Hacking the desktop
 

Hey all.

I thought to start a new thread to collect together everything we know about the desktop environment and to begin sharing this with each other.

Here's my little contribution to this.

After removing the task navigator, if you edit this file
/usr/share/themes/%theme%/matchbox/theme.xml
and change the status bar height to zero, all apps launch in full screen mode and you'll still see the status bar on the screen. :)
http://img188.imageshack.us/img188/7...0051304450.png

Pressing the full screen button, all that happens is that the status bar disappears. The screen remains exactly the same, down to the pixel.
http://img249.imageshack.us/img249/9...0051304455.png

First, the icons in the status bar should probably be as minimal in design to still be there but not clutter up the screen.

Second, I'm using the NuvoClear2 theme and I'm not sure why the background for the status bar doesn't remain transparent no matter what height I set it to.

Lastly, it's not technically in full screen I don't think because it remains in windowed mode, with or without pressing the full screen button.

I'll have to look at the theme.xml file a little closer and see if that default window mode can be removed unless you guys think it's happening somewhere else.

But yeah, basically this means you would have a full 800x480 desktop at all times while still having access to the status bar features. :)

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

I think that you can solve this playing with the .png files in /usr/share/themes/yourthemenamehere/images. There are files in most (non-preinstalled) theme folders like qgn_plat_status_bar_background.png and such, replace them with transparent png-s.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

Sounds useful! What text editor did you use, Addison? I used Leafpad & it didn't allow me to save the file in its same location (I chose "Save", not "Save As", but it still asked me for a save location).

EDIT: I tried vi this time, and when I went to save it said "Write error: Permission denied". I'm doing this to the Glasser theme, which is included with the tablet. Maybe it only works with third party themes.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

Are you root? I can save theme.xml in Leafpad.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

In Xterm:

root
emelfm2

http://maemo.org/downloads/product/OS2008/emelfm2/

Sorry, but I'm no longer experimenting with this even though I think it's a nifty idea. :)

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

Hey, I like it. Actually with Telescope or built-in switcher you can switch'n'close programs...
Did you get the transparent applets area background?
I think u should make a theme.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

Heya Kroll!

Yeah, I was thinking of making a theme as well, but there's something there that I'm not quite understanding.

Basically, what this theme does is, well, instead of F6 switching back and forth from full screen to windowed mode, instead the F6 key toggles the status bar on the screen. :)

Very neat concept if I say so myself. *lol*

I have a special .deb that removes a single, pixel border around Xterm which let's me use the full 800x480 screen.
http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=23291&page=2

There seems to also be a small border as well when opening other applications so they're not technically running in full screen since it falls short by a few pixels.

Any chance you might know where that virtual border can be removed, Kroll?

Oh, and yeah, I couldn't figure out the transparency of the icons for some reason. Not sure what I'm doing wrong there.

Cheers.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

If you remove 2 images (or make them transparent) of this borders from /themename/images/ they simply become black.

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

Khertan figured out how to remove the bottom and side borders; the top still remains:
http://imgur.com/IAv5G.png

Open /usr/share/themes/<theme name>/gtk-2.0/gtkrc and find the style "osso-window-background". Once found, make the line describing the borders look like "HildonWindow::borders = { 0, 0, 0, 0 }".

Re: Hacking the desktop
 

This is not a border, this is a part of statusbar image. You can change height of statusbar in /usr/share/themes/themename/matchbox/theme.xml (about 87 line) and edit images in themename/images...

Nice. Very nice. I will add it to my theme. Thanks.