Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Hi! I just downloaded EasyOS and I am very impressed. Except with the file manager Rox. I come from using TDE or KDE and use Trinity Explorer or Dolphin as file managers, and have used others as well.

Perhaps I don't understand how Rox works, but it seems unsuitable to me, and I sometimes open folders on other drives that have hundreds of files of different sorts, and verify, copy, or move files quite often. My intention is to use EasyOS on a thumb drive when checking and moving files on various hard drives.

As something small and simple I was thinking of installing Xfe, but have not found any way to do it. I did see that someone had managed Xfe for fossapup, I believe it was. I don't know if that matters any to EasyOS or not.

Any guidance appreciated!

Andy

AndyBanana wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 2:33 am

I did see that someone had managed Xfe for fossapup, I believe it was. I don't know if that matters any to EasyOS or not.

Any guidance appreciated!

Andy

I posted the sfs version of Xfe for Fossapup, and I've never used EasyOS, but every puppy I've ever used in the past since puppy v4.11 has had Xfe available in the Puppy Package Manager. EasyOS might have a different system for managing packages, but if it uses the Puppy repos, you might try there first and install it, because it's very lightweight and stable, as well as being very versatile.

I use Rox equally or more than Xfe, as Rox is a very powerful. It takes a little getting used to, but I wouldn't want a system without it. I use Xfe for certain tasks and Rox for others. Rox opens all standard puppy applications associated with certain file types. The main drawback I find with Rox is dealing with window sizing, but I have overcome that issue using wmctrl scripts which allow standard window sizes and position of Rox windows, which has a bit of setup work involved.

geo_c, thanks for your response! I'll take your word for it that Rox is useful.

I'm still searching for a way to install Xfe and will find it eventually. Modifying Rox's window size and other "problems" (for me) is well above my pay grade.

This may take some time, but I'll post results eventually and hopefully.

Thanks again,

Andy

Andy,
Personally I like ROX very much and have never felt any strong desire to use anything else. However I do enjoy a bit of compiling of programs from source code. In the past I have compiled pcmanfm file manager (in 32bit Stretch Puppy) and it works although I never use it.

Out of curiosity I tried compiling Xfe (also in 32bit Stretch Puppy) just as a test. Xfe version number is 1.44 (latest). All went OK. The only minor irritation is a warning box on start-up to say that I am running as root. It would be nice to try to find and remove that. There is a dependency requirement of fox (C++ toolkit) which I also compiled from source. Must be the 1.6.* stable branch and not the 1.7.* development branch.

I presume the same would work if compiled in EasyOS with devx loaded. I might have a go at this when I get a bit more time, but perhaps you are able to do that yourself in which case I don't need to because, as I say, I like ROX

https://sourceforge.net/projects/xfe/files/xfe/1.44/ (use the .tar.xz source package, not the .deb)
http://www.fox-toolkit.org/download.html (use the STABLE .tar.gz linux package)

The key to using Rox is have two Rox windows open at one time.

One open to where you are in the file system.
One open to where you want to go.
Drag and drop between windows.

This is a program that will do that. Open two Rox windows.
viewtopic.php?t=4282

Have not tried it in EasyOS

to Puppy Land!

Anytime you post about a version.
Give the complete name of it.
EasyOS is not good enough.
There are about 10 different versions. All slightly different.
Give the full name.
Example:
EasyOS 3.2
EasyOS 3.1
EasyOS 3.1.10
Etc.......

The key to using Rox is have two Rox windows open at one time.

That may be a good option if you copy/move lots of files frequently. For normal use it's not necessary at all. I have always used only one, fixed sized window. What the user needs to do is to get acquainted with ROX's preferences, right-click menu and bookmarks function. It is a bit of a learning curve with ROX. You can for example set up your bookmarks for quick navigation like this (although it does take a bit of innovation):

@OscarTalks

Hi Oscar, for your question about XFE and more useful tips check here: viewtopic.php?p=34154#p34154
Read post #1 and #9

I find using XFE in 3 pane view to be the easiest tool for manipulating files and directories.

wizard

AndyBanana wrote: Tue Jan 11, 2022 7:41 pm

geo_c, thanks for your response! I'll take your word for it that Rox is useful.
I'm still searching for a way to install Xfe and will find it eventually. Modifying Rox's window size and other "problems" (for me) is well above my pay grade.
Andy

For what it's worth, I also have wmctrl scripts to set the size and placement of Xfe. One of the beauties of ROX is it's ability to open seeming infinite number of windows without getting buggy. I often will have 6-8 ROX windows open at one time, which is great for managing files across multiple partitions, like a usb hard drive with 4 or 5 partions, an sd storage card, and the hard drive. It also displays images and icons in large colorful view if set in the options. The options need to be learned to customize it. For instance checking the 'never resize' window option, etc.

Also the 'warning: running as root' message in Xfe can be turned off in Menu>Preferences>Dialogs

Another super handy feature of ROX is that it displays recently changed, saved, or copied files in Bold, making it easy to see what operations have been performed. There are a lot of little things in ROX that separate it from pretty much every file mangager I've ever worked with, which is why I say I would never want to use a system without it.

I like Xfe because it has other strengths. Rox responds so quickly that for me it's easy to screw things up. I have file opening set to single click in ROX. It's blazing fast. I use Xfe with only the directory open as single click, and file launch as double click. Xfe for me is used for two things, opening files with the associations set to specific applications that are non-standard puppy (specifically using a browser as a document viewer) and managing my pupsave backups, because of what I mentioned above about screwing up easily in ROX because of the speed. So Xfe is kind of my 'slow and thoughtful' file manager.

Hello wizard and geo_c
Thanks for the information.
I can confirm that turning off the "running as root" warning in Preferences does work.
I couldn't sleep last night so got the urge to try compiling xfe and it all appears to have worked OK, but I didn't get chance to do much testing other than to confirm that it starts and runs without errors. It also produces xfi (image viewer), xfw (text editor), and xfp (package manager) as part of the bundle.
Interesting to know that people find xfe to be useful alongside ROX. I will try a build in EasyOS Dunfell soon.

I have now compiled xfe-1.44 in EasyOS Dunfell 3.2
Uploaded the package as .pet in case anyone wants to TEST it out.
Download from here:-
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/xfe-1.44 ... unfell.pet (main package)
http://smokey01.com/OscarTalks/xfe_NLS- ... unfell.pet (optional language support add-on)

My thanks to all those who replied. Lots of information there and I will try to use it when I have a chance, but I've gotten a bit busy now. Still, knowing that it can be done and works well is encouraging.

I am using EasyOS 3.2, dunfell.

Again, thanks for the information, this is a friendly and helpful forum.

Another option would be to use Midnight Commander (CLI though).
Just open terminal and run "mc" - a two pane window manager.

@amethyst, how did you get the bookmark pane to show up
on the left side of rox?

Misaligned wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:04 pm

Another option would be to use Midnight Commander (CLI though).
Just open terminal and run "mc" - a two pane window manager.

@amethyst, how did you get the bookmark pane to show up
on the left side of rox?

It shows up there automatically when you add a new bookmark. Check this thread: viewtopic.php?p=47176#p47176

amethyst wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:03 am

Misaligned wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:04 pm

Another option would be to use Midnight Commander (CLI though).
Just open terminal and run "mc" - a two pane window manager.

@amethyst, how did you get the bookmark pane to show up
on the left side of rox?

It shows up there automatically when you add a new bookmark. Check this thread: viewtopic.php?p=47176#p47176

I liked it when I saw your screenshot with the panel displayed that way. In any of the installation I have viewed the bookmark panel, it displays overlaying the icons in the window, not as you display with what looks like a side panel. I haven't been able to replicate the display as you have it appearing.

TerryH wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:25 am

amethyst wrote: Fri Jan 21, 2022 2:03 am

Misaligned wrote: Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:04 pm

Another option would be to use Midnight Commander (CLI though).
Just open terminal and run "mc" - a two pane window manager.

@amethyst, how did you get the bookmark pane to show up
on the left side of rox?

It shows up there automatically when you add a new bookmark. Check this thread: viewtopic.php?p=47176#p47176

I liked it when I saw your screenshot with the panel displayed that way. In any of the installation I have viewed the bookmark panel, it displays overlaying the icons in the window, not as you display with what looks like a side panel. I haven't been able to replicate the display as you have it appearing.

It is actually overlaying the first row of icons (it's still inside the window and not a panel), I don't think you can change that. However you can still make it look nice by resizing the window and make your bookmarks extended menu fit the window. It needs a bit of fine-tuning/fitting. I use one fixed size window which makes it easier to setup and so it looks nice all the time. Your bookmarks extended menu will of course only overlap your icons when in use (when you click the bookmarks button) so not really an issue.

Thanks, that explains it. I was looking at it, scratching my head wondering how you got it to be what I thought was a side panel.

@amethyst,
Thanks for the explanation. After seeing your screenshot, I played around a little bit
more with rox and it's settings ... I finally discovered that you can actually open the bookmarks
in a seperate window (middle-click - depends on other settings).

I use double commander, is good