Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Well... waited two days and BoOm - got a great new app.

Wheeeeee.

One thing, though. When I'm in Panel and trying to uncheck the web and applications icons... or at least one, I get a message saying something along the lines of 'two plug-ins required'. I guess the N800 isn't reading this app as a plug-in?

Since this app basically eliminates the need for the others, how could I get rid of the other icons?

And, in my relentless quest for a clean screen, is there a way to make the icon itself take up less screen space or alter the icon image to make it more transluscent?

This is yet another great, elemental app you've made. That's two seminal (to me, anyway) apps in a month. Most impressive!

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Two plug-ins in addition to the Applications plug-in are required. The Personal Menu is treated as a plug-in. While there is no way to get around this requirement via Panels in the Control Panel, it's possible there might be some messy hack to forcibly disable another one of the plug-ins from the left bar.

indeed it does, seems i had bad info. thanks :)

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

In reponse to mscdex's implication about a messy hack: here it is!

Edit ~/.osso/hildon-dekstop/desktop.conf and change the line

to

Then edit ~/.osso/hildon-desktop/tasknavigator.conf and change

to

for whatever plugin(s) you want to remove. Reboot, and presto! Works for me.

I should note that commenting out the X-UI-Policy line will make it so if hildon-desktop crashes it will not reload tasknavigator with a "safe" set of plugins. Thus, if one of your tasknavigator plugins causes the crash when hildon-desktop reloads this defective plugin will reload as well, very likely causing an endless crash loop. Use this at your own caution.

You can build your own X-UI-Policy to always reload a certain set of plugins for your desktop. See the examples here (https://stage.maemo.org/svn/maemo/pr...ktop/policies/) to build your own, then point the X-UI-Policy line in desktop.conf to this new library.

Also note that opening the "Panels" option in control panel will enforce selecting three plugins again. Further, this hack does not really buy you any space in the sidebar, because it will still only put three running application icons there, along with the switcher, so you just have some blank space at the very bottom. Possibly there is another hack to allow four running icons that would make this actually useful. Anyone?

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I would like to add, if you have fanoush's initfs installed, with usb networking, it should be easy to fix.

Thanks btw :).

And your personal menu is getting better :). Great job & thanks again :)

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Um. Yeah. OK :confused:

Maybe I'll just learn to love the Circle People and the Squarey Square icons :rolleyes:

Or, you know, if you have time next week, maybe you can come up with something, right?

JoKe, jOkE :)

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

New version. Read the first post for details, and get it at the garage link in my sig.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

@fiferboy

Nice release :).
Would it be possible to add in the broken xterm functionality like cmd-navigator? I don't mind if root support isn't enabled on install but could a hack like cmd-navigator, to add a file to the sudo dir to allow personal menu to run root apps?

Btw: I know it sounds like I'm complaing all the time but I do really like personal menu but those features would mean a lot as at least 1/2 of the commands I use need them.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

im wondering what size icons thats used by the default contacts panel, as the 40 seems to small but the 64 seems to large...

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Based on past experiences with updates of running software, I took the precaution of going to Control Panel -> Panels and disabling Personal Menu, then updating it from the link provided in the first post of this topic, then re-enabling it.

Is this necessary. A clarification of this question in the first post would be nice: "be sure to disable before installing" or "okay to install this upgrade without disabling your current copy".

Great app. Much appreciated.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

heh, i had to disable and enable it from the panels menu to get all the options to take effect, so...

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

If you add the all/all/nopasswd (whatever it actually says) to sudoers (with visudo), then you can add apps that run as root; just preface the commandline with sudo.

The xterm, I'm not sure of, but it should be pretty easy.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

As far as installing a new version, the control panel plugin will be update the first time you run control panel after the install. You can either reboot, or disable the plugin through "Control Panel" "Panels" then re-enable it.

For xterm, the problem is if you start a new xterm with dbus and pass it a command, at least in OS2008, a new terminal opens with no scroll bar, no text, no text entry and the command does not execute. If you try launching the command by executing "osso-xterm ls" or "osso-xterm -e ls" the same thing happens. Ditto for "maemo-invoke osso-xterm.launch"

I'm not sure if it worked this way in OS2007, as I have a N810. Does Command Navigator do the same thing for xterm in OS2008? I have looked at the code, and it seems to be using the DBUS method.

All the code for xterm and root is in the program, but I commented it out for this version as I did not have enough time to test root, and xterm didn't work at all.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Okay, thanks, I'll look into it :)

cmd-navigator works quite well. It does have problems (big?). You tap a command and it will invoke 2 xterm. The second xterm has the command you ran (so it does manage to execute it) but has no toolbar. If we look to the first xterm, it has 2 toolbars and a busybox session running like a normal xterm.

I'd be interested in recompiling with the experimental root support and trying it out as this does have the sexiness factor over cmd-navigator :P (sorry, Jiri)

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Hi fiferboy,

First of all thanks a lot for this great application! :)

I've got one question: How did you manage to install Aisleriot Solitaire on your N8x0 with OS2008? On http://live.gnome.org/Aisleriot/Hildon it's still saying "N810 (Maemo 4.x): Not yet available."

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

It's somewhere on this forum. I had it on my N800 OS2008 too.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

qwerty12: That's the problem I am having too. Except it seems the second terminal doesn't actullay run the command for me. I will see if I can find the problem with xterm.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Fantastic release -- and very handy.

The only problem I've had is with adding any of the pre-installed games from the "select from installed applications" tab. Mahjong, for example, has a command line of /usr/bin/osso_mahjong.sh -- and this bombs out with an "Execution Failed" message. Any way of editing these lines so that the games load?

Thanks again for a great application.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

ctden: You can certainly edit the command after you add Mahjong to the menu. Just find it in the "Change Menu Items" list, select it, and click "Edit". I don't know what the appropriate command would be, but anything that lets you launch it from xterm should work.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

To launch majong try

/usr/bin/mahjong_startup /usr/share/osso-mahjong/osso_mahjong.conf

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Thanks linuxrebel -- that worked perfectly!

I won't ask how you knew that line ... I have to find out more about xterm and how to launch applications from there....

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I cheated, I launched mahjong, then xterm, then ran;

ps ax | grep mahjong

That gave me the command line used to launch it. cp'd the line, killed mahjong and tried it.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

New version released: 0.4

This adds the long awaited "Run in term" and "Run as root" options. Unfortunately, the same limitations apply for Personal Menu as they do for Command Navigator.

"Run in term" creates two terminal windows (the first with two shortcut bars, the second with none) with the command running in the second.

"Run as root" requires you to have permission to run the desired command with NOPASSWD option. There are two ways to do this.

Both methods start with creating a file named:

For the first method, you create a blanket statement that will allow you to run ANY COMMAND AT ALL as root with no password. Insert this line in the file you just created:

In the second, safer, option you only list the commands you are going to use in the file. The line would look something like this:

After you have completed the file (and any time you update it) run:

Of course, all of the above needs to be done as root.

Also new in this release:
- Settings backup and restore
- Selecting installed applications or icons now sorts alphabetically for easier selection.

I have four new Maemo projects I am going to start working on (some small, some big) so I might not get around to adding more features to this program for a while. If anyone points out a bug I will try to fix it quickly.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I assume update-sudoers checks syntax ala visudo so people can't break their systems with it?

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I would use this if I could get the email app to launch correctly for me.

I try /usr/bin/ossoemail and it opens a blank email application (no accounts or folders) and then closes after a few seconds.

Has anyone managed to get the default email app to work? (I am not using or installed Modest)

tia

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I tried to find the correct launch command for the email app, without success so far. I test it from xterm or via ssh, which shows the same problems as from "personal menu".

There is a program "ossoemail.launch" in /usr/bin which is supposed to do the right thing, but it seems that it needs some parameters.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

@fiferboy

I love you (not in that way :p), thank you very much for those much awaited options.

Nashle cmd-navigator :P , hello personal menu :D

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

thanks for trying.

in OS2007 I was able to do it with Simple launcher and Idea! - so maybe there is a way to get it to work here also

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I am by no means an expert here, but it may have something to do with the way the .desktop file is structured (/usr/share/applications/hildon/email-engine.desktop). There's an entry for "StartupWMClass=ossemail" which I think is used for window notification/communication. I don't know how to "pass" this value to the application via the command line. But this may be the reason why Simple-Launcher can run the default email application correctly. Perhaps looking at the code for simple-launcher can shed some light on this issue.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

After digging through the simple-launcher code (it has been a long time since I looked at object oriented code) I can't see how the execution code differs from mine. We both read the desktop files "exec" line for the executable. We both spawn a process the same. I must be missing something.

I find it very peculiar that when I read an exec line from a desktop file it can fail, which other processes reading the same line (simple-launcher, I assume the Nokia menu) it works fine. Very peculiar.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

fiferboy --

are you (or is the other process) taking into account the "StartupWMClass" (or any other) configuration line in the .desktop file?

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Briand: I am not (and don't know how to). Simple Launcher reads quite a few lines, specifically Type, Icon, Name, Comment, Exec, X-Osso-Service, X-Text-Domain. As far as I can see it uses Icon, Name, and Comment for display purposes and either Exec or X-Osso-Service for the executable. I haven't looked, but I guess X-Text-Domain is used for translation.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I think X-Osso-Service is your answer. In the simple-launcher code (misc/ApplicationItem.cc), it checks to see if this field is set. If so, it calls "osso_rpc_run_with_defaults".

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

Aha! I think you really hit on something, terrencegf! I will definitely look into this tonight. This will, of course, mean restructuring my code somewhat for this extra variable, but I think I should be able to see if this is the answer to my problem by tomorrow.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

I have a testing version running that allows you to execute desktop file without modifying the command (works with mahjong and email, probable with modest as well). I just need to update the control panel to write this information. It should be out sometime tonight.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

cool :)

If you do ever start work on this again, could I make 2 requests please?

1. Have a option for an edit menu like cmd-navigator.
2. If you add a menu item (great feature btw), is it possible to see command line and icon in add item window and edit it?

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

qwerty12: There is a hackish way to add an "Edit Menu" item in the first post of this thread. It is a long bit of dbus magic, but it works.

If you add the menu item, just go and edit it from the main control panel window. You can change the icon or command from there.

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

From the OP:
Answers #1, if I understood your request well.

EDIT: I'm slow...

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

heh, the most "silly" things one could add now are a separator (the line in the default contacts menu) and some kind of subfolder system ;)

Re: [Announce] OS2008 Personal Menu
 

tso: I wouldn't say silly. I was planning the submenu for sometime in the future, but I wasn't sure if that would be too much of a main menu replacement. I think the appeal of this solution was to have as many applications as you want on the screen without having to dig into submenus and scroll.

I released a new version to my garage page that will actually launch email, modest, mahjong, and other "problem" applications after you add them from the installed files. You will have to remove the existing entry and add it again after the update. Thanks simple-launcher and terrancegf!

I will update the first post here when I have some actual time.