How to change the default "home" for ROX?

Using applications, configuring, problems
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dvw86
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How to change the default "home" for ROX?

#1 Post by dvw86 »

I want to change the directory that Rox goes to when you click on the "home" icon in the rox toolbar. Does anybody know how to do this?

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rarsa
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#2 Post by rarsa »

Have you tried changing the ${HOME} environment variable?

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HOME=/mnt/shared
Why would you want to change HOME? it is not only for ROX, but for many applications that depend on it. For example, the Shell.

When you do a "cd" or "cd ~" it will take you to ${HOME}

Actually a better question is:
What problem are you trying to solve? Maybe you are looking at the wrong solution.

GuestToo
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#3 Post by GuestToo »

type:

cd /path-you-want
killall ROX-Filer
rox -op /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

or:
kill X (pressing ctrl+alt+backspace will work)
cd /path-you-want
startx

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Flash
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#4 Post by Flash »

ROX is a mighty queer duck; an application running from within its own directory, or something like that. I don't quite understand the implications. To find out more about ROX, in Puppy, go to Start->Help and click on 'ROX-Filer' in the Applications Documentation. Check out section 15: "Application Directories"

I think DotPups are also application directories.

ljones
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#5 Post by ljones »

Flash wrote:ROX is a mighty queer duck; an application running from within its own directory, or something like that. I don't quite understand the implications. To find out more about ROX, in Puppy, go to Start->Help and click on 'ROX-Filer' in the Applications Documentation. Check out section 15: "Application Directories"

I think DotPups are also application directories.
I think ROX handles its apps like that in a similar way to the old Acorn Archimdies computer. You used to name directories with a "!" to start off (e.g. !Lander); this directory when clicked with the left mouse button ran the program (in this case !Lander, a game on the acorn archimdies). But doing that and holding down shift opened the directory which contained files like !Boot,!Run,!Runimage,!Help,!Sprites ... all of which were components which went to make up the whole program.

Some pics of RISCOS can be seen here though this is the newer version; other info here. Note the similiarities to rox, and the (disabled in puppy) bar at the bottom of the screen!

ljones

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dvw86
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#6 Post by dvw86 »

I don't want to change the $HOME variable, I just want to go to a different directory other than root when I click on the home icon. Since Puppy is a single user distribution, it doesn't make a lot of since to me to call root "home". Why not call / "home" since it is the lowest level directory or /root/Home? I'm sure that I'm just an odd duck here but it would be nice if I could change where that icon points to. I tried all of the suggestions but they did not work quite like expected.

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#7 Post by GuestToo »

if you kill all rox processes (including the pinboard), cd to another dir, and start the rox pinboard again, when you open a rox window it will open it in that dir ... clicking the home button will move to that dir

i found this out by accident when i wrote a script that put a shortcut on the desktop

"home" is the dir that contains the personal files belonging to a user account

"home" for root (user root, not root of the file system = / ) is /root

"home" for user "spot" is /root/spot, though usually it would be /home/spot ... but Puppy doesn't have a /home dir

"home" for user "rover" would normally be /home/rover

each user's "home" contains their own personal files ... for example, root will have Icewm config files in /root/.icewm ... spot will have Icewm config files in /root/spot/.icewm ... so when root runs Puppy, root will have his own icewm theme and wallpaper ... spot will have his own icewm theme and wallpaper, which may be different from user root ... they may also choose to use different window managers ... they will have their own Gaim configurations, their own Firefox bookmarks, their own desktop shortcuts, their own menus, their own screen resolution, etc etc etc

if you made / "home", then every user would have their personal config files in / ... apart from the fact that each user would change the configuration of the other users, if root changed anything, it would make root the owner of the config file, and no other user could change that config file afterwards (because normal users can't change or delete any of user root's files) ... sometimes running Midnight Commander su as root will cause some of the config files to be owned by user root, and mc won't even start anymore

short answer: "home" is where your personal files are, including all your configuration ... "home" for user "root" is /root ... in Puppy, home for user "spot" is /root/spot
Last edited by GuestToo on Sat 02 Jul 2005, 06:56, edited 1 time in total.

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#8 Post by rarsa »

First: Actually more than being a puppy quirkiness it is a Linux design issue.

The idea is that your Home folder is your play ground, you should not be creating working files anywhere else. Of course you need to create configuration files and what not in the other folders, but the idea is that once you have your system configured you should only work in your home folder.

Second, In Puppy the /root folder corresponds to your Pupxxx file. The rest is read only.

Of course you may not see it that way as you can change files in /etc and /usr, but in puppy what you are realy doing is working in /root/.etc and in /root/.usr

Actually if there were not some technical issues in Puppy, you should always run with less privileges, Of course, you can read why it is not much of an issue in puppy: mainly, everything important is already read only even to root!

But that I don't see a reason why you would like to work in / does not mean that you don't have one. Just think it through.

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#9 Post by GuestToo »

by the way, you can have rox open any dir you like when you click a desktop shortcut or a menu item
just add the path of the dir after the rox command

for example, type rox /etc ... it will open a rox window showing /etc

and you can move to any dir with the press of a key

for example, when i press 4, it moves to my-documents ... when i press 5, it moves to my-applications ... when i press 6, it moves to my-applications/bin

to set a rox bookmark, navigate to the dir, press ctrl+7 ... and when you press 7, rox will show you that dir ... works for all the number keys from 1 to 0

if you want a desktop shortcut that opens a particular dir ... just drag the dir from a rox window to the desktop

if you want a shortcut to open / ... easiest way is probably to drag any dir to the desktop, right click the icon and click Edit Item ... change Clicking The Icon Opens to / ... change the name of the shortcut if you like

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dvw86
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#10 Post by dvw86 »

I tried your suggestion GuestToo and while Rox would default to my desired directory, the home icon still opened up root.

I understand why root is "Home" and all the Unix implications but Puppy is not a typical Unix/Linix. As I build this machine I try to keep my mom and sister, who are practically computer illiterate, in mind. They would just be overwhelmed with all those funny named folders like root, etc, ghttpd, tmp, spot.... When they click on the home icon this is what they want to see. This is purely for a more "user friendly" appearance.

Image
Last edited by dvw86 on Thu 01 Sep 2005, 06:31, edited 1 time in total.

GuestToo
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#11 Post by GuestToo »

no problem

make a dir /root/Home

make dirs in Home ... Documents, Downloads, Favorites ...

drag Home to the desktop to make a shortcut
when you click the shortcut, it will open the Home dir in a rox window, exactly as in your picture

you can put it in a menu too ... for example, you could put something like this in an icewm menu:
prog Home folder.xpm rox /root/Home

you can have dirs, symlinks to dirs, executables, symlinks to executables in Home ... for example, a link to the cd drive

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dvw86
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#12 Post by dvw86 »

GuestToo wrote:no problem

make a dir /root/Home

make dirs in Home ... Documents, Downloads, Favorites ...

drag Home to the desktop to make a shortcut
when you click the shortcut, it will open the Home dir in a rox window, exactly as in your picture

you can put it in a menu too ... for example, you could put something like this in an icewm menu:
prog Home folder.xpm rox /root/Home

you can have dirs, symlinks to dirs, executables, symlinks to executables in Home ... for example, a link to the cd drive
I've done all of that, but the "home" icon in the Rox tool bar still goes to root. I finally just took the icon out of the tool bar (like in the picture). So in effect I have what I wanted exept for that dang icon :x I would really like having a quick link in the rox toolbar that points to /root/home

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#13 Post by GuestToo »

you can change rox's home dir, by cd'ing to the dir and restarting rox with the -n option ... i have done it before by accident

maybe this does the same thing ... find the line in .xinitrc that starts the pinboard, and change it to something like:

HOME=/root/Home
rox -op /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin
HOME=/root

you will need to have Choices in /root/Home (a symlink to /root/Choices is ok)
i don't know if it would cause any problems, but rox will think /root/Home is your home dir

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#14 Post by Lobster »

I try to keep my mom and sister, who are practically computer illiterate, in mind. They would just be overwhelmed with all those funny named folders like root, etc, ghttpd, tmp, spot....
8)
First of all your icons are a delight. IMHO this sort of generic look is more understandable by Mac users, XP users, Window 95 users and Linux users as being a modern, usable desktop.

Think of it like this: if this simpler set of directories existed, who would want to change directory names to "usr/my-documents/movies"? They could if they wanted to but will anyone . . .

. . . or let us change to that grey 95 look? Again they could if they wanted to.

Just adding a trashcan is a huge improvement. Who is Puppy designed for? I feel that moving to a generic icon set and simple menu is not dumbing down, it is is the intelligent thing to do. The sooner the better.

I believe Puppy will be taken seriously, when it looks as simple as a toy OS, which it clearly is not (that we all know)

Are we ready to play? :)
Puppy Raspup 8.2Final 8)
Puppy Links Page http://www.smokey01.com/bruceb/puppy.html :D

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dvw86
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#15 Post by dvw86 »

GuestToo wrote:you can change rox's home dir, by cd'ing to the dir and restarting rox with the -n option ... i have done it before by accident

maybe this does the same thing ... find the line in .xinitrc that starts the pinboard, and change it to something like:

HOME=/root/Home
rox -op /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin
HOME=/root

you will need to have Choices in /root/Home (a symlink to /root/Choices is ok)
i don't know if it would cause any problems, but rox will think /root/Home is your home dir
Well that worked but it had some undesirable side effects. Like you mentioned, I had to create a symlink to Choices and I was trying to get rid of all directories and files that the end user (my sister) would not need to see. Also things like Xmms skins failed to work. When I cd'ed to the root/Home dir and restarting rox with the -n option it kind of worked. Rox would default to root/Home but the home icon still would take me to root.

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Flash
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#16 Post by Flash »

I just want to say I heartily agree with everything Lobster just said. Well said, crusty. :)

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