IceWM graphic issues in dCore-wily...

[nitram]

There are appearance issues in IceWM, running dCore-wily. Other than the 1, 2, 3 and 4 buttons, all other panel buttons are simply grey (no label or icons), including main 'menu', workspace dropdown, browser and terminal launchers. The windows lack all control button graphics (menu, close, minimize, maximize), just greyed out. Using the desktop right-click menu, the sub-menus (eg. applications, ondemand, exit TC) don't auto-expand with mouse hover, need to re-click. Same issues with different themes.

[Jason W]

Do you have Firefox loaded?  This is seen in the case it is not.  I have not pinned down the exact dependency, but I have seen this when it is not.

[nitram]

Loading Firefox worked, will try to help find missing IceWM dependency. Thanks.

[nitram]

Systematically compared IceWM vs Firefox dependencies, although a huge package (68 MB)  adwaita-icon-theme  fixes the graphic issues. Tested  hicolor-icon-theme  and it didn't work. The only other option from Firefox dependencies is  humanity-icon-theme  , will test upon reboot.

[nitram]

Either  adwaita-icon-theme  or  humanity-icon-theme  work, both huge ~68 MB and adwaita is a dependency of humanity, so i guess please consider adding  adwaita-icon-theme  as a dependency for IceWM. Also tried smaller icon-themes standalone (hicolor and lxde), neither worked.

Couple other IceWM issues, unsure my configuration or IceWM:
- IceWM never boots to graphics unless desktop=icewm bootcode used.
- Right-click desktop ->  Exit TC -> Restart IceWM does not work.

[Jason W]

This brings icewm from an 18M SCE to a 72M SCE.  That is a lot of size, but smaller than firefox. 

icewm-lite.sce imported from the main Ubuntu/Debian repo is 11M, I need to add the custom menu files to it and it can be the small icewm for those who don't want a 72M package.  I thought about adding an icewm-full meta package, but I need to visit icewm-lite anyway, and regular icewm users will expect full visual functionality and that will keep it simpler.   

[Jason W]

Adding the dependency of an icon theme does solve it, but as icewm is a small and light wm, I believe it does not depend on one.  Probably a missing lib as Debian/Ubuntu only includes in it's deps the actual files that a package depends on to operate.  I will investigate further, probably a missing lib or similar in there that is not being called in with sce-import.

[nitram]

If you get the library issue fixed, my suggestion is not to bother with IceWM-lite to reduce your maintenance workload. When testing IceWM there are several issues, not just graphic, my hunch is nobody was using it anyway. Not sure if this helps, looking here https://packages.debian.org/jessie/icewm. Nice if IceWM provided their own font package. ttf-dejavu-core is now transitional.

dep: ttf-dejavu-core

transitional dummy package

or custom-icewm-font

Package not available

...and Wheezy (https://packages.debian.org/wheezy/icewm) had been using:

dep: ttf-dejavu-core

Vera font family derivate with additional characters

or custom-icewm-font

Package not available

[Jason W]

I have tested icewm every which way but loose in terms of individual gtk2 deps after finding gtk2 makes it work.  Seems a gtk2 dep solves the issue, at least on dCore-wily.  Results in a 40MB SCE instead of a previous 18MB that does not fully function, but better than the 72MB with an icon theme.  Thanks for the info, I will keep pushing to get icewm a small package as it was meant to be.

[nitram]

As usual thanks for your hard work Jason. Other suggestions to update IceWM, thanks.

*System Tools menu fix: System Tools menu wasn't working, required updated /usr/local/bin/icewm_initmenu pathway:

Code: [Select]

--- icewm_initmenu.original
+++ icewm_initmenu.updated
@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
 TMP="/tmp/icewm.$$"
 TMP2="/tmp/icewm2.$$"
 
-for D in `ls /usr/share/applications/tinycore-*`; do
+for D in `ls /usr/local/share/applications/tinycore-*`; do
    writeMenuItem "$D" >> "$TMP"
 done
 merge "$TMP" "$SYSDIR"/menu "End System" > "$TMP2"


* ExitTC -> Restart Icewm was non-functional, this makes it reload most preference and panel changes without having to exit/restart:

Code: [Select]

--- icewm_restart.original
+++ icewm_restart.updated
@@ -1,2 +1,4 @@
 #!/bin/sh
-# Not needed for menu rebuild
+# Restart IceWM, reload most preference and panel changes
+# ...otherwise 'logout' then 'startx'
+killall -SIGHUP icewm

* Unpopulated Programs menu on first run appears broken, might be nice if IceWM startup did something like this:

Code: [Select]

mkdir $USER/.icewm
touch $USER/.icewm/programs
echo "# Enter Programs menu items here:" >> $USER/.icewm/programs
echo "prog fltk-editor fltk-editor fltk-editor" >> $USER/.icewm/programs
echo "prog xterm xterm xterm" >> $USER/.icewm/programs


[Jason W]

Thanks, I will look into this tomorrow.

[nitram]

Installing  lxrandr  coincidentally got beautiful IceWM graphics if cross referencing dependencies helps:

Code: [Select]

coreutils
debconf
fontconfig
fontconfig-config
hicolor-icon-theme
libacl1
libatk1.0-0
libattr1
libavahi-client3
libavahi-common3
libc6
libcairo2
libcomerr2
libcups2
libdatrie1
libdbus-1-3
libexpat1
libffi6
libfontconfig1
libfreetype6
libgcc1
libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0
libglib2.0-0
libgmp10
libgnutls-deb0-28
libgraphite2-3
libgssapi-krb5-2
libgtk2.0-0
libharfbuzz0b
libhogweed4
libicu55
libjbig0
libjpeg-turbo8
libk5crypto3
libkeyutils1
libkrb5-3
libkrb5support0
liblzma5
libnettle6
libp11-kit0
libpango-1.0-0
libpangocairo-1.0-0
libpangoft2-1.0-0
libpcre3
libpixman-1-0
libpng12-0
libselinux1
libstdc++6
libsystemd0
libtasn1-6
libthai0
libtiff5
libx11-6
libxau6
libxcb-render0
libxcb-shm0
libxcb1
libxcomposite1
libxcursor1
libxdamage1
libxdmcp6
libxext6
libxfixes3
libxi6
libxinerama1
libxml2
libxrandr2
libxrender1
lxrandr
shared-mime-info
ucf
zlib1g



[nitram]

The missing helper dependency is  shared-mime-info  , confirmed with reboot/re-test. Attempted to load it's sub-dependencies without success. So the whole  shared-mime-info  package needs to be listed as dependency, 21 MB SCE (x denotes standalone trial without success):
libc6
x libffi6
libgcc1
x libglib2.0-0
x libicu55
x libpcre3
x libselinux1
x libstdc++6
x libxml2
shared-mime-info BINGO !!!
x zlib1g

Get really nice IceWM graphics with a pretty basic sceboot.lst:
Xprogs
xorg-nv
dillo
ca-certificates
emelfm
grep
icewm
graphics-3.16.6-tinycore

[Jason W]

Thanks, I have added shared-mime-info to the deps of icewm.

[nitram]

Thanks, retested update, graphics good. Stock icewm.sce went from 17 -> 32 MB but re-importing with Xorg dependency back down to 18 MB. With the space saving strategies that can be used (dependency, list file, sce.purge file tweaks) IMO keeping extensions so small that things don't work is not a preferred route. Don't know if this is possible, maybe all dCore WM should come with an Xorg dependency out of the box to keep them small or are people still using Xvesa? IceWM is actually a very full-featured WM - alt/tab switch, menu icons, built-in themes, multiple workspaces, dozens of configuration options, built-in panel, clock, 'start' menu, system monitors...not your fault it requires so many dependencies to run properly.

None of the other suggestions recommended ~4 posts up were applied, hence System Tools menu still broken, Restart IceWM button useless and Programs menu not populated. Let me know if you can apply these fixes and i will retest, othewise move on to next project. Thanks.