functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

[Stanislav Brabec]

Hallo.

I just spent some time to make Matchbox2 working, as I considered is as
possible optimal solution for minimalistic GTK+/GPE based environment.

Resipes are now available in oe.dev. Just call bitbake matchbox2,
install and and enjoy. Read /etc/matchbox2/defaults and customize the
session script. And feel free to improve recipes.

There were several crashes, that made it unusable, and problems with the
icon theme. There is still a lot of things to do, but the code base is
now usable for the daily work.

The Matchbox2 code is almost minimalistic and easy to understand. But it
seems that upstream is recently almost dead (no response for submitted
patches, no activity in SVN for several months), so all fixes are now
added to OE as patches.

Benefits over Matchbox1:
- The whole panel is just one process.
- Application launcher should not generate 10 wake-ups per second.
- Based on standard GTK+ widgets, shares look and feel with GPE.
- Capable to share the same area for window title and panel (however the
  way, where window is border-less and the panel contains window
  operations applet {as some eee distros have} looks more smart).
- Panel and window manager handles XRandR well (not yet the desktop).
- Better handles new .desktop icon specification.

Window switching keys are now hardcoded: Alt+d, Alt+n, Alt+p. I guess
that Fn+something may be better. (I have been even using the Calendar
key on Zaurus, as I don't use PIM.)


________________________________________________________________________
Stanislav Brabec
http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/zaurus

Re: functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

[Florian Boor]

Hi!

Stanislav Brabec schrieb:
> I just spent some time to make Matchbox2 working, as I considered is as
> possible optimal solution for minimalistic GTK+/GPE based environment.

This is a very good idea.

> Resipes are now available in oe.dev. Just call bitbake matchbox2,
> install and and enjoy. Read /etc/matchbox2/defaults and customize the
> session script. And feel free to improve recipes.

Very good - we should update all related recipes to make use of it. If we need
to do any changes in GPE in order to make it compatible with the Matchbox2 stuff
 please let me know.

> There were several crashes, that made it unusable, and problems with the
> icon theme. There is still a lot of things to do, but the code base is
> now usable for the daily work.
> 
> The Matchbox2 code is almost minimalistic and easy to understand. But it
> seems that upstream is recently almost dead (no response for submitted
> patches, no activity in SVN for several months), so all fixes are now
> added to OE as patches.

I am not sure if I would like to maintain it for a longer time, but if it turns
out that upstream is really dead I would suggest to create a project (at
linuxtogo.org I would suggest, but any other would be fine too). This could help
to keep it up to date and maybe involve interested community members.

> Benefits over Matchbox1:
> - The whole panel is just one process.
> - Application launcher should not generate 10 wake-ups per second.
> - Based on standard GTK+ widgets, shares look and feel with GPE.
> - Capable to share the same area for window title and panel (however the
>   way, where window is border-less and the panel contains window
>   operations applet {as some eee distros have} looks more smart).
> - Panel and window manager handles XRandR well (not yet the desktop).
> - Better handles new .desktop icon specification.

I agree on all of these points.

Greetings

Florian

-- 
The dream of yesterday                  Florian Boor
is the hope of today                    Tel: +49 271-771091-15
and the reality of tomorrow.            Fax: +49 271-771091-19
[Robert Hutchings Goddard, 1904]        florian.boor@kernelconcepts.de
                                        http://www.kernelconcepts.de/en

Re: functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

[Stanislav Brabec]

Florian Boor wrote:

> Stanislav Brabec schrieb:

> > Resipes are now available in oe.dev. Just call bitbake matchbox2,
> > install and and enjoy. Read /etc/matchbox2/defaults and customize the
> > session script. And feel free to improve recipes.
> 
> Very good - we should update all related recipes to make use of it. If we need
> to do any changes in GPE in order to make it compatible with the Matchbox2 stuff
>  please let me know.

Well, GPE is nearly independent on the panel and WM. Old Matchbox
applets can still be hosted in Matchbox2, but conversion to the
Matchbox2 panel module would make them less memory-hungry.

Just matchbox-panel-manager will not work due to Matchbox2. Matchbox2
does not support layout change without restart. But there are things
that become outdated over the time by a change of low level technology -
for example gpe-bluetooth.


________________________________________________________________________
Stanislav Brabec
http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/zaurus

Re: functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

[Marcin Juszkiewicz]

Dnia środa, 23 września 2009 o 23:23:38 Stanislav Brabec napisał(a):

> I just spent some time to make Matchbox2 working, as I considered is as
> possible optimal solution for minimalistic GTK+/GPE based environment.

Thanks a lot - I had that on my todolist but lacked time for it.
 
> The Matchbox2 code is almost minimalistic and easy to understand. But it
> seems that upstream is recently almost dead (no response for submitted
> patches, no activity in SVN for several months), so all fixes are now
> added to OE as patches.

I do not know does mb-wm2 was ever finished. OpenedHand never used it in Poky 
images and Moblin development moved to Mutter (or how was that Clutter based 
WM named). MB-wm2 was meantiirc for Fremantle (Nokia N900 system) but I did 
not checked is it used or not there.


Regards, 
-- 
JID:      hrw@jabber.org
Website:  http://marcin.juszkiewicz.com.pl/
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/marcinjuszkiewicz

Re: functional Matchbox2 in oe.dev

[Stanislav Brabec]

Marcin Juszkiewicz wrote:
> Dnia środa, 23 września 2009 o 23:23:38 Stanislav Brabec napisał(a):
> 
> > I just spent some time to make Matchbox2 working, as I considered is as
> > possible optimal solution for minimalistic GTK+/GPE based environment.
> 
> Thanks a lot - I had that on my todolist but lacked time for it.

There is still a lot of things to do:

- No CPU load and wireless applet (well, old ones works), maybe better
  integration of bluez.

- Impossible to change applet list without restart (the code does not
  implement applet destructors).

- No way to close "split screen windows" (e. g. audio mixer)

- It would be nice to make possible to change some main windows to
  non-full-screen (e. g. pidgin list+talk windows, terminal+application)

- Window manager configuration does not allow to make relative size
  panels with XRandR.

- Add XRandR support code to matchbox-desktop

- Fix matchbox-common menu definition to show all installed
  applications.

- Fix everything for both "icon theme" icons and deprecated "pixmaps".

- Make possible to manipulate with windows from window list (it would
  make possible to make main windows borderless.

- Make hicolor icon theme.

- I18N

> I do not know does mb-wm2 was ever finished. OpenedHand never used it in Poky 
> images and Moblin development moved to Mutter (or how was that Clutter based 
> WM named).

I guess it was not finished. The last race condition crash patch (which
caused several crashes daily on my Zaurus) still rots only in the
Bugzilla and was not yet checked into SVN.

Also SVN version of panel is unstable and crashing many times daily.

> MB-wm2 was meantiirc for Fremantle (Nokia N900 system) but I did 
> not checked is it used or not there.

It looks so. There are simple and maemo managers.


________________________________________________________________________
Stanislav Brabec
http://www.penguin.cz/~utx/zaurus