Installation problems | Problèmes à l'installation
Subscription date : 30 November 2010
Messages : 31
|
I've just done a Debian netinstall with OpenBox and just the programs I use. I thought OpenBox would be a good minimal WM that would stay out of CD's way, but still give me the functionality I need. I guess I was wrong.
Too many of CD's things don't work:
- Task bar doesn't display tasks.
- Application menu doesn't show anything but empty Recent Docs.
- MintMenu doesn't seem to do anything.
- File folder thingies don't work.
But enough about that. What small window manager would you recommend that would let CD do its thing?
Lane |
|
matttbe, Wednesday 01 June 2011 à 15:28
|
|
Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
|
Hello,
I think you can have a look to XFWM, the window manager of XFCE4  |
|
fabounet, Wednesday 01 June 2011 à 15:56
|
|
Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
|
Task bar doesn't display tasks.
that is strange, it should only depends on X.
Application menu requires at least an applications.menu file IIRC. do you have it ?
maybe you can construct it with alacarte (the menu-editor of gnome)
folder applet requires a VFS (virtual file system), brought by gvfs for instance (gnome/xfce)
about MintMenu, I think the program also requires such components.
that's why I was interested by this project, because the dock is on top of several low-level components, and we can gather just the ones we need to make something ultra-light  |
Subscription date : 30 November 2010
Messages : 31
|
Thanks for the ideas, guys. I'm glad to learn what those applets need. I'm installing XFWM4 right now to give it a look.
I tried IceWM, which I remembered, but that was no better than OpenBox.
Later: Too bad, XFWM doesn't show up in GDM's session menu at logon. Both OpenBox and IceWM are there, so I thought XFWM would be.
There are some other menu items in the session menu, so maybe one of them would call XFWM if I put it in a file somewhere.
Later still: Well, the OpenBox menu lists the installed window managers, and I was able to switch to XFWM from there. It's not a permanent solution, but I can at least look at it. I like its looks better than OpenBox, anyway.
But I'm still not getting a taskbar function, so the problem must be somewhere other than the window manager. I sometimes stack windows on top of each other in the same workspace, so I really need the taskbar... and I'd rather not load some other one like XFCE4.
While I'm running XFWM, I have no way of logging out or rebooting, because there's no desktop menu, and CD's logout button has never worked in this install.
Lane |
Subscription date : 26 October 2008
Messages : 1904
|
Hi lane i managed to get cairo-dock working under Lubuntu using xcomp. I was really surprised that almost everything worked. |
|
matttbe, Thursday 02 June 2011 à 00:14
|
|
Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
|
This is strange but maybe you've to install xfce4-desktop 
LXDE is another solution but you've to use an external compositing manager but the integration with the dock should be better with XFCE4 |
Subscription date : 30 November 2010
Messages : 31
|
Guys, I'm feeling kind of guilty right now. You were right, matttbe, XFCE4 was the way to go.
Unfortunately, I was still left with yet non-functional items: taskbar, app menu, mint menu, etc.
I decided to give up on Cairo Dock for this OS installation and just go all the way with XFCE4.
I know a good CD install can be done, because I also run Linux Mint (Debian) which has a good Cairo Dock. I also run Liquid Lemur Linux, which also has a perfectly good Cairo Dock.
But for this Debian Netinstall, I'm just going to use XFCE4 for now. I'm tired of the struggle.
But thanks for all the suggestions.
Lane
XFCE4 dock:
 |
|
ppmt, Thursday 02 June 2011 à 02:53
|
|
Subscription date : 29 November 2007
Messages : 3520
|
but you have to admit that CD looks way better that XFCE dock  |
Subscription date : 30 November 2010
Messages : 31
|
ppmt : but you have to admit that CD looks way better that XFCE dock :D
Oh, that is so true! That's why I stuck it out as long as I did... and why I'm glad I have good CD setups on the other installs on my hard drive.
Maybe after the pain subsides I'll try to figure out what's missing in my system that's present in the systems where all of CD works like it can.
Lane |
Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
|
I've installed XFCE/Debian this WE too
so far small hardware problems (I see now why Ubuntu is so popular!).
had to give up on Bisigi themes (they just don't integrate well, but it's still possible to do it manually)
still no dock because I'm trying to learn XFCE a bit before I mess it 
about XFCE: light and quite pretty once you set a correct font (with aliasing), a good GTK theme and a decent wallpaper.
but it really seems like they are reinventing the wheel (the panel, the terminal, the file-manager, etc are just copies of the Gnome2 ones).
also, it feels a bit unpolished: the terminal crashed a few times, no tool to easily install new icons themes (ala gnome-art) and the big surprise: nothing to install new programs (had to install Synaptic ), or did I miss something ?
anyway, I'm sure it will rock with Compiz + Cairo-Dock !  |
|
Guest, Tuesday 07 June 2011 à 01:10
|
|
|
You didn't miss anything: you need Synaptic or apt-get or aptitude.
I'm not sure what you're saying about copying Gnome2. The XFCE filemanager I use, Xfe, is nothing like I've seen in Gnome. I like its associated Xfwrite for a small, capable text editor. I don't have enough experience with the other Xfe-associated utilities.
I didn't see that kind of panel in Gnome, either. The Unity thing seemed very inadequate, without the ability to have launcher groups, and other shortcomings. Maybe there's another Gnome panel I don't know about.
Those launchers in my screenshot above have little arrows beside them which, when clicked, expose addition launchers in that category, similar to the way CD works. The difference is the icon in the main panel is an actual launcher for that program and doesn't just bring up the group of launchers, like CD does. I don't know which I prefer.
I did an install of the Debian Netinstall in a separate partition, but this time I used LXDE instead of XFCE4. Cairo Dock is working perfectly there... well, the taskbar is working right. The application menu and logoff devices don't work, but that's a different problem, and I'll deal with it later.
Anyway, it makes me wonder if my "invisible taskbar" problem is a fluke and would not be repeated in a fresh install of XFCE4. I haven't decided yet to try that, but it's a possibility.
Lane |
Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
|
I've found the file-manager to be a pale copy of nautilus (but good enough though).
as for the panel, I really thought it was the gnome-panel until I made a 'ps -ef' in a terminal 
but that doesn't matte, since I won't use it
idem for gconf (their one is called xconf ... so I keep wondering why they re-wrote 80% of gnome ... but that's fine, since Gnome2 is dead, XFCE seems a robust alternative for a simple and efficient desktop.) |
Installation problems | Problèmes à l'installation
|
English
Online users :