FbBox-5.0 - Released 23 Sept 2017

[radky]

Hopefully, v 2.0 64 bit version will be available as an sfs for compatibility with latest FatDog64 versions.

Hi Jim1911,

FbBox-2.0 will support the infrastructure of conventional Woof-built Puppies.

64-bit support includes tahrpup64, slacko64, april64 and future Woof-built releases.

32-bit support includes precise, quirky, racy, raring, slacko (>= 5.5), tahrpup, unicorn, wary, wheezy and future Woof-built releases.

Thanks for your question.

[radky]

New FbBox-2.0 (see first post)

- Supports 32Bit Puppy Linux -> Woof-built releases (versions >= 5.5) including Precise, Quirky April/Tahr/Unicorn, Racy, Raring, Slacko, Wary, Wheezy, tahrpup, unicornpup, vividpup
- Supports 64Bit Puppy Linux -> Quirky April64/Wary64, Slacko64, tahrpup64
- Added new Desktop Theming GUI with twenty-four (24) preset global themes, plus quick access to standard modular theming (GTK, Openbox, Background, Cursor, Icons, Fonts).
- Added stability fixes and cosmetic enhancements of existing GTK and Openbox themes.
- Added multiple new GTK themes.
- Added multiple new Openbox themes.
- Added Ardis, Faience, JQ8raised, Moka and Yasis icon themes.
- Added multiple new backgrounds (wallpapers).
- Automatically create unique distro-specific backgrounds on first run of FbBox.
- Added options in fbpanel configuration manager to enable/disable 'Control Panel' and 'Run' items in Fbpanel menu, and to select the default Run-dialog (application launcher).
- Added fbbox-control as new control panel option in Fbpanel menu. Note: control panel options in the fbpanel configuration manager include fbbox-control, PupControl and setupwizard (BK's wizardwizard).
- Added optional 'Bookmarks' category to the Fbpanel menu (supports folders, files and URLs). This option also integrates with the ROX-Filer 'Add Bookmarks' option introduced in Woof-CE of September 2014.
- Added 'Places' category to Openbox desktop menu. This option parses the current directory hierarchy and provides a navigable tree to launch applications or edit files.
- Added 'Recent Files' category to Openbox desktop menu and optionally to the Fbpanel menu. This option parses recently-used.xbel and provides a launchable list of files accessed by GTK open/save dialogs.
- Added optional Fbpanel launcher buttons for quick access to Favorites, Bookmarks and Recent-Files modules (enable/disable in the fbpanel configuration manager).
- Added splash screen to fbpanel configuration manager (pfbpanel).
- Added support for Racy and Wary legacy Pups.
- Added support for flsynclient in pfbpanel.
- Added desksetup.sh support for openbox-session desktop environment (set/save pinboard layout of desktop and drive icons).
- Added pArchive (archive manager).
- Added ListDD (graphical ldd interface).
- Added UrxvtControl (Urxvt Terminal Control).
- Updated Pupmate utilities.
- Multiple bugfixes.

Caveats:
- Recent Puppy theming utilities that are specifically designed for the default JWM desktop contain modules that do not function outside the JWM environment. Consequently, these utilities are hidden (not shown) in the menus of the FbBox desktop environment, but will show again when you switch back to JWM.
- The Puppy desktop setup icon (wizardwizard) will call the PupControl utility only in the FbBox environment. When you switch back to JWM, the desktop setup icon reverts to the original wizardwizard.

[mavrothal]

Only FbBox_locales.pet appears to be presently in http://www.smokey01.com/radky/ and actually is the 2014 version.

[radky]

@mavrothal,

Working on an updated locales pet now.

Thanks

[mavrothal]

@mavrothal,

Working on an updated locales pet now.

I do not mind locales, but I can find neither FbBox-2.0_32Bit.pet nor FbBox-2.0_64Bit.pet there. Are they uploaded or their are pending?

[radky]

mavrothal,

FbBox-2.0 pets are now available for download.

See first post.

-------------

Also, an updated locales pet is available. Corrections are welcome.

[slavvo67]

It looked like it was going to work and then it reset my xserver a 2nd time; resulting in the attached under VividPup. It went back to JWM without issue (although, still the 2x reset for some reason).

Hope this testing helps.

Slavvo67

[radky]

Hi slavvo67,

Does your PC have Intel graphics?

In recent kernels, it seems the Intel video driver has multiple problems. Barry described severe screen distortion when using his Quirky April with the Intel driver in his notebook.

In fact, I see the same screen distortion with the Intel graphics in my old Acer Aspire 5742Z. However, all is OK if I drop to the X prompt and run xorgwizard, selecting the modesetting driver.

Maybe the Vesa driver would work also.

Please report back if the modesetting (or vesa) driver works better for you.

Thanks

[slavvo67]

Yes, Intel. See Specs Below. I'm trying your fix now so I'll report back in a few minutes.

UPDATE: The Xorgwizard did not fix, however opening an application that would take up the whole screen - I used Palemoon - seemed to get rid of the mess. Probably not the right fix but it works.

Best - Slavvo67

-Computer-
Processor : 2x Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5800 @ 3.20GHz
Memory : 3072MB (341MB used)
Machine Type : Physical machine
Operating System : vividpup - 6.5
User Name : root (root)
Date/Time : Sat 21 Mar 2015 07:29:30 PM GMT-8
-Display-
Resolution : 1024x768 pixels
OpenGL Renderer : Mesa DRI Intel(R) G45/G43 x86/MMX/SSE2
X11 Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
-Audio Devices-
Audio Adapter : HDA-Intel - HDA Intel
Audio Adapter : PC-Speaker - pcsp
----
-Display-
Resolution : 1024x768 pixels
Vendor : The X.Org Foundation
Version : 1.16.2.901
-Monitors-
Monitor 0 : 1024x768 pixels
-Extensions-
-OpenGL-
Vendor : Intel Open Source Technology Center
Renderer : Mesa DRI Intel(R) G45/G43 x86/MMX/SSE2
Version : 2.1 Mesa 10.5.0-rc3
Direct Rendering : Yes

[radky]

Hi slavvo67,

Thanks for the report.

BTW: Barry also indicated new kernel releases have (or will have) multiple fixes for the problematic Intel graphics. Hopefully, soon!

[radky]

Hi slavvo67,

One more question:

Vividpup is very early beta status.

Do you observe the same screen distortion in Pups other than Vividpup?

Maybe try tahrpup or slacko.

Thanks

[slavvo67]

Works without issue in Tahrpup 6.0.1. - Thanks again. I'll try in Unicornpup, as well.

[radky]

Works without issue in Tahrpup 6.0.1. It looks like it's resetting xserver more than once, though. Is that by design?

Thanks for the quick report. This confirms the Intel driver of recent kernels is a significant problem for Vividpup and Barry's April.

Hopefully, this will be fixed in subsequent kernel updates.

Yes, after Fbpanel loads there is a second refresh by design to properly load the tray apps. This is normal.

[radky]

The developer of tahrpup (666philb) has requested a feature update for Pup-SysInfo-2.6 (which is part of FbBox).

Consequently, updated FbBox pets (32 and 64 bit) are currently available at the download link in the first post.

Specifically, the OpenSSL report of Pup-SysInfo now displays the build date, and the Bash report is adjusted for non-English locales.

Since the initial upload was only hours ago, the version number of FbBox-2.0 has not changed.

[ETP]

Hi radky,

Whilst experimenting with changing to FbBox on Rapid Pup V1 (Nvidia/Nouveux) I noticed a slight screen distortion effect when rapidly maximising & minimising windows of any type.

It reminded me of the series of horizontal white lines on an old 405 line TV and once I had noticed it, it began to bug me.

The solution is to change the relevant line in both /root/.config/openbox/rc.xml & /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml to read as follows:

Code: Select all

<animateIconify>no</animateIconify>

Currently it is set to "yes" which I guess requires a compositor to give a zooming effect but results in the artifacts if none is present.
Changing it to "no" gives an instant transition & fixes the issue.

If what I observed is reproducable you may wish to change the template.

[radky]

Hi ETP,

On my desktop PC (integrated Intel video), I can't confirm the horizontal white lines that you observe on your Nvidia/Nouveux PC when rapidly iconifying or restoring desktop windows. However, if necessary, you can easily enable or disable the corresponding "animateIconify" option in the Openbox Configuration Manager (see below).

When the "animateIconify" option is set to "yes", minimizing or restoring a desktop window will show animated "titlebars" that display sequentially between the desktop window and the iconified representation of the window in the panel. Although the animation is very (very) quick, a summary snapshot of the concatenated sequence would look something like image-1 below. Interestingly, the animation always points to the bottom of the screen, even when the panel is located at the top of the screen.

Currently, in FbBox, this animation option is set to "yes" by default. For those who prefer no animation, go to the Appearance tab of the Openbox Configuration Manager (image-2), and uncheck the second option (Animate iconify and restore). This will automatically change the animateIconify parameter to "no" in /root/.config/openbox/rc.xml.

Thanks ETP for your helpful comments and recommendations. Looking forward to your next specialized puplet!

[Griot]

Hello, radky.

I have a rather strange problem with Pupshutdown dialog(?), which occurred few days ago. I'm using FbBox-2.0 (precise 5.72) since you released it and have had no problems with it.
Problem is, when I choose to shutdown PC it goes through a regular closing session/saving procedure but it does not shut down, it reboots PC.
Other options work fine, e.g. log-out, restart wm, including reboot option.
What I found to be weird is that when I log-out to prompt and type
'poweroff' it reboots, again! Seems like something's wrong with X but I'm not able to trace this error.
FWIW I've checked grub4dos menu.lst, nothing strange left there.
X-org.conf also looks fine, only xerrs.log seems to be very busy about some "Gdk-CRITICAL" and "GLib-GObject-CRITICAL" errors.

Is there any FbBox log/script that I should check before I send
this 'QuirkyPrecise' to oblivion?

Thank you.

[radky]

Griot wrote:

when I choose to shutdown PC it goes through a regular closing session/saving procedure but it does not shut down, it reboots PC.

Hi Griot,

If I understand correctly, your current distro (Precise 5.72) is an unofficial update of BK's original Precise 5.71, including a number of "fixes" such as a patch which transforms the standard savefile to savefolder.

In 2011 (see entry 110928 in /etc/rc.d/rc.shutdown) Barry updated a fix for the long-standing Puppy bug of inadvertent PC rebooting (if partition is still mounted) when shutdown is selected. Additional rc.shutdown fixes were implemented in 2013 and 2014 to manage unmounting of stray filesystems at shutdown.

Since poweroff (wmpoweroff) worked correctly for you until a few days ago, your new problem may be secondary to savefolder corruption leading to faulty unmounting of filesystems at shutdown, in which case your PC may abort shutdown and simply reboot. In this scenario, starting over with a new savefolder may be your best option for proper shutdown.

Thanks for using FbBox-2.0.

[Griot]

Hello, radky.

Thanks for your answer.
Savefolder corruption indeed, plus various GTK errors and God knows what else. I've been reading about similar issues few months ago when my MB's battery failed and caused system crash.

However, this particular installation is going to vanish with just one click!
"Swiftly and with style!" - thanks to Mr.B.K.

FbBox-xx is already in Lupu2, which will be my next default OS, so...

Thanks again.
K

[wavelen]

Hi there,
being a total newb in puppy coming from debian (crunchbang) i have some questions.
First of all great job on fbpanel.
1) My first question is about autostart apps. I've been using other ob distros for a while but this autostart is completely different. Can you point me to the way i can start apps when openbox starts? (e.g. compton for compositing)
2) I am usually on two monitors and neither the default jwm or fbbox wallpaper changer allow me to put different wallpapers. When i try to run nitrogen nothing happens. (although it seems that it runs and then fbbox rewrites over it). Is there a way to make it work (and autostart it?)
3) I use Arandr cause if i dont the two monitors get mirrored. But i have to reset it on every boot. Is there a way to make it permanent?
4)The volume buttons on my laptop work fine with jwm but not in fbbox. Actually when i try to change the volume in fbpanel sound goes mute.
5) WHen i use conky the desktop icons dissapear and appear for a sec when i hover over them.If i reset them with 'drive icons manager' they work but conky dissappears.
6) On every boot i have to run fbpanel through gmrun or prun for it to appear

Thats all for now..... THx
Oh i'm using tahrpup 6.0.3 on an hp pavillion dv7.(i3,Nouveau,3G ram)