Tiny Core Linux
Tiny Core Base => TCB Q&A Forum => Topic started by: JoXo009 on September 01, 2009, 06:29:35 AM
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I found solutions to set TC desktop background color or to use a background wallpaper via the /home/tc/.xsession and /home/tc/.setbackgound scripts.
But I found no solutions how to output text on that desktop.
Is such text output possible and how could I it get working / which extensions should be used?
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Postscript:
What I mean is something I've got on my UltimateBoot live CD - text not in some window, but on the desktop itself - for example a list of the actual PC settings or a ToDo list.
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Is this the sort of thing you want?
http://home.schmorp.de/marc/root-tail.html
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http://home.schmorp.de/marc/root-tail.html
I'll try if it's working for me.
Thanks, mikshaw
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Sounds like you might want to check out conky. I'm not very familiar with it, but it can put various kinds of system status info directly on your desktop. I don't know if you can put *any* text, but I'm fairly sure you can at least choose from various categories. There are .tce and .tcz versions of a conky extension in the official repository.
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Mike L.
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... check out conky.
I saw conky, but it's actually more a to do list than the system status I want to create as desktop background.
And it's first the idea and the question if possible at all.
In the meantime - with your help - I got the feeling, it's possible. So I'll create my automatic ToDo list and test if I can get it working.
Will take some time. If it's of any use I'll try to report the result here.
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Main webiste is http://conky.sourceforge.net/ (http://conky.sourceforge.net/). It says it has built-in support for showing processes, mem usage, cpu status, etc. I sounds like it can be customized with scripts written in the Lua langurage (maybe others?) to show about anything.
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ML
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i would be very interesting to know much about how to do it; i find it funny and useful to have a black background with command lines or to do lists or something like that
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With TC2.2 you can put text on the desktop with everything included in the base.
aterm knows some nice tricks:
aterm -tr +sb -bl -sh 99
Used this in conjonction of your wm config, you maybe be able to achieve what you want.
For example, if you use jwm:
1 - add some group configuration magic in the configuration file:
<Group>
<Name>backterm</Name>
<Option>layer:1</Option>
<Option>notitle</Option>
<Option>noborder</Option>
<Option>nolist</Option>
</Group>
2- restart jwm for the option to take effect.
3- create a symlink with name you specified in the goup config: ln -s /usr/bin/aterm backterm4- and then finally: ./backterm -tr +sb -sh 99 -fade 100 [-e my_program...]tadaaaaaa! ;D
tip: you can use the -g flag to specify the position on the desktop
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...
tadaaaaaa!
You, sir, are a genius.
I have to go play with that -right now-.
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florian, that aterm trick is a real winner. Thanks! ... Now for an extra challenge: does anybody know how to do the same stuff with flwm instead of jwm? I mean run aterm in the root window with no border, title bar, etc.
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Nice idea, write on your desktop.
with vim:
[removed due to policy]apps/vim-desktop.png
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Hm.... Inventing 'Active Desktop' I have seen it already somewhere ;D
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or do it with .setbackground:
Esetroot -s /opt/backgrounds/yourfavoritewallpaper && aterm -tr +sb -bl -sh 99 -geometry 120x50+1+1 -e vi
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or do it with .setbackground:
Esetroot -s /opt/backgrounds/yourfavoritewallpaper && aterm -tr +sb -bl -sh 99 -geometry 120x50+1+1 -e vi
That's a much better way to do it. Loading "./backterm -tr +sb -sh 99 -e vim &" doesn't work
from a hotkey unless a terminal window is loaded.
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i am not totally satisfied with my solution, because i am using evilwm and have my aterm only on the first workspace, and not on all workspaces; i have no solution to make it stick across workspaces; does anyone know how to perform this? thanks
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Way back up the thread is Mike Lockmoore's suggestion that conky can do this. Indeed it can, and it's easy. I tested this by writing a mock to-do list in a file named ~/.conkytext and then adding the following two lines to my file ~/.conkyrc:
NOTES:
${head .conkytext 5 (2)}
Here "head" is a conky keyword, ".conkytext" can be replaced with whatever file name you like, "5" is the number of lines to be read from the top of the file, and "2" is the refresh interval in seconds.
Conky is impressively configurable: check out http://conky.sourceforge.net/variables.html (http://conky.sourceforge.net/variables.html) for other things it is ready to display.
With flwm (my favourite), the issue alu mentions is still present: the conky display shows only on the first desktop.
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Two quick remarks related to my previous solution:
1 - add some group configuration magic in the configuration file:
<Group>
<Name>backterm</Name>
<Option>layer:1</Option>
<Option>notitle</Option>
<Option>noborder</Option>
<Option>nolist</Option>
</Group>
2- restart jwm for the option to take effect.
Jwm is very customizable (see http://joewing.net/programs/jwm/config.shtml#groups), so there's an option to make the term "sticks" on all virtual desktops. The downside is that this confuses aterm's pseudo transparency.
<Option>sticky</Option>
3- create a symlink with name you specified in the goup config:
ln -s /usr/bin/aterm backterm
4- and then finally:
./backterm -tr +sb -sh 99 -fade 100 [-e my_program...]
Actually, no need for symlink. Just invoke aterm with the -name flag.
aterm -name backterm -tr +sb -sh 99 -fade 100 [-geometry ....] [-e my_program...]
;D
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With flwm (my favourite), the issue alu mentions is still present: the conky display shows only on the first desktop.
flwm has a special desktop named sticky. It only appears in the popup menu when more than one desktop has been selected. When sticky is displayed on the popup, select it to go there, and then start or select conky, flit or other to have them appear on all desktops.
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i did a little more search in the internet, and see that evilwm can make apps sticky, but i don't know how it works; basically, the code would be something like:
evilwm -app aterm -s &
-s is for sticky. now the difficulty for me is to know how to start evilwm with aterm stuck and displaying the way i have indicated in the thread... and this when x starts...
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found the solution with evilwm (by chance), incredibly simple: you have to move to the aterm displayed and stick it with ctrl+alt+f; it will be then stick across workspaces