Village_in_space

[Taco.22]

Introducing an experimental build of VillageBox - Village_in_space!

This is VillageBox running the Spacefm file manager.  Spacefm is a fork of PCmanFM, but with much more.  It is now default FM in a number of distros, including Archpup, Foresight and Parted Magic.  It is also found in the repos of many other distros.

Download the ISO and the md5.

Obligatory screenshots here and here.

Spacefm is highly configurable - in this build it is presented to you as a twin pane FM.  Modify it at your whim.  It is integrated with gigolo so it will display network sharing. 

Spacefm also creates a desktop environment that allows setting of wallpaper and desktop icons.  In the live ISO you will see three desktop icons - Sakura, Spacefm and Midori - plus one for Live Installer.  These all sit in the Desktop folder of the user.

One small glitch - click on the desktop and conky disappears!!  Worked fine in build mode but found that in the live ISO.  If you go to ~/.conky/conkyrc and change the line "own_window_type_ desktop" to "own_window_type_ normal", save and hit logout - don't panic, it will log back in without need for password and your changes saved - conky will then behave itself.  I will fix this in the next build.

Anyway, I'm just looking for some feedback on this one.  Spacefm is still a work in progress but it does seem to fill a lot of gaps between Thunar and PCmanFM.  It gives the option of "desktop" management with a highly configurable file manager.  Maybe it's a good fit with VillageBox?

Give it a go and let me know what you think.


EDIT - just checked and yes, conkyrc should have been "normal" - forgot to move that across to /etc/skel.

EXTRA EDIT - Disregard the issue with conky - I have uploaded a corrected ISO.

[patrick013]

Introducing an experimental build of VillageBox - Village_in_space!

http://ge.tt/6BXZYHY/v/0?c

The above is a quick way to get GTK3 on  VillageBox provided there's
no other gtk-3.0 config file in /home any place.

Login, AbiWord, and eventually Gnumeric will be GTK3 it looks like.

Just to test.

Patrick

[melodie]

Too much work I feel! 

Please, someone to bring all this as a news in the French section?

[djohnston]

Does SpaceFM have advantages over Thunar? Besides, of course, the gvfs/network bug?

[Taco.22]

It depends on what you want in a FM.  Spacefm is a fork of PCManFM, and shares similar characteristics.  It has a desktop "layer" that sets the wallpaper and can allow desktop icons.  It is highly configurable - just about everything can be tweaked.  It seems to be less buggy than PCManFM, although it is still new and much of that is up to the very dedicated maintainer.

Differences with Thunar - it offers a multiple pane layout and tabs - neither of which will be seen in Thunar.  It mounts network shares through gigolo, but I haven't yet tried doing that direct through Spacefm, if it even can.  Unlike PCManFM it allows detailed list layout, as does Thunar.  So Spacefm has the configurability of Thunar but with the extra desktop capabilities and layout options of PCManFM.  It is a great FM, and for someone wanting desktop options, like in LXDE for example, I would recommend it. 

I must confess though that I still have a leaning towards Thunar.  I don't use desktop icons, and I can open Thunar twice and invoke Pytyle and have a twin pane FM just like that - that is just my personal setup.  But give it a go.  I think it is a great project and well worth supporting.  For those who don't want to download a whole ISO to give Spacefm a try, check out the Spacefm website for download instructions.   

[melodie]

Hi,

SpaceFM is a very good file manager. The only problem is that at first sight there is just too much stuff in the right-click menus, and in the left sidebar once you start clicking on the different options, and it is difficult to find it's way through. At a time I exchanged a few mails with the author of the program and asked if maybe he could implement 3 levels for the users in the preference : "beginner - average - expert" to make the learning curve easier, or just provide the basic which most people want. He didn't say no, but I don't know if he kept this idea in a todo, and I didn't try it since a long time now.

Have you tried the search feature ? I think it probably works very well, whereas many other gui search apps I tried found nothing at all on several files I was seeking for, and compared to "find" and "locate" commands. (still thinking forward to provide non tech users the tools they need).

[Taco.22]

Yeah, I guess the only real "problem" is that it tries to be "all things to all men" - it does a lot of stuff and the interface can be a little intimidating.  The built in search function works well - almost makes catfish superfluous.

[patrick013]

Yeah, I guess the only real "problem" is that it tries to be "all things to all men" - it does a lot of stuff and the interface can be a little intimidating.  The built in search function works well - almost makes catfish superfluous.

Is there a .deb package for SpaceFM ?    I can't find one.

I like Searchmonkey a bunch, seems catfish needs to run as root to find everything.
Except Searchmonkey overfills the screen on my netbook.

Maybe I'm full of blarney, is that French ?

[Taco.22]

Maybe I'm full of blarney, is that French ?

Umm, I really think that's Irish!

Download and install Spacefm for Debian from here or here, or set up apt-get from the ppa here .

[melodie]

Hi,

What is "blarney" ?   

[patrick013]

Hi,

What is "blarney" ?   

When visiting the Irish King, some were allowed to see the
blarney stone on the wall.   Some were allowed to lay flat on their back's,
and in that position were allowed to kiss the bottom of the
blarney stone only once.   From that day forward they were
given the gift of "gab".    In other words, they were given the gift
to talk freely about anything they wanted to, eternally.

This was all done at the favor of the King.     They were given the gift
of "blarney" so to speak.    So when someone says, oh that's blarney,
they mean it's just a bunch of talk, in Irish-British circles, or elsewhere.

I wish my computer would do the same thing.

thanks for the question.

patrick013

[melodie]

hu hu, That looks dangerous! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Stone

Thanks for your explanation!

[patrick013]

hu hu, That looks dangerous! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blarney_Stone

Thanks for your explanation!

Well the Irish folk legend of course is very true as you can see.
Most authentic, etc..

As well as the legend of St. Patrick, who was not even Irish  !

Well enough of this sort of blarney, huh ?

The way that term could be used.

Do the French have similar legends ?

[djohnston]

I've downloaded the iso twice now. It won't boot to the desktop. The md5sum of the second iso does not match the posted md5sum.

Code: [Sélectionner]

md5sum Village_in_space.iso
a9c8769547d99012ed4082337f7f05bc  Village_in_space.iso

cat Village_in_space.iso.md5
ba89a4bde29f939f3e27dd329486f17d  Village_in_space.iso

[Taco.22]

Sorry - I can confirm that the ISO won't boot.  Give me a bit of time and I will do another - and check it before I upload!