How do I rearrange or eliminate desktop icons?(SOLVED)

[B.K. Johnson]

I am using tahr-6.0.5, but this would apply to any pup.

1. I want to arrange the desktop icons to accommodate a virtual keyboard.
Can I just drag them to where I want (like Windows) then save the session?
2. Some icons will never be used on this implementation of puppy. How can I remove these icons?

TIA for your suggestions.

[drunkjedi]

Ans, 1) Yes.
2) Just right click on the icon and select remove. Drive Icons are controlled by another script, see in event manager program to disable, I am not sure though.

You can also setup a desktop the way you like and copy the puppypin to other pups to get similar desktop.

[bigpup]

The only icon that you can not or should not remove is the Lock icon.

That one is used as a grid line marker for the desktop icons.
It basically needs to stay where it is.
Someplace on the far right edge of the desktop.

Do not remove the trash icon.
There is no menu entry for trash.
The trash desktop icon is part of how the trash works.
Being able to drag stuff from the file manager, to the trash icon, to put it into trash.

[B.K. Johnson]

drunkjedi, bigpup
Thanks guys!
I had no plans to remove either Trash or lock, but 'good to know'.

[musher0]

Hi.

I would suggest that you make a back-up of the file named PuppyPin in
directory /root/Choices/ROX-Filer, so you'll have it if you decide to restore
the initial appearance of your desktop.

Code: Select all

cd /root/Choices/ROX-Filer
cp -f PuppyPin PuppyPin.bak

To restore the initial appearance or your desktop, you'd type

Code: Select all

cd /root/Choices/ROX-Filer
cp -f PuppyPin.bak PuppyPin

There's also a copy of the ex-factory PuppyPin (the one straight out of the
woof-CE process, in case you made changes afterwards) at
/initrd/pup_ro2/root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

IHTH

[Argolance]

Hello,

1. I want to arrange the desktop icons to accommodate a virtual keyboard.

I am wondering why?
If you want to run XVkbd virtual keyboard "swallowed" as JWM bar, you do not need to modify anything on the desktop because the keyboard is automatically hidden/shown while moving the cursor of the mouse down or up the border of the screen (depending on your choice).
On the other hand, if you run the keyboard as simple program, you just have to click on the keyboard task in the taskbar to hide/display its window, just like any other program.
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... 0&start=25

Cordialement.

[Mike Walsh]

The only icon that you can not or should not remove is the Lock icon.

That one is used as a grid line marker for the desktop icons.
It basically needs to stay where it is.
Someplace on the far right edge of the desktop.

Do not remove the trash icon.
There is no menu entry for trash.
The trash desktop icon is part of how the trash works.
Being able to drag stuff from the file manager, to the trash icon, to put it into trash.

Not so sure about some of that, bigpup.

I customize the hell out of my desktops with every new Pup I add to the kennels.....they don't bear the faintest resemblance to 'Puppy-standard' when I'm finished. I do, however, do exactly what musher0 suggested; make a copy of the PuppyPin file, 'just in case', like.

Removing the 'Lock' icon has never made a scrap of difference to the stability of the pinboard as far as I'm concerned. Anyway, there's the 'Pinboard Behaviour' section of ROX's 'Pinboard' options, to adjust things on that front....

And as for removing the 'Trash' icon, there's a copy in /usr/local/apps. At least, I've experimented with replacing that back on the desktop at a later date. It appears to function exactly the way it's supposed to.....

Just my two-penn'orth. YMMV. It's a somewhat 'imprecise' science at the best of times; we all have our pet theories as to what should/shouldn't be done, then weeks/months/years down the line along comes someone with another theory that blows it out of the water.....

I think that's why geeks like Linux so much. There's room for everyone to have an opinion!

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

@BKJ:-

Yes, you can drag 'em anywhere. Pup will remember the new positions after the next 'save'. As for removal, as drunkjedi said; right-click->'Remove'. (Unless you've 'locked' the icon tickbox in the Edit box. 'Remove' is then greyed-out, and you'll need to untick the 'Lock' checkbox to get it back again.)


Mike.

[puppyluvr]

Hello,
I ALWAYS remove the stupid lock icon, with no Ill effects. There is also a pet for saving arrangements, and switching between them.
But the few icons I need fit nice on wbar or cairo-dock. Less clutter.

[B.K. Johnson]

Argolance wrote:

B.K. Johnson wrote:

1. I want to arrange the desktop icons to accommodate a virtual keyboard.

I am wondering why?
If you want to run XVkbd virtual keyboard "swallowed" as JWM bar, you do not need to modify anything on the desktop because the keyboard is automatically hidden/shown while moving the cursor of the mouse down or up the border of the screen (depending on your choice).

In my first installation of xvkbd, the keyboard was immovable and the position fixed as shown here. The reason to move the icons in that area is obvious.
It is true that the new implementation of xvkbd allows one to locate and resize the keyboard to anywhere on the desktop, thereby avoiding the need to rearrange desktop icons. But I want my keyboard at the top as in that same screenie. With the standard placement of icons on the desktop, the moment I move the cursor to click on the console icon, the keyboard will appear. If you have a solution for that situation, please tell.

Cheers

[Argolance]

Bonsoir,
... Hello mate, is my English spoken so bad that what I am trying to explain cannot be understood?

you do not need to modify anything on the desktop because the keyboard is automatically hidden/shown while moving the cursor of the mouse down or up the border of the screen (depending on your choice).

Please have a look here!

Cordialement

[bigpup]

And as for removing the 'Trash' icon, there's a copy in /usr/local/apps. At least, I've experimented with replacing that back on the desktop at a later date. It appears to function exactly the way it's supposed to.....

Linux has options.

I was stating the normal operation of Trash, as it is normally used.

About the Lock Icon.

The PuppyPin file allows for placing icons relative to the left edge. Since Puppy also wants to place some icons along the right edge, it needs to first find the screen width and then do a little arithmetic to determine what value to put in the PuppyPin file for those icons. This is why we have fixPuppyPin.
With no "lock" icon, fixPuppyPin will no longer move any icons.

No Lock icon.
That is probably OK if you use this setup on the same monitor.
Move to a different monitor/computer and fixPuppyPin is not going to work correctly.

I guess if you have no icons on right side of screen, maybe no issue.


Also, If you remove the Lock icon and you actually want to use Lock.
You can only get to Lock options and setup, by right clicking on the Lock desktop icon.

[B.K. Johnson]

Hello mate, is my English spoken so bad that what I am trying to explain cannot be understood?

Not at all. I understand fully. You are telling me what I can do to avoid rearranging icons and I am telling you I don't want to do what you want. I want the keyboard flush against the window top edge and appromimateli mid-way horizantally. Therefore, it is a problem for me (not you). And to avoid my problem, I will move the icons as you see in the screenie in the xvkbd thread.

We as human beings have peculiarities. Software does not always give us what we want, how we want. When it doesn't we find workarounds. Such is the case here.

Cheers mon ami

[Argolance]

We as human beings have peculiarities. Software does not always give us what we want, how we want. When it doesn't we find workarounds. Such is the case here.

Be sure I do not want to be right, just understand and help, that's all!

[gychang]

The only icon that you can not or should not remove is the Lock icon.

That one is used as a grid line marker for the desktop icons.
It basically needs to stay where it is.
Someplace on the far right edge of the desktop.

I removed the Lock icon, how do I restore, /root/share/applications/?lock

[B.K. Johnson]

Thanks for this heads-up musher0

1. I would suggest that you make a back-up of the file named PuppyPin in
directory /root/Choices/ROX-Filer, so you'll have it if you decide to restore
the initial appearance of your desktop.
Code:
cd /root/Choices/ROX-Filer
cp -f PuppyPin PuppyPin.bak

To restore the initial appearance or your desktop, you'd type
Code:
cd /root/Choices/ROX-Filer
cp -f PuppyPin.bak PuppyPin

There's also a copy of the ex-factory PuppyPin (the one straight out of the
woof-CE process, in case you made changes afterwards) at
/initrd/pup_ro2/root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

@bigpup and others
I don't see the Lock icon on my tahr-602-605. Is this standard in tahr-6.0.5 OOTB or is a result of my upgrade to 6.0.5 via quickpet?

[musher0]

Hi, B. K. Johnson and all.

I checked a bit, and no: QuickPet wouldn't bork anything. It's more like a
pointer: it goes here and there on the Internet and on this forum to help
you fetch programs you want.

I have TahrPup-606 installed (please see PS 2), and this is its "pristine"
PuppyPin:

Code: Select all

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pinboard>
  <backdrop style="Stretched">/usr/share/backgrounds/default.png</backdrop>
  <icon x="1248" y="128" label="zip">/usr/local/apps/PupZip</icon>
  <icon x="1248" y="224" label="trash">/usr/local/apps/Trash</icon>
  <icon x="1248" y="32" label="lock">/usr/local/apps/Xlock</icon>
  <icon x="160" y="128" label="paint">/usr/local/bin/defaultpaint</icon>
  <icon x="160" y="224" label="chat">/usr/local/bin/defaultchat</icon>
  <icon x="288" y="32" label="setup">/usr/sbin/wizardwizard</icon>
  <icon x="224" y="128" label="draw">/usr/local/bin/defaultdraw</icon>
  <icon x="352" y="32" label="edit">/usr/local/bin/defaulttexteditor</icon>
  <icon x="416" y="32" label="console">/usr/local/bin/defaultterminal</icon>
  <icon x="32" y="128" label="write">/usr/local/bin/defaultwordprocessor</icon>
  <icon x="32" y="224" label="browse">/usr/local/bin/defaultbrowser</icon>
  <icon x="160" y="36" label="mount">/usr/sbin/pmount</icon>
  <icon x="96" y="36" label="help">/usr/sbin/puppyhelp</icon>
  <icon x="32" y="32" label="file">/usr/local/bin/defaultfilemanager</icon>
  <icon x="32" y="320" label="plan">/usr/local/bin/defaultcalendar</icon>
  <icon x="32" y="416" label="connect">/usr/local/apps/Connect</icon>
  <icon x="96" y="128" label="calc">/usr/local/bin/defaultspreadsheet</icon>
  <icon x="96" y="224" label="email">/usr/local/bin/defaultemail</icon>
  <icon x="224" y="32" label="install">/usr/sbin/dotpup</icon>
  <icon x="96" y="320" label="play">/usr/local/bin/defaultmediaplayer</icon>
</pinboard>

What I'd suggest is for you to open file /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin
in your geany and check if you have a line with an expression

Code: Select all

label="lock"

in it.

If you don't, go to line 6 in your PuppyPin and make room for one line
by hitting Return at the end of this line 6. You now have an empty line.

Now pluck the whole line 6 above (including the empty spaces at the
beginning of the line) and copy it in your PuppyPin in the empty line you
just created.

Don't worry about the big "x=" co-ordinate (aka number). It should correct
itself automatically when you refresh your desktop, because it's the last
icon on the right edge of your screen.

Make sure you don't have any empty lines now, and save. Exit your editor
and open a console. Issue this command from console:

Code: Select all

rox -p /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

The ROX desktop will be refreshed, and your XLock icon should now be
restored.

I'm also mentioning a perhaps easier way to restore your XLock icon in
the next message.

IHTH.

~~~~~~~~~
PS. I gave details about lines and spaces above because ROX is fussy
about its PuppyPin. For example, it wants two spaces before the "<icon"
expression, so you give ROX two spaces before the "<icon" expression.
Also ROX hates empty lines in the PuppyPin list of "icons", so you don't
leave empty lines in the PuppyPin list of "icons". Got it?

PS 2. TahrPup's version number shouldn't matter in this case. PuppyPin is
actually a configuration file found in all Puppies using the ROX-Filer.

[musher0]

About this easier way:

Open directory /usr/local/apps with your ROX-Filer

Towards the bottom of the list you see a dir. named "XLock".

Just drag'n'drop that "Xlock" directory to the place the XLock
icon should be on your desktop.

That's it.

IHTH.

[B.K. Johnson]

Hello musher0
I looked in /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin as you suggested and found this line:

Code: Select all

<icon x="1334" y="34" label="lock">/usr/local/apps/Xlock</icon>

So the mods weren't necessary.
Then taking a cue from later down your post, I entered in the terminal:

Code: Select all

rox -p /root/Choices/ROX-Filer/PuppyPin

And voila the Lock icon appeared.

Thanks muchly!
Of course, the easier directive in the next post was not necessary, but it's in my vault of very, very useful tips.
Thanks again!

[musher0]

My pleasure!