(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

For all you hardcore tinkerers out there:
I'm most certain that BarryK made a size- and foot-print- optimised choice when selecting the ROX/JWM-combo. Could other combinations of WM/panel/Desktop-handlers be on par with the default Puppy choice, if ROX would be discarded?

Pre(r)amble:
Window managers, there's a plethora of them. Some of them stacking, some tiling, and some with extended capabilities, such as included panels and desktop(background image, icons)-handling. - JWM, ICEWM,

Panels, there seems to be a neverending supply for these; docking, floating, jumping, freestanding, included with WMs ...

For desktop-handling, on the other hand, there seems to be available only (on the light/small foot-print side) the ones included/built-in-to file-managers - ROX, PCManFM - and the freestanding idesk (I might have missed some).

Can I cut some bytes here, would the footprint actually get smaller, and would it be worth the hassle?

I do prefer xfe for file-manager, ROX has its charm, and so does PCManFM ..........., and I've come to appreciate OpenBox for WM in combination with either fbpanel or LXpanel.

There are, of course, things I'd need to solve for using xfe exclusively in Puppy (MIMEs, and most importantly, click-mounting of partitions - nothing unsolvable), the window-manager would not be so important (if freestanding). The main obstacle, on following this route of avoiding ROX/PCManFM, seems to be how to handle the actual desktop.

There is, as noted above, idesk, which hasn't been developed since 2005?, but, on the other hand, has been reported to work with puppy in several puppy versions.
When searching the internets, there are also mentionings of fbdesk, would that be part of fluxbox? And, in that case, could it be compiled and used separately from fluxbox?

The ROX/JWM-combo of a bog standard Puppy has a certain foot-print, and correspondingly, the PCManFM/?WM/?panel has its foot-print.
The (any freestanding) WM/(any) panel/without the default file-manager/xfe would have a larger foot-print - and would still be lacking a desktop-handler.

Anyway, a (any) desktop-handler could be combined with a variety of window-managers and panels.

Would idesk be the way to go, or do you have other suggestions for a DE-combo (just, not to fancy/blingy); (any) WM/ (any) panel/desktop-handler/xfe???

[/end Long ramble]
Grateful for any input,
cheers /
MHHP

One question at this point is if you need icons on the desktop? If not, you could simply deaktivvate the rox-pinboard an set the background with a capable application like feh, xsri, ...

Aragon

aragon wrote:One question at this point is if you need icons on the desktop? If not, you could simply deaktivvate the rox-pinboard an set the background with a capable application like feh, xsri, ...

Aragon

I haven't decided yet if I will ditch the desktop icons or not . Thanks for the tips on background-applications , will check them out when I get home.
Cheers /
MHHP

I have posted extensively on how to ditch rox and still have a pretty functional desktop using only jwm (it can set the background itself btw - arguably better than rox does).
the thread is here:
http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=51200

fvwm has many of the same features as jwm and is highly configurable - its just a matter of taste

the closest you can get to rox for a drag'ndrop desktop is pcmanfm or maybe xfe or thunar (all are heavier than rox) ... or amigo's much lighter gtk1 version of rox

Austrumi uses fvwm and looks fantastic. They seem to be lacking a lot of functionality when it comes to wireless network setup, though. I have been trying to get it to work, but no luck. It is very fast, and easy to use. Not sure though about how easy it is to customize it. Thanks, Rob

Hello !

@aragon
Thanks for reminding me about xsri, works a charm .

@technosaurus
Thanks, I had almost forgotten about that, played around with it quite a bit when you first posted it .


So, xfe/xsri/any WM/any panel/some iconhandler .......

Been trying to get fbdesk to run properly - it runs, but not perfectly ....., yet .

idesk, still won't load - seems not to find any file given to it in the config-files ............

I've been thinking about if I really need desktop icons or not, and I probably won't need the "normal" DT-icons, but I'd very much like to have the Hotpup-drive icons (or something like that) displayed on the DT. I have too many partitions to see pmount/mut as a viable alternative.

The quest for the "perfect" (or, at least, good enough ) xfe/WM/Panel/DT/Iconhandler continues /MHHP

There's eiconman for desktop icons in ede wm (along with a bg setter that can adjust the opacity of the overlay). no idea if it could use BK's driveicon schema, but a vbar/hotbar is pretty much almost universally acceptable by most wms. Gray did a very nice one in one of his boxpups (p413), functioned well and gave a good visual status indication which I gather is what you're after.

Yah, if you don't use drag'n'drop on the desktop as a whole it's one less bit of overhead. Plus simple bgsetters set the bg and bam they're done (or set another or tint/grade/xml/whatever)

'shooting' menus, trees, wharf/dock objects and how it stacks/layers/navigates is all a matter of what you like and what works for you. Bon' apetit

Thanks, `f00 !

I tried eiconman for bg, and some DT-icons, works nicely . Am a bit hesitant over bringing in the, otherwise redundant, (e)FLTK-deps, though .

Also tried to compile fbdesk, it compiled, but wouldn't run properly - fbdesk + fbpanel, maybe I should go for Aragon's newly posted fluxbox (or parts of it) instead .

Anyway, I'm not really after any "bling", just thought that, since I wanted to ditch the Filer parts of ROX-Filer, I could be better off ditching ROX altogether. OTOH, (puppy already being optimised on resource non-hogging) it could be better to use ROX for DT and DT-icons, since that is so integrated into puppy, and just forget that the Filer is also present.
Tried to compile ROX without the Filer (oh, it's its main function ), no cigar, though ....

My quest continues /
MHHP

ooohh, keep rox for a fm (at least) - there's a reason - for me anyhow, xfe bonks in a few situations, accessing /temp or /dev dirs, a few file manipulations are just easier in rox sometimes (depending on the situation, xfe can poof on a rename or balk or ..) otooh, rox ain't perfect neither but it's a certified whiz at click-u/mounting file systems as long as you don't do dumb stuff like me (my knee occasionally jostles a thumbdrive .. whups, jeez I hate being homeless if it's a stick-savefile)

On the third alternate twice-removed tentacle, is it possible to have too many fms?

engines is another - I felt only a little twinge adding qt since I got arora, opera and qtcmd in on a dumpy lil' add-on personal sfs

yahp, fresh flux sounds like a very good aperatif