Icons & the Desktop.....creating a workflow aesthetic?

[mikewalsh]

NOTICE

Guys:-

Please get back on topic and just post images of your desktop!

Following a discussion with one of m'colleagues, I'm in agreement that we ARE starting to wander somewhat "off-topic" here. If this had been MY thread, I probably wouldn't be so 'fussed' - it's a favourite subject, after all - but since it isn't, I think we should respect Darren's intent back when this thread was originally begun.....

Let's try and keep a bit closer to the general spirit of the thread, please. There's nothing stopping either of you from starting a new thread on more detailed aspects of desktop customization; I shall probably be one of the first to join in..!

(I'm NOT being a 'party pooper' here, but we really DON'T want the new forum to descend into quite the same degree of anarchic chaos as the old one did!!)

Now 'split-off' to form its own, new topic...

Cheers.

Mike.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

Yes my icons are open source. I'll zip them up and see what the best platform to post might be. I'm still working on them of course, and making new ones.

I just revamped the Cairo dock to clean the desk up a bit. So in order to put all the AppImages and Portables in the dock, I'll need to make better use of @mikewalsh 's menu entry scripts.

[geo_c]

Here's a link to the current set.

geo-flaticons-drk:

@JASpup you might find the names a bit bothersome. The challenge for me at this point is to figure out all the locations, names, and references the system uses to point to icons, and name the icons accordingly as well as copy them to the appropriate locations.

~geo

[mikewalsh]

@JASpup

Yes my icons are open source. I'll zip them up and see what the best platform to post might be. I'm still working on them of course, and making new ones.

I just revamped the Cairo dock to clean the desk up a bit. So in order to put all the AppImages and Portables in the dock, I'll need to make better use of @mikewalsh 's menu entry scripts.

Actually, there's a double-benefit here. If you use the MenuEntry scripts provided with the portables, you can put an entry in the Menu. If you then install taersh's "Right-click Substitute" package, you can then put entries, from the Menu, directly onto the desktop.....without the need for digging around in the file-system & dragging things onto the desktop.

A couple of non-standard Puppy items are required for this to work. I've added these to the original package, and created a pair of "all-in-one"s, for both 32- AND 64-bit Pups. I've been using this for over a year, and it's a real time-saver.

A wee demo:-

If you're interested in this, let me know and I'll dig out the .pets for it.

Mike.

[geo_c]

@mikewalsh

I recently saw that right-click pet somewhere, maybe on the forum. I'm interested in that.

BTW, are you a Brit, or maybe an Aussie?

~geo

[mikewalsh]

@mikewalsh

I recently saw that right-click pet somewhere, maybe on the forum. I'm interested in that.

BTW, are you are a Brit, or maybe an Aussie?

~geo

Brit, mate....through & through. If you can't make out the accent, it's Norfolk.....though not "broad" Norfolk, and tempered by years & years at a multi-cultural public school in my youth. There's a wee bit of everything in there!

Mine isn't the "cut-glass" accent affected by upper-class toffs (or the well-known BBC newsreaders!) More of a "Heinz 67" mongrel, if the truth be known.....

Mike.

[geo_c]

As per my post here: viewtopic.php?f=108&t=3771&p=35212#p35212

I've cleaned up the desktop:

[mikewalsh]

@geo_c :-

As promised above; the "all-in-ones" for taersh's 'Add to ROX desktop' application.

Attached below.

(These are NOT a 'replacement' for the traditional way of getting launchers on the desktop.....simply another 'alternative', albeit one that works really rather well. Thanks, @taersh !)

Mike.

[JASpup]

Here's a link to the current set.

geo-flaticons-drk: https://www.dropbox.com/s/zbc88jdlxvr2h ... k.zip?dl=0

I'll admit a 399k .zip full of nothing is a first.

Code: Select all

root# unzip -v geotheme-drk.zip
Archive:  geotheme-drk.zip
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of geotheme-drk.zip or
        geotheme-drk.zip.zip, and cannot find geotheme-drk.zip.ZIP, period.
root# 

[geo_c]

I'll admit a 399k .zip full of nothing is a first.

Code: Select all

root# unzip -v geotheme-drk.zip
Archive:  geotheme-drk.zip
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of geotheme-drk.zip or
        geotheme-drk.zip.zip, and cannot find geotheme-drk.zip.ZIP, period.
root# 

I'm gonna have to blame that on dropbox. That archive opens on my system. It's probably for the best, because I spent a couple more hours on the set last night. I'll work on uploading again.

a side note: I've been using LibreWolf and servers like dropbox.com are always sending me security emails telling me I'm on a new device. So I think that aspect of LibreWolf is solid.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

let's try again. , I downloaded this from dropbox myself and opened it and it worked:

EDIT: This shared folder may in fact work.
https://www.dropbox.com/s/x8i8tpeiu555y ... 7.zip?dl=0

This time I used Firefox proper.

~geo

[geo_c]

Desktop with a background.

Just the primary monitor, the secondary is currently black, using one image and layers sized to the exact pixel widths of each screen.

[williams2]

It is very easy to make a wallpaper file for multiple monitors.

1) display the wallpaper fullscreen on each monitor, using your favourite picture viewer. e.g. viewnior, geequie ...
Each monitor can have the same picture, or a different picture for each monitor.

2) get a screenshot

3) save the screenshot as a jpg or a png, as the wallpaper file.

No image manipulation necessary.

[geo_c]

@williams2,

NIce! Same end, easier mechanism! It only now occurred to me after all these years that because the background setter only allows for one image, that an image fit to pixel widths of both screens would work. I thought I'd discovered something. Oh well.

I'll try the screenshot method.

~geo

[JASpup]

@JASpup

let's try again. , I downloaded this from dropbox myself and opened it and it worked:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x8i8tpeiu555y ... 7.zip?dl=0

This time I used Firefox proper.

~geo

I get the same error:

Code: Select all

Archive:  geo-flaticons-2021.08.27.zip
  End-of-central-directory signature not found.  Either this file is not
  a zipfile, or it constitutes one disk of a multi-part archive.  In the
  latter case the central directory and zipfile comment will be found on
  the last disk(s) of this archive.
unzip:  cannot find zipfile directory in one of geo-flaticons-2021.08.27.zip or
        geo-flaticons-2021.08.27.zip.zip, and cannot find geo-flaticons-2021.08.27.zip.ZIP, period.
root# 

Do you have an e-mail account with cloud storage? (e.g., Google Drive or Outlook)

You can also make the .zip on the command line. I think you can run this from the image directory:

Code: Select all

zip -0rv geo-flaticons-3rd-try.zip *

-v just tells you what it's doing
-r recurses into subdirectories, if present
-0 doesn't try to compress compressed images

[geo_c]

Code: Select all

zip -0rv geo-flaticons-3rd-try.zip *

Well, that is strange. Like I said, I downloaded it and tried it myself, and it unzipped in my download folder. I used pcompress right clicking in Rox. I can try command line and google drive and see if that works. I compressed 100% and did not have the 'split into volumes boxed checked,' so I'm a little curious as to what's going on.

~geo

[geo_c]

It is very easy to make a wallpaper file for multiple monitors.

1) display the wallpaper fullscreen on each monitor, using your favourite picture viewer. e.g. viewnior, geequie ...
Each monitor can have the same picture, or a different picture for each monitor.

2) get a screenshot

3) save the screenshot as a jpg or a png, as the wallpaper file.

No image manipulation necessary.

I kind of like using gimp for a couple reasons, primarily because it's easy to edit, size, and color manipulate both images and see the results side by side.

Here's what I did last night for dual monitors: Both jpegs are altered quite a bit color wise.

And this is one nice puppy icon! Really captures the spirit of the pup.

I'll give your method a whirl by saving each layer as it's own jpeg, then opening a viewer and using desktop-background to size and place them, and report the results.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

zipped in terminal using google drive, no compression: another FAIL

[williams2]

then opening a viewer and using desktop-background to size and place them

An example of a wallpaper file.

1) i displayed a picture fullscreen on my external and my internal monitors.

2) I took a screenshot using mtpaint -s

3) I saved the screenshot as wall1.jpg.

wall1.jpg is the exact correct resolution for the wallpapers on each monitor. It does not need resizing.
You can set the wallpaper by right clicking an icon on the desktop and clicking 'Backdrop"

Attached: the wallpaper file, original resolution 3286x1080.

[JASpup]

@geo_c you want to see something interesting?

This is what your message looks like:

InvisiblePup.png (20.09 KiB) Viewed 4169 times

I thought you were pulling my leg, but it's probably the Light browser (Firefox 48).

I can download the archive if you share it publicly. The link is asking me to sign in to Google.

[geo_c]

Okay, I tried from latest Firefox, Latest Chrome, and latest Libre, and the problem seems to be with google drive. All three said the same thing. Perhaps it's my google drive account settings.

[JASpup]

@geo_c I don't have it memorized precisely what it looks like, but when you get the link of a Drive file to share, you can mark it publicly sharable.

You can still do this after you've acquired a link. If it's in Google Drive, it's publicly sharable.

The version of your browser only matters insofar as it supports Drive. It doesn't have to be the newest.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

Yeah, I just found that. You have to right click on the file and set who has access to 'anyone with link.' You can tell I'm not an avid user of google drive. Okay, fixed it in the post below.

[geo_c]

@JASpup

It works now with the Download All button, but that zips it again, so it's double zipped. Still it works, so grab 'em while they're hot.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing

[wizard]

@geo_c

As a XFE user, I did a hack to add partiton and network share mounting, If you have not seen the howto, take a look here:

viewtopic.php?f=161&t=3733

Give it a try, it fills in that missing feature

wizard

[geo_c]

@geo_c

As a XFE user, I did a hack to add partiton and network share mounting, If you have not seen the howto, take a look here:
viewtopic.php?f=161&t=3733
Give it a try, it fills in that missing feature
wizard

Yes, thanks! I have them and use them. It's cut my Rox usage down considerably.

[mikewalsh]

@geo_c :-

Re: your file-sharing issues.

Yes, it could just be that you're not an avid 'Drive' user. The damn thing can be as fussy as all get-out, if you're not wise to its foibles. I've had a Google a/c for nearly 20 years - since the early days - which automatically gave me Drive access from the day it was launched.....in fact, for years before I even realised I HAD that access!

There ARE alternatives out there. Two that are worth considering, and which are "well-worn" by users of this forum over the years, are

- MediaFire
- MEGA

The latter are very definitely worth bearing in mind, since you get a whopping 50 GB of storage space.....compared with 10-15 GB for MediaFire and Google's Drive.

Worth a look, maybe?

Just my two-penn'orth, FWIW.....

Mike.

[geo_c]

Secondly, you can use special ROX-Filer instructions ("SOAP RPC messages" - see manual) to open directory windows in ways you cannot do with command line parameters. For example you could open a particular directory with small icons even when you've set your default view to list view.
With a fairly new JWM you could also control size and placement of your window.

This I would certainly like to explore! (I'm reading the manual) -- because window position memory is one the reasons I use XFE so much. I use XFE and ROX about equally, they both have advantages. And one thing I just figured out in ROX is that if you open an enter path dialogue, it can be left open all the time and dual used as an address bar - path entry tool. As far as I can tell XFE doesn't have that function.

That was a welcomed discovery, though I know some might wonder how I missed that after using ROX for 15 years, well I'm dense that way. It was a welcomed discovery because I recently set JWM window effects to make all my window title bars transparent (invisible). Which I am loving because they just seem unnecessary most of the time, take up window space, and are a bit distracting. Window size and position memory in ROX would allow for some powerful multi-pane file managing that opens quickly.

[geo_c]

@MochiMoppel,

So let's say I wanted to change my ROX icon set but not any of the system desktop theme, just ROX. Would I simply open /root/.icons/ROX/ and enter the path of the theme in place of Default ROX icon theme?

Code: Select all

[Icon Theme]
Name=ROX
Comment=Default ROX icon theme
Directories=MIME
Example=inode-directory

[MIME]
Size=48
Context=MimeTypes
Type=Fixed

[MochiMoppel]

@MochiMoppel,

So let's say I wanted to change my ROX icon set but not any of the system desktop theme, just ROX. Would I simply open /root/.icons/ROX/ and enter the path of the theme in place of Default ROX icon theme?

Maybe, but you should better ask the theme gurus. I think the correct way is to put your alternative theme directory (or a symlink) into /home/.icons. This would give you the possibility to switch between icon themes via the ROX option dialog (Types > Themes).