Villlage_RC-1: Openbox base for community development

[Taco.22]

Village_RC1 has now been superseded by the new and improved Village_RC2.  Check it out, download it and give it a run.



This is Village_RC-1.  It is a spin based on Scorpio, but with the some of the more esoteric features stripped out, and some other features included.


Village_RC-1.iso           489mb
Village_RC-1.iso.md5      51kb

It is based on Openbox Wheezy with Testing enabled.  If you want to change to Stable or SID then just edit /etc/apt/sources.list accordingly.  The wallpaper and DM login have been given their own look.  Feel free to workshop those!  It comes with Openbox-menu; lightDM as DM; Thunar as FM; WICD for networking; Midori as browser; Sakura as default terminal; Geany as editor; XFburn for writing CD/DVDs; Geeqie for images; Nitrogen for wallpaper; Synaptic as package manager; Tint2 as panel; Remastersys for remastering and conky as system monitor.  The desktop keybindings remain the same.  Screenshots are enabled by scrot through the right-click menu or by hitting "PrintScreen".  CUPS printing is available through the browser via its own command under "Applications-System Tools - Print"
Urxvt and Pytyle have been removed. 
It has been designed as a basic but fully functional base for people to build their own spin.  If you want to overlay LXDE or another desktop manager; change browser, file manager or panel; set up a multimedia or diagnostic spin; port it to another language; add things like ZRAM and sudo;  it is the raw canvas that will allow you to build what you want.  Or you can use it just as it is!
This will allow members of the Village to do their own builds and share them through Village community.  We can all troubleshoot issues and bugs together, and the spins can be promoted through the Village website.  So please make use of this resource - after all, it is yours.  Enjoy.

Screenshot below -

 

[djohnston]

See if this helps.

https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31006290/Village_RC-1_TEST_xz.iso
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/31006290/Village_RC-1_TEST_xz.iso.md5

It's a remaster of Taco.22's remaster. The Semplice team has written some excellent tools. One is a python Internationalization and Localization program. It carries the GPL_v3 license. I added their repo source temporarily, ("pulse", which is Semplice version 3), and installed the two packages. Here's the list:

Packages
--------
keeptalking (2.21.1-1)
python-keeptalking (2.21.1-1)

Required dependencies
---------------------
console-common (0.7.87)
console-data (2:1.12-2)
gir1.2-atk-1.0 (2.4.0-2)
gir1.2-freedesktop (1.32.1-1)
gir1.2-gdkpixbuf-2.0 (2.26.1-1)
gir1.2-gtk-3.0 (3.4.2-4)
gir1.2-pango-1.0 (1.30.0-1)
python-t9n (1.14.2)
screen (4.1.0~20120320gitdb59704-7)

After adding the packages, I unchecked the Semplice source list in Synaptic, but left the file intact as /etc/apt/sources.list.d/semplice.list. Semplice is using Debian unstable packages, and I don't want to mix them with testing. Bad news. Anyway, feel free to delete that file, if deemed necessary.

On first boot, after installing from Village_RC-1.iso, I noticed a locale error message. So, I looked at /var/log/boot.log and found the following:

"/etc/environment has been deprecated for locale information; use /etc/default/locale for LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8 instead"

Evidently, that config file wasn't doing anything, anyway. When I first ran the Semplice program, it showed English(Australia) UTF-8 for the locale. I changed that to English(US) UTF-8.



The keyboard was correctly set.



Although I specified America/Chicago as my timezone when I ran the remastersys installer, the Semplice program was showing America/New York. Not sure what's going on there. Anyway, I changed it to America/Chicago.



After I was satisfied with the changes made, I clicked the OK button. A progress bar appeared as the changes were being applied. I then saw the following window.



You can find the menu item in Applications > Preferences.



Running the program requires root privileges. Unfortunately, part of the window message is in Italian. The desktop file only contains English and Italian translations.



I also added the kernel-image package, along with virtualbox-guest-dkms package, and all dependencies, in order to get a fully working implementation for a VBox guest. This allows me to transfer files more easily, along with fully integrating the mouse. Feel free to remove those packages if you deem it necessary.

When I first remastered, the resulting iso was 515 MBs, a bit larger than the original. So, I remastered again, using xz compression, instead. The resulting iso is 401 MBs, smaller than the original. The iso listed is the xz compressed one. Nice artwork, by the way.

You guys will have to look at this and see whether it will be a help or hindrance to localizing remasters in the long run. Please put your trays in the upright position and have a pleasant flight.

[Taco.22]

Just an update on the updates!  Thanks to djohnston we now can configure locales and language properly.  I am updating Village_OB as we go and so far -
corrected the "Internationalization & Localization" (do you think they could have made that longer!!) .desktop file to now show the dialogue box in local language

• removed nitrogen and installed  hsetroot with same wallpaper
• installed thunar-archive-plugin
• installed xcompmgr
• set Remastersys prefs to include "-comp xz"
• apt-get update && dist-upgrade

It all seems to be working well.  Once melodie is done with the French part of the OB config files we can look at uploading RC2.  In the meantime, maybe a name would be a good thing.  Perhaps something related to Villages.  I was thinking about "SquareBox", after the village square, but somehow it doesn't quite have it.  So let's just throw a bunch of names up in the air and see what comes down right side up!

[Taco.22]

I can't seem to get the Semplice repo active - http://softlayer.dl.sourceforge.net/project/semplice-linux/archive/ pulse main contrib non-free
Apt-get update throws a "Connection failed" error, and I can't get to the repo via browser - "This webpage is not available".  We need to sort this for the Inter&Loc application.
This link http://sourceforge.net/projects/semplice-linux/files/?source=navbar gets to a files page with repo listed but I can't get any further.

EDIT - ah, the last link does work.  I am now looking for the app.  I'll have a look at how we set up apt-get sources.list.  I don't know if it is me but poking through this part of sourceforge is very hit and miss - error messages about pages that won't load, but then do a bit later, but then not again!  Don't know - maybe they're doing maintenance?

EXTRA EDIT - the app is called "keeptalking" and the Semplice project page can be found here.

[melodie]

Hi,

Please send me a reminder by mail in the middle of the coming week, about the files to provide with the translations.

Thanks.

[Taco.22]

After a long running battle trying to get gigolo to autostart, I realise there is a bigger issue.  For some reason Village_RC1 won't execute applications through ~/openbox/autostart.  However they will on my own Scorpio which is based on what Village is based on.  So what has changed in the Village base?

[melodie]

So what has changed in the Village base?

Is your autostart file executable ? Do you have a correct ~/.xinitrc file ?

[Taco.22]

I had tried checking the "Allow this file to run as a program" but no change.  On my system that box isn't checked.  Here is the .xinitrc -

Code: [Sélectionner]

#!/bin/sh
#
# ~/.xinitrc
#
# Executed by startx (run your window manager from here)

if [ -d /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d ]; then
  for f in /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc.d/*; do
    [ -x "$f" ] && . "$f"
  done
  unset f
fi

xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources #update x resources db

# exec gnome-session
# exec startkde
# exec startxfce4
# ...or the Window Manager of your choice

exec dbus-launch openbox-session
Same as Scorpio.

[melodie]

Hi,

Do as user:

Code: [Sélectionner]

$ chmod a+x ~/.config/openbox/autostart
then paste here the result for:

Code: [Sélectionner]

$ ls -l ~/.config/openbox/autostart

[Taco.22]

Code: [Sélectionner]

guest@village:~$ chmod a+x ~/.config/openbox/autostart
guest@village:~$ ls -l ~/.config/openbox/autostart
-rwxrwxr-x 1 guest guest 894 Jan 22 09:48 /home/guest/.config/openbox/autostart
guest@village:~$

[melodie]

-rwxrwxr-x // is the same as "775" therefore your file is executable (and should look green in the console where you invoked the "ls -l").

[Taco.22]

Yes, that was when I had the box ticked.  Unticked it's "-rw-rw-r--", same as what I have in Scorpio, which seems to work fine.

[Taco.22]

Hallejuhah - a solution at last!!

That was one of the most frustrating tussles I've had in a while, but in the end there was a simple issue, as usual.  I did a clean reinstall and discovered I had a clash between the wicd tray icon I had installed and just about everything else.  Without the wicd tray icon gigolo installed worked as it should.  I have now added the wicd tray icon properly and all is well.

So Village_OB is back on track to an RC2.

One other small dilemma - I was reconsidering dumping nitrogen but I can't seem to get it to run as user - works fine as root!  Nitrogen install does not bring a .desktop file which is a bit of a glitch, so I had to write one myself.  By the way I think the "Applications" folder I put in .local should have been spelt "applications".  There are .desktop files in /usr and .local.  When launched as user from terminal the error read-

Code: [Sélectionner]

terminate called after throwing an instance of 'Gio::Error" 
Aborted

Nah, on second thoughts after researching that error message I am going to junk it.  Seems to be a problem in Crunchbang as well - just have to wait until nitrogen is fixed. 
So Village_OB is still on track to an RC2 with these changes -



• installed Internationalization & Localization and corrected dialoge box
• removed nitrogen and installed  hsetroot with same wallpaper
• installed thunar-archive-plugin
• installed xcompmgr
• installed gigolo and allowed Thunar to mount network shares
• installed catfish file finder
• set Remastersys prefs to include "-comp xz"
• apt-get update && dist-upgrade

Once we get some OB menu translations I'll think about uploading.

[melodie]

Hi,

What about using feh, which is as good as any hsetroot, nitrogen or else ?

djohnston had wrote a nice article in the pclos mag where he explained how to get the background changing every "so" minutes, and I have alsways provided the 2 command lines provided to me by someone else : one for a fixed background, one for changing randomly at each session.

These options are still in the latest "etcskel" tarballs.

PS: have you tested the ability provided by "catfish" to find anything or several things in the system ? I am asking because some time ago I had done tests and I didn't really find one gui program doing as well as "find" or "locate".

[Taco.22]

Feh and hsetroot a both need text editing to change config - I find hsetroot a little easier to set.  Plus it carries over the wallpaper in the live cd - I haven't tested feh for that.  However if the vote is for feh I can reconfigure that.

Catfish is something I have used for a while, and it was only just now that I thought of putting into Village!  It works well, is uncomplicated and has so far found everything I have set it to.