Dolphin Oracle Antix Core – Custom Install videos

[Moderator BobC]

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Yes, I think its a worthwhile adventure too.

As long as you keep making progress, each obstacle is something else to analyze, experiment with, and solve, and becomes a stepping stone to the next.

Sometimes you get to the end of the road and it all works, but its not as slick or efficient as what someone like anti put in the box (and you say, “how’d he do that!”), but it’s still fun understanding more about what makes it tick.

From core is tricky. Using the antiX packages is quite a feat, but likely to end with a better look than just implementing the bare upstream versions of things.

Thanks Xecure for tutoring….

[Member AA BB]

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Many, many thanks for your help … I now have a 95% functional Fluxbox-spaceFM desktop
I’m elated a antix newbie (and Linux newbie as of Nov’19) can get the destop I now have.
I’ve spent more time fessing around with ceni trying to get my wifi functional within an antix19-base install,
than I spent building this desktop from core

BTW, after changing roxterm to roxterm-gtk2, all the commands you provided worked out with no issues.

I’m very comfortable with making changes to ~/$USER/.fluxbox/menu in order to populate my FM menu
but the problem is I cant always figure out the names antiX assigns to various apps
..the special apps I installed hare obvious names, others I try to figure out using names in /bin

I still cant change solid-black wallpaper even though ~/.fluxbox/startup contains lines:
#SpaceFM controls my desktop
spacefm –desktop &
and Applications > Preferences > Wallpaper does nothing

I was also surprised to see my custom ~/$USER/.fluxbox/menu overwritten with the original antix FB menu file.
I’m not sure but I think my exploring and clicking items in Desktops > Other Desktops > Space-Fluxbox
is causing the overwrite, so I have to eliminate this from menu.

[Member ModdIt]

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others I try to figure out using names in /bin, Familiar problem,

if you install synaptic it gives you names and locations of installed software and dependent files.. I find it very helpful.
Maybe there is another way but that is the easiest I know of.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by ModdIt.

[Member Xecure]

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AA BB wrote:

I was also surprised to see my custom ~/$USER/.fluxbox/menu overwritten with the original antix FB menu file.

That is the doing of one of the commands.
Your old menu should be located in ~/.fluxbox-old/
You can copy it back to your .fluxbox folder.

AA BB wrote:

I still cant change solid-black wallpaper even though ~/.fluxbox/startup contains lines:
#SpaceFM controls my desktop
spacefm –desktop &

Remember the command should be somewhere above the line that says
exec /usr/bin/fluxbox
And watchout for double dash

#SpaceFM controls my desktop
spacefm –-desktop &

You should be able to change the wallpaper in SpaceFM if

AA BB wrote:

I’m very comfortable with making changes to ~/$USER/.fluxbox/menu in order to populate my FM menu
but the problem is I cant always figure out the names antiX assigns to various apps

Moddit is right that synaptic help a lot.

I also use App Select (Package name app-select-antix) to see what the expected Exec command for installed apps is. Dave’s app has helped me a lot.
Installing it is a bit tricky. I am not sure of all the python dependencies. I remember it took trial and error to get it working in core.
Give me some time and I will come back once I figure it out.
Edit: I already had some other python packages installed, so the extra ones should be app-select-antix, python-gi and gir1.2-gtk-3.0
The other packages come with geany and other software, so I am not sure what are the real minimum packages for it to run.

AA BB wrote:

Many, many thanks for your help … I now have a 95% functional Fluxbox-spaceFM desktop
I’m elated a antix newbie (and Linux newbie as of Nov’19) can get the destop I now have.

It is great that everything is working out. The beginnings are always slow with core, but soon you will get the hang of it.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by Xecure. Reason: a bit of info about app-select

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member AA BB]

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I also use App Select (Package name app-select-antix) to see what the expected Exec command for installed apps is. Dave’s app has helped me a lot.
Installing it is a bit tricky. I am not sure of all the python dependencies. I remember it took trial and error to get it working in core.
Give me some time and I will come back once I figure it out.
Edit: I already had some other python packages installed, so the extra ones should be app-select-antix, python-gi and gir1.2-gtk-3.0
The other packages come with geany and other software, so I am not sure what are the real minimum packages for it to run.

I note you mention app-select-antix
I previously installed it in order to get the following line in ~/fluxbox/menu to run correctly:
[exec] (App Select) {/usr/local/bin/app-select} < ..some icon… >
In /usr/local/bin I can see app-select, but when I click the FBox menu item, nothing happens
When I run app-select in a terminal , I get error message :
“line 11 in <module> …Import Error no module named gi
app-select is a python script that contains for lines 11 and 12
import gi
gi.require_version(‘Gtk’,’3.0′)

So after I saw your comment, I also installed python-gi and gir1.2-gtk-3.0
rebooted and clicked the App Select FBox menu item BUT it still doesn’t work.
And when i run app-select in a terminal it gives traceback errors starting at line 292 i.e. win=mainWindow() __init__ etc
I’m not an antiX expert by any means but it seems to me app-select is supposed to list all installed apps and allow the user to select one to execute.
This is very similar to what cli-aptiX does to install repo apps and is simple enough for any newbie to use, so it seems to me the python script is overkill, has lots of dependencies
and is unreliable.

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by AA BB.
• This reply was modified 3 years ago by AA BB.

[Member AA BB]

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Remember the command should be somewhere above the line that says
exec /usr/bin/fluxbox
And watchout for double dash
#SpaceFM controls my desktop
spacefm –-desktop &

You should be able to change the wallpaper in SpaceFM if

I placed
spacefm –-desktop &
at the top of the file along with two ‘minus signs’ preceding ‘desktop’ and still spaceFM wont change my wallpaper.
I’m not sure if this is related, but FBox menu item Applications > Preferences > Wallpaper doesn’t work either BUT this is clearly due to the fact it
ultimately calls /usr/local/bin/wallpaper.py
When I run this py script in a terminal, it fails because it can’t find /home/$USER/.desktop-session/desktoptop-code.0

Any ideas on … desktop-code.0 ??

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by AA BB.

[Moderator christophe]

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IIRC, regarding fluxbox from antiX core…

For background, try this:
fbsetbg -f PATH_TO_IMAGE
Add that to your startup file. (~/.fluxbox/startup).

For external drives: I install pmount. Then spacefm will allow you to mount & umount from its “devices” menu, to /media.

HTH

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member AA BB]

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For external drives: I install pmount. Then spacefm will allow you to mount & umount from its “devices” menu, to /media.

Many thanks Christophe :
FWIW the spaceFM on-line manual (section DEVICES) also mentions that spaceFM has it own program called ‘udevil’ to take care of device mount/unmount -ing
This section also mentions several other tools that can be used including the one you suggest, pmount
Before I got to read your post, I had already installed udevil and it quickly solved the problem.

I also edited my previous post to remove the device mount/unmount question.

I will also insert fbsetbg -f PATH_TO_IMAGE in ~/.fluxbox/startup

[Moderator christophe]

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Yep. That’s what the antiX core adventure is all about!! Wrestling around to fill the holes is at least half the fun!
And when you hit a wall, you’ve got the antiX community to ask for help…

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member Xecure]

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AA BB wrote:

I placed
spacefm –-desktop &
at the top of the file along with two ‘minus signs’ preceding ‘desktop’ and still spaceFM wont change my wallpaper.

Probably my mistake for not explaining this.
spacefm --desktop &
will set spacefm to launch the “desktop manager”, which has no image by default. To set the image, open SpaceFM and navigate the menu
View > Preferences > Desktop
There, Wallpaper must be ticked on, and you select the wallpaper you want to use. Clicking OK should save it. If it doesn’t change automatically, restarting should do the trick.

AA BB wrote:

When I run this py script in a terminal, it fails because it can’t find /home/$USER/.desktop-session/desktoptop-code.0

Any ideas on … desktop-code.0 ??

Also, if using the default antiX spacefm configuration (from etc/skel/.config), and you installed desktop-session-antix, and copied /etc/skel/.desktop-session to your home folder, wallpaper.py should work properly and change the desktop wallpaper.

I will be starting again from zero my core testing VM so I can figure out the exact dependencies for App Select.
I do believe App Select is one of the best additions to antiX 19. I use it a lot. I have a hotkey for it, and it serves as both my launcher as to see how apps are executed without having to manually open one by one the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications which saves a lot of time when creating menu entries for fluxbox.

antiX Live system enthusiast.
General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member AA BB]

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Two (maybe 3) strange things

1)

For background, try this: fbsetbg -f PATH_TO_IMAGE Add that to your startup file. (~/.fluxbox/startup) …

When I do this and reboot I don’t get the PNG files I choose in /usr/share/wallpaper
BUT when I copy this line:
fbsetbg -f /usr/share/wallpaper/Light-lines.png
directly from ~/.fluxbox/startup and paste it in a terminal, it runs perfectly.
Does this indicate ~/.fluxbox/startup isn’t being called somehow ??

2)

To set the image, open SpaceFM and navigate the menu
View > Preferences > Desktop
There, Wallpaper must be ticked on, and you select the wallpaper you want to use. Clicking OK should save it. If it doesn’t change automatically, restarting should do the trick.

I did this very thing several days ago and today verified it is set as requested. …But it still doesn’t work.

3) ?? Could the above behaviors be related to the following lines in my ~/.fluxbox/menu file having no { ..} part i.e. this is how they appear :
[workspaces] (Workspaces)
[reconfig] (Reconfigure)
[restart] (Restart)

[Member AA BB]

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PS I dont know if this is relevant but FWIW
~/.local/share/applications/
is an empty folder

[Moderator christophe]

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Regarding fluxbox startup file for background image: that’s a different way from using spacefm to manage the desktop. So don’t use my way while working with Xecure on your spacefm-fluxbox. They conflict. 🙂

confirmed antiX frugaler, since 2019

[Member AA BB]

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Christophe: many thanks for the warning about a possible conflict, I’m on a roll and don’t want to mess things up

[Member AA BB]

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I will be starting again from zero my core testing VM so I can figure out the exact dependencies for App Select.
I do believe App Select is one of the best additions to antiX 19….

Try this: navigate to /bin and click on ‘rox’ …a full list of click-able apps displays and a mouse hover over each app displays app info.

Now put line [exec] (App Select) {/bin/rox } <..icon..> in ~/.flunbox/menu then click it in the FBox menu
…it pops up a different list. I don’t get it, why the difference ????

• This reply was modified 3 years ago by AA BB.

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