gxmessage/yaf-splash not displayed from script

[mikeb]

. you could use the real yaf-splash but it does not support unicode which is why it should never have appeared in the first place.. Very Happy

yes did mention that ...just also mentioned that ugly fonts seemed to be the ones chosen.

It was unmaintained for years too iirc..... good choice.

mike

[jamesbond]

yes did mention that ...just also mentioned that ugly fonts seemed to be the ones chosen.

Ah I missed that part. In fact, it is quite straightforward to enable yaf-splash to work with UTF-8 string (I just did that). As for the font, it is not chosen, it's because X font is not configured properly (AFAIK Puppy already comes with Dejavu? - which is quite decent).

It was unmaintained for years too iirc..... good choice.

My historical knowledge of Puppy is quite weak since I joined when Puppy 2.x was already on the full swing; so I could be wrong here. But my guess is yaf-splash was chosen because early Puppies didn't include GTK at all (and yaf-splash only depends on xlib). The same reason that jwm was chosen.

As for maintenance - it is such a small code and its functionality is more or less fixed; it doesn't require maintenance or new feature I compiled yaf-splash 1.02 "as is" (no patch etc) on x86_64, and ARM, no changes needed.

[mikeb]

yaf-splash was introduced around puppy 2.17 iirc, last of the 2 series . GTK2 has been in puppy since at least 1.08.

. In fact, it is quite straightforward to enable yaf-splash to work with UTF-8 string (I just did that)

wonder why thats was not done... perhaps because it required more than a bash script ?

Xdialog , gxmessage and gtkdialog were used and present before yaf splash. ...xmessage was retained rather than gxmessage cos it looked worse I assume.

So it was brought in when there were perfectly useable, visually pleasant tools, then thrown out again after many scripts were changed over and now there is a very hacky inefficient script to replace it and a series of confusing symlinks and a half hidden original binary.... all seems like a waste of peoples time thats all.

mike

[jafadmin]

So I figured out that the compiled binary for yaf-splash is still in puppy in the
/usr/X11R7/bin directory. With a little goofing around with parameters I was able to get a halfway decent result with the following:

Code: Select all

/usr/X11R7/bin/yaf-splash -bg green -font "Monospace" -placement "top" -margin 15 -outline 0 -display :0 -timeout 5 -text " VPN Monitor is Running . . . " 

Maybe not as pretty as the gtkdialog version, but at least I can get it to run from the ip-up script with no problem.

Well, this didn't survive a reboot. It worked for hours, then for some inexplicable reason, just quit after a reboot.

Now I can't get it to work from a LiveCD.

Weirdness. Absolute weirdness ...

My best guess is that pppd is altering the environment in some way that breaks yaf-splash.

If I just execute the ip-up script stand-alone, yaf-splash works as expected. If the ip-up script is executed by the pppd process, it doesn't.

I'm gonna take up radish farming.

[mikeb]

I'm gonna take up radish farming.

its kinder on the hands compared to brussel sprouts....

mike

[jamesbond]

yaf-splash was introduced around puppy 2.17 iirc, last of the 2 series . GTK2 has been in puppy since at least 1.08.

Xdialog , gxmessage and gtkdialog were used and present before yaf splash. ...xmessage was retained rather than gxmessage cos it looked worse I assume.

So it was brought in when there were perfectly useable, visually pleasant tools, then thrown out again after many scripts were changed over and now there is a very hacky inefficient script to replace it and a series of confusing symlinks and a half hidden original binary.... all seems like a waste of peoples time thats all.

Thank you for educating me on the history. I agree that Xdialog and gtkdialog alone are more than enough to cover all the use cases.

. In fact, it is quite straightforward to enable yaf-splash to work with UTF-8 string (I just did that)

wonder why thats was not done... perhaps because it required more than a bash script ?

LOL yes you need to edit some (horrible horrible!) C code. Screenshot attached.

Well, this didn't survive a reboot. It worked for hours, then for some inexplicable reason, just quit after a reboot.

Now I can't get it to work from a LiveCD.

Weirdness. Absolute weirdness ...

My best guess is that pppd is altering the environment in some way that breaks yaf-splash.

If I just execute the ip-up script stand-alone, yaf-splash works as expected. If the ip-up script is executed by the pppd process, it doesn't.

I'm gonna take up radish farming.

Hold that radish just yet. Add LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R7/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH to your ip-up script. See if that helps.

[jafadmin]

Hold that radish just yet. Add LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/X11R7/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH to your ip-up script. See if that helps.

Tried it. No difference

Thanks, though.

[jamesbond]

Is there a meaningful output from "yaf-splash blah blah blah > /tmp/output 2>&1" ?

[jafadmin]

Is there a meaningful output from "yaf-splash blah blah blah > /tmp/output 2>&1" ?

nope. just a blank file.

[jafadmin]

I got yaf-splash working again. Here's how:

I created a link in /etc/ppp to /usr/X11R7/bin/yaf-splash

Then called it thusly:

Code: Select all

/etc/ppp/yaf-splash -bg green -font fixed -display :0 -placement "top" -margin 15 -outline 0 -timeout 5 -text " VPN Monitor is Running . . . " 

Is it pretty? No.
Does it make sense? No.
Do I know why this works like this? No.
Am I going to waste more time on it? No, I'm going to try radish farming.

[mikeb]

I'll grab the rubber boots... this computing stuff makes no sense to me either... and I likes farming ...after all we all need to eat and can live without computers.

mike

[jafadmin]

So, feeling undeservedly bold, I put it in the can and made a .pet, anyway.

I'm a struggling man. I will soldier on, regardless.

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=93384

[mikeb]

being stubborn is an asset

mike