Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Extensions => TCE News => TCE 2.x => Topic started by: Jason W on June 07, 2009, 09:30:50 PM
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Icewm is a window manager for X:
Title: icewm.tcz
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 572K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: Needs fontconfig, graphics-libs-1, Xlibs_support,
expat2
Change-log: ----
Current: 2009/06/07 First version
Title: icewm.tce
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 572K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: This extension is PPI compatible. Needs fontconfig,
graphics-libs-1, Xlibs_support, expat2.
Change-log: ----
Current: 2009/06/07 First version
Title: icewm-locales.tcz
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 172K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: Needs fontconfig,
graphics-libs-1, Xlibs_support, expat2.
Change-log: ----
Current: 2009/06/07 First version
Title: icewm-locales.tce
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 172K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: This extension is PPI compatible. Needs fontconfig,
graphics-libs-1, Xlibs_support, expat2.
Change-log: ----
Current: 2009/06/07 First version
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Updated to fix menu and initmenu function:
Title: icewm.tcz
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 428K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: Needs fontconfig and expat2.
Change-log: ----
2009/06/07 First version
Current: 2009/06/26 Patched for menu function and fixed icewm_initmenu.
Reduced dependencies.
Title: icewm.tce
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 428K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: This extension is PPI compatible. Needs fontconfig,
and expat2.
Change-log: ----
2009/06/07 First version
Current: 2009/06/26 Patched for menu function and fixed icewm_initmenu.
Reduced dependencies.
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Discovering your IceWM has made a wonderful improvement to the basic TC menu font, and the overall polished look of all windows. Thank you Jason.
I noticed the important AppsAudit tool was missing from IceWm's menu. But when I added this selection to IceWM menu, TC Tools, the menu edit persisted only long enough to mark an extention for removal. Next reboot, AppsAudit selection was gone.
Instruction at top of IceWM Menu file, seemed incomplete as to how to make this edit permanent. Any help would be appreciated.
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I'm glad you like the icewm in TC. Of course, it was made before Appsaudit so that was not included in the menu. I will update the menu here shortly and include it. I still need to do the same for Windowmaker.
edit: appsaudit menu added.
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Im just thinking out loud with this. Would it be possible to have the base menu items stored in a file in the base that each WM could read and insert into their menu so that each WM extension would not need to be updated with every change to the menu?
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It has been suggested before and is on my TODO list. However, it was my intention that Core, being so minimal, would not be constantly having changes to the system menu area. Having to parse a common text file to create the system menu only adds to the boot time.
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Rather than slow down the boot, could there be a single TC Tools menu item... like "Use TC Menu items" always pasted into any added WM extension?
(But I privately wonder how many nu b's like me, would never think of changing window managers, had not such a crude, 1st impression, menu look driven them to it. That is, if something graphically innocuous, surprisingly lite, but with a modern font and window framing look, like IceWM had been the default -- it's just one less compromise or apology the new Linux user must make. Techies say too much bling is a too costly a resource tradeoff. But is the opposite extreme a hard-to-measure drag on lively growth?)
Anyhow, I'm so strongly drawn to the basic concepts of TC, I've kept coming back over several years, although not commiting -- until I learned that all I needed to do was switch WM's, also generously provided -- although not as functional as the graphically embarassing default. ;)
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I'm glad you like the icewm in TC. Of course, it was made before Appsaudit so that was not included in the menu. I will update the menu here shortly and include it. I still need to do the same for Windowmaker.
edit: appsaudit menu added.
How heavy is IceWM in terms of memory requirements?
Also, would this be correct to say that in the spirit of modular design the only thing required to start TCL with IceWM in place of flwm is to install IceWM tcz? Pardon me if this is thoroughly documented elsewhere...
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to tclfan...
All I did was (from a 32bit Win/DOS boot at the c:\ drive)...
'md \TCE'
Then rebooted via tinycore-2.5rc2.iso CD to the default menu.
Open Appbrowser,
click 'File'
select 'Connect'
Search 'IceWM' enter,
Select 'icewm.tcz
Click 'Mount'. (not install)
When popups report installed, close appbrowser, and
Menu Exit TC,
selecting 'Reboot' with Backup checked.
It came up fine on next boot.
I tested it on an old Compaq Presario 1600 PIII w/182,240kb, with Opera, TreeLine, Geany, and E2FileMgr extensions.
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All you should have to do is install a window manager, exit and restart X, and you should then be using the new window manager. That is, unless you have multiple installed into the tce directory, which would normally best be done by booting with the proper bootcode.
There has been criticism of flwm and it's appearance, but it is a WM that fits into the TC base concept of start minimal, and build up with whatever you want from there.
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All you should have to do is install a window manager, exit and restart X, and you should then be using the new window manager. That is, unless you have multiple installed into the tce directory, which would normally best be done by booting with the proper bootcode.
There has been criticism of flwm and it's appearance, but it is a WM that fits into the TC base concept of start minimal, and build up with whatever you want from there.
Thank you Jason and tinier.
Would you perhaps know how much memory requirement for IceWM is incremental in relation to flwm? Is it still lighter than LXDE? LXDE is a DE so such comparison might not be fair though...
And yes, I do accept flwm as minimal, in sync with TC philosophy. For many implementations this might be all that is needed. As now I am at the point of composing a nice desktop from components, aesthetics start to matter. The lighter+nicer the better for this.
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With a warning that I may have less experience than you, tclfan -- but I liked your question and so tried this test of IceWM mem use.
rendir c:\tce c:tcex // to preserve my regular settings
MD c:\tce // to get a clean empty extension folder
rebooted via CD using 'tinycore base' -- it took 54 sec.
In Control Panel, System Stats, tab 'mem'...
MemTotal 182,240 kB
MemAvailable 144,888 kB //using base flwm
Then after Mounting IceWM only, 1st reboot took 60 sec.
MemAvailabel 133,008 kb // for a loss of 11,880 kb compared to flwm
Same procedure to test Joe's window manager; jwm...
MemAvailable 143,704 kB // for a loss of only 1,184 kB compared to flwm
and jwm adds date and time -- (now if it just shoehorned in one pretty, bolder font to aging eyes :o)
So, tried same procedure with jwm-snapshot... gaining larger font, date time & dynamic mem...
MemAvailable 140,024 kB // for a loss of 4,864 kB compared to flwm
For me, still ugly window frames and chintzy impression --
Same procedure for HackedBox...
MemAvailable 143,148 // for a loss of only 1,740 kB compared to flwm
Styles Artwiz and Steelblue have adequate to beautiful graphic refinement, 3d window frames, but with a weak font off a previous century's pre-selectric typewriter.
(Since I like to plant flower beds here, paint white walls and hang art and drapes, I'm stickin' wid' IceWm!)
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Thank you for the comparison of mem usage. Looks to me according to these figures that memory loss would be very small, which may be an indication IceWM is still light. I will try tonight after work.
Did you also mention the font gets tremendously improved over flwm?
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Yes, the very boldness I prefer, tclfan -- and I felt no driving compulsion to change any of the visual choices installer made, either -- minimal, conservative, but 'modern' and slightly 3d. Adding the xonclock used half the memory of flit, by the way.
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How do you change theme or look and feel in IceWM in TC? The default appears to be still too crude and I know IceWM is capable of nice ones...
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The themes are installed, just a matter of specifying them. I removed the theme, shutdown, and other menu items upon compiling icewm to make a more TC compatible menu. I recompiled with the theme menu put back in, but it did not work automatically.
Themes can be specified in a config file, since I don't use themes I forgot which one. I will find out and put the info in the info file.
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Themes were not working due to a simple permission issue of /home/tc/.icewm in the initmenu file. I also added back the themes menu. Themes should be point and click now.
Title: icewm.tcz
Description: IceWM is a window manager for the X Window System.
Version: 1.2.37
Author: Marko Macek, Mathias Hasselmann
Original-site: http://www.icewm.org/
Copying-policy: LGPL
Size: 428K
Extension_by: Jason W
Comments: Needs fontconfig and expat2.
Change-log: ----
2009/06/07 First version
2009/06/26 Patched for menu function and fixed icewm_initmenu.
Reduced dependencies.
Current: 2009/11/08 Rebuilt with themes menu included.
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Thank you Jason for such a quick fix. Menus are there now, under Settings, however most of them do not seem to make any difference whatsoever. In other words all of them appear to be exactly the same except a color and font change on Infadel2. In a word it appears that only Infadel2 theme is working.
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Are you using backup/restore, or persistent home? Delete /home/tc/.icewm and restart X.
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No, so far for this I was just booting from LiveCD. I have not got around to make a new usb yet:
1. Booted LiveCd
2. Installed IceWM
3. Logged off from desktop to prompt
3. Startx
4. Desktop comes up with IceWM
Now at this point IceWM themes can be selected from settings, but only one theme changes the look and feel of WM. All other selections do not seem to do anything. One or two changed the color of the clock display slightly, that's all.
This same behavior is regardless whether I used Xvesa or Xorg...
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Ok, I will check tonight though a "base norestore" boot and loading the extension with the appbrowser worked here.
If another mirror is being used, it may not have caught up to ibiblio yet
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Still sounds like a permissions issue.
What is the owner and perm of /home/tc/.icewm?
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Jason, if your question is directed to me, I cannot check now, being at work. But in any case, I am using stock TC LiveCD 2.5, so the owner was not changed from the original...
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Ok, when you get home boot the cd with "base norestore" and load icewm from the repo and see if the owner of /home/tc/.icewm is tc:staff.
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Will do. However, I am trying to understand the purpose of my booting with base norestore options. I am booting just a plain and fresh LiveCD and with no \tce anywhere. In other words, I have been testing in pure cloud mode - no pre-defined \tce, no saved \home or anything that could potentially affect testing. Therefore the environment is pristine, the way it comes with fresh TC + freshly installed IceWM from repository...
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Ok, I will double check the extension to make sure the changes were put in.
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Booting with "base norestore" and fetching the icewm extension from the repo works fine here as far as the themes go. If you are sure you are not restoring a backup, then the mirror must not have caught up yet.
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Very strange... Must be my machine then... I will try other computers...
Just to make sure I was clear, clicking on 'IceWM' corner get me a menu, where the last item is "Settings" with submenu 'Focus' and 'Themes'. Clicking on 'Themes' gets me a list of themes. when I click on any, basically nothing changes, except when I click on 'Infadel2', I get a different theme. This is with LiveCd and freshly loaded IceWM.
I will test with other computers. It is working for you so I assume this problem might be specific to my computer then...
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Hi,
I am experimenting with icewm themes as well. Similar results to those reported. The tcz module seems to work fine but the themes included with the TC icewm package are generally very similar. However, you can download many themes from
http://www.box-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=7311
Unpack and copy into /usr/local/share/icewm/themes (I think this is the correct path). They will then show up in the icewm theme menus. You can also modify them as you see fit. Save/restore with filetoolist. The IceClearlooks2 theme is one of the easier ones to modify. There is also an icewm config file you may wish to modify and copy to /home/tc.
Icewm is working well for me, although I intend to try lxde when available.
Best regards,
sci_fi
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I had only the infadel2 theme change anything when there were root:root ownership of /home/tc/.icewm. Changing that ownership to tc:staff is a workaround.
The extension on the main ibiblio server is the current working one, I am not sure how fast other mirrors are synced.
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I tried iceWM. It's a nice extension - thanks for creating it.
My Question: Editing the file Home/.icewm/menu works fine. After storing the new verision the new menu is available immediately (no restart needed, obviously the new version is automatically read again.)
But that's true only till next reboot.
After reboot my version is disappeared no matter if I reboot with or without backup (or home=hda1 or even if I put not only the dir but the whole path ../.icewm/menu into the /opt/.filetool.lst) - and the old menu is back again :(
Is there a TC script creating this behaviour or is it some setting in iceWM (I have to search for)?
And if it's a TC script, do I need to rewrite the menu file each reboot by a script of my own started in .xsession, if I want to get my own menu?
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I am away from TC, but there is a static file in /usr/local/share/icewm/files in the extension that is copied to /home/$USER/.icewm/menu. It is clearly referred to in /usr/local/bin/icewm_makemenu, I don't remember which one right now. That is the file that you can make changes to and include in your backup if you want permanent changes to the icewm menu. Of course, the extension section of the menu is recreated each boot.
I have not tried to back up the menu in /home, and that may or may not work for permanent changes. Probably better to backup the source file that gets copied there.
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there is a static file in /usr/local/share/icewm/files
in the extension that is
copied to /home/$USER/.icewm/menu.
I saw that file (it's called etcmenu) and thought it couldnt be the source as it has got another size - what I forgot is that the content of /usr/local/tce.menu are added automatically to the resulting file - increasing it's size.
So with your answer I'll be able to create my custom menu - thanks.
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One more thing. As that etcmenu gets copied to /usr/local/etc/icewm (hence the name) you may want to back up the /usr/local/etc/icewm/menu file as I believe that is the one that gets copied to /home. I think the chain is like this: /usr/local/share/icewm/files/etcmenu gets copied (if doesn't exist) as /usr/local/etc/icewm/menu, which gets copied to /home. The copy to home is a force overwrite to prevent a second set of extension entries getting added to the menu on each boot.
But either way the modified file should arrive in /home.
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Also JoXo009, or any IceWm or TC newbee like me, who wants a quick way to go from a pristine TinyCore CD, to a lightweight Anti-Aliased look... The following package of changes below takes only 60,700 kb.
I had 1st made an empty c:\TCE folder on my Windows/DOS drive.
Boot pristine TC CD.
Use Apps Icon to 'Mount' the following and then reboot...
Libfltk-xtf - antialised font for ControlPanel, AppsBrowser, etc.
xFe - a light dual-panel file manager
xFw - its light editor
IceWM - menus, date/time, task bar, etc.
reboot with backup box checked
using xFe, make a new folder: '/home/tc/.icewm'
copy '/usr/local/share/icewm/preferences' to '/home/tc/.icewm' which seems to retain any changes to this preferences file.
Then to make more room on task bar, I edit and uncomment two lines in the new
'/home/tc/.icewm/preferences'
'TaskBarShowStartMenu=0'
'TimeFormat="%A %b %d, %Y - %H%M %S"'
Finally, to make fonts clearer, even on old screens, (since say a size 8 Bold
is not offered) I go into xFe, Edit, Preferences, Select Font to size 11
- and this passes the setting to Editor too.
reboot with backup checked.
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icewm installation creates the menu entry
Exit TC/Restart Icewm
which has got no function, as 'restart' isn't needed after changing the icewm menu.
On the other hand something like 'restart' is needed in icewm after changing preferences, toolbar or winoptions. This 'restart' feature is called 'replace'.
(http://i50.tinypic.com/a40gpi.png)
I think it would be useful to offer that feature by changing the file /usr/local/bin/icewm_restart as shown above.
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I am going to revisit Icewm in the near future to update it's menu and try to work in On Demand features.
Originally, a restart function was not really needed so I didn't put priority on it. I will make a functioning restart when I update the menu.