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lx panel applet?


Dr. J

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I recently started using lxde, which I have briefly used before while experimenting with PCLinuxOS. With the default setting, I had a widget to show all open windows tiled on screen so I could select one. I have looked through the official repositories and the AUR, but have not come across anything that could be this. Does anyone know how I can get this (on ArchLinux). It's not to important, just the kind of thing I find useful.

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Hedon James

I'm also very interested in the LXDE desktop and have tinkered with it on Lubuntu, LXLE, ZorinLite, PCLOS, and MakuluLXFCE. In Lubuntu, I think you might be looking for the Panel Applet "Minimize All Windows"; click it once, all open windows are iconified to the taskbar, revealing a clean desktop; click it again, and all iconified programs in the taskbar are simultaneously restored to the desktop. They're not tiled in an orderly fashion though, they're restored to the location from where they were iconified...looking somewhat "scattered". Is this what you're looking for?

 

EDIT: Nevermind...I looked at my PCLOS-LXDE VM and see the applet you're talking about, located right next to the "iconify window" applet I mentioned above. And it tiles open windows just like you described. You're looking for a program called skippy-xd, which is actually located at usr/bin/skippy-xd and placed inside of an application launcher widget like an applet. But I don't see the program listed anywhere in the PCLOS menu, nor in the usr/share/applications directory, which made me think it's a script of some sort. But looking at the skippy-xd file directly, it is an executable file, but can't be opened with a text editor; when I force the issue, leafpad displays ascii gibberish.

 

I think your best bet in Arch is probably to install skippy-xd and then create a desktop launcher for that file and place it in your taskbar.

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securitybreach

Great :thumbsup:

 

I was going to dig up something when I got home from work but it looks like you have already found the answer

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Z1DGj4IL.png

 

 

Works fine from terminal, but haven't found out how to add a custom command launcher on the lx panel... I'll do some digging myself when I have time.

Edited by Dr. J
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Hedon James

A desktop launcher is actually quite easy in LXDE, once you know how....it's just "different" from gnome, xfce, kde, etc... Looks like SB beat me to it, but it's all good since you got it working. Excellent!

 

And FWIW, I really appreciated this question, because I had never heard of skippy-xd or knew anything about it, but this is an interesting little program that could help me solve a dilemma I'm wrestling with on a future remix of Lubuntu 16.04. In the past, I've made "standardized" remixes of Lubuntu with programs/features that I consider to be "preferred", for installation on machines of folks that look to me to solve their computer issues for them. Not really a fan of family & friends tech support, but it's a little more bearable if we're all using the same basic setup and programs. So I created XPubuntu and Pangaea-Lubuntu remixes, with both hosted by Sourceforge.

 

With that background out of the way, I like to provide a Unity-style interface with LXDE, but the lxpanel launcher doesn't really provide any visual clues/indicators of running instances of programs. Sometimes I end up with mutliple instances of the same program running (multiple roxterms, for instance) because I either 1) don't know I already have one running or 2) know it's running but can't find it quickly without cycling through all desktops. My solution to that has been to create a lxpanel on the right side of the screen (with dynamic sizing and authohide function) and either center it or anchor to bottom of screen, invoked upon mouse-over like a "hot edge" or "hot corner". Not exactly elegant, but functional.

 

I'm digging the skippy-xd for its functionality and thinking of ways to implement it into my remix to address some of these LXDE issues, while still keeping things lightweight! I imagine that a keybinding would be excellent, as well as a visual taskbar applet for those who aren't aware. Cool stuff! Thanks for the tip!

Edited by Hedon James
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Nice. I like what you're doing. I'm not really a fan of Ubuntu myself, but that's mainly because of Unity (which I found to be unnecessarily heavy on system resources). I like xfce and LXDE for their simplicity and high degree of customisability. I've gone for a 'Windows Vista' esque setup myself (essentially the default with the vista start button), and added an extra panel at the top for launchers and stuff.

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Hedon James

Thank you, I appreciate that.

 

I'm interested in lots of different distros, but when it comes to my main production system, Ubuntu is the sweet spot of stability, usability, features, broadness of user-base for troubleshooting, and software that I want/need. I can't afford to be on the cutting edge (Arch), or multiple versions behind (Debian), although I have interests in each for the same reasons! And I was one of the original Unity-haters who actually grew to like it, the more I played with it in VMs. I find it very easy to get stuff done with the Unity paradigm, but I HATE how bloated and "uncustomizeable" it has become. Once I figured out how to reconfigure the lightweight LXDE/Openbox combo, I was off to the races (pun intended). Just like Ubuntu is my personal sweet spot of OS criteria. LXDE/Openbox configured to look like Unity is my sweet spot of lightweight resource/speed and productivity. Lightweight Unity!

 

While my interests tend to stay close to Debian roots, I also like to check out RPM-based PCLOS and OpenSUSE for their take on things, and lately I've been interested in Manjaro, as it looks like a good mix of bleeding-edge Arch, but dosed with a sprinkle of Debian stability. If I ever stray from Ubuntu, Manjaro might be the way... :shrug:

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securitybreach

One of the major benefits of using Archlinux is that the packages come from the upstream developers without any modifications or added patches which gives you more of balance between security and stability. Most distros patch their packages with tweaks specific to their distro which adds another layer for potential bugs and makes it harder to troubleshoot when things go wrong.

 

Remember Archlinux only uses the latest, stable versions of packages so you are not getting what I would consider bleeding edge (git, svn, rc, beta, etc) versions of packages; although those are available in the (officially unsupported) AUR if you like. The packages in the normal Archlinux repos are deemed stable by the original, upstream developers. When you start patching and tweaking the packages, you can end up with broken packages that may be buggy until a new version of the distro comes out. When you run Archlinux, your just getting the bug fixes and new features faster than release cycle distros.

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Thank's for the info SB. I would have recommended manjaro to any Linux new-b with an interest in Arch, but I suppose I'll rethink this now (security is one of my main concerns, otherwise I'd probably still be using Windows XP! :smashcomp: ). I suppose I could set up Arch for them, or link them to your tutorial if I don't have time.

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securitybreach

Thank's for the info SB. I would have recommended manjaro to any Linux new-b with an interest in Arch, but I suppose I'll rethink this now (security is one of my main concerns, otherwise I'd probably still be using Windows XP! :smashcomp: ). I suppose I could set up Arch for them, or link them to your tutorial if I don't have time.

 

Well if you want a quick setup, there is always the Architect installer which will give you vanilla Archlinux but with a ncurses installer: https://sourceforge....rchitect-linux/ (pacbang is something different)

 

I would still suggest that new users install Archlinux the normal way as they would be missing out on the learning experience. That said, the installer is useful for a seasoned Archer who needs a quick setup.

 

 

BTW I really need to update my tutorial as it is horribly out of date. I just have to take the time...Sorry about that.

 

That said, I was just basically rewriting the wiki steps in plain english with some explanations. Honestly I think the wiki does just as good of a job explaining a full setup but that could just be me.

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I would still suggest that new users install Archlinux the normal way as they would be missing out on the learning experience

I couldn't agree more, but sadly it's the setup process that started the rumors about Arch being 'difficult to use'. I'll take a look at Architect myself. As it happens the same friend that I helped set up with OpenSUSE is curious about Arch, but seems intimidated by the CLI installation method.

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securitybreach

I would still suggest that new users install Archlinux the normal way as they would be missing out on the learning experience

I couldn't agree more, but sadly it's the setup process that started the rumors about Arch being 'difficult to use'. I'll take a look at Architect myself. As it happens the same friend that I helped set up with OpenSUSE is curious about Arch, but seems intimidated by the CLI installation method.

 

Honestly, I think it is much easier to admin an Arch machine than other distros. The simplicity of pacman is one of the strong points IMO. The installation is a bit daunting but its really not that difficult, it just takes time..

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