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MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Thu Mar 11, 2021 7:25 pm
by Jerry3904
Let's collect ideas for the release to accompany MX-21 in 4 months. I'll start with a couple that seem important:

--as requested by DO, bring the MXFB in line with MX-Linux generally (font, icons, wallpaper, etc.),
--localization. The current system of menu localization is clunky and doesn't work very well; I will be proposing that we bring in some of the changes worked out for MXFBPi; as a recent post indicated, the RPi localization situation is complicated and not great ATM.
--we've talked about a "gallery" for at least displaying the more creative approaches that some people are posting
--consider updating the default tint2

This might be a good time to put together a group to steer and help.

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 5:43 pm
by Girafenaine
Hello,

Glad that MXFB-21 is to be released in a few months.

About the first point "MXFB in line with MX-Linux generally". For me the main issue on MXFB as a full OS is that there is no proper and logical "settings panel". I mean, on MX - xfce you have the xfce setting panel with all you need, and MX tools panel as a nice addition (which is not very clear for new users, and not the best "offer" we can think out I guess). On antiX you have a settings panel too, which is clear and quite powerful. On MXFB, because it's a "young OS", you have :
  • xfce settings panel, but most of them are useless (and it's not even told ot the user that they are useless). However, a few settings are here.
  • MX tools panel
It would be great to have only one place with settings and tools, something between antiX panel and MX tools panel.

I guess we "just" have to select useful settings in the xfce4 panel, and put them in the MX tools panel to make a more comprehensive "MXFB full panel". Would it be something we can make ? (I am not able to do that... if i can help I will do because I am convinced It will benefit a lot to MXFB as a great OS)

About 3 and 4, I fully agree and would be pleased to give a hand. MXFB could be much more appealing with this work on appearance, thanks to tint2 and some creative users screenshots ! A much more modern look would be great. We could even aim at having a "look subpanel" (integrated in the MXFB full panel) from which you can choose or edit tint2 theme, conky theme, feh background, lxappearance... with 3 or 4 default "global theme" (classic, modern 1, modern 2...).

As I am not a developper, that was only some ideas to share, hoping it could be useful !

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 6:19 pm
by Jerry3904
That's very helpful, thanks!

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2021 8:23 pm
by pianokeyjoe
I would like to see something like this myself! I use the CDE DESKTOP and other Desktops/WMs in MX Linux and it would be nice to have a Universal MX LINUX Control panel, that can be called up with ANY X windows computing Environment. I tried slimming Antix Linux to use only CDE or FVWM or even the built in Fluxbox as the only GUI but there are some settings that would cause crashes when slim/IceWM where not present. I am getting more curious how MX was slimmed down to only us Fluxbox with no ill effect? I mean, mind you, I slimmed MX LINUX down to 656MB but it still has XFCE/LightDM and MX TOOLS. Without XFCE and LightDM, and instead using say, CDE DESKTOP and DTlogin would be nice for us Unix porn geeks!
Antix has the right idea of a general system panel, but MX seems far more stable and tweakable with little to no ill side effects if done right.. MXFB eh? I need to try that one

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:15 pm
by kobaian
I think it will be nice to have a localization of mxfb-menu-generator. It looks a little bit strange to have an English full menu within a localized Fluxbox Root-Menu.
It will be better to have a multi-functional MX Start button in Tint2 instead of a program launcher. What about having a right-click menu to change the default application launcher between XFCE4-applauncher and Rofi using a simple bash script with a "sed" command?
There are some missing options in MX-Tweaks compared to XFCE, e.g. no tear-free function support for Intel graphics. To launch it I must login to XFCE, go to MX-Tweaks, check the option logout and login to Fluxbox session. We've got an useful compton config file in the other thread on the Forum. Why not add an option to MX-Tweaks in MXFB that launches compton?

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:29 pm
by dolphin_oracle
kobaian wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:15 pm There are some missing options in MX-Tweaks compared to XFCE, e.g. no tear-free function support for Intel graphics. To launch it I must login to XFCE, go to MX-Tweaks, check the option logout and login to Fluxbox session.
the graphics driver function should be independent of desktop choice. The hiding of those options is dependent on graphics driver, not desktop.

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 5:48 am
by kobaian
dolphin_oracle wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:29 pm
kobaian wrote: Sat Mar 13, 2021 7:15 pm There are some missing options in MX-Tweaks compared to XFCE, e.g. no tear-free function support for Intel graphics. To launch it I must login to XFCE, go to MX-Tweaks, check the option logout and login to Fluxbox session.
the graphics driver function should be independent of desktop choice. The hiding of those options is dependent on graphics driver, not desktop.
Yes, you are right, sorry...
As I configured MXFB on my EEEPC netbook long time ago, there was no such a checkbox in MX-Tweaks on FB so I had to configure it in XFCE. But now it's there. I didn't notice it because my PC I use for everyday tasks has an nVidia graphic driver.

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:07 am
by rasat
Jerry3904 wrote: Thu Mar 11, 2021 7:25 pm --we've talked about a "gallery" for at least displaying the more creative approaches that some people are posting
I recommend including one short introduction/tutorial video. Got a good response from my recent Fvwm video which tries to show people what’s about and possible, beyond just showing screenshots of something.

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 7:32 am
by Jerry3904
With you there. You probably know that I have a YT channel devoted to MX-Fluxbox, and that two videos were placed in the center of the default desktop of our recent Raspberry Pi release. Good viewer response has made the effort worth while.

Re: MX-21 MX-Fluxbox

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2021 8:29 am
by rasat
Great! When a video is included in a gallery of screenshots, it's better without sound. A neutral blending of live and static. Music and talk have a distracting effect, same as glamorous wallpapers.