous version…
Thanks for all the suggestions! If not for you, FT10 would not have this handy feature, I already use it a lot!

P.

P.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.
• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.

[Member PPC]

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@BobC – sorry my answer to you was in the final part of my previous post- the forum software refused to let me create a new post- unless you really think using an icon to indicate the wi-fi signal strength, I think we can consider that particular part of FT10 finalized – I’ll probably start thinking about how to localize FT10 to more languages, in order to make it more universal

I think a native speaker can localize all FT10 text strings in about 30 minutes or less- most of them are very simple- there are no large texts to translate (basically menu categories, favorite menu entries, tiles descriptions, toolbar tool-tips and the buttons and short messages displayed by the scripts. I’m even considering using on-line translators to help localize to Spanish (my Spanish is far from perfect) and French (I speak just a little bit of French).

@Wallon – I forgot to tell you why I choose that size for the menus- they are meant to be completly readable in old netbook screens too – I own one such device and run FT10 on it.
The FT10 configuration script offers (by default) to automatically disable antiX’s volumeicon, because it includes a simple volume manager that does not stay resident on RAM- saving system resources. FT10 includes CPU and RAM monitors, in easy human readable format (I can never read IceWM’s toolbar info icons about the system resources)- that use way less system resources than Conky, and are always visible, not just stuck to the desktop. Please note that right clicking the “+/-” icon allows you to disable the CPU/RAM toolbar indicator (saving some 2mb of RAM).
You have a very good amount of RAM, but for folks with low system resources, using FT10 in (simple, non rox- or zzz-) Fluxbox and disabling volumeicon and conky can result in saving system resources, when compared to the default rox-IceWM antiX configuration. You can also disable the language system tray icon, unless you need to quickly switch between keyboard layouts.

P.

• This reply was modified 1 year, 4 months ago by PPC.

[Moderator BobC]

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PPC, That sounds fine. I just haven’t tried the newest version, yet 🙂

[Member Wallon]

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Dear PPC,

1) Regarding Mirage, I have tested QPDF to open *.png files. It works very well for me. I have not yet tested printing. Some programs refuse to print colour documents in black and white. Thank you for your advice.

2) Activating FT10, I understand, I do it from the icewm menu, Applications, Preferences, FT10 – Enable FT10 or Toggle Menu templates.
I leave both check-boxes enabled:
-> “Disable defaut antiX volumeicon…” (note, if I disable this box, I have no sound)
-> “Disable Conky, affects current session only” (in my case Conky was already disabled and this re-enabled Conky. No problem, you can still disable it afterwards)

3) For the taskbar, I right-clicked on the +/- icon. I activated the light mode and increased the size of the bar to “42”.

4) Regarding zzzfm, thanks for the tip, I was able to remove the Russian when I try to install a *.deb package. I didn’t know this function in zzzfm.

5) With zzzfm, I ran the file /usr/local/lib/ft10/tint2_fonte.sh. I am really stupid with Linux because I could not do it in a terminal. I followed your advice and took “Bitstream Vera San” size “9”. With the clear theme and the new “Bitstream” font it improves the menu a lot. There is still a problem for me. The comments in the menu are not readable. I measured it with a slat. The comments on my 24″ screen are 1 millimeter high. You need a magnifying glass to read the comments! Is it not possible to increase the height of each line of the menu with one utility and increase the size of the comments with another utility? Note, to run antiX standard, I also have to increase the size of the menu. I understand your position to use very thin lines in the menu on a 14″ screen but it is not possible to keep this limit on larger screens.

6) Concerning “debinstaller”, I had made a mistake in modifying line 4 of the “debinstaller.dektop” file. Now I have no Russian in the FT10 menu and in the icewm menu.

For your information;
– the FT10 menu uses line 3 -> Name=Debinstaller and line 7 -> GenericName [fr]=Debinstaller installateur de paquets *.deb
– the icewm menu uses only line 3 -> Name=Debinstaller

In summary, in the icewm menu, we don’t know what the “Debinstaller” program does. It would be nice to put all languages with the lines “Name[de]=…” or “Name[fr_BE]=…” or “Name[nl]=…” or “Name[it]=…” and an explanation in each language (like in the ” Comment” lines).

7) I have no problem translating your program into French but you should put the files at Transifex for other translators too. I think of [de], [it], [nl] [fr] [ru] languages
You have to translate
– the tooltip of the +/- icon
– the menu of “Toolbaar Manager” after right-clicking on the +/- icon and all submenus
– the tooltip of the “Task switcher” icon;
– the tooltip of the “File manager” icon
– the tooltip of the “Unplug USB drives” icon
– the tooltip of the red “Exit” icon
– the main menu
– the “FT10 – Manage menu favorites” menu.

This is really a very nice job. Just need to change the size of the lines and comments in the main menu. 1 millimetre high for the text of the comments on my screens, it’s not possible.

Thanks again for being patient with a person like me (a simple stupid Linux user).

Kind regards,
Wallon

[Member marcelocripe]

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In summary, in the icewm menu, we don’t know what the “Debinstaller” program does. It would be nice to put all languages ​​with the lines “Name[de]=…” or “Name[fr_BE]=…” or “Name[nl]=…” or “Name[it]=…” and an explanation in each language (like in the “Comment” lines).

Dear Wallon.

You’re absolutely right, for some time now I’ve been thinking about the need to adapt the pt-BR translation of the “Debinstaller” to “Instalador de Pacotes .deb”, because the translated and adapted text will make much more sense to people than the original English name. I don’t know if I can include the period in the text of “Name[pt_BR]=” (On my keyboard the letter R and E are next to each other, remember the “fr_BR” – laughs, it was a typo)

(a simple stupid Linux user).

You are not that, we are all learning to use antiX and each one of us has a different learning time. I remember very well in another topic that you were the one who taught me something I had no idea about or how to do. Here we help each other to grow and we learn together.

Thanks to your tests, we now know some points that need improvement, especially on large screens.

Thanks for helping with the tests.

– – – – –

In summary, in the icewm menu, we don’t know what the “Debinstaller” program does. It would be nice to put all languages with the lines “Name[de]=…” or “Name[fr_BE]=…” or “Name[nl]=…” or “Name[it]=…” and an explanation in each language (like in the ” Comment” lines).

Caro Wallon.

Você tem toda razão, já há algum tempo eu venho pensando na necessidade de adaptar a tradução para pt-BR do “Debinstaller” para “Instalador de Pacotes .deb”, pois o texto traduzido e adaptado fará muito mais sentido para as pessoas do que o nome original em Inglês. Eu não sei se posso incluir o ponto no texto de “Name[pt_BR]=” (No meu teclado a letra R e E estão uma do lado da outra, lembra do “fr_BR” – risos, foi um erro de digitação)

(a simple stupid Linux user).

Você não é isso, todos nós estamos aprendendo a utilizar o antiX e cada um de nós possui um tempo de aprendizagem diferente. Eu me lembro muito bem em outro tópico que era você que me ensinava algo que eu nem tinha ideia de existir ou de como fazer. Aqui um ajuda o outro a crescer e aprendemos juntos.

Graças aos seus testes, agora sabemos alguns pontos que precisam ser melhorados, em especial em telas grandes.

Obrigado por ajudar nos testes.

[Member Wallon]

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Dear Marcelocripe,

Regarding the FT10 menu in French, line 7 of the “debinstaller.desktop” file, i.e. “GenericName[fr]=Debinstaller installateur de paquets *.deb” appears correctly with the dot between * and deb. This is not a problem.

You can test this by modifying your file on your computer.

Well, I’m going to go to sleep, it’s 00:14 am here in Belgium and I have to go to work. No more time off…

Kind regards,
Wallon

[Member PPC]

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@Wallon – it’s hard to be a “stupid user” – we are all learning. Here are 2 tips about running commands from the terminal, first one, and most important:
1- Do not, I repeat: “DO NOT” run commands if you don’t understand what they do, or have no reason to trus the source- in a single simple command you can nuke your system- that’s true for Linux or Windows… (picture, running in windows “format c:” and formatting your hard drive, just because a messed up person told you that would solve a problem…)
2- Pasting commands to the terminal is easy in antiX: open the terminal, copy the text of the command you want to run (excluding the quotation marks, unless told otherwise) and paste the command on the terminal (right click and select “Paste”) then press enter- most of the time is way faster running a command on the terminal than navigating to the correct folder using a file manager, finding the desired command and clicking it…
Tip: if any part of the command you want to run includes spaces (like a file name or folder with spaces”, you have to put the entire command inside single quotes (or else the terminal will interpret the space as meaning that what’s after the space is a new command, and that will result in an error…)

About the size of the font- I’ve tested on my computer- the Control Center option to increase the font does not work for jgmenu (FT10 Menu)- Please test increasing the size of the font even more- the size of the font used for the description of the Program is directly related to the size of the main font- in the “Categories” menu there’s less danger of messing up the menu’s appearance by changing the font size- I tested changing the font to size “10” and it looks much better on my low res screen…

If you don’t mind, I would ask you a favor- please run FT10 “Tiled” menu with a big screen font (like size 10) and check out if it looks right or not (if you can, please post a pictures of that menu here).

I’ll probably will have to increase the width of the menus to accommodate bigger font sizes, required by hi res screens like yours…
Thanks in advance,

P.

[Moderator Brian Masinick]

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@PPC: & @Wallon: Thanks for your comments. Both of you are valued contributors here and both of you (and the vast majority of people who visit here) demonstrate both kindness and intelligence. Nobody, no matter how much education, experience, or intelligence knows everything; I certainly do not, but I know enough to appreciate others and share in a kind way whenever I can.

Keep up the great work; this effort is well worthwhile.

--
Brian Masinick

[Member Wallon]

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Dear Brian,

Thanks for the compliments.
You too have contributed a lot to the antiX community.
I found out how to run the command to open a *.sh file.
To open the file that handles the FT10 menu font, type in the terminal “sh /usr/local/lib/ft10/tint2_fonte.sh”.
Thanks again for bringing your good humour to this forum.

Kind regards,
Wallon

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