OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Sharp Zaurus => Zaurus - pdaXrom => Topic started by: Zumi on November 04, 2004, 08:55:54 pm
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Let this screenshot talk for itself first:
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OK, now it's my turn.
I saw matchbox on pdaXrom and I tought I can have better than that. I was playing with Fvwm since ...well, quite a long time now.
I decided to recreate the pdaXrom's graphical user interface (GUI) with Fvwm, because I tought it does the job better than Matchbox does.
I worked hard in the last week and I created something you might find nice.
What this GUI does have now:
- a taskbar at last - now you can switch between apps easily using the touchscreen
- it has a clock, a battery display, a CPU frequency display, and a mouse-button display
- you can adjust the backlight, the cpufrequency and the used mousekey with two clicks
- more eyecandy - Translucent menus and titlebars
- an onscreen keyboard with xkbd, configured more useful than in matchbox (well, I think it's better, but I don't use it very much, post your comments)
- I wrote a parser that converts the entire matchbox menu to fvwm menu
What it doesn't have _yet_:
- it doesn't have tool to set the screenoff, suspend timeout, use the one comes with the rom (first thing I will do when I will have time again)
- you don't have icons for applications in the root menu, because Fvwm can't resize the icons dinamically, and I haven't compiled ImageMagick yet, which can resize the images easily with a little script)
- screen doesn't switch off if you close it (I haven't studied the working mechanism yet)
- portrait mode doesn't work, no rotation (I think this can be nicely with fvwm in the future)
Fvwm config is a bit hard, but I added a lot of comment to the config file to help you in the altering of the default for your needs. You can find everything about the configuration here (http://www.fvwm.org/documentation/manpages/unstable/) and you can ask questions from me, ask them here (http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=225192) or on irc.freenode.net, the #fvwm channel.
It was kinda big task for me alone to make all this, and I don't think I'm the fisrt one who wrote something without fault. So: post your bugreports, ideas, or "oh, this is very nice indeed" comments here to retain my lust for working on this thing.
If you already have a /home/root/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc file and/or /home/root/.icons/ directory (for custom cursors), please backup, because the ipk overwrites them.
The pdaxrom-fvwm package is dependent on the fvwm package. I asked Bastichelaar, who compiled the 2.5.10 fvwm for the Zaurus (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=6314), to upload it again to the unstable feed, but he forgot the dependencies of the fvwm package. So grab the files from here (http://zaurus.xerys.nl/index.php?option=com_docman&task=view_category&Itemid=26&subcat=1&catid=7&limitstart=0&limit=5) 'till he uploads them.
Well, I'm eager to read your comments!
Zumi
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Zumi:
Great work! I didn't see where you posted your fvwm config file. I've been using fvwm on my gentoo box & since I started playing with bastichelaars' fvwm port for RC 2 on my Z.
Cheers,
Jerry
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Beautiful!
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Zumi, I think you should contact the pdaXrom team and work with them on RC6 as this WM appears to have many features that the standard WM is missing, yet the standard WM is more complete. Perhaps working together you can create a much better standard WM that will be ready in time for the release?
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Zumi:
Great work! I didn't see where you posted your fvwm config file. I've been using fvwm on my gentoo box & since I started playing with bastichelaars' fvwm port for RC 2 on my Z.
Cheers,
Jerry
It's in the unstable feed. The package called "pdaxrom-fvwm" put things where they have to be.
I haven't overwritten the default .xinitrc, the package adds a .xinintrc.fwm in the /home/root
To use it, move your existing .xinitrc and copy the new one.
$ mv /home/root/.xinitrc /home/root/.xinitrc.mb
$cp /home/root/.xinitrc.fvwm /home/root/.xinitrcWell, that's it.
Zumi
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Zumi, I think you should contact the pdaXrom team and work with them on RC6 as this WM appears to have many features that the standard WM is missing, yet the standard WM is more complete. Perhaps working together you can create a much better standard WM that will be ready in time for the release?
I don't know whether it's a good idea to change the default WM in the last release before the stable.
Yeah, I had world dominating plan with this config , but it's not mature yet.
If I make the functions above ("doesn't have yet" part) it's functionally ready to be used by everyone. (but after that there are a lot more things to improve, simple configuration with a program, for example)
A busy week coming for me, that's why I tried to release it now. I will continue to work on it afterwards.
I encourage everyone now to try it, see the ~/.fvwm/.fvwm2rc file and set things for his/her needs.
Zumi
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Zumi i like the look and feel very much - but as you point out yourself its not a good idea chaning it right now - but we will contact you later if its okay - maybe we can make a possibility to switch between different WM etc. later. I love you work!
We are very aware of the memory footprint Matchbox leaves and the "limitations" it sets but at the moment we are hoping that future version are better and more optimized.
Btw. When i get the time i will abbandon the stupid python scripts for settings tool - that way we don't need python included as default.
Zumi: What panel are you using?
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Zumi i like the look and feel very much - but as you point out yourself its not a good idea chaning it right now - but we will contact you later if its okay - maybe we can make a possibility to switch between different WM etc. later. I love you work!
We are very aware of the memory footprint Matchbox leaves and the "limitations" it sets but at the moment we are hoping that future version are better and more optimized.
Btw. When i get the time i will abbandon the stupid python scripts for settings tool - that way we don't need python included as default.
Zumi: What panel are you using?
I'm happy you like it!
I will be able to make all the configuration dialogs with Fvwm and they are relatively fast too. So separate AC/battery, suspend, screenoff settings will be available if I will have time again to write them. (I don't stick to write it myself, if anybody want to do it, I will merge it in gladly )
The panel is an FvwmButton module cloaked to a Taskbar. It has 3 buttons in the default config (only you can't see them separatelly because I removed the Frames) and it swallows the FvwmIconMan and one FvwmScript window. (This is why it uses much less memory than the matchbox applets - I packed every functions in one "applet" so it's only one process with about 5% memory usage, not about four times 5 as it would be with sepatate scripts, processes like in matchbox)
Ps.: Anybody tried the ipkg physically? My Z was messed with Fvwm scripts in different places in the end, so I wasn't able to test it 100% it's working like I imagined. I would like to see comments about it.
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Maybe it's interesting to show the memory usage in numbers.
Memory usage looks like this on my Z in this moment (all numbers are in percents, according to the "top" command):
With Fvwm:
10.4 fvwm2
8.9 FvwmScript
7.0 FvwmIconMan
5.9 FvwmButtons
2.0 FvwmCommandS
5.7 xkbd
sum: 39.9
With Matchbox:
12.6 openbox
12.2 matchbox-desktop
6.8 mb-applet-menu-launcher
6.4 mb-applet-clock
5.1 matchbox-panel
4.6 mb-applet-launcher
4.5 mb-applet-launcher (I have two quicklaunch icon on the matchbox taskbar too)
4.5 mb-applet-battery
4.2 xmonobut
sum:60.9I know it's not on the same level of functionality yet, but I guess it will not use much more memory if we implement all the stuff needed. Maybe another 5-8% in the worst case.
FvwmCommandS is not necessary, it allows you to change Fvwm settings dinamically with $ FvwmCommand <fvwm command>; it was useful when I set things up but not needed in the default, I think.
xkbd runs in the background because it is swallowed by the Taskbar too. It consumes memory but it pops up very fast if you click on it's icon; I think later I will only allow it to run if the Zaurus is in portrait mode - this make more sense.
From CPU time the only noticable load is caused by FvwmScript process. It uses about 0,5-0,9 percent CPU time (400MHz idle, so 200MHz mode). I could reduce this but then the applet would respond slower to changes (in the displaying side).
Zumi
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zumi
first i want think you for this great job
but it dosn't work for me
i entred this code
$ mv /home/root/.xinitrc /home/root/.xinitrc.mb
$cp /home/root/.xinitrc.fvwm /home/root/.xinitrc
then i entred startx
i had this message
[w100fb] set 640x480 (vga 90 degree)
Loaded power settings
awk: cmd. line:80: call to undefined function
fvwm2: error while loading shared libraries: libexpat.so.1:cannot open shared
object file: No such file or directory
waiting for x server to shut down
CAN YOU HELP ME
freebird
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fvwm2: error while loading shared libraries: libexpat.so.1:cannot open shared
about this: I passed this problem quickly when I first tried fvwm, so I haven't remembered. You only have to link a lib in the correct place. I will include this link file in the next pdaxrom-fvwm package.
Do this:
$ ln -s /usr/lib/libexpat.so.0.5.0 /usr/lib/libexpat.so.1
awk: cmd. line:80: call to undefined function
I can't say anything concrete about this problem. It seems to be a problem with the matchbox2fvwm script, because I used awk only in that, but I don't see anything out of odinary in the 80th line. Make sure you're using the correct awk from the /usr/local/bin (I copied this file from the native sdk to the ipk)
See where the awk binary is:
which awkIf it's not in the /usr/local/bin then you have to modify the default path and include the /usr/local/bin dir before anything else.
My PATH settings in the /etc/profile file looks like this:
PATH=/usr/local/bin:/opt/arm/3.3.2-vfp/bin:/opt/sdk/bin:/root/bin:/bin:/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/X11R6/bin:$QTDIR/bin:$KDEDIR/binI hope these tips help.
Zumi
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Hi Zumi,
I tried it and feel it is lighter. I love it especially the task bar . But I don't have the menu as you do. I only have a menu like this:
Builtin Menu
---------------
1. XTerm
2. Setuo Form
3. Setup 95 Script
4. Issue FVWM commands
R. Restart FVWM
X. Exit FVWM
How can I have the same menu as you do??
Keidin
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Hi Zumi,
I tried it and feel it is lighter. I love it especially the task bar . But I don't have the menu as you do. I only have a menu like this:
Builtin Menu
---------------
1. XTerm
2. Setuo Form
3. Setup 95 Script
4. Issue FVWM commands
R. Restart FVWM
X. Exit FVWM
How can I have the same menu as you do??
Keidin
Yes, this seems to be the default Fvwm menu, if you don't have anything specified.
First, quit from the Fvwm and check the console. Maybe you have the same problem as freebird (the awk part). If it's so, try what I wrote there.
Also check whether you have a file called pdaxrom_menu in the /home/root/.fvwm/ dir.
If it's not there, try to make it with this command:
$ matchbox2fvwm-noicons > /home/root/.fvwm/pdaxrom_menu(however this is the command which is executed at startup, so basically you don't have to do this, your problem must be the same as freebird)
Zumi
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Hi Zumi,
BINGO!!!! It works now. Fantastic job. Thx.
Keidin
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The awk error in my case was a result of installing to /mnt/user so awk was in /mnt/user/usr/local/bin but the awk symlink in /usr/local/bin was still pointing to /bin/busybox. I made a new symlink that pointed to the /mnt/user/usr/local/bin and then matchbox2fvwm ran fine.
Fine work Zumi, now I've got fvwm on all of my linux machines very cool.
Fvwm is very addicting the more you play with it. Thanks for feeding my habit
Cheers,
Jerry
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ZUMI
THANKS !!! IT IS WORKING AND IT IS GREAT!!!!
NOW I WILL TRAY TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT FONT SIZE OF APPLICATIONS MENUS
TO MAKE THEM BIGGER ABOUT SIZE=16 STYLE=BOLD
MAY BE YOU HAVE AN IDEA
HI
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Freebird: open the .fvwm2rc file (located in the /home/root/.fvwm dir) with your favourite editor and search for the 69th line.
It's like this:
Menustyle * Font "xft:Arial:size=14:encoding=iso8859-1"To stay at your example, you have to change the line this way:
Menustyle * Font "xft:Arial:Bold:size=16:encoding=iso8859-1"You are welcome.
Zumi
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THANKS ZUMI
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The awk error in my case was a result of installing to /mnt/user so awk was in /mnt/user/usr/local/bin but the awk symlink in /usr/local/bin was still pointing to /bin/busybox. I made a new symlink that pointed to the /mnt/user/usr/local/bin and then matchbox2fvwm ran fine.
I don't understand this. There should be no file named "awk" in the /usr/local/bin. If there's one, it's in the /usr/bin. (but I think there's no default awk on the system, only in the native sdk)
Fine work Zumi, now I've got fvwm on all of my linux machines very cool.
Fvwm is very addicting the more you play with it. Thanks for feeding my habit
I absolutely agree with this.
Freebird, just a suggestion: Use mixed case, UPPER CASE LOOKS AS IF YOU'RE SHOUTING.
Best regards,
Zumi
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Just posted some screenshots in Desktop thread here (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8170&st=0&#entry50667)
Zumi: thanks again, pdaXrom Team you guys rock!
Cheers,
Jerry
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Just posted some screenshots in Desktop thread here (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8170&st=0&#entry50667)
Zumi: thanks again, pdaXrom Team you guys rock!
Cheers,
Jerry
On the screenshot I noticed the taskbar items are overlaping each other. You made them a bit thiner, arent you?
And yeah, I never tought anybody will iconize anything (I never do with fvwm). Maybe I will give titles for the iconified apps too.
Guys, some puzzler for your configuration pleasure:
I will give some warm handsake for the person who tells me how to omit the shadow at the applet fonts. I just can't do it...
Zumi
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Just posted some screenshots in Desktop thread here (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8170&st=0&#entry50667)
Zumi: thanks again, pdaXrom Team you guys rock!Â
Cheers,
Jerry
On the screenshot I noticed the taskbar items are overlaping each other. You made them a bit thiner, arent you?
And yeah, I never tought anybody will iconize anything (I never do with fvwm). Maybe I will give titles for the iconified apps too.
Guys, some puzzler for your configuration pleasure:
I will give some warm handsake for the person who tells me how to omit the shadow at the applet fonts. I just can't do it...
Zumi
Zumi, thanks a lot!
It's amazing WM I'm really happy.
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0.2 released!
Update from the unstable feed.
Main change:
- Fvwm is now sets the different screenoff, suspend and backlight settings when you charge the Zaurus or use it with battery. You can set them using the original Light & Power utility then reload the taskbar applet using the "Reload" line from the backlight settings menu.
I hope you like it!
Zumi
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Zumi:
I'm trying to get Taviso's directory browsing script to work so I can browse mp3 & video directories. I'm running into problems with the fvwm-menu-directory script . It'll run if
#!/usr/bin/perlis changed to
#!/bin/bashHowever the commands in the script keep tripping up on use & my
line 11: use: command not foundline 14: my: command not found
I'm no programmer so I haven't a clue how to resolve these. Is it possible short of installing perl?
Thanks,
Jerry
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I'm no programmer so I haven't a clue how to resolve these. Is it possible short of installing perl?
No, unless you (get someone to) rewrite the script in bash.
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I'm no programmer so I haven't a clue how to resolve these. Is it possible short of installing perl?
No, unless you (get someone to) rewrite the script in bash.
Right, changing only the interpreter usually doesn't help.
I will look into the possibilities when I will have more time.
Zumi
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Right, changing only the interpreter usually doesn't help.
I will look into the possibilities when I will have more time.
Zumi
Thanks Zumi,
As I said, I'm no programmer, more of a script-kiddie. I can mod other people's scripts, but god forbid if I have to write one that does more than one operation
I think it would be great to be able to use Taviso's script to browse to the mp3 or mpg file and load it by clicking on it.
Cheers
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hello,
got the same problem as keidin.
only get the standard builtin menu. But i have a .fvwm2rc and pdaxrom_menu in my /home/root
i tried copy them to my /mnt/card/home/root/.fvwm/ diectory but nothing happens
how to fix this?
thanks denis
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hello,
got the same problem as keidin.
only get the standard builtin menu. But i have a .fvwm2rc and pdaxrom_menu in my /home/root
i tried copy them to my /mnt/card/home/root/.fvwm/ diectory but nothing happens
how to fix this?
thanks denis
I had similar problems as I installed fvwm to /mnt/user because my / is almost full.
First run from xterm ->
# matchbox2fvwm
That's what writes the pdaxrom_menu file. That should tell you's not working. In my case the error was related to awk. It was symlinked to busybox and not to the awk binary in my /mnt/user partition. To fix it I just deleted the the symlink and created a new one pointing the the awk binary in /mnt/user/usr/local/bin (if you installed to /mnt/card it'll be in/mnt/card/usr/bin - or /mnt/card/usr/local/bin).
If you can't figure it out post the error message from matchbox2fvwm
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hello jerrybme,
how can i see if its symlinked to awk?
i get following error:
bash-3.00# matchbox2fvwm
DestroyMenu office
AddToMenu office
...
DestroyMenu systools
AddToMenu systools
awk: cmd. line:88: Call to undefined funktion
my pdaxrom_menu looks not too bad, but after restarting fvwm
i´ve the same old menu
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hello,
got the same problem as keidin.
only get the standard builtin menu. But i have a .fvwm2rc and pdaxrom_menu in my /home/root
i tried copy them to my /mnt/card/home/root/.fvwm/ diectory but nothing happens
how to fix this?
thanks denis
I had similar problems as I installed fvwm to /mnt/user because my / is almost full.
First run from xterm ->
# matchbox2fvwm
That's what writes the pdaxrom_menu file. That should tell you's not working. In my case the error was related to awk. It was symlinked to busybox and not to the awk binary in my /mnt/user partition. To fix it I just deleted the the symlink and created a new one pointing the the awk binary in /mnt/user/usr/local/bin (if you installed to /mnt/card it'll be in/mnt/card/usr/bin - or /mnt/card/usr/local/bin).
If you can't figure it out post the error message from matchbox2fvwm
I didn't know BusyBox can emulate awk too. It seems that only a "real" awk can handle my script well.
Deniscallies, see if there's anything in that pdaxrom_menu file, try what Jerrybme said and what I wrote before, if nothing helps, post the error messages.
Anyway, it seems to be a good idea to install the pack to the root (/).
I'm working now on the portrait-landscape mode switch and on the turn-off-the-screen-if-closed feature.
I think I will rename the next pack (0.3 version ) to fvwm-pdaxrom, because this way it is near in the list to the fvwm package, so easier to find and I want it to be similar to the original "matchbox-pdaxrom" package naming.
Zumi
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hello jerrybme,
how can i see if its symlinked to awk?
i get following error:
bash-3.00# matchbox2fvwm
DestroyMenu office
AddToMenu office
...
DestroyMenu systools
AddToMenu systools
awk: cmd. line:88: Call to undefined funktion
my pdaxrom_menu looks not too bad, but after restarting fvwm
i´ve the same old menu
It seems you have the busybox version awk. Check with the "$ which awk" command where is your awk file located. Then do an "$ ls -l /dir/where/the/file/is/awk".
You will see if it's a link or not. (a "/somewhere/something -> othersomewhere/othersomething" in the line)
If the which says it is located in the /usr/bin then you haven't changed your path to include the /usr/local/bin dir first. See this (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8280&view=findpost&p=50549) post about path setting.
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I'm working now on the portrait-landscape mode switch and on the turn-off-the-screen-if-closed feature.
I think I will rename the next pack (0.3 version ) to fvwm-pdaxrom, because this way it is near in the list to the fvwm package, so easier to find and I want it to be similar to the original "matchbox-pdaxrom" package naming.
Zumi
Great news Zumi
Here's my latest screenshot on the desktop thread here. (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=72&t=8170&st=30#entry51865)
Cheers,
Jerry
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Great news Zumi
Here's my latest screenshot on the desktop thread here. (https://www.oesf.org/forums/index.php?act=ST&f=72&t=8170&st=30#entry51865)
Cheers,
Jerry
Looks nice, the wallpaper has a c00l feeling.
But I still don't understand why your taskbar applet items are overlapping each other. You made the fonts bigger? Or it is like this by default? You see, on my screenshot they are OK.
Zumi
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But I still don't understand why your taskbar applet items are overlapping each other. You made the fonts bigger? Or it is like this by default? You see, on my screenshot they are OK.
Well, I've done so much hacking of your config files, that I can't really say if it was that way as default (should have saved your original config ) I have increased most instances of fonts as I have bad eyes and like larger text on my Z. Anyway, guess I'll find out when I reflash with the RC6 image -which will be soon, I hope
Cheers and thanks for all of your great work on fvwm,
Jerry
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Zumi:
I've found a strange problem with playing movies under fvwm. When you use the -fs flag for fullscreen combined with the xrandr -s 1 resolution reduction, it seems to try and place the image in the what would have been the center if the resolution was still 640X480. Only the top left hand corner is visible in the lower right hand corner of the screen.
When I switch back to matchbox it plays fine, full screen. I'm using basticlehaar's latest mplayer and my script is:xrandr -s 1 && mplayer -fstype fullscreen -fs -ac mad -af volume -really-quiet $1 && xrandr -s 0
Thanks,
Jerry
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Video playing is working fine for me. I'm using these settings too, but I inserted some sleep commands in my movie playing script:
#!/bin/bash
xrandr -s 1
sleep 1
mplayer -fstype fullscreen -fs "$@" >/dev/null
sleep 1
xrandr -s 0
sleep 3
And an addition to my scripts:
I found out that the taskbar script does using a lot of resources, because it polls some files in every sec with cat, so the sum of these are big, however the FvwmScript is not using much itself.
A workaround:
in the .fvwm2rc file, 398. line (according to the 0.2 version)
Remove this:
*ZaurusTaskbar: (12x1, Right, Swallow (Respawn) ZaurusApplet `FvwmScript zaurus_applet`)Add this:
*ZaurusTaskbar: (12x1, Right, Swallow (NoRespawn) ZaurusApplet `FvwmScript zaurus_applet`)
Now you can kill the applet if you're doing something like video playing.
killall -9 FvwmScriptAnd you can restart it with hitting CTRL-ALT-R (this is my default key for restarting Fvwm)
So if you are planning to do some video playing, for example, I think this will be useful and needed.
Further plans are to write this applet using GTK and C to use little processor time, but I'm not too familiar with these, so I will need time to experience with them.
Anyway, sooner or later we will have a nice (perfect?) WM for the Zaurus.
Zumi
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There seems to problem with Aterm when switching resolutions and running mplayer - so the sleep 1 as Zumi uses is good another way is disable the transparency in Aterm, but thats less eyecandy :-)
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Zumi:
Thanks for the tips, I'll mod my fvwm2rc file as suggested. The sleep commands in my script don't solve my fullscreen problem. I think I'll try your default config to see if some of my tweaks have caused the problem.
**Update** Hmm, loaded your original fvwm2rc file and still having the centering problem with mplayer. Wierd that it works fine in matchbox but not fvwm. Next I'll try down grading to the original mplayer to see if it an issue with the newer version.
Laze:
Interestingly I've not experienced any problems playing video from the aterm. I tried running it from xterm and still have my centering problem.
Cheers,
Jerry
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uhhh. Sorry we have only seen this problem under our "standard" (matchbox) window manager - haven't tried under FVM - just thought it might be the same thing :-)
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uhhh. Sorry we have only seen this problem under our "standard" (matchbox) window manager - haven't tried under FVM - just thought it might be the same thing :-)
Well, nothing wrong with my video playing, so it might be something not related to the WMs.
Zumi
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But I still don't understand why your taskbar applet items are overlapping each other. You made the fonts bigger? Or it is like this by default? You see, on my screenshot they are OK.
Well, I figured it out. When I first started hacking your config, I was trying to increase the font size on the taskbar to make them easier to read. I tweaked the font settings in zaurus_applet and that is why even though I tried your original .fvwm2rc config it was still overlapping. I reset the font size back to 12 pt.
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how do you caputure the screen shot .
i can do it from the bash screen . but you see command to capture.
and is it possible to save to sd card while making capture
thanks
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how do you caputure the screen shot .
i can do it from the bash screen . but you see command to capture.
and is it possible to save to sd card while making capture
thanks
I use three different methods: either I connect via vnc and take the screenshot on my desktop (the easiest method) and crop it down; use gimp & screenshot plugin on my Z; or use xwd -display :0.0 -root -out /mnt/card/screen.xwd
The later method requires converting the .xwd file to a png or jpg so the gimp method has fewer steps. There are probably simplier methods, but those the ones I know.
Cheers,
Jerry