Request or question: Xandros puppy

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Dromeno
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Request or question: Xandros puppy

#1 Post by Dromeno »

I would like to have or be able to make a Puppy distro which looks and feels exactly as the Xandros which came with the AsusEEE 700 and 900 series (now they all come with Windows XP).

Reason: I like the simplicity of this flavor of Xandros but I want to combine it with the versatility and speed of puppy

I understand that there exists a "woof" method to make puppy linux appear as any linux you like but I am not experienced yet so a more step by step overview would be handy

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GrumpyWolfe
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#2 Post by GrumpyWolfe »

Dromeno

I beleave that if you download and try out Puppylinux first you will see that it is very close to to how Xandros was set up in the first place, As far as the woof build I myself work with it to build MyWolfe and well is does have a learning cure not bad but some. So try the latest releases here.
http://puppylinux.org/main/index.php?fi ... elease.htm

Then maybe look at some of the puplets here and maybe find a happy middle ground. Puppylinux uses Puppy Package manger to take care of installing some of add on soft ware you may want.
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[url=http://sourceforge.net/projects/mywolfe/]MyWolfe at Sourceforge[/url]
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[url=http://groups.google.com/group/mywolfe-linux]MyWolfe Groups[/url]

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Lobster
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#3 Post by Lobster »

woof
http://puppylinux.org/wikka/Woof

Find out what the xandros front end is
originally it was a customised KDE
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jemimah
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#4 Post by jemimah »

I've been playing with Lxlauncher a bit for this purpose. The launcher from Asus is proprietary so you can't really just use it.

My version of Lxlauncher works on Puppy but it isn't currently ready for release yet. If you're so inclined, you can download the source code here: http://drop.io/jemimah

The other problem you will find is that most of the icons on Puppy are tiny. The task of replacing them all with nice big icons is probably more work than finishing the Lxlauncher project. :(

If someone wants to help me with the icons, I'd be a lot more motivated to work on the source code.
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WhoDo
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#5 Post by WhoDo »

jemimah wrote:If someone wants to help me with the icons, I'd be a lot more motivated to work on the source code.
Let me know what you need and I'll do my best to help.
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#6 Post by jemimah »

I've attached a binary of Lxlauncher so you can see what you are working with.

Basically, we need to go out on the internet and find larger icons for all the programs on the Puppy menu. I guess it would be best to target Puppy 4.3.1. Then all the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications would need to be updated to point to the new icons.

This is the sort of look we are going for:
Image

What needs to happen with the code? Well, it'd be nice if it did something useful when you right click, like bring up the window manager menu or a customization menu. Ideally you could set your own wallpapers, and it would have a Favorites pane like the Asus Launcher or the one from Eeebuntu. It also needs some minor fixes so Lxlauncher doesn't show up in the taskbar and stays on the bottom layer and stuff like that. The goal would be to completely replace the functionality of the Rox pinboard.
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01micko
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#7 Post by 01micko »

MU has hosted the "Exquisite" icons before... I think they are pretty big, around 120x120? If you search you may find them, or the wise one might know :wink: (he knows who I'm talking about :lol: )
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jemimah
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#8 Post by jemimah »

I checked out the exquisite icons, and that actually helps a lot. Hopefully I can get Puppeee 3.2 and the next Pwireless2 out the door soon and have some time to work on Lxlaucher.

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#9 Post by Lobster »

Scalerx is in Puppy and Barry was working towards using SVG images
or I may have imagined that
scalerx is a superb console program. If you have a small bitmap image and you want to make it bigger, it will have jagged edges, however scalerx analyses the image and smooths the edges. Only works with png image
Warren (Whodo) will be ideal for collaboration on icons
01micko wrote:MU has hosted the "Exquisite" icons before... I think they are pretty big, around 120x120? If you search you may find them, or the wise one might know :wink: (he knows who I'm talking about :lol: )
I am about as wise as last years Christmas pudding
so I am hoping it is someone else :oops:
but I can work on positive paranoia :wink:
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neurino
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#10 Post by neurino »

jemimah wrote:Basically, we need to go out on the internet and find larger icons for all the programs on the Puppy menu.
There are plenty of sites (ex. http://www.vistaicons.com/ ) tha offer Windows icons (PNG or ICO) to be used usually free not for commercial use.

With 50 or more icons each pack I think all Puppy programs can be covered, even if no "official" ones are used.

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WhoDo
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#11 Post by WhoDo »

jemimah wrote:I've attached a binary of Lxlauncher so you can see what you are working with.
Thank you. I've downloaded and will have a look over the next few days.
jemimah wrote:Basically, we need to go out on the internet and find larger icons for all the programs on the Puppy menu. I guess it would be best to target Puppy 4.3.1. Then all the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications would need to be updated to point to the new icons.
This may not be such a problem. I have SVG or 256x PNG sources for most of the really nice GPL icon sets already.
jemimah wrote:This is the sort of look we are going for:
Image
Sweet.
jemimah wrote:What needs to happen with the code? Well, it'd be nice if it did something useful when you right click, like bring up the window manager menu or a customization menu.
The secret here could be in the code for HairyWill's RoxRightClicks utility. It was in 4.2.1 by default but the dotpet is also available from the ibiblio repositories.
jemimah wrote:Ideally you could set your own wallpapers, and it would have a Favorites pane like the Asus Launcher or the one from Eeebuntu. It also needs some minor fixes so Lxlauncher doesn't show up in the taskbar and stays on the bottom layer and stuff like that. The goal would be to completely replace the functionality of the Rox pinboard.
Hmmmm ... to borrow a Patriotism ... I'll have to think about the options here. I'm working on an ASUS laptop but not the Eee version.
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#12 Post by jemimah »

WhoDo wrote: The secret here could be in the code for HairyWill's RoxRightClicks utility. It was in 4.2.1 by default but the dotpet is also available from the ibiblio repositories.
I think this functionality will have to be coded into Lxlauncher, since Rox would not be running. There is a newer version of Lxlauncher that has a menu to run LxShortcut when you right click; I was going to copy code from there. The binary I posted is based on an old version of Lxlaucher since the new versions use the menu-cache library which I couldn't get to work on Puppy. Plus the code from the old version is a lot easier for me to understand and modify; and the newer versions don't have any new features that I want.

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WhoDo
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#13 Post by WhoDo »

jemimah wrote:
WhoDo wrote: The secret here could be in the code for HairyWill's RoxRightClicks utility. It was in 4.2.1 by default but the dotpet is also available from the ibiblio repositories.
I think this functionality will have to be coded into Lxlauncher, since Rox would not be running.
Yes, that is what I understood would be happening but I thought HW's code might offer some helpful clues if it isn't too Rox-specific.

I still haven't had a chance to look at the Lxlauncher yet, but I will do so in the next couple of days.
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Dromeno
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Tabbed desktop

#14 Post by Dromeno »

As visible in the screenshot above , one of the most attractive qualities of the Xandros window manager is its desktop with tabs. This makes it very clean, even with lots of installed programs (and large icons). The icons are also fixed in their grid position on the desktop. You can not move them around. At first sight this is less flexible but it yields a very organized look. And i suspect that it makes the window manager lighter/smaller/faster. In Xandros you are (cold booted) online in half a minute.

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#15 Post by Lobster »

The propreitrary (if it is) code that xandros use
is almost identical in potential appearance to the
control panel written by Guy in Dpup
This should be available as 'c' code - small and compact - and is another potential approach :)
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WhoDo
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#16 Post by WhoDo »

jemimah wrote:The binary I posted is based on an old version of Lxlauncher
Ok, I've run the Lxlauncher on my Puppy 4.31 installation. It looks like it just picks up the icon assignments from the .desktop files used by the xdg menu system so it shouldn't be a major problem to adapt.

24x24 icons should be big enough for the tabs.

72x72 might be the right size for the main icons but that will depend on the answer to the following question:

What is the resolution / form factor for the EeePC screen? Knowing that I can adjust icon sizes for the best fit.

It also looks as though the launcher uses the Gtk color settings, so we can use an appropriate Gtk2 theme for that as well.

What color combination do you want the icons - blue/green like the sample or some other combination?
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#17 Post by jemimah »

Lobster wrote:The propreitrary (if it is) code that xandros use
is almost identical in potential appearance to the
control panel written by Guy in Dpup
This should be available as 'c' code - small and compact - and is another potential approach :)
Lobster, do you know if there's source code somewhere for this? I googled for it but no relevant results.

WhoDo, the screenshot of the Xandros launcher is actual size (800x480) for the 7 inch Eee, but the all newer netbooks are at least 1024x600. The goal is for them to be large enough for touchscreens, and friendly for people with less than perfect vision. I'm not dead set on duplicating the look of the Xandros launcher exactly. The theme and colors could be left up to the user, so the icons should be reasonably color neutral.

I think we don't necessarily need a whole puplet for this since it's not that large or complex; a pet would probably be enough. Although I'm absolutely planning on using it for my Fluppy puplet for netbooks and I know Barry is trying to make Quirky netbook-friendly so it would be of interest there too.

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#18 Post by fsabatino »

jemimah wrote: I think we don't necessarily need a whole puplet for this since it's not that large or complex; a pet would probably be enough. Although I'm absolutely planning on using it for my Fluppy puplet for netbooks and I know Barry is trying to make Quirky netbook-friendly so it would be of interest there too.
Agreed! many of us already have our favourite puppy up and running as we like. It'd be nice to add this pet to our preferred pup as opposed to having to start from scratch, with the potential issues that could bring up also!

Looking forward to the updates.

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#19 Post by 01micko »

jemimah wrote:
Lobster wrote:The propreitrary (if it is) code that xandros use
is almost identical in potential appearance to the
control panel written by Guy in Dpup
This should be available as 'c' code - small and compact - and is another potential approach :)
Lobster, do you know if there's source code somewhere for this? I googled for it but no relevant results.
jemimah

I'm sure gposil (Guy) would have the source posted somewhere, gpl rules :wink: ... pm him I suppose or post on dpup484 thread.

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#20 Post by jemimah »

Ok, I've managed to hack in support for a Favorites pane. Here's a pet file for you all to try out and post feedback.
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