Understanding desktop-session-antix

[Member Xecure]

So, I am building a program to manage graphically the desktop-session options. I am mainly looking at the config files (The idea of the gui is to change config files and restart the desktop session to take effect) and haven’t looked at the scripts that manage the desktop session. Instead or reading I have opted for the easy way, that is to ask the devs (I know, I am shameless).

First question:
Is min-desktop (minimal) simply the normal WM (no desktop icons, no conky) and not not running startup file?

If I configure:
LOAD_CONKY=”false”
LOAD_STARTUP_FILE=”false”
and reboot normal (non-minimal desktop-session),
would I achieve the same result? Or are other things from desktop-session not being loaded (like mouse config, automount, etc) in minimal-wm compared to normal wm?

The FAQ only says:

What are the min- options?

If you want to keep RAM usage as low as possible, you can choose one of the min- options. There is no wallpaper, no desktop icons, no conky and no applications running in the panel.

If min- options cannot be achieved by simply editing the config files, then maybe instead of reading the config files, I also need to check the current desktop session and enable/disable options in the gui. If editing an option in the gui doesn’t change the desktop session, then it is better for the user to not know it is there.

Thanks for your time.

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General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member olsztyn]

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Xecure wrote:

Is min-desktop (minimal) simply the normal WM (no desktop icons, no conky) and not not running startup file?

I am also very interested in answer to this question… In my case I am experiencing a significant min-IceWM misbehavior, upon switch from IceWM, such as menus left on desktop, not going away, desktop becomes less responsive, if at all shortly after, etc… This is while IceWM is rock solid for me. This is not to report issue with min-IceWM I have but to bring this up as my conjecture that min-IceWM must be more than just turning off the options you specified. This is unless my setup is unusual and nobody else experiences such issues with min-IceWM…
My quick comparison of difference in initial memory footprint reported by Htop before min-IceWM locks up on me:
– IceWM (fully configured with startups) – 325M
– Min-IceWM – 205
Since such numbers are dependent on machine, I am testing on Thinkpad 410, i5, 4Gb.
There seems a significant difference, but I am not sure if my measured numbers are representative as my min-IceWM is not solid.
Thanks and Regards…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member Xecure]

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olsztyn wrote:

In my case I am experiencing a significant min-IceWM misbehavior, upon switch from IceWM, such as menus left on desktop, not going away,

Do windows that were closed still “appear” on screen as if it was part of the background? This is related to missing a background. min-icewm has a black background by default, but if the background doesn’t render, then “ghosting” of windows are left on the screen. I experienced this when building from core with fluxbox and I didn’t properly configure the background.
On normal antiX, launching the wallpaper app and selecting a wallpaper will fix the issue for that session. But maybe it needs to be investigated if it continues to happen after reboot.

If this is not it, sorry for the misdirection.

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General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Member olsztyn]

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Xecure wrote:

Do windows that were closed still “appear” on screen as if it was part of the background?

Yes, exactly. This is what probably created my impression that desktop becomes not responsive, while it still might be, just this ghosting artifacts left on desktop.
Thanks for the insight. I will try to play with your solution of setting wallpaper on min-IceWM, if I understand your solution…
Thanks and Regards…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member olsztyn]

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Looks like your solution fixed my min-IceWM behavior…
Thank you!

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Anonymous]

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are other things from desktop-session not being loaded

sudo apt install strace (a 1.3MB pkg, might be pre-installed)
then
you can, for instance:

strace -e trace=process,open,read \
 -o /tmp/min-ice.txt /usr/local/lib/desktop-session/desktop-session-restart min-icewm

the sibling utility ltrace (pkg “ltrace”, 150kb) is also useful (not for this exact task though)

[Anonymous]

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ghosting artifacts left on desktop

A comment within the session startup file(s) coaches “and, finally, we start the wm”

For a certain few tasks, perhaps the wallpaper setter, it can be beneficial to to delay their output until after the wm has started. The startup file can call “mywrapper.sh&” and within the wrapper script, a line instructing “sleep NN” precedes the line launching the wallpaper setter utility.

[Forum Admin Dave]

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Both:
– write session code files
– validate session exec
– export session code variables (DESKTOP_SESSION_CODE, DESKTOP_SESSION_WM, DESKTOP_SESSION_IM)
– load xdg-user-dirs
– load xmodmap
– validate desktop-session.conf

Options that currently do both but will be moved to normal/space-/rox- at some point
– startup volume and sound (if enabled and set in desktop-session.conf)

Options that currently are only for normal/space-/rox- that should be both
– xrdb merge

Options only for normal/space-/rox- options
– load startup dialog if enabled (if enabled in desktop-session.conf)
– enable window manager startup file
– set language and export menu with new language (if language is not set in ~/.desktop-session/)
– check for window manager startup and add startup delay set in desktop-session.conf (to give the window manager time to finish loading)
– start a desktop icon manager (rox-, space-)
– set wallpaper (using desktop-session-wallpaper/wallpaper.py) after delay for the desktop-icon-manager to load if needed
– check config file differences specified /etc/desktop-session/file_compare overridden by ~/.desktop-session/file_compare (if enabled in desktop-session.conf)
– load xdg autostart from /etc/xdg/autostart overridden by ~/.config/autostart (if enabled in desktop-session.conf)
– load desktop-session startup file ~/.desktop-session/startup
– load conky (if enabled in desktop-session.conf)
– set screen blank time (from desktop-session.conf set by set-screen-blank)
– load first run dialog/window (if enabled and set in desktop-session.conf)
– load other desktop’s window (if enabled in desktop-session.conf and window manager is not antiX menu supported, icewm,fluxbox,jwm,openbox)
– close startup dialog

Options only for min-
– disable window manager startup
– skip “Options only for normal/space-/rox- options”

Edit:
The image ghosting in the min- options is because there is nothing managing the display (wallpaper/icon manager). So the X display will display the old window until something requests that portion of the display be rewritten with another image.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Dave.

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Member Xecure]

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Thanks, Dave. I appreciate your explanation very much. I had (almost) everything set (except for loading OVERRIDE_SESSION_FM and saving changes, until I knew what everything did), and now will change/disable options when minimal desktop is selected.

One thing:

Dave wrote:

Options only for min-
– disable window manager startup

This does not work as described (or at least on my tests). If this was so, PPC would not be using tint2 on min-fluxbox (as he uses the ~/.fluxbox/startup file)

Another thing:
Looking at the code, there is a “none-” option, which I assume is “normal” (no desktop icon handler) mode. I am playing with it a bit but seems to work exactly the same as normal mode.

Thanks again. I will try not to disturb you too much.

Regards.

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General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

[Forum Admin Dave]

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Interesting that it does not work.
Yes none- is a “normal” session.
The window manager startup file is disabled by renaming it startup.disabled if it is found. The code for it is minimal-check

minimal_check() {
    if [ "$im" != "minimal" ]; then
        if [ -f "~/.$wm/startup.disabled" ]; then
            echo_cmd mv ~/.$wm/startup.disabled ~/.$wm/startup
        fi
        launch_desktop & launch_desktop_pid=$! ;
    else
        if [ -f "~/.$wm/startup" ]; then
            echo_cmd mv ~/.$wm/startup ~/.$wm/startup.disabled
        fi
    fi
}

maybe the “if [ -f “~/.$wm/startup” ]; then” check fails?

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Member Xecure]

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Another question. Is the future version going to use “minimal-wm” instead of the current (in my setup at least) “min-wm”? If so, I will need to change the code a bit.

About min_check (in the future version it is renamed minimal_check?)

Dave wrote:

maybe the “if [ -f “~/.$wm/startup” ]; then” check fails?

I tested a bit and that is so. It will not fail if using $HOME instead.
if [ -f "$HOME/.$wm/startup" ]; then

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

[Member olsztyn]

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Xecure wrote:

So, I am building a program to manage graphically the desktop-session options. I am mainly looking at the config files

Hi Xecure…
Just want to say that I appreciate what you are developing and looking forward to this tool. I sense it will make it easier to manage desktop configs and to optimize options to balance usability and smaller memory footprint.
As previously reported I did try min- desktops but due to their propensity of not working properly by default and requiring additional process to make them work correctly I basically gave up on min- desktop option from user perspective, but thanks again for the workaround to make it work…
Regards…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Forum Admin Dave]

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Ah yes, I knew there was a reason to start avoiding ~/ in favour of $HOME.
I do not recall exactly the reason for the alteration to minimal- to min-. I think it came around with fixing menu duplication for alternate desktops. While correcting the menu duplication it made sense/was requested to expand from min- to minimal- for clarification. This was to better work with /usr/share/xsessions/ and using other login managers (lightdm) which would need desktop-session specified on the exec line in the various .desktop files. It should be easy enough to add min- back to desktop-session to account for backward compatibility.

Edit:
As a note the min- options were added as a disable everything in case all the started options (or one bad option / bug) are too much for your system so you can disable them and return back to the normal/rox-/space- option.

• This reply was modified 2 years, 5 months ago by Dave.

Computers are like air conditioners. They work fine until you start opening Windows. ~Author Unknown

[Member olsztyn]

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Dave wrote:

As a note the min- options were added as a disable everything in case all the started options (or one bad option / bug) are too much for your system so you can disable them and return back to the normal/rox-/space- option.

Thank you for adding this clarification of the purpose of min- desktop, which as I understand is meant for recovery rather than regular desktop.
This puts my original question to sleep… Thanks Dave, greatly appreciate this clarification…

Live antiX Boot Options (Previously posted by Xecure):
https://antixlinuxfan.miraheze.org/wiki/Table_of_antiX_Boot_Parameters

[Member Xecure]

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I am reviving this thread to understand how desktop-session loads the correct menu from /usr/share/antiX/localisation.

Dave wrote:

– set language and export menu with new language (if language is not set in ~/.desktop-session/)

I checked the code but cannot find it there (I can only see regenerating menu-applications, but not the part from /usr/share/antiX/localisation).

@Dave (or anyone else), would you mind explaining how this is done?

I am thinking: If all menus included in desktop-defaults-<wm>-antix are replaced by only one .mo file (for every language) with all values from transifex, and a script calls for translating a simple template, including ICON_THEME, then there would be no need for using (and updating) all icewm,jwm and fluxbox various menus on every desktop-defaults-<wm>-antix package. A script would automate this when a new user is created or first time the user boots. This would also let the user change menu icons when switching icon theme (if those icons are available).

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General Live Boot Parameters for antiX.

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