Linux Mint Forums

Mr_Shifty wrote:Ew... I see that my desire to leave the default Fluxbox panel alone is in a fairly deep minority.

Am I really one of only two people here that thinks the default panel in Fluxbox is just fine?

I also lean towards using the default Fluxbox toolbar. I think Tint2 can be added as a customization people make to their installations... much like AWN or Docky. However I didn't vote because I see Kendall's point and the direction he is thinking of taking the edition... which also has it's merits in modernizing the Fluxbox UI. It is also quite popular as we can see.

Oh don't get me wrong, there isn't anything horrific about any of the other options mentioned here. Worst case scenario, I comment out the new panel in the .fluxbox/startup script and unhide the default Fluxbox one.

ju1ius wrote:+1 for tint2 !
Beware though, as this thread might lead to the conclusion that we need to migrate Fluxbox CE to Openbox

[asbestos pants]Well, You said it. may as well explore it.... Are both being maintained upstream? [/asbestos pants]

Nope. I like it, too.

m a r

Hi
I am almost a fluxbox virgin, been using it about a week after just getting soooo annoyed with the long login times from gnome (was using easypeasy which is great except it uses gnome). I'm running it on an eeepc 4G and have been tweeking away all week. Love it so far.
Now, my panel requirements are quite simple but seems to be hard to fill in an easy way:
1. systray
2. show running apps
3. battery indicator
4. clock & date WITH PULLDOWN CALENDAR (it's amazing how often I need this during the day)
I don't use workspaces (life is hard enough without trying to remember in which workspace I started exaile or solang) but realise for some this would also be important
Well, the standard fb panel does all except 4 and from what I have seen after a quick look tint2 fails there too. And currently I cannot find the package xfce4-systray so the xfce4-panel fails currently on point1.
So currently I am working with a wonderful workaround: fb panel AND a tiny xfce4-panel.
Take a look at my screenshot (xfce4-panel is bottom right). I would vote for a working xfce4-panel....

@dumbfckr

You could try using Orage instead. It is not exactly #4 but it will run as a system tray icon from which you can access the calender.

Unless something changes very soon, my official decision is to roll with tint2. I built version 0.9 today and have been messing with it all day. Not only do I find it prettier and easier to configure, but I think this will be the best long term decision if we try to keep pushing Fluxbox.


Other notes:

Volwheel will be replaced with a small Python application I found in the Arch Linux forums. I will be modifying it to duplicate the functionality of volwheel. Volwheel has this weird issue on some systems where if there's not a window open on the desktop you're working off of then it won't show up at all, but appears fine as soon as there's an open window somewhere.

Xfce4-taskmanager will also be replaced. I've started working with lxtask, which carries fewer dependencies.

There will be a power manager. Either xfce4-power-manager or gnome-power-manager based on the dependency situation.

Xfce4-power-manager worked really well for me when I installed it at your suggestion.

THANKS Shane!!!! Orage is perfect (set up to go active only in systray and hidden). You can't believe how many calendars I tried in the last week!

@Kendal: yeah u r probably right. And it probably makes sense to package or preinstall tintwizard for non-vi-people.
Can you configure it so that it doesn't vanish when you press "ToggleCmd {ShowDesktop} {Deiconify allworkspace}" - cos this is the only kind of weird thing I noticed - I normally wouldn't expect the taskbar to vanish too. Otherwise, I think this is a really good decision.
FYI: my experience with taskbars is such that you MUST do the following in ~/.fluxbox/init:
session.screen0.toolbar.visible: false
this was obvious but you must leave an uncommented minimal entry for the tools line otherwise the fb toolbar is started in the background with it seems as default the systray active - which was my problem with the xfce4-panel as systray can only run once... e.g.
session.screen0.toolbar.tools: prevwindow, nextwindow
SORRY if this is obvious for everyone but I didn't see this anywhere on the googlenet and it caused me sooooo many wasted hours .
What would be really cool would be to develop idesk further to add tabs to make it a replacment for NBR

Kendall wrote:Other notes:

Volwheel will be replaced with a small Python application I found in the Arch Linux forums. I will be modifying it to duplicate the functionality of volwheel. Volwheel has this weird issue on some systems where if there's not a window open on the desktop you're working off of then it won't show up at all, but appears fine as soon as there's an open window somewhere.

I had that issue, although I wasn't aware of the pseudo-workaround. If you're still experimenting, gVolWheel is an excellent substitute for VolWheel -- one of them is the clone of the other. Works perfectly -- and can I suggest aumix-gtk (in the repos) instead of the Xfce mixer? Small, works great, pairs beautifully with gVolWheel and doesn't have all the Gnome dependencies.

m a r

Last I checked aumix hasn't been updated in quite some time.

Another thought:
Install gkrellm and a plugin to control the volume. You can also get plugins that manage the mounting of devices, etc. There's lots of nice skins out there - one should work well with mint.

Also, why not htop? Too geeky?

john

Regarding a mixer program, this is something that I'll put some more thought into later. This isn't exactly what I'd call a "critical issue" considering they're all front ends for alsa.

OU812 wrote:Also, why not htop? Too geeky?

OU812 wrote:Last I checked aumix hasn't been updated in quite some time.

aumix-gtk (not aumix) works fine as is. Engineering rule #1 applies, I think.

Just a suggestion, doesn't need to happen. Maybe some folks would like to try it. I'm for finding small apps that work and don't have enormous dependencies. The Xfce panel is a dependency of the Xfce mixer -- and that is just silly in a Fluxbox distro. Iterate that over a large number of applications and major savings will occur.

m a r

ju1ius wrote:+1 for tint2 !
Beware though, as this thread might lead to the conclusion that we need to migrate Fluxbox CE to Openbox

Its already fairly similar.
If you migrated it to openbox and had tint2 installed you could call it CrunchMint or MintCrunch.
Id try it, LOL

Mintbang or crunchmint would not be a bad idea, since crunchbang is moving to a debian base, the ones who would like to have the Ubuntu base with openbox/tint2 will find that here.

anyways, I like tint2.

Here is what the current Dev release looks like.

The mixer is missing because it crashes on my system.
All my computers that I use have the master called Master Front and the mixer can't load because of it.

AlexMex90 wrote:Mintbang or crunchmint would not be a bad idea, since crunchbang is moving to a debian base, the ones who would like to have the Ubuntu base with openbox/tint2 will find that here.

anyways, I like tint2.

+1

@merlwiz79

Nice!

ju1ius wrote:+1 for tint2 !
Beware though, as this thread might lead to the conclusion that we need to migrate Fluxbox CE to Openbox

Sad to say, but that's the conclusion that I've come to.
I've been using Fluxbox for a couple years now and really don't understand the desire to replace the integrated panel.
IMHO, if somebody really wanted a different panel, that should've been part of an Openbox edition.
But for me, I'm afraid that I'm gonna go elsewhere so I can have just a simple, straightforward Fluxbox setup.

BTW, somebody on this thread was talking about audio mixers.... "wmix" docks in fluxbox's slit very well.
I've been using it for a couple years now without any problems at all.

It is a minority majority issue.

The majority said that, they are more happy with tint2.

The minority can remove tint2 and replace with the original fluxbox panel.

IMO, if I were to run Fluxbox again instead of XFCE I'd remove the panel and use cairo-dock. Did it before and it worked swell.