MX-Fluxbox 2.0 beta testing thread

[Jerry3904]

Thanks for looking carefully at mx-idesktool. It seems we need to edit the text, which we inherited from the original script written 15 years ago.

[seaken64]

I did some tests in mx-idesktool

The tool works to create the icon/launcher on the desktop.

Left-click does launch the program. But it also launches a blank dialog box entitled Icon Management Tool. This dialog box has two buttons in the lower right corner, Cancel and OK. It closes if either button is clicked.

Right-click does not open the mx-idesktools dialog with it's list of actions. When I go through the mx-idesktool entries on the "View or Edit an Icon" selection the right-click command is entered as "mx-idesktool SeaMonkey.lnk". But right-clicking does not start the mx-idesktools program.

If I open the SeaMonkey.lnk file in Featherpad I can see "Command[1]" line entered as:

Command[1]: mx-idesktool SeaMonkey.lnk

I also noted that if I edited the file previously by hand (in Featherpad) and then use mx-idesktool to "View or Edit" then the file gets over-written by mx-idesktools and my previous edits are gone. I guess that would be normal behavior but I would suggest a warning to pop up or an automatic renaming of the file.

If I edit the *.lnk file I can set the size and position, colors, etc. The mx-idesktools does not support those settings.

Seaken64

[Jerry3904]

Thanks very much for this careful testing and description, it is just what we needed. I can confirm this behavior.

The app has some serious problems still, some of which unfortunately we thought we had already solved. We have work to do if it is to be included in Final.

[PPC]

A couple of suggestions about mx-idesktool:
when using mx-idesktool- maybe make it show by default some folder with lots of icons for apps (in .png format) that the user can select as default (ex: /icons/hicolor/22X22/apps) ?
And maybe include, out of the box, a Papirus icon-set in .png format and make it the default icon folder? ( there's already a thread on that...)
(A foolproof idea would be have mx-idesktool add icons using the information of the applications .desktop files, but that would imply a rewrite...)

Some suggestions about the menu:
- add "printer" to the Settings menu (its probably the most used setting missing there, for users that intend to use MX-fluxbox for office work)
- maybe instead of a off of sight menu have a "toggle" menu to turn conky, monitors, desktop icons, etc on and off? Having to click one place to deactivate a setting and then search for a way to reactivate it again can be confusing...
- the menu looks huge... maybe move entries, like "repo" and "wiki" to a sub-menu?
- shouldn't the "Acessories" menu be in the second section (near "All apps"?), it's where the rest of the applications are...
- In Look - Desktop icons - make mx-idesktool automaticaly refresh the icons, so it also serves as a way to autamticaly toggle on desktop icons?
- In out of sight - use "desktop icons" instead of "idesk icons", maybe "desktop idesk icons" if you want to be more precise and still easy understandable by newbies...

Some suggestions about the Desktop:
- the help file icon is handy for new users, why not also display icons for the most common applications the help newbies get started? (Browser, File Manager, Thunderbird, maybe terminal?) You can make idesk position the icons spaced far enough so those icons always show up fine in any screen resolution. That would probably make users just stick with the default setting, and not have to use a (memory draining) dock?

@Jerry: there's probably a more user friendly way to allow users to edit the dock than providing a text template?

Verdict:
This beta is looking even more user friendly and feature rich, but it's not for the main MX crowd... Having to manually edit a text file to have a dock, and having to manually search for the application and icon to add to the desktop is acceptable for advanced users, not for "normal" users that love MX because it provides a GUI for almost every single thing they want to do...

P.

[Jerry3904]

Thanks for the careful look and good suggestions to think about. Some of those (icons, for example) are already in process.

[Jerry3904]

@PPC: this project is *only* 3 months old, and those missing gui apps are on the list for the next cycle after we get all this stabilized. Rome was not built...

[David P]

I downloaded the tar file to install Fluxbox, but the md5sum I get with the downloaded file is:

156eb30a9851d1964a0d0bfe06465824 mx-fluxbox_20.0.tar.xz

Has the file on the server been changed?

[Jerry3904]

Just downloaded again, extracted, right-clicked the tarball file with this result:

Code: Select all

└─> md5sum mx-fluxbox_20.0.tar.xz 
156eb30a9851d1964a0d0bfe06465824  mx-fluxbox_20.0.tar.xz

Looks like it has--likely because the package name has been changed I guess.

[Jerry3904]

- the help file icon is handy for new users, why not also display icons for the most common applications the help newbies get started? (Browser, File Manager, Thunderbird, maybe terminal?) You can make idesk position the icons spaced far enough so those icons always show up fine in any screen resolution.

This one interests me, thanks. Will probably put just email, browser and file manager (though I personally prefer a clean desktop).

[Jerry3904]

What do people think of this (using Moka icons)? I selected 32x32 to keep the visual impact minimal, but 48x48 could also be used I suppose.