[Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Ok, so here it is. Some of you were asking me to show how I got Easy Debian LXDE to replace the OS2008 desktop.

So, I've written a script, made a menu icon, and made a .deb file.

By installing the attached .deb, you will be able to use your Easy Debian LXDE desktop as a replacement for your OS2008 desktop.

With some very minor modifications, this should allow you to use any Debian desktop as a replacement for your OS2008 desktop.

Once you've installed the .deb, edit the /home/user/.maemo-menu file to your own liking. Put the maemo apps that you like in this menu. Remember, this is your primary access to the "outside world" of maemo; don't close this menu, or you will be entirely inside the Debian chroot "jail".

Logging out of LXDE returns you to OS2008.

Version 0.2: Shutting down more maemo services makes Debian apps noticeably more responsive.

Known "bugs":

• The hildon stylus keyboard is weird; it pops up in the middle of the screen, instead of the bottom.
• There's an app in the taskbar called "systemui root" or some such thing. As far as I know, it can't be removed.
• You only seem to have one virtual desktop available in LXDE.
• 9menu, the little menu program I use for the maemo app launcher, is fairly lame. Feel free to suggest a better one!

Here's a link to the current .deb:

switch-lxde-0.1.0-1_armel.deb
switch-lxde-0.2.0-1_armel.deb

I will keep this updated, no matter how long the thread gets.

NOTE THIS ONLY WORKS IF YOU HAVE A WORKING INSTALL OF EASY DEBIAN.

Post problems with the .deb and I'll fix and update.

Here's two screenshots:

A Pile of Maemo Apps in LXDE. The default maemo menu can be seen in the lower left corner.

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3228/...b733198c_o.png

Maemo Mapper running in LXDE. Note the "SystemUI root" on the task bar on the right side.
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3230/...d2d01eca_o.png

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Europe... Someone wants to escape from Canada, eh? :P

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

It seems to work, though I wasn't able to complete the configuration of easy-debian-chroot, and so also switch-lxde stays unconfigured

EDIT: if you have problems in completing the configuration of easy-debian-chroot 0.9.10, be aware that the postinst script aborts with error if finds /sbin/dmlosetup and in trying to change the ownership of /home/user/.config/autostart/qstart.desktop - both from a previous installation. My workaround was first to prudently rename /sbin/dmlosetup to another name so that it's not found and is recreated by the script, and to move qstart.desktop out from its directory, in another place which is not interesting to Qole's installer (I moved it into /home/user/MyDocs) - then put it back after configuration was allright and over.
Then swith-lxde had its dependency fully satisfied and configured correctly.

It's nice! (in Italian common slang we say: "Figo"! - the previous generation used to say "Togo!").

Though, easy debian in a Xephyr window, from a plain vanilla Qolish install, says it has only 5.26 megs ram free, and uses 22.6 megs swapfile - while the same environment after shutting down maemo declares it counts on 6.06 megs ram and 19.7 megs swapfile. Only one million something bytes saved :-)


EDIT 2: problem: the MicroB browser window appears empty, with no widgets and doesn't react to ctrl-something commands, and it opens a supplementary window saying (in Italian) something like "updating".
EDIT 3: might due to the fact I'm still running Chinook. I'm a lazy guy, you see.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

To that edit 2... that usually happens when the browser daemon is not running in the background. Qole's scripts might be stopping that when you switch over to LXDE??

I definitely am going to try this as soon as I am able. If this works as I hope it does I may not need to boot into Deblet anymore...

Nice Job Qole.

Edit: Did you do anything about Mplayer??? Currently watching Mplayer in Debian doesn't stop the screen DIM timeout.. so you have to keep clicking crap to keep the screen lit.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

I will fix those problems in the next version of Easy Debian, although they will only be troublesome to hackers who've done this stuff manually.

Interesting...

No, I don't touch browserd. I just replace the window manager and desktop. The OS2008 browser works under LXDE on my tablet, although it has no menus. I wonder... debernardis, are you using Chinook OS2008? Because the old browser never worked properly if you shut down matchbox-window-manager.

maemo MPlayer works flawlessly, because it is running in maemo not Debian.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

I think we should start a 'Nokia should hire Qole and pay him very well' thread.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

This is verry, verry facinating... I'll probebly include this in my next Cdeb2 release, witch i will be releasing within a day or two. My next version includes some preformenc problem fixes.

(if you've noticed, cdeb2 has a tendency to crash or sometimes fail to launch due to persission problems with the cdeb2.conf file or it fails to update the settings when it you update the cdeb2.conf file.)

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Qole,
What's the easiest way to set cpu performance mode with these scripts? I'd really like it to be automatic(maybe in LXDE autostart) or at least in 9menu.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Here's how you can set the prosesor's speed.

ondemand - the deafult setting:
echo ondemand >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

preformence - makes cpu run faster:
echo performance >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor

powersave - makes cpu run slower:
echo powersave >/sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu0/cpufreq/scaling_governor


BTW, have you tryed my cdeb2 software?, it allrety has this feature.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Thanks,
Qole's script has it, too, but as Maemo menu entries. Using the neww script, you can't revert to Maemo without logging out of LXDE. What I'd like is a way to autostart it with LXDE. Can I put the command you just gave me into ..../LXDE/autostart?

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Yes, depending on how the autostart file is set up.

Can you show me your autostart file?

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

samhogue: You can add the processor setting stuff to the little maemo menu, that would probably be the simplest. Just add two lines at the bottom of /home/user/.maemo-menu

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Here's a post listing a bunch of services you can shut down to get more memory and speed stuff up. If you're only interested in running Debian apps, there are probably a lot of things on this list you can kill. If you want to run Maemo apps, you have to pick and choose a little more carefully. It is probably worth doing some trial-and-error and reporting to this thread on your results. If we can get a safe list of services to stop that will improve things, I'll add it to a new version and release it.

Just a note; our Debian chroot apps depend on some of these services, too. For instance, if you use bluetooth, you don't want to kill btcond, obexsrv or bluez-utils. If you use Maemo Mapper, you probably don't want to kill libgpsbt or gpsdriver. And you almost certainly don't want to kill esd if you use audio, since Debian audio depends on it too.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

This is cool!

Good work qole!

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Update! Version 0.2.0:

switch-lxde-0.2.0-1_armel.deb

Shutting down more maemo services makes Debian apps noticeably more responsive. I stayed fairly safe, so maemo apps still seem to run fine, including the browser and mplayer.

I have a bigger ~/.maemo-menu file. If you already had that file, the new one is named ~/.maemo-menu.new and you can either copy stuff from it or just move it. Or just "rm .maemo-menu" before installing this new version.

First post updated.

I'm curious to see if anyone else is experimenting here. What happens when you kill these bluetooth-related services? Can you still tether a phone? Use a BT headset? What do you lose?

EDIT: perhaps "noticably more responsive" was just my imagination? Any comments or time trials?

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Stopping bluez-utils stops bluetooth connectivity fullstop. Stopping obexsrv (and this is my presumption) probably won't let you send or recieve files over bluetooth.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

How can I change my Desktop image? As for right click it just shows the applications and the desktops not the desktop settings. I've also searched for the configuration files without any sucess. Thanks for your help.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

hi qole,

I am a statistician and know more about lemons than linux, so please bare with me . I have installed debian lxde on my nokia n800 by following your instructions from the other thread. Open office proved to be useful to me . thanks to you.
I use 'r-project for statistical computing' for my research. It is also available for debian linux with ARM processor via following link,

how should i install this .deb file? apps manager says format not supported and chroot says ' E: Couldn't find package r-base '

I have tried it by renaming, giving the full path ( /media/mmc2/r-base.deb) but its no use.

IS IT EVEN POSSIBLE to install R on debian lxde on nokia n800?

please please please help.

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

It's easy - easier than learning r (or any other stat package)!
In your lxde menu you are going to find the "synaptic" program, that is a package manager, which installs or deletes specific packages and their software dependencies.
You first update its software catalog by pushing its first button "reload" (should be like that, I have the Italian version so in English it might be different).
After a longish update, click the rightgmost button "search" (or "find"?) and look for r-base.
When found, click on the little square near its name and select "install package" or some similar command.
Then, resorting to the button bar, push "commit changes" (or "apply" the equivalent command), then probably OK again, then your package will be downloaded from the internet and installed.
You already know r starts from a terminal window, I'm sure you do.

Well, let me know how it goes. You could do everything from the command line, too, but maybe synaptic is easier and can show you the thousands of available packages!

Re: Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

thank you for your reply "debernardis".
I tried installing R-core just like you said everything goes fine till it fails to install 9 of the 63 files( 63 because of the support files. dependencies, i guess). It says it needs 158 MB of free space which i have on my memory card where debian is installed. Do i need to have that much space on my device? It will take an N810 for that.

Sorry for the late reply. my macbook crashed. thanks to not buying their stupid warranty i am out 300 bucks.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Thanks again qole for this wonderful work. Couple questions though:
1. Is the key, systems and touchscreen sound missing as a result of stopping services? cos without them sometimes its hard to tell whether you actually clicked or not.
2. How do I include osso email in the menu coz the 'modest' cmd doesn't seem to work at all. 'modest' is the cmd, isn't it?
3. MicroB browser doesn't have adddress bar at all.
4. Why is iconified 'SystemUI root window' keeps appearing in the panel. It can't be maximised at all either.

Thank you.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

jaeezzy: good questions!

1. I didn't notice this before, but you're probably right. Feel free to experiment with the /usr/bin/lxde-switch script. Comment out the /etc/init.d/whatever stop lines and the associated start lines, and then see if that changes things. Report back here with your findings!

2. EDIT: sjgadsby has the answer below: /usr/bin/modest showui

3. Yes. That's a problem. It makes the MicroB browser quite a bit less useful in non-Maemo environments.

4. Don't know. That puzzles me too.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Try:

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Now the touchscreen sound is back, iconified 'SystemUI root window' is gone but with it the info dialog while locking/unlocking touchscreen is also gone(I think its better than having these iconified things appearing all over the panel).
*not stopping the multimediad preserves touch sounds.
*stopping osso-systemui and osso-systemui-early avoids multiple and automatic appearance of iconified 'SystemUI root window'.
*More stoppable services:
- osso-applet-display
- osso-systemui
- osso-systemui-early
Also as I don't thing I'll be using bluetooth and maemo-map:
- bluez-utils
- btcond
- gpsdriver
- libgpsbt

Btw, thanks sjgadsby! it did the job.. now I can access email esp. to check my gmail, its easier this way.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Hi Qole !

I installed http://qole.maemobox.org/files/ubunt...img-v2.tar.bz2 from your repo and using with chroot.

Works well..thanks. could you please tell how to install LXDE in this ?

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

I would guess, not having tried it myself, that it would require the following as root in the chroot:

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Hi,
I am unable to install, upgrade, unistall the easy-debian-stuff:

Do you have any Idea how to fix this?

It's a big problem for me because I'm not able to instal whatever on the tablet at the moment.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Your error is not in my package, nor in its dependencies. I have no idea what "python2.5-terra" is:
This sounds like your partition has corrupted. If you do an fsck.ext2 on your partition, I bet it has a lot of errors.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

jaeezzy was wondering about a battery indicator for this project (LXDE as replacement desktop). I managed to get something working using battery-status (deb) and gxmessage (included in Easy Debian).

I made a little script that displays the battery percentage as a dialogue box; I'll try to package it up as a deb this weekend.

basically, you put the battery script on the little maemo menu and you click the battery button when you want to know the status of the battery.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

wow!! that'll be beauUUUtiful!!
BTW, I made some changes to .Xmodmap-keymap-n810 to be able to type characters like "[]{}`" and for the 'F11' key for switching back and forth to normal and full screen but the thing is I've to xmodmap everytime I reboot and sometimes though I'ven't logged out or rebooted, the key mapping just gets ineffective and I've to re xmodmap it. So, is there anyway I can make it default. Thanks.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Ok, I made a quick .deb that includes my script and adds a line for the script at the bottom of your ~/.maemo-menu

It depends upon switch-lxde and battery-status.

It is also in my repository along with the dependencies.

lxde-batt-0.1.1-1_armel.deb

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/...dc4d238776.jpg

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Behind a mask or not, you have just created the ugliest dialog box I have ever seen. And I've created my share. Maybe we could have a contest. Is that a cursor in the upper left corner?

You made me proud this mornig.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Hi daperl. That dialogue box is made with gxmessage. It is like Zenity lite; you pass it some parameters and it makes a very basic dialogue box. So I have very little control over how the thing looks. The most important thing is, I would guess, that it works.

I could sure use a hand from a developer; could someone write me a little daemon that checks a specified directory, and if it finds a text file in there with "#eof" as the last line, it will treat the file like a shell script and run the script, then delete the file? The #eof requirement is there so that the daemon doesn't try to run a script that is in the middle of being made by another process.

This little daemon would allow me to make icons in the chroot that can run apps outside the chroot, getting rid of the ugly little menu completely.

Oh and hey, daperl, your avatar is uglier than my dialogue box.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

That's why I chose it. The ugly is at the bottom.

EDIT: Here, so you don't have to scroll

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Now, see, if one could actually discern that your avatar is supposed to be that picture, it wouldn't be so bad. But all the beauty is "lost in compression."

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Yes, because of its poor "translation," my current avatar is really only meant for me and others that might have seen the original. Just a little reminder.

Your dialog box, on the other hand... Well, I'll just say its beauty was "lost in conception," and if something like that were to come up in the middle of my computing, I might just sh*t myself. Let's take another look, shall we?

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3457/...dc4d238776.jpg

I'm sorry, I can't seem to help it. I think that cursor is staring at me. It's art. But maybe when the battery gets down below 15% you could change the button name to "Not OK."

Here's a quote I found which I think is from gxmessage's proud author: "You might like it if you're running a mostly GTK desktop." Gee, I hope I can get an "X"-free version in Fremantle.

Okay. I think I'm done now.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

It is. I had no idea you were such a master of hyperbole. That was magnificent.

Seriously, though, if you wrote a GUI front-end for battery-status, you would probably be blessed by people running all kinds of non-maemo desktops. There's just nothing out there. At all.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

I'm kind of "all-Python, all-the-time" these days. So, if you download the attachment and do the following:

chmod 755 qole.txt
./qole.txt

And if you see a new icon in the system/status tray of whatever environment you're in, I would say you have a good and easy chance of being successful. Changing the GtkStatusIcon could then be changed based on events of your choosing. This works for me in Diablo and KDE-based Kubuntu and I'm doing everything in PyGTK. So, I guess I'm saying this kind of stuff might be linux portable. And of course you could bring up windows/dialogs/menus by clicking on it.

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Okay, you drew me in a little bit. After downloading the attachment do the following:

tar xf qole.tar
./qole.py

Then watch as your battery drains away. This might be a mild copyright no-no, so...

Re: [Debian] Easy Debian LXDE As Replacement Desktop
 

Bah, wouldn't you know it, LXDE (at least the one in Easy Debian, I haven't tried Ubuntu yet) has something called "System Tray (Old KDE/Gnome Tray)" but it doesn't show anything, even when your applet is running. Looks good in Maemo, though!

Experiments are ongoing...