LXDE desktop for slackware 13.1 - testing

ponce · 08-23-2010, 06:57 AM

I "gitted" the build scripts on my slackbuild's org git master fork and I have prepared a quick-build guide using sbopkg (it should work fine on 13.1 and -current).

you can easily see the commits in the branches page, packages involved are:
- glib2
- gpicview
- gtknetcat
- libfm
- lxadmin
- lxappearance
- lxappearance-obconf
- lxde-common
- lxinput
- lxlauncher
- lxmenu-data
- lxmusic
- lxnm
- lxpanel
- lxpanel-xmms2
- lxpolkit
- lxrandr
- lxsession
- lxsession-edit
- lxshortcut
- lxtask
- lxterminal
- menu-cache
- pcmanfm2

hope I haven't done anything wrong, I encourage to have a look: I'll be glad to hear any opinion/suggestion and apply the necessary fixes.

brixtoncalling · 10-08-2010, 01:02 PM

Hey ponce,
Thanks for the good work on getting a LXDE desktop for Slackware. I've run your queue for LXDE using udisks, but my pcmanfm doesn't automount external drives. It does produce the following output:

Code:

** (pcmanfm:18416): DEBUG: try automount
** (pcmanfm:18416): DEBUG: on_mount_action_finished

But mounting never happens. Any ideas how to get it running?

ponce · 10-08-2010, 02:28 PM

things to check:
- have you built libfm-new and pcmanfm-new over the new glib2? If you have used the lxde-udisks queue indicated in the guide it should be so;
- check that you got this file content in yours ~/.xinitrc and /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.lxde;
- try logging in X starting the pc from runlevel 3 (startx) or alternatively 4;
- check with ck-list-sessions that you have a consolekit session running: if you have an empty output or two sessions that can be the problem;

have you tried other versions of lxde on that host before building this with sbopkg? maybe there are old config files laying around...

brixtoncalling · 10-08-2010, 04:42 PM

hey,
i did use your queue so all those packages are correct. i also checked ck-list-sessions and my user showed up. all is this is with a new user account (ie no config files).

any other ideas?

thanks, bc

ponce · 10-09-2010, 12:34 AM

sorry, when you created the new user, did you add him to the standard slackware groups for desktop users?

Code:

# adduser panchovilla

Login name for new user: panchovilla

User ID ('UID') [ defaults to next available ]: 

Initial group [ users ]: 
Additional UNIX groups:

Users can belong to additional UNIX groups on the system.
For local users using graphical desktop login managers such
as XDM/KDM, users may need to be members of additional groups
to access the full functionality of removable media devices.

* Security implications *
Please be aware that by adding users to additional groups may
potentially give access to the removable media of other users.

If you are creating a new user for remote shell access only,
users do not need to belong to any additional groups as standard,
so you may press ENTER at the next prompt.

Press ENTER to continue without adding any additional groups
Or press the UP arrow key to add/select/edit additional groups

if you press the UP arrow you got

Code:

:  audio cdrom floppy plugdev video power netdev

EDIT - sorry, maybe I've found the culprit: I had to do a small downgrade of libfm-new.
Try to resync and rebuild the two packages

Code:

rm -fR /var/lib/sbopkg/SBo-git
sbopkg -r
sbopkg -i "libfm-new pcmanfm-new"

brixtoncalling · 10-09-2010, 01:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ponce

EDIT - sorry, maybe I've found the culprit: I had to do a small downgrade of libfm-new.

Brilliant, that did it. It works after the recompile.
Thanks, bc

ponce · 10-09-2010, 01:28 PM

if you built it in the last hours it also should have movable icons to play with

brixtoncalling · 10-09-2010, 03:52 PM

It's good to have a non-Gnome and non-KDE filemanager that automounts. I think I'm going to use pcmanfm under fluxbox.

Lucifer4o · 10-09-2010, 05:19 PM

I have tried LXDE and I really can say that I don't like it.

As it seems it's havier then XFCE.

As I burned out half of my RAM I started trying WMs other then KDE. I tried E17, E16, LXDE ... and for some reason XFCE seems a bit better ... don't know why that is. I think of staing under XFCE even after getting the new 2G DIMM.

ponce · 10-10-2010, 12:34 AM

it shouldn't be heavier.

you can, for example, empirically check ram differences: reboot the pc and start each of the two window managers in their default configuration, open up a xterm and issue a

Code:

free -m

I tried on my laptop (I'm using nvidia binary driver that eats up some ram itself)

Code:

$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2008        345       1663          0         43        177
-/+ buffers/cache:        123       1884
Swap:         1035          0       1035

also a filemanager instance is started with LXDE so you can have desktop icons, but it's optional, you can comment it out in /etc/xdg/lxsession/LXDE/autostart

Code:

$ killall -9 pcmanfm
$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2008        337       1670          0         43        177
-/+ buffers/cache:        116       1892
Swap:         1035          0       1035

so it's 123 mb (116 without pcmanfm).

rebooted and done the same with XFCE

Code:

$ free -m
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
Mem:          2008        373       1635          0         47        183
-/+ buffers/cache:        143       1865
Swap:         1035          0       1035

143: it looks like using 20 megs more here (but it's undoubtly more eye-pleasing than LXDE default theme, also it offers more features).

so, in this super-simple test, it looks not more ram hungry

Quote:

Originally Posted by brixtoncalling

It's good to have a non-Gnome and non-KDE filemanager that automounts. I think I'm going to use pcmanfm under fluxbox.

have you noticed the fastness (udisk related, I think) when you plug/unplug removable devices?

if you want to use it with fluxbox I think you have to change this line in your .xinitrc

Code:

exec /usr/bin/startfluxbox

with

Code:

if [ -z $XDG_SESSION_COOKIE ]; then
    ck-launch-session startfluxbox
else
    startfluxbox
fi

so that policykit kicks in right.

you should also add a ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file with this content

Code:

gtk-icon-theme-name="Tango"

as Chris (pcmanfm maintainer on slackbuilds.org and user of pcmanfm+fluxbox) hints here.

brixtoncalling · 10-10-2010, 03:31 AM

Thanks for the tips. I'll be looking into them close soon.
bc

brixtoncalling · 12-01-2010, 11:35 AM

For anyone who wants to compile just pcmanfm for current, you only can get all the dependencies from Slackbuilds (menu-cache, sg3_utils, libatasmart, udisks). Then just use ponce's Slackbuilds for libfm-new and pcmanfm-new and you are done. I used the latest code from git, not ponce's tarballs so I had to adjust the Slackbuilds accordingly, but this is your choice. No other compilation or configuration are required.

End result is a very snappy little file manager with automounting of external media.

ricky_cardo · 01-23-2011, 06:54 PM

Ponce, noticed I was getting a polkit error message upon launching LXDE. (startx from runlevel-3)

error message is: ...
GDBus.Error

rg.freedesktop.PolicyKit1.Error.Failed: An authentication agent already exists for the given subject

This seems to hide the message:
Hide alarm about POLKIT (Not thinking this was much to worry about just annoying)

vi /etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop

BEFORE: [line 87]
NotShowIn=KDE;
AFTER: [line 87]
NotShowIn=KDE;LXDE;

ponce · 01-23-2011, 11:38 PM

thanks ricky, that is needed if you want to use lxpolkit, the agent lxde people coded for their wm.

as an alternative, you could also not install lxpolkit and use the already available in slackware polkit-gnome, like xfce already does: it should work fine also with this setup

I'll submit an update to the README or, maybe better, to the doinst.sh to run an automatic sed on installation.

Code:

if [ -f /etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop ]; then
  sed -i -e 's|KDE;|KDE;LXDE;|' /etc/xdg/autostart/polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1.desktop
fi

ponce · 01-28-2011, 09:15 AM

if useful, I just created some prebuilt packages for:

- slackware-13.1
- slackware-current
- slackware64-13.1
- slackware64-current