Fossapup64-SwitchT: a desktop theme project

[geo_c]

@geo_c :-
Abilities like that enable what I call a 'lateral' approach to design, and foster some rather unique, OOTB 'solutions'..!
Mike.

It's a process that I undertake with just about everything in life. It's starts with a single idea, like, "I wonder if I can make Puppy Linux look like an old monochrome monitor." And though it's probably not a particularly important idea, just the possibility becomes something of a thought experiment, which begins to flesh itself out. Then the real learning starts for me, because in trying to make it happen, I end up learning all the things I didn't previously have mastered. In this case, I finally figured out just what files and elements make a puppy desktop go (and Gtk for that matter.) And that was important, because I only use Puppy Linux as an operating system, nothing else!

One idea leads to another, and by that time, you're halfway there, fully committed to a big idea, like being able to single click the entire Puppy Desktop into a whole new unified look.

And of course, that's I how I am with music and instruments. I get involved in all kinds of side projects related to the craft. A decade ago I spent about 5 years learning how to re-hammer and lathe bronze cymbals. I'm a jazz drummer, and every cymbal I use has been modified by me! I can make a crappy cymbal sound OK, a good cymbal sound really good, and an almost perfect cymbal sound more than perfect. I can make it MY OWN sound.

I also play a lot of bass and guitar, so at one point I wanted to be able to play both at the same time, which led me to modify a 5 string bass by adding two more strings and splitting the pickup system so it could output to two separate amplifiers, accommodating 4 bass strings and 3 guitar strings. It works, and I used it a lot for awhile, until I got some other hair-brained idea. Actually I just got wise and purchased a Roland guitar synthesizer, so now I can play any instrument tone from the guitar.

A good friend of mine from middle school days, a fellow artist who is a painter, we used to always joke about the fact that whatever piece of work we were currently composing was the absolute greatest thing we ever did. And each new thing has to kind of feel that way. THIS is the best thing I've ever done!

[JASpup]

Right, I follow that line of thinking. Each Gtk theme is running around 1-3 megs, except for Hacking Parrot which for some reason is 18M. All of those Gtk themes are stock from gnome-look.org, and the only thing required to install them on a gtk2/3 compatible pup is to unzip them. So I suppose pets for GTK's are easy enough to include in the PPM, but also not really necessary. Though I had first tried out new themes by going to the PPM, I soon realized that I could go to the wider internet and find themes that ran in puppy out of the box.

The icons of course require some overhead. And my set is sitting at 15M. That size comes from two factors which can both be addressed. The first is that my application UniChrome sets are really high resolution, 260x260 to be exact. That was for the development of the set without losing quality, but of course for trays and panels, that size simply isn't necessary. So if I reduce all the icons to 48x48, 32x32, and 16x16 to run ROX, the desktop, the panels, and XFE, it would be interesting to see how small the icon package gets. But the second factor is that there is some duplication in the library which can also be eliminated. And rather than switch icons in and out of the 'pixmaps' folder, which I have labeled 'console,' it would probably make more sense to copy in links as opposed to actual icons.

Very quickly the executive decision is Hacking Parrot is not worth 18M in its default state, so you [the rhetorical you, as non-official options are open] hack it or let it fly away.

I would probably include 2 themes and offer the others externally.

It's probably no different than default GTK in JWM. Save the best, add the ones you like, and delete the rest.

Not a master of symlinks, I can see some of that happening. Some really esoteric actions are taken with symlinks.

[JASpup]

It's starts with a single idea, like, "I wonder if I can make Puppy Linux look like an old monochrome monitor."

High contrast are Windows default desktop settings, so I look at your theme as adding their functionality to Puppy specifically if not Linux generally.

I would guess there are probably mono GTK buried somewhere, not considered a standard option.

[geo_c]

High contrast are Windows default desktop settings, so I look at your theme as adding their functionality to Puppy specifically if not Linux generally.

I would guess there are probably mono GTK buried somewhere, not considered a standard option.

Yes, I actually paged through about 4 years worth of Gtk themes on gnome-look to find the one theme that actually was high-contrast in the sense that I could customize the colors and make it pleasant. It wasn't bad to begin with, it's called Trinity-green, which is an offshoot of a Gtk theme called BOOmerang Blackout. Bommerang Blackout is white on black, which is the problem I have with 95% of the dark Gtk themes, they have white text on black, and I hate that. So Trinity green at least started green, just not my preferred shade, so I tweaked the config files and edited all the graphic theme elements, like the scollbars and tabs.

Windows does do high contrast, but it's very limited in one's ability to customize it. You get a few color choices, and just hope for the best in the taskbars and such. So I guess in a sense, doing a true linux high contrast was a bit of a challenge, that not many people tackle.

[JASpup]

makes sense

[JASpup]

I recently noticed - Peebea's LxPupXenial w/over 140 themes GTK + Openbox combined comprise a total of 4.5M on disk.

An icon theme like Neon is 144K.

If I take your inspiration for a low-fi switcher, this is the efficiency to master - how to achieve the look with all requisite icons but keep sizes LOW.

[mikeslr]

So, I read geo_c's last post. I'm sort of the same way, except when I can't. Then I channel Tom Sawyer again. Ask MikeWalsh about that. The following annoys me. Maybe it will annoy geo_c as well and he'll figure out how to overcome it.
My boot splash screen using grub4dos:

splash-old.png (2.07 KiB) Viewed 1181 times

Interesting boot splash screens by other distros using grub2

Examples With Grub2.png (119.82 KiB) Viewed 1181 times

As far as I can tell, the only boot splash screen possible for Puppies using either shinobar's grub2config or any of gyrog's boot creators, Frugalpup etc.

PuppysGrub2.png (573 Bytes) Viewed 1181 times

[geo_c]

So, I read geo_c's last post. I'm sort of the same way, except when I can't. Then I channel Tom Sawyer again. Ask MikeWalsh about that. The following annoys me. Maybe it will annoy geo_c as well and he'll figure out how to overcome it.
My boot splash screen using grub4dos:
splash-old.png

Interesting boot splash screens by other distros using grub2
Examples With Grub2.png

As far as I can tell, the only boot splash screen possible for Puppies using either shinobar's grub2config or any of gyrog's boot creators, Frugalpup etc.

PuppysGrub2.png

Are you saying the size of the file is limiting what can be splashed at boot?

[mikeslr]

...
Are you saying the size of the file is limiting what can be splashed at boot?

No. I can't figure out how to add any kind of graphic.

Using shinobar's grub2config as an example --I think gyrog's grub2 is identical in this regard-- the initial arguments written are:

# grub.cfg produced by grub2config 2.0.1
set default=0
set timeout=10
set menu_color_normal=white/blue
set menu_color_highlight=black/cyan

loadfont $prefix/fonts/DejaVuSansMono18.pf2
set gfxmode=auto
insmod all_video
insmod gfxterm
terminal_output gfxterm

The arguments of the first paragraph are pretty self-evident: which on the list, how much time before execution; and colors. So colors can be changed.

The first argument of the 2nd paragraph is also clear. In the grub.pup folder which is written by grub2config you'll find the DejaVuSansMono18.pf2 font. So it should be possible to add another font to that folder and edit the loadfont argument to use it.

The other arguments of the 2nd paragraph are 'beyond me'.

grub4dos writes this initial paragraph:
# menu.lst produced by grub4dosconfig-v1.9.2
color blue/cyan yellow/blue white/black cyan/black
splashimage=/splash.xpm
timeout 10
default 0

There are other ways, and the 'xpm' format has its limitations, but the argument splashimage=/splash.xpm will display any graphic in the xpm format. And the argument could be edited to read, e.g.
splashimage=/my-splash.xpm

'Major distros' on the other hand, IIRC, employ 'plasma' to generate boot-splash graphics. (a) Trying to include whatever they do would greatly complicate the creation of Puppys' grub2 bootloader applications. But (b) 'Major distros' often use complicated systems they've builtin for other reasons to perform what otherwise could be done much simpler.

Formulating the above just gave me an easily tested idea: would the splashimage=/splash.xpm argument work under grub2config? Let's see. But, don't hold your breath as adding that argument may lock me out of my systems.

Edit: Well, I'm back. Even when booting Puppys located on a hard-drive, I use a bootloader on a USB-Key. So before I tried the above experiment I made sure I had a back-up key. [They have a way of finding themselves in washing machines ]. Which proved to be a worthwhile precaution.

With an xpm file and the argument "splashimage=/my-splash.xpm" booting hung with a notification something about "unknown files system." Edited the graphic to a png, and the argument to "splashimage=/my-splash.png" and booting proceeded as normal. But the argument was ignored: no graphic.

This not a vital project. Just an annoyance, but one which gets to me every time I boot up.

[geo_c]

With an xpm file and the argument "splashimage=/my-splash.xpm" booting hung with a notification something about "unknown files system." Edited the graphic to a png, and the argument to "splashimage=/my-splash.png" and booting proceeded as normal. But the argument was ignored: no graphic.
This not a vital project. Just an annoyance, but one which gets to me every time I boot up.

Well, I know very little about grub4dos and grub2config. I mean I use grub4dos almost exclusively, but I don't know what arguments and commands it recognizes. I know just enough to let it do it's thing and maybe add a boot parameter here or there, or delete the 'windows' entry entirely.

But of course, that never stopped me before. So first I need to get some background information. I didn't think these grub tools were specifically written for puppy. And maybe they aren't, that's one thing I don't know, Second, is there a manual somewhere? Where we can find all of what's it's (grub2config) capable of creating in the boot menu?

I figure either it has the splash function or not, and if it doesn't then I guess it's not the tool to create a polished looking bootup. I was never too concerned about that, like you say, it isn't critical. But now that we thought of it, I think it's going to have to be addressed on some level.

One thing I always liked about grub4dos is how it changes the colors based on the boot media. Light cayan for USB-flash, straight blue for hard drives. That's actually quite handy if you're prone to booting off both intermittently like I am. It keeps me from getting confused about what system I'm booting.

[geo_c]

Discussion continued here: https://forum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=6325