MX-Fluxbox

[PPC]

Hi! I hope you all had a nice new years eve!
One of the things I like having on any interface I use on my computer is a quick launcher to, at least my browser, file manager, and also a start menu...
With some 15 minutes of work I managed to have just that: icons for "whisker menu replacement", Default Browser, File Manager an Terminal.
Here's what it looks like on the default layout- toolbar on top, using idesk icons (and the rootmenu on the Fluxbox toolbar, that shows up as a white arrow):





If anyone else likes this, it's quite simple to achieve, simply uncompress the attached file's content to ~/.idesktop/
and restart idesk.

P.

[Jerry3904]

Thanks, PPC! I'm sure some of the MX-Fluxbox users would be happy to return to the known and familiar, and this is a handy way for them to do that.

For the next version of MX-Fluxbox I would like to have a new entry under "Styles" like this:

Toolbar
--Fluxbox
--Traditional

Not sure ATM how to do that, but your package gives me a place to start. I think it would make a great option.

[PPC]

Glad you liked this particular suggestion, Jerry!
I also managed to have about all XFCE menu entries on Fluxbox, with minimal fuss. Any user can also try this:

1- Download MMaker, from SourceForge (over at http://sourceforge.net/projects/menumaker ).
2- there's no need to install or compile MMaker. Just decompress the file to any folder. Using Thunar, open that folder, right click any free space on it's window and select "Open Terminal here". ( WARNING: Before doing this, if you want to, back up any existing "~/.fluxbox/menu" file)
On the terminal type:

Code: Select all

./mmaker fluxbox -f

3- this will create the "~/.fluxbox/menu" text file that includes about all your installed apps, sorted by categories. All you have to do is to insert that in your Fluxbox menu. Example:
Open for edition ~/.fluxbox/menu-mx
Select the line where you want the menu entry with all your applications to be and simple paste there:

Code: Select all

[submenu] (All Categories)
[include] (~/.fluxbox/menu)
[end]

All installed applications will be there, no need to start the xfce application launcher (although this app is great for searching applications- simply type and the corresponding application will be launched- there are no such niceties in the Fluxbox menu)

EDIT:
Note: after installing any application, you have to re-run MMaker, so it appears on the menu... Same thing after removing a application, to delete it from the menu... You can simplify this process by creating a menu entry called, for example "Update Menu" that simply runs "mmaker fluxbox -f", that's what I did...
My entry ended up looking like this:

Code: Select all

[submenu] (All Categories)
[exec] (Update Menu) {/home/menumaker-0.99.11/mmaker fluxbox -f}
[include] (~/.fluxbox/menu)
[end]

EDIT 2:
I just noticed two small problems with MMaker generated menus: synaptic will not run from the generated menu entry (probably lacks permitions) and also there are no dedicated LibreOffice entries ( for Writer, Calc, Impress, etc )- only the LO launcher, that appears as "Libre Office Impress" on the menu... Probably a small MMaker bug?

Because of the "difficulty" to directly start Writer and Calc, even with full fledged menu categories, I changed my Fluxbox "Office" Menu entry to this:

Code: Select all

  [submenu] (Office) 
    	[exec] (LibreOffice) {libreoffice}
    	[exec] (LO Writer) {lowriter}
    	[exec] (LO Calc) {localc}
    	[exec] (LO Impress) {loimpress}
    	[exec] (LO Base) {lobase}
    	[exec] (PDF viewer) {qpdfview}
    	[exec] (Notes) {xfce4-notes}
    [end]

P.

[PPC]

Final tip for today, folks:

If you want to add a functionality that allows Fluxbox to search for a installed application you want to run, there's a tiny program that's great for just that: "j4-dmenu"!
Just like in the whisker menu, you begin typing, and a list of the apps that matches that text are shown on the lower part of the screen (note: press ESC to leave j4-dmenu).
It looks damn ugly out of the box, but I made it look a bit more "modern". I configured it to show the last searched apps first on the list. That way if you want to rerun the last command you just ran, start j4-dmenu and press the down key and then enter...
It does not stay resident on RAM, and it can be run without installation, straight from the executable file that's inside the attached zip file. Uncompress it to your home folder and add this Fluxbox menu entry to use it:

Code: Select all

[exec] (Search apps) { ~/j4-dmenu-desktop.sh  --dmenu="dmenu -i -fn ubuntu -b -l 10" --usage-log=j4log.txt}

Edit: if you want (as you should) to be on the safe side and run only applications from the oficial MX repositories, you may install j4-dmenu-desktop using synaptic. If you do that, then it's Fluxbox menu entry should simply be something like this:

Code: Select all

[exec] (Search apps) { j4-dmenu-desktop  --dmenu="dmenu -i -fn ubuntu -b -l 10" --usage-log=j4log.txt}

P.

[imschmeg]

Has anyone tried the Debian "menu" package already installed in MX for generating a fluxbox root menu for all apps? You can see its man pages under 'man update-menus' and 'man install-menu'. I'm curious if install-menu is sufficient to build a full applications menu - before I venture on to menumaker - because I think it is already configured to update menus on new application installs. Not sure, though.

@PPC:

synaptic will not run from the generated menu entry

I think I know what that is. In /usr/share/applications, there are two .desktop files for synaptic. One is synaptic.desktop, and the other is synaptic-kde.desktop. Note the difference:

Code: Select all

$ cd /usr/share/applications
$ grep Exec synaptic*
synaptic.desktop:Exec=synaptic-pkexec
synaptic-kde.desktop:Exec=synaptic

Note that the names that a menu create app would see in these clash:

Code: Select all

$ grep '^Name=' synaptic*
synaptic.desktop:Name=Synaptic Package Manager
synaptic-kde.desktop:Name=Synaptic Package Manager

The one that runs synaptic-pkexec (synaptic.desktop) is the one you want, as it will start with a popup sudo-gui first. I've used the Xfce menu editor to make sure my Xfce menu sees the right one, but I think that it might just work to copy the right one to ~/.local/share/applications, where it will be seen first. Not sure about that. I think it would also work to alter the Name field in the synaptic-kde one to be different.

BTW: I had been discussing other minor MX fluxbox points on other threads, and got scolded over to this one. I didn't know there was a one-and-only thread for MX fluxbox users...

[PPC]

Has anyone tried the Debian "menu" package already installed in MX for generating a fluxbox root menu for all apps?

I've run update-menus. I have no idea if it creates a Fluxbox menu file, and where it stores that file... That's why I resorted to MMaker, because it has no dependencies that need to be installed. and does not even be to be installed. The compressed file is about 200kb, the uncompressed folder is about 1 Meg, so you can try it without danger of ending up with a bloated system...
Fbmenugen is another script that creates Fluxbox menus, and can be configured to show icons on the menus, but has dependencies that have to be installed, so I stayed away from it...

The synaptic problem sorted it self out... Next time I tried to start it from the generated menu, it ran fine... What the...?!

@Jerry: Man I bow to your skills! The MX-Fluxbox menu to change backgrounds is simply the best and fastest way to change backgrounds that I've ever seen in any OS!
Suggestion: Add, Out-of-the-box a ~/.fluxbox/backgrounds/ folder, where users can copy their own wallpaper images without needing root permissions. The menu entry already looks into that non existent folder, that's mentioned on the Manual. If you want to make life easier for the average user, you can add a entry that says something like "Wallpaper folder" or "add wallpapers here" that opens that folder on thunar, or just leave that as the help file entry and keep a unbloated sub-menu (Note: referring to the background image as "Wallpaper" at least once on the Manual would be a nice way for allow people using the "Find text" option to locate the relevant Manual section ...
Right now users can create that folder (example from Thunar), copy their background images there, restart Fluxbox (from the menu) for the menu entries to update and show those new files... Then they can just click the file name from the menu and see Fluxbox magic instantly happen!!!
I ran into a small problem- is there a easy way to not stretch the image, so the image does not fill the entire screen and loses proportions?

@Jerry: I also adapted the MX arc dark theme from antiX Fluxbox to MX-Fluxbox. It makes window decorations look the same as they do in plain MX... Do you want me to upload that style here? Or do you think that's not a relevant feature for Mx-Fluxbox ?


Unwanted Fluxbox Menu review:
For a snappier use, I merged all the Menu-system entries into the same sub-menu, so they are fast to access and renamed the menu that shows the Wallpapers and Styles "Look and Feel". The Accessories and Multimedia entries are just great, all a user can need to access basic stuff needed on a daily basis!
I already published my Office sub-menu above (I like to start Writer and Calc directly, it's a matter of personal taste)
Some other suggestions: the gparted menu entry only shows a warning, telling the user it needs root privileges to run, also Menu- Settings- Configure does not show a "menu" entry- is that be design? It would be a fast way for users to adjust their menu file and it's refered to in the Manual (I hope I didn't manage to delete that entry unwillingly)...


Veridict:
As it is now (with my All Categories and Search Apps) my Mx-Fluxbox version is perfect for everyday use, a faster and lighter way to run MX-linux for all purposes. The only thing a "regular user" may miss is the presence of "normal" icons on the desktop and adding quick-launch icons to the toolbar (partly solved by the basic idesk icons from a previous post). Fluxbox is so easily costumizable that any user can make it perfect for their own personal use, or stick with the defaults.

Edit:
If a user wants a Gui way to edit the Fluxbox menu, there's one available over at https://sourceforge.net/projects/fluxmenu.berlios/
Simply download it, uncompress the file, using Thunar, open the folder with the extracted files and run "fluxMenu.py".
It's so versatile that even allows to "hide" entries from the Menus. Make the changes, adding or removing menu entries and then click Generate, click Yes in the pop up confirmation Window and then click "Save" to make the change instantly available...
Note: by default fluxMenu opens the general "menu" file. If you want to edit menu-mx click the File - Open - select "All files" on the bottom right and then navigate your wat to menu-mx to edit it...


P.

[PPC]

Over the week end I tested my MX-Fluxbox setup and I'm quite happy with it, no bugs, lower memory usage (I'm not really sure if we are able to call MX-Fluxbox a lightweight linux, but, at least, quite a bit lighter than the default MX Linux).
I also tried to test stuff I think "regular" MX users might appreciate... Idesk icons may be usefull but they are not very easy to manage. I tried out wbar (sudo apt install wbar) and then thought it was a good idea to have a GUI for managing it's icons, so I also installed wbar-config (sudo apt install wbar-config)
You do have to use wbar-config to change all the default entries, and it's icons, that point to a icon set that does not exist under MX-Linux by default. It may not be as easily configureble as some other docks, but it uses about half the RAM idesk uses ( about 3,5 Mb on my computer), and provides some very nice functionalites. I was just testing it, and the default MX-Fluxbox setup with the toolbar on the top of the screen and wbar on the left or the bottom of the screen.
To add a new icon to the toolbar you have to run wbar-config (the first icon from the wbar and create a new icon, choosing it's name, icon and command to be run, much like in idesk icons...)
Like I said, I was just testing... I usually find docks a waste of RAM on my very low specs computers. Users with more RAM may find this a very cool addition to any Linux with a Window Manager instead of D.E., like my beloved MX-Fluxbox.

P.

EDIT:
Mini How-to add application icons to Desktop (or pseudo "toolbar launchers", if the icons are the right size and aligned with the toolbar - see example above):
Requirement: you have to have downloaded "mx-idesktool" (it probably will be included on the next Mx-Fluxbox version?)

1- Start mx-idesktool
2- On Thunar open the folder.

Code: Select all

 /usr/share/applications/

that lists (almost) all your installed (gui) applications.
3- Open a terminal, just in case.
4- On Thunar select the application whose icon you want to add to the desktop, (Example; LibreOffice Writer), right click it, choose "Open with - Featherpad" (or any text editor of your choice).
Look for the line that begins with "Name=" and copy the application name, that's after the "=" sign.
5- On mx-idesktool Double click "New"; paste the name you previously copied; click "Next".
6- On Featherpad, search for the line "Exec=" and copy all that's to the right of the "=" sign
7- On mx-idesktool, on the field "Left-Click Command" paste the text you previously copied; Click next
8- Now you have to select the application's icon, which is the trickiest point.
If the "Icon=" field on the text file does not include the file path you'll have to navigate to the /usr/share/icons folder. choose the icon theme name you want to use (ex: hicolor), then select the icon size you want (ex:"16x16") then "apps"; then try to find your app's name on the list. If you find it, click "next" and the icon is generated an will appear on the middle of your desktop...
9- Drag the icon to where you want it to be. Done

If the icon does not appear on the icons folder then you'll have to look under another icon theme name or use the terminal...
If you want to use the terminal to find your icon do this:
-On Featherpad, look for the "Icon=" line and copy the name of the icon to the right of the "=" sign,
-On the terminal type "locate" (only the word locate) followed by space and then paste the name of the icon
-Several options will probably be show up in the terminal. Choose one that ends in ".png", copy that line and paste it in "Icon" field, on the mx-idesktool window and click "Next"...


Hum... If I have the time, I'll try to automate this process, adapting a yad script that extracts all that info from the .desktop files and writes it to a .lnk file... (The heavy lifting part is done in the Icewm-toolbar-icon-manager script, over at antiX...)

[seaken64]

To add a new icon to the toolbar you have to run wbar-config (the first icon from the wbar and create a new icon, choosing it's name, icon and command to be run, much like in idesk icons...)
Like I said, I was just testing... I usually find docks a waste of RAM on my very low specs computers. Users with more RAM may find this a very cool addition to any Linux with a Window Manager instead of D.E., like my beloved MX-Fluxbox.

PPC, thank you for your tips. I am using MX-Fluxbox on my P-III in 512MB RAM with only the standard setup. I like the idea of icons on the toolbar, or desktop, but I don't want to add overhead. Instead I am looking for ways to lower the memory footprint in MX-Fluxbox even further.

What are your "very low specs"? Maybe we can open a thread on how to lower RAM use below 100MB? We can take this over to another thread so as to not pollute this thread, which is very useful for others with more RAM.

see here viewtopic.php?f=100&t=55302

Seaken64

[Jerry3904]

PPC is correct that hanging icons with idesk is not easy. For that reason, the Devs now have a functional GUI for correcting that that we are preparing for release.

[seaken64]

Cool!