Re: [rox-users] Many Rox apps broken or will not run?

[raid517 <ra...@uk...>]

Thomas Leonard wrote:
> On Sat, 03 Jun 2006 02:42:27 +0100, raid517 wrote:
>
>   
>> Hi, hopefully the logs can speak for themselves:
>>
>>
>> ROX-Session started: Sat Jun  3 00:45:34 2006 Sat Jun  3 00:53:09 2006
>> ** (ROX-Filer:1719): CRITICAL **: file
>> /root/rox-2.4.1/ROX-Filer/src/mount.c: line 239 (read_table): assertion
>> `tab != NULL' failed
>>     
>
> Your /etc/fstab (or equivalent) file couldn't be opened. Anything odd
> about it?
>
>   
>> Sat Jun  3 00:54:44 2006
>> /home/raid517/.cache/0install.net/implementations/sha1=6e968e8878515184ba8f3404ac845cc9cd660398/ROX-CLib/Linux-ix86/bin/pkg:
>> error while loading shared libraries: libglitz.so.1: cannot open shared
>>     
>
> Most of the ROX-CLib applications don't work at the moment unless you
> install libglitz. They need recompiling against older GTK headers, as
> described here:
>
>  http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/node/289
>
> We may need a script to make this easier for people to do. You can also
> select older versions of these programs:
>
> 1. Right-click on one of them in a ROX-Filer window.
> 2. Choose Versions...
> 3. Double-click on the main program.
> 4. Mark the version(s) that didn't work as 'BUGGY' by clicking on their
> rating in the 'Stability' column. You may have to go back a couple of
> versions to find one that works. Clock 2.1.6.1 works, but 2.1.7 doesn't,
> for example. ROX-CLib itself has already been recompiled, so the latest
> one (2.1.8.0) will work.
>
>   
>> Xlib:  extension "RANDR" missing on display ":1.0". Sat Jun  3 00:56:32
>>     
>
> Do you have a very old X server? Without RANDR (rotate-and-resize) the
> Resolution program won't work.
>
>   
>> rox_session = bus.get_service('net.sf.rox.Session') AttributeError:
>> 'SessionBus' object has no attribute 'get_service' Traceback (most recent
>> call last):
>>     
>
> The D-BUS API keeps changing (what version are you using?). The latest
> ROX-Lib supports XML-RPC, so hopefully we can move away from D-BUS in
> the future.
>
>   
>> Also one odd thing I noticed (among several) is that Rox filer and Rox pin
>> board don't have an intergrated RUN dialogue, which makes achieving
>> certain tasks immediately (and subsequently) after an install extremely
>> difficult.
>>     
>
> I'm not sure what an 'integrated run dialog' is. Is is similar to
> the 'Terminal here' or 'Shell command' features?
>
>   
>> Finally I tried using the ROX menu app and am a little bemused to find
>> that it only populates itself with applications from the ROX application
>> repository. How do I go about graphically accessing the other applications
>> I have installed on my system, other than by creating desktop icons for
>> all of them?
>>     
>
> The .desktop files for other applications are usually in
> /usr/share/applications and can be dragged to the pinboard or panels. Not
> sure about the menu as I don't use it myself.
>
>
>   
Hi I don't think I am using a 'very old' anything really, as I am using 
the version of Xorg that is supplied in Gentoo stable, which I believe 
is 6.8 (which all things considered is good enough for my purposes). Not 
sure about the DBUS version, but for technical reasons that are a little 
too lengthy and too difficult to explain right now (again I'm using 
whatever is in stable) I am using a 2.4x kernel, so maybe this is a 
factor? I have nothing weird or unusual in my /etc/fstab file at all - 
indeed in every way it is probably the most conventional fstab file you 
are ever likely to see. (I will though send it to you if you wish). 
Having libglitz somehow checked and if it isn't available pulled in and 
installed as part of the install process (perhaps through 0Install) 
would be extremely useful, since it seems there is an attempt being made 
at a philosophy to make the installing of Rox and Rox apps as simple as 
possible - so having to hand compile things in this way seems somewhat 
to defeat that purpose.

"I'm not sure what an 'integrated run dialog' is. Is is similar to
the 'Terminal here' or 'Shell command' features?"


An integrated run dialog is just a the simple ability to right click on 
the desktop (or in this case presumably the pinboard) and select 'run' 
to launch a run box, into which a shell command can be typed. Many 
window managers have this by default and the fact that it is omitted 
leaves one initially scratching one's head over how to preform various 
basic tasks once Rox desktop has been installed and is up and running. 
An example of this is, after installing Rox desktop I wanted to launch 
my favorite email program (Thunderbird) but I found that the only way to 
do this was to navigate to /user/bin/Thunderbird and drag a temporary 
shortcut to the Rox panel. (Although temporary only in the sense that I 
intended to change it when I figured out how to create proper shortcuts 
using custom icons). This just seemed plumb illogical, awkward and 
impractical to me. Far quicker to be able to just right click anywhere 
on the desktop, select 'run' and type in the name of the application you 
want to launch and hit enter. The lack of an ability to add custom 
entries to the Rox equivalent of KMenu (or Gnome Menu, or Windows 
'Start', or whatever) is exacerbates this issue somewhat - as this 
appears to mean that everything in Rox desktop must be an icon - which 
must be placed either on the panel, or on the pinboard. Unfortunately if 
you have quite a lot of software installed (as do I) this could lead to 
a very untidy and cluttered desktop. So a menu that can also contain not 
only ROX apps, but other apps installed on a users system too, is I 
think something of a basic necessity. (Unless of course for some reason 
you were building a purely Rox only system with Rox only apps - which is 
a little unlikely on most modern Linux distros).

In any case, just some small additional observations concerning 
usability. I hope they are helpful. I don't mean to be critical.

GJ