Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[benny7440]

I wanted to make a search for this before posting but it didn't occur to me how to make that search, sorry! I'm guessing that this can be done... & it isn't too hard to do.

Prelude: I've been having some difficulties with the onboard screen (9x16) of this notebook (see signature) & I'm using an Acer 4x5 external screen. Recently, I found a way to view all the icons that appear in the taskbar by using one of the utilities that come with this Puppy (Fbpanel (default panel) configuration) under Desktop.

The problem I wish to solve is that the Memory icon is too far to the right & can't see the Free space it reports when I put the pointer over it; so I wish to move it to the far left of this group. The icon for cpu usage isn't important for me at the moment, the clock & its associated data is. The battery icon, I can do without it.

Another issue that I've been experiencing is that the desktop icons, some of them are moved out of sight after each Power on & I've to fish for them every time. How can I make desktop icon placement persistent?

Thanks for any tip/help on these issue!

[SFR]

Hey benny7440.

Since I don't really know how to control the order of icons, I would like to propose you a slightly different solution.

/usr/sbin/pfbpanel script, almost at the end, around line 1096 there's such block of code:

[benny7440]

Thanks for responding SFR!

I had the idea that somewhere there were a script with all the possible icons in a predetermined order &, once found, I was going to be able to transpose them at will changing in this way how it would appear on the screen. Maybe that that you say is the one but I don't know the format it's written on. I'll inspect it with a little care after the already drunk coffee start to make some effect.

I'll post anything interesting that I might find here.

[`f00]

hi benny7440

Here's a nice tutorial..

.. if you like, you can also set up fbpanel profiles to sort of mimic jwm trays - call them by cmd, menu item or a ~/Startup/<script>

[benny7440]

Thanks for responding & for the links, SFR & 'foo!

I thought at the beginning it was going to be much more simple than I've found. Since I'm using an almost square external screen with this 9x16 on board (not working) VAIO, I wanted to maximize the desktop area usage & thought just to change the order in which these icons appear. Obviously, they don't have the same importance to all all the time.

I still can move the right-hand side of the taskbar farther to the left & in doing so I would be able to see all the appropriate text but at the expense of taking out some available space there for my lunched applications.

I saw the code of the shell script for pfbpanel & it occurred to me that by moving (swapping) selected code blocks it might be done but refrained myself of tweaking with this, for the moment. I would like to have more info before attempting to do it; for example, what's the code langauge (i.e., c, c++, python, etc.)?

[SFR]

Well, the language itself is Bash, but the syntax used inside is partially fbpanel specific.
The point is that pfbpanel script is a GUI application that allows user to choose certain options and then generates a config file for use by fbpanel (/root/.config/fbpanel/default).
Here's documentation:
http://fbpanel.sourceforge.net/docs.html#config

Example (from the link above):

[benny7440]

Thank you for your encouragement, SFR!

I did try to tinker with it & managed to move the cpu icon to the extreme right by displacing the code just after the first 'Space' section after the clock section. I don't have an idea if it will be persistent or not after a reboot. I also tried some shell commands & they worked well.

Now, I'm still having trouble with finding after each reboot the Lock desktop icon, it moves away from the visible screen & forces me to fish around for it.

[bigpup]

[benny7440]

Thanks for responding, bigpup!

See my signature, with this notebook I'm not able to see the screens that the BIOS put on for configuration etc.. I'm forced to use an external monitor which isn't 9x16 so I don't see all the the graphical info the video card sends for display. I know of others that use external monitors & they do see everything right from the beginning to the end; it's not my case. I don't know if this's a notebook issue or a monitor issue.

If you look at the bottom of the graphic you'll see a rectangular box in black that is part of the real external screen area but unavailable as a source of video. The red rectangle at right appeared there when I resized the canvas in which I opened the snapshot for editing.

My REAL (viewed) desktop is the not-so-apparent rectangle made out by the desktop icons: (1) Lock @ Top-Left; (2) Zip @ Top-Right; (3) sda1 @ Bottom - Left; (4) Control @ Bottom - Right.

[SFR]

Hey, I'm glad there's some progress!

[benny7440]

Thanks for responding, SFR!

I edited the file as you mention & today I checked it out & it's in fact persistent. Working as I hoped it would do. Good tip!

Edit: The previous post has a solution to the issue.