Calling metacity gurus

[marquitico]

I can verify that Metacity runs standalone nicely as a simple, stripped-down window manager. That being said, the themes do not render 100% correctly, which I assume has to do with not having a complete gnome desktop, perhaps...?

Anyway: the specific question I have refers to the button layout, which is ignored. No matter which theme I try, I only get two buttons: the minimize button and the menu button. The minimize button is in the left corner of the window frame, but the menu button can wander around the titlebar, depending upon the theme.

The schemas file has the default button layout definition OK. I can also issue:

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gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/button_layout menu:minimize,maximize,close
but although it sets the value in the correct place, it's ignored when the theme is rendered. The worst part involves metacity themes that use images to draw these elements, as empty spaces are left in places around the window frame. The metacity-theme-viewer utility doesn't show there to be any faults with the themes.

Any ideas? Thanx in advance.

[Arslan S.]

To properly setup metacity do this :

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sudo update-gconf-database register metacity
echo "usr/local/etc/gconf/gconf.xml.defaults" >> /opt/.filetool.lst
filetool.sh -b
there is a missing dependency libgtop

also gnome-themes include some metacity themes

[marquitico]

Thank you for these instructions!! I am traveling for the Thanksgiving holidays, but will try them at the weekend!

[marquitico]

Still need help. The update-gconf-database command produced a "failed to load external entity" error. After trying the command-line help and Googling a little, I modified it like this:

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sudo update-gconf-database register /usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/metacity.schemas
Was that the wrong thing to do? It terminated with a "Done!" and no errors, but metacity renders identically as before...

[marquitico]

Very belated thanks to Arslan S. Finally got it to work tonight, and pleased as can be. Happy Holidays.

[jur]

Could you outline the steps you took?

[marquitico]

Certainly. The big secret is the missing dependency that Arslan S. mentioned: libgtop.

I should explain that I'm on MicroCore 2.10, which has no such package. I took a little time out to learn how to complete a build environment, and then I compiled it myself using libgtop.2.26.1.tar.bz2 taken from http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/gnome/sources/libgtop/2.26/

Then I simply added metacity and all its stated dependencies. For those of you on TinyCore 3.x, I think there's already a libgtop extension, yes? So you shouldn't need to compile.

With everything installed, I ran the following as the superuser (or you can just use sudo):

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update-gconf-database register /usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/metacity.schemas
Then as the regular user, I did:

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export GCONF_CONFIG_SOURCE=""
gconftool-2 --makefile-install-rule /usr/local/etc/gconf/schemas/metacity.schemas
Install the metacity theme of your choice. I will use Atlanta as an example. To make metacity use my theme, I run:

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gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/metacity/general/theme Atlanta
At this point I'm ready to fire it up. I usually have done all of the above from within Xorg, running something simple like flwm. I kill flwm and run:

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metacity --sm-disable
in its place. Et voilà.

A few notes: as I'm still experimenting, I haven't tried to make anything persist yet, so the few times that I've tried this I only did what I have outlined above, always from scratch. I haven't tried to add it to filetool.lst or anything like that. Anybody who does so, please expand on this thread.

Metacity cannot set the cursor for the root window. Since I am in X with another wm already running and then switch, the cursor is set for me by the previous wm. If you start metacity "cold", you need a utility like xsetroot to set the cursor:

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xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr
will work for most X-11 cursor themes. If you have a scalable cursor, you do the following. Let's say you want it really big, 48 for example. Add the following line to .Xdefaults file in your home directory:

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Xcursor*size: 48
Then run this command:

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gconftool-2 --type integer --set /desktop/gnome/peripherals/mouse/cursor_size 48
(If you already have metacity running at this point, you may need to restart it for the cursor size change to "take".)

Metacity is only a wm and nothing else; no panel, no launcher, no menu. So I use TinyCore's wbar and populate it to suit me, and I'm very pleased. But for those seeking a little more, you will need to experiment with a panel or other solution of your choice.

Happy New Year!

[EDIT:] OK, I found that sometimes Metacity does set the cursor for the root window. But on my system it's not consistent, and I can't work out why. So I'll let my comment about xsetroot stand for the occasions when you may need it.

[jur]

Thanks - I'll try out your procedure and report back.

Have you tried compiz.tcz with that?

[marquitico]

You're welcome. Would love to know if this is transferable to other people's computers.

Have you tried compiz.tcz with that?

Alas, very stripped down system here. Intel i810e chipset, Pentium III "Coppermine" processor, 256mb ram, so no 3D compositing capability.

In fact, some of my fooling around with Metacity on TinyCore is with the idea of finding the smallest footprint that is still functional, while striking a nice enough balance between visuals (i.e. pretty themes) and actual workability for simple tasks on a 1998-era HP Pavillion. I made it clear down to aewm with wmctrl, but that was just too tedious...

[tinypoodle]

In fact, some of my fooling around with Metacity on TinyCore is with the idea of finding the smallest footprint that is still functional

From 17 available wm's in repo metacity is the one with the largest footprint with exception of compiz - at least when comparing size:

http://forum.tinycorelinux.net/index.php?topic=7489.msg43666#msg43666

Edit: To be accurate, that is when excluding flwm_topside and jwm-snapshot (which could be called "versions" of wm's).

[jur]

You're welcome. Would love to know if this is transferable to other people's computers.

Following your procedure to the letter worked.

I did have trouble with themes. It would change the theme when executing the command you gave for the theme, but not consistently. I did not pursue this further.

[marquitico]

tinypoodle is exactly right: metacity does unpack to quite a large size. I ought to have been more specific: I meant memory footprint while running. For example, on my system with its measly 256mb ram augmented by a 512mb swapfile, OpenBox with LxPanel freezes the computer solid after about fifteen minutes of use. xfwm4 is flaky, with the system grinding to a halt from time to time, only to work itself loose again if I just leave it alone for a minute or two. Feels like a memory leak somewhere, and I'm too unskilled to figure out where. Metacity remains seamless for me.

The second half of the sentence that tinypoodle quoted is perhaps less meaningful to others but is very important to me: "...while striking a nice enough balance between visuals..." et cetera. Prettification is not only gratifying to me, it's also functional: my vision is quite poor and failing. I have come to depend upon (not only to enjoy) vividly artistic wm themes because they help me identify which window is which. So my personal agenda is very specific.

I must confess, I had completely forgotten about Hackedbox. I must try that next. Thank you for the link to the other post.

I did have trouble with themes. It would change the theme when executing the command you gave for the theme, but not consistently.

This has not happened to me, but an online pal of mine reports this issue as well. His brute-force solution: use a text editor on the metacity.schemes file and change the name of the default theme (Clearlooks) to the one you want, and dispense with the theme-changing command altogether.

[Arslan S.]

there is gconf-editor for manually editing gconf schemes