X-Slacko-4.4 with Xfce

[mistfire]

@rg66 did you compile the modified whiskermenu source code that I sent to you?

[rg66]

@rg66 did you compile the modified whiskermenu source code that I sent to you?

I tried but there are errors so it needs more mods that are above my head.

[mistfire]

thank @rg66. You can try to modify the whisker-menu source code that you recently compiled and apply my proposed line of code or create your own lines of code.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, all.

I've got a really basic question for y'all. How d'you restart the XFCE desktop?

I'm running X-Slacko 2.3.2 (which runs - most of the time! - like a dream.)

I don't exactly know what happens. Most of my desktop icons will edit fine; but just occasionally, I'll get the odd one which, when I click on OK after editing the thing, instead of re-appearing on the desktop, the whole thing throws a wobbly. The panel's fine (it's not affected by this) but the background wallpaper and all icons disappear; the desktop flashes alternately black, then grey, for maybe like half-a-dozen times or so.....then settles down to a blank, grey, totally unresponsive desktop.

But the curious thing is that the rest of the system continues to function perfectly.

Fortunately, I've got enough items on the panel's launcher bar, and in the Menu, to run everything as normal. But I'm guessing something in XFCE itself (or perhaps just the window manager ) jibs at having certain entries changed, and decided it's not gonna play ball any longer..!

Any ideas, anybody? (*Pretty please.....with sprinkles on? )


Mike.

[Moat]

Maybe try 'restartwm' or 'wmexit' to black screen (if not ctrl+alt+backspace), followed by 'xwin'...?

'restartwm' works for me on X-Tahr 2.0, anyways.

The desktop flashing gray/black then disappearing sounds like that annoying gvfs-metadata bug!

Bob

[Mike Walsh]

Thanks for that, Bob!

I'll remember that in future. The stuff they give on the XFCE forums doesn't seem to apply to Puppy; I tried some of it a while ago, and none of it worked.

If this happens again (I've had to fall back to an older save-folder, and re-work it back to how it should be..! ), I'll give your suggestion a try. I don't know whether it will, though; X-Slacko is using the older version of XFCE. (4.10, as opposed to 4.12..?)

We'll see. Thanks again!

BTW:- Hadn't heard about the gvfs-metadata thing before. Might do some research on that one...

Cheers.


Mike.

[Moat]

BTW:- Hadn't heard about the gvfs-metadata thing before. Might do some research on that one...

Yeah, a bit of a bugger for a few of us lately...

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewto ... e3ad790506

http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic. ... 279#936279

I'm going to whip up a simple script that'll kill the process, sleep a second or two, then delete the corrupted gvfs log files. Run it on occasion (just cuz ) and before copying/moving/pasting/deleting large or numerous files - when it seems most likely to rear it's ugly head.

Bob

[Mike Walsh]

Hi, Bob.

Fair enough. Keep us posted, please!


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

Hi again, Bob.

Don't know if this is any use. I found this on linuxquestions.org.

Something along these lines, perhaps (with suitable modifications, of course)?

Code: Select all

$ pkill gvfs-metadata
$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata
$ pkill gvfs-metadata

Any good? It's an answer to do with this same gvfs-metadata problem in XFCE, so.....


Mike.

[Geoffrey]

Hi, all.

I've got a really basic question for y'all. How d'you restart the XFCE desktop?

I'm running X-Slacko 2.3.2 (which runs - most of the time! - like a dream.)

I don't exactly know what happens. Most of my desktop icons will edit fine; but just occasionally, I'll get the odd one which, when I click on OK after editing the thing, instead of re-appearing on the desktop, the whole thing throws a wobbly. The panel's fine (it's not affected by this) but the background wallpaper and all icons disappear; the desktop flashes alternately black, then grey, for maybe like half-a-dozen times or so.....then settles down to a blank, grey, totally unresponsive desktop.

But the curious thing is that the rest of the system continues to function perfectly.

Fortunately, I've got enough items on the panel's launcher bar, and in the Menu, to run everything as normal. But I'm guessing something in XFCE itself (or perhaps just the window manager ) jibs at having certain entries changed, and decided it's not gonna play ball any longer..!

Any ideas, anybody? (*Pretty please.....with sprinkles on? )


Mike.

Try opening Thunar, go to the desktop folder and delete the edit that failed, then on the thunar right click select "Refresh Desktop".

I think that's in that version of xslacko, it sounds like the bug I came across with XFCE 4.10 it was fixed in XFCE 4.12

[Mike Walsh]

Hiya, Geoff.

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll give that a try, too!

Just like me to be using the older version of XFCE with all the buggy behaviour, ain't it? (*sheesh*)

However, aside from this one annoying little thing, I really like 2.3.2. Runs a treat on ye ancient Dell, it surey does.

Let me pick your brains for a second, if I may? (I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one.....but I'll ask, anyway.)

Is there any possibility a save-folder from 2.3.2 would run with 3.0?

No biggie if it won't; just curious, that's all.


Mike.

[Mike Walsh]

@Marv

Tried X-slacko on my dual core pae lappy and it seems the same as with windows, fan stays on low speed.

Tried X-slacko-non-pae on my pentium M-1.5, fan starts on high then throttles to low and eventually shuts off at idle.

A reply to a very old post (3 1/2 yrs!)

X-Slacko 2.3.2 on a 14 yr old Dell Inspiron lappie with a P4; this has had the latest BIOS upgrade in order to max the shared video RAM, as per 01micko's instructions for using the 'i915.modeset=0' kernel-line parameter for the Intel 82845 graphics chip (dreadful thing; but when it works, it gives an absolutely pin-sharp display..!)

Fan starts off at full-speed; after about 15 seconds, cuts back to low, then throttles off completely. Cuts in & out on low during usage; only time it goes on to high is when I'm running apps under WINE. Par for the course, really.....I'm happy with that.

(Remember, the earlier P4's didn't have the SpeedStep technology...not until Intel introduced the HT models.)


Mike.

[Geoffrey]

Hiya, Geoff.

Thanks for that suggestion. I'll give that a try, too!

Just like me to be using the older version of XFCE with all the buggy behaviour, ain't it? (*sheesh*)

However, aside from this one annoying little thing, I really like 2.3.2. Runs a treat on ye ancient Dell, it surey does.

Let me pick your brains for a second, if I may? (I'm pretty sure I know the answer to this one.....but I'll ask, anyway.)

Is there any possibility a save-folder from 2.3.2 would run with 3.0?

No biggie if it won't; just curious, that's all.


Mike.

I really couldn't say Mike, version 3.0 was updated to slacko-6 (5.9.3 beta2) and has xfce 4.12 so that's a bonus

change log says

3.0
---
fix gvfs-ftp
fix pac-tools
fix xfce4-appearance-wrapper
update remasterpup2
update shutdownconfig
update to bash-4.3.39
update to dbus-1.8.16
update to dbus-glib-0.104
update to firefox-31.7.0esr
update to kernel 3.14.20
update to mtpaint-3.44.93
update to openssl-1.0.2a
update to pburn-4.3.14
update to PPM2
update to slacko-6 (5.9.3 beta2)
update to wget-1.16.3
update to XFCE-4.12.x
update to yad-0.28.1


2.3.2
-----
fix fixmenus
fix icon_switcher

[Mike Walsh]

Morning, all.

Got another interesting one here...!

@Geoff:- D'you remember a while back, when I first installed X-Slacko? I wanted the weather plugin for the panel; tried the one from the repo (which kept trying to restart itself).....and you advised me to use the Carolina one.....which worked perfectly.

I've just installed X-Precise 2.4. Everything was going swimmingly. I'd been tweaking quite happily for about 2 1/2 hours or so, when for no apparent reason, every single item on the panel (with the exception of the Whisker Menu) pulled exactly the same stunt. Crashed, tried to restart, and I got the same window umpteen times for each item.

'X has unexpectedly left the panel. Do you want to restart it (blah, blah, blah...)'

Is there a Carolina 'fix' for the entire panel? Or is this indicative of a more serious underlying problem? Because I installed X-Precise to a thumb-drive a few months back (this time, it's on the external Seagate); first time round, I never had this problem..!

Okay, I admit I just did a 'quick'n'dirty' install this time, instead of faffing around with the PUI; copied the ISO contents across, and ran Grub4DOS. Always works.

Everything else is working perfectly.....it's just the damn panel! You can work without it; but it's a bit awkward..... Oh, and adding a new panel doesn't make a scrap of difference; the instant you try to add anything to it, it's crashing straight away.

Any thoughts?


Mike.

[Moat]

Howdy, Mike -

Something along these lines, perhaps (with suitable modifications, of course)?

Code: Select all

$ pkill gvfs-metadata
$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata
$ pkill gvfs-metadata

Pretty dern close - I'm running with this below, and with one eye on the task manager and the other on the /root/.local/share/gvfs-metadata directory, it appears to do the trick;

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

pkill gvfsd-metadata

sleep 5 && rm -rf /root/.local/share/gvfs-metadata

Notice the 'd' in 'gvfsd-metadata' - at least that's the runaway process here on X-Tahr 2.0, AFAICT (hasn't acted up lately).

All's left to then do is drop the shellscript in /usr/bin, make a .desktop file for it in /usr/share/applications, and find a nice, fitting icon to point the .desktop file to. That'll give me quick access to it via menu or panel launcher/button.

Bob

[Marv]

Howdy, Mike -

Something along these lines, perhaps (with suitable modifications, of course)?

Code: Select all

$ pkill gvfs-metadata
$ rm -rf ~/.local/share/gvfs-metadata
$ pkill gvfs-metadata

Pretty dern close - I'm running with this below, and with one eye on the task manager and the other on the /root/.local/share/gvfs-metadata directory, it appears to do the trick;

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh

pkill gvfsd-metadata

sleep 5 && rm -rf /root/.local/share/gvfs-metadata

Notice the 'd' in 'gvfsd-metadata' - at least that's the runaway process here on X-Tahr 2.0, AFAICT (hasn't acted up lately).

All's left to then do is drop the shellscript in /usr/bin, make a .desktop file for it in /usr/share/applications, and find a nice, fitting icon to point the .desktop file to. That'll give me quick access to it via menu or panel launcher/button.

Bob

Hi Moat,
Just for giggles, I tried running the kill script as a crond process every 10 minutes on one of my most troubled Pentium Ms where I previously had to disable gvfsd. On my laptops I have it set up as a .desktop for my own use now and can tell when to hit the button but that laptop is a users and overall the cpu racing/lockup just caused heart palpitations there. Shades of windows! Or rude! Using a daemon to control a daemon. So far it has been working. No addl. overhead observable and the time crosssection/intersection seems low enough so nothing has shown up yet in apps that I know use gvfs. Don't try this in your Out house

[Geoffrey]

Morning, all.

Got another interesting one here...!

@Geoff:- D'you remember a while back, when I first installed X-Slacko? I wanted the weather plugin for the panel; tried the one from the repo (which kept trying to restart itself).....and you advised me to use the Carolina one.....which worked perfectly.

I've just installed X-Precise 2.4. Everything was going swimmingly. I'd been tweaking quite happily for about 2 1/2 hours or so, when for no apparent reason, every single item on the panel (with the exception of the Whisker Menu) pulled exactly the same stunt. Crashed, tried to restart, and I got the same window umpteen times for each item.

'X has unexpectedly left the panel. Do you want to restart it (blah, blah, blah...)'

Is there a Carolina 'fix' for the entire panel? Or is this indicative of a more serious underlying problem? Because I installed X-Precise to a thumb-drive a few months back (this time, it's on the external Seagate); first time round, I never had this problem..!

Okay, I admit I just did a 'quick'n'dirty' install this time, instead of faffing around with the PUI; copied the ISO contents across, and ran Grub4DOS. Always works.

Everything else is working perfectly.....it's just the damn panel! You can work without it; but it's a bit awkward..... Oh, and adding a new panel doesn't make a scrap of difference; the instant you try to add anything to it, it's crashing straight away.

Any thoughts?


Mike.

Sounds like a dependency that's common to all the plugins maybe the problem, starting from scratch might be the best choice.

[Moat]

Hey Marv, running it as a cron job - now there's an idea.

Using a daemon to control a daemon. So far it has been working.

My only fear would be it inadvertently triggering right in the middle of it's (seemingly rare?!) doing something useful/intended. Let us know if any issues crop up as time goes by, using that method.

It's an intrusive, obnoxious bugger, even on my very recent Mint 18.1 Mate laptop install - where it fires off every single time I open Synaptic, peaking one CPU core for about a minute, then settling back down/disappearing. Only fires about once or twice a week on my older Mint Mate 17.1 install. Gettin' even buggerer, it seems!

Bob

[Marv]

@Moat,
I thought about the possibility of just that interaction and decided to just have a go at it, goofy as it is. I was at the farm where that Pentium M lappie lives today and the Bay Trail box there (running 3b5 for a long time now utterly trouble free rg66 ) was nagging about a full savefile. All of the user storage is symlinked to external locations so I had a look. 200Mb of cruft in /root/.cache and the gvfsd directory. Some browsers are good about cleanup if properly set, some aren't and if they are just left open... Cleaned house, added a /root/.cache cleaner line to the kill file and installed it there also. It's not a mission critical box (one of 3 pup setups there) and Kevin is pretty clear about explaining any probs so.... I'm setting up a new printer there also so I can mother hen a bit if needed. We'll see.

Edit: I'm now checking the size of .cache when the script runs and only cleaning if it is over say 10 or 20 Mb. Not sure of the exact size but I think in general that's neater. Could do the same for the gvfs directory. I know it's hard to say but have you ever seen a runaway with only a few files in that dir?

Edit2: Have it as a pet now. Adds needed files for crond start to X- series pups and sizechecks cache but not gvfs. Running on X-slacko 4.2, X-Tahr 2.0 and LxPupSc 17.021 for now on Pentium M, core 2 duo lappies and Bay Trail desktop. Still 'seeing'.

Jim

[Marv]

Hey Marv, running it as a cron job - now there's an idea.

Using a daemon to control a daemon. So far it has been working.

My only fear would be it inadvertently triggering right in the middle of it's (seemingly rare?!) doing something useful/intended. Let us know if any issues crop up as time goes by, using that method.

It's an intrusive, obnoxious bugger, even on my very recent Mint 18.1 Mate laptop install - where it fires off every single time I open Synaptic, peaking one CPU core for about a minute, then settling back down/disappearing. Only fires about once or twice a week on my older Mint Mate 17.1 install. Gettin' even buggerer, it seems!

Bob

Four days up and ok so far. Did an hourlong unsquash/HC resquash on the Pentium M wiithout any problems -highly unusual-, lots of access of PDF files on my remote storage -evince uses the gvfs-metadata for sure-, just normal daily use web browsing & editing. Mostly on X-slacko 4.2 and X-Tahr 2.0 as that is where I see the runaways most. I'll attach what I use as a pet. First cut, has a splash for diagnostics, has the files and pinst for the X- series pups. So far works here. Mostly so you can extract it and see what I've done. The 10 minute interval was just my first thought, often enough so I could see it work but not bug me. Again, rude but so is the gvfs bugger.

Jim