Primary Screen: Ubuntu Linux, Compiz, Gkrellm, Firefox, FoxTab, Seesmic, Avant Window Navigator.

In exploring a renewed interest I’ve developed in Fluxbox recently, and spurred by some new stuff I learned from reading Patrick’s wonderful Fluxbox tweaking post a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d do a writeup on another capability that Fluxbox has that I’ve never delved into: dockapps.

Fluxbox has as a part of its toolbox a friendly home on its desktop for dockable utility applications that can provide information, handy functionality, and even dress up the otherwise normally spartan Fluxbox user space. I don’t use many dockapps, but it’s worth using the ones I have as examples in this writeup, if nothing else just to demonstrate how to set this up and take advantage of this capability.

So in this post, I’ll be discussing three dockapps: GKrellM, WMix, and WMWeather.

Obtaining and installing GKrellM, WMix, and WMWeather

GKrellM is a versatile and useful source of information about your own system. It’s a vertical application, so it doesn’t take up valuable space, and it’s themable and highly configurable. I like it because it can tell me if my aging CPU is running hotter than I like, and it can tell me if there’s any unusual disk activity or if I’m suddenly running critically low on memory resources.

WMix is a useful little volume control application that allows the user to raise and lower volume simply by mouse wheeling over it. It can easily cycle through the various channels too, so with a click or two you can switch from your master volume to PCM to CD volume. In Fluxbox I used to use Kmix (KDE’s default volume control applet), but since I’ve been moving away from KDE lately, I figured I’d hunt for something else, and found that WMix fits in well with Fluxbox as a dockable app, and works great on top of it.

I’m also used to having a weather widget of some sort, having grown accustomed to KDE’s default applet in that department too. In my search for a suitable Fluxbox-friendly alternative, I came across WMWeather. WMWeather can be pointed at your weather information resource and give you basics like current temperature, dewpoint, humidity, wind speed, and even wind chill (if you live in place where that matters, like I do). Like WMix and GKrellM, WMWeather is also docakable, so it lives happily in the Fluxbox slit like the others.

Installation

If you’re running Ubuntu, you can install all three of these applications by opening up a terminal and running these commands, one at a time, and go through the normal apt-get process for each:

sudo apt-get install gkrellm

sudo apt-get install wmix

sudo apt-get install wmweather

If you’re not running Ubuntu or another Debian-based system, you’ll likely need to download and install these applications manually. I’ll be a nice guy and save you guys some hunting around by linking them here. All of these used to be readily available from Dockapps.org, but that site seems to have vanished, so this should save you some trouble.

GKrellM: Many distros package a version GKrellM out of the box, but just in case, it can be downloaded at GKrellM.net. There are packages available for a variety of different distros and architectures (there’s even a Windows installer), or you can download the source code and compile it yourself.

WMix: A big list of download mirrors is available here. Since I’m not sure how many of those still work (a few of those look pretty old), you may end up searching around the web some more for it like I did, otherwise I have it hosted on my web server here for your convenience. The file is the source code for it, so it’ll need to be compiled and installed.

WMWeather: I ended up downloading the source code for WMWeather from here, mostly because I couldn’t find it anywhere else. If that fails for whatever reason, like WMix, I have also uploaded the source code for WMWeather to my web server here to download at your leisure.

Configuration and Tweaks

If you’re playing around with Fluxbox at this level, I’m assuming you can probably handle extracting, compiling and installing those apps from source, so forgive me if I’ve leaped forward over that bit. I can provide some more instruction on that if need be, just post a comment and I’d be happy to help you out… it isn’t as hard as you might think, even if you’ve never done it before.

But once you have all three installed, you can configure them.

GKrellM is very themable; I frequently switch themes on mine, all of which I downloaded from Muhri.net. Any GKrellM theme can simply be extracted into the /~/.gkrellm2/themes directory. You can switch themes by right-clicking on GKrellM while it’s running and selecting “Configuration” and then “Themes”. If you put the themes you downloaded for it in the correct place, they should appear in the list of available themes from which you can choose.

The rest of the configuration options in GKrellM are pretty self-explanatory, once you’re in the Configuration window. Play around with it. You’ll find that there’s a lot you can do with this handy application. One thing you’ll want to make sure of, however, if you’re going to be using GKrellM as a docked application, is that the “Set window type to be a dock or a panel” checkbox located on the “Properties” tab under “General” is unchecked. I’ll get into more of this later.

WMix doesn’t require any configuration; it pretty much runs as-is. There’s no config file for it of which I am aware, and its usage is pretty intuitive.

WMWeather gave me a little trouble at first. It is configured via a plain text config file cleverly labelled wmweather.conf. However, unlike on my Ubuntu machine, where that file was simply located in /etc/wmweather.conf, I disovered that editing that file on my desktop computer did absolutely nothing, had no effect whatsoever on the behavior of the actual application.

I poked around a bit and discovered that the config file that actually needs to be edited on my Slackware box was located in /usr/local/etc/wmweather.conf. Make a note of that. You may want to disregard the one in /etc/.

At any rate, the very first thing you’ll want to do to that file is enter the four digit designation for your local weather information resource. Go to the NOAA.gov site recommended in the config file and look up what that should be for your location. Then edit wmweather.conf and enter that after where it says station = (mine is simply “KSTC”).

Below that, in mine anyway, metric was set as the default for some reason. I commented that line out with a “#” in front of metric, saved my changes, closed the file, and when I ran WMWeather it displayed everything the way I wanted it.

There are other things you can do with WMWeather that I haven’t gone into or even tried (I decided to keep mine pretty basic). Check out the man page for WMWeather for more info, or simply go to a terminal and type man wmweather and you’ll find lots of stuff to read.

Now that we’ve got all three installed and configured, we need to get Fluxbox set up so that it knows what to do with them.

Next page: Where the dockapps live: the Fluxbox slit

Where the dockapps live: the Fluxbox slit

In Fluxbox, there is a home for these kinds of “dockable” applications, and it is known simply as the “slit”. I generally tend to think of the Fluxbox slit as a spot — like a tiny, narrow corkboard — where I can use a stickpin to attach something useful.

Before proceeding with anything else regarding the slit, you’ll want to familiarize yourself with its options by right-clicking on your Fluxbox desktop to get your Fluxbox menu, go to your Configuration section, and find the “Slit” submenu. From there you can control where the slit is placed (I have mine set to “Bottom Right”) and other options. Go through these options and decide where you want these dockapps to be. You can always change it later if you don’t like what you end up with.

The Fluxbox slit is managed simply by a text file, much like everything else in this window manager. The file is /~/.fluxbox/slitlist, and it can be edited using any text editor with which you are comfortable. However, you shouldn’t need to do anything with it just yet. The slitlist file will self-populate (in theory), if everything else runs correctly.

So, the first thing you should do to accomplish this is open up your ever-present /~/.fluxbox/startup file in your favorite text editor, and add the following three lines to it:

gkrellm -w &
wmix &
wmweather &

The “-w” after gkrellm tells it to dock to the Fluxbox slit (which is why I advised not setting GKrellM in a “docked” state in its configuration before).

Save your changes and exit out of Fluxbox and log back in, and all three applications should be running in the slit, stacked like the ones in my screenshot on page one of this post.

I had a little trouble with the order of mine at first, so if you’re picky about that, you can edit the /~/.fluxbox/slitlist file and switch the order around. What I actually ended up doing was creating a separate slitlist, to keep my order from being overwritten by Fluxbox itself. If you need to do this, simply open up /~/.fluxbox/slitlist, save it as /~/.fluxbox/myslitlist, and then edit /~/.fluxbox/init.

In the Fluxbox init file, find the line that designates where the slitlist file is located. It should say session.slitlistFile:. All I did with mine was change the word “slitlist” the the subsequent path to “myslitlist” and saved it.

After that, I arranged the apps in myslitlist to the order in which I wanted them (the same order I gave them for the startup file, above), saved it, exited out of Fluxbox and logged back in, and everything was where it should be.

Other dockapps

I can’t speak much of other dockapps, as I haven’t used any besides those I just discussed, but I know that there are other applications out there that can do CPU monitoring, thermal monitoring, mailbox checking, and other useful tasks. Since I use GKrellM, which does a lot of that already, I decided just to stick with that, but most of its individual functions can be replaced by several dockapps. Do a little searching around and I’m sure you’ll find plenty to keep you busy in that department.

As always, if you have any questions or trouble, I’d be happy to help out… just post a comment and let me know!

Happy hacking!

I regularly install and try lots of free, open source software applications. One of my better recent finds is a customizable system monitor utility called GKrellM.  Like many open source applications, its name is puzzling, but it is a useful and very customizable way to monitor processes and components on Mac (s AAPL), Windows (s MSFT) and Linux systems. Lifehacker and MakeUseOf originally alerted me to the large ecosystem of plugins that you can use to customize GKrellM, which made me want to try it.

GKrellM started life as a Linux application, but you’ll find download options for the Mac and Windows at the bottom of this page. When installing on Windows, you’ll see the application’s Linux roots at work in a list of files that represent components in the application, similar to how package components are listed for Linux applications. You actually just need to download the program’s installer .EXE file, though, and it will take care of the whole setup.

The application presents you with a stack of separately monitored processes and components on your computer. It offers all the essential system monitoring applets, including a CPU monitor, a disk monitor, an Internet monitor that displays TCP port connections, file system meters, a memory meter, and much more. The memory meter, for example, could be particularly useful for people working on netbooks or other systems with limited hardware resources.

GKrellM is most differentiated from other system monitors, though, by its plugins. There are many really creative examples to be found on the plugins page. You can get a plugin for periodically updating your desktop wallpaper, including a timer that will execute the next change. There are also plugins for showing the time in multiple timezones, and an organizer plug-in for tracking to-do list items. Just as open source applications such as Firefox get their appeal from useful collections of extensions, GKrellM benefits from a user community that contributes free plugins.

GKrellM sits on your desktop as it monitors processes, but it is a polite application. You can shut it down at any time by right-clicking on it and selecting “Quit.” It’s worth a try, especially if you’re working with limited system resources.

What’s your favorite GKrellM plugin?

Today was a good day.

Today I started out by posting a new article and checking out the adsense earnings for Art Spander’s site.  I built that site, and it’s already feelign like my baby – I’m awfully fond of tinkering, so I imagine it will be changing dramatically over the next several weeks.

In any case, after that, and a few conversations with old colleagues and whatnot, I started to get back to worrying about what would happen if there was a spike in traffic.  I’d turned off the caching until I could figure out how it would affect things like ads and traffic (I’m pretty sure it would be okay, but I also tend to continue to change things, so having caching only ends up creating problems when I’m testing).  Well, it was clear that what I needed was a makeshift NOC (Network Operations Center for the laymen) and a way to monitor my servers remotely.  Being connected via SSH and running “top” doesn’t really help me.

Okay, I’ve just realized that my audience (assuming i have an audience) isn’t likely to be laymen, so let’s cut to the chase.  This is an article about building my own monitoring center for a couple of servers that I manage running on Mosso’s cloudserver platform.

Here’s the process i went through.  Consider it a tutorial of sorts.

First I googled for “httpd monitoring” and after several minutes of digging came up with HS-LABS and this neat set of products.

I downloaded, but still haven’t installed – it appears they probably only work on Windows, and it didn’t seem to be a client/server product, so not sure how valuable that’s going to be.

I dediced to look specfically for Ubuntu monitoring tools and discovered GkrellM.  After a bit of reading, I realized this is what was used at Revver with all servers being monitored on one large HD monitor.  Sounded like this is EXACTLY what i wanted to build my makeshift NOC after all.

Simple enough installation for a client/server system.  In my case the cilent is actually Ubuntu 8.1 x86_64 running in VMWare with Unity.  Yep, I’m a hard-core geek these days.

sudo apt-get install gkrellm (on client)
sudo apt-get install gkrellmd (on server)

added following rule to iptables chain:

-A INPUT -p tcp -m tcp --dport 19150 -j ACCEPT

Note to self: Need to setup an iptables init script soon.

Next I modified the configuration file.

vi /etc/gkrellmd.conf (on server)

Here I set the specifc port and server IPs I wanted to monitor from.

gkrellm --port 19150 --server my.server.com

w00tw00t!!

I configured width and changed theme (available here).

It looks so sweet!

GkrellM on Ubuntu in VMWare/Unity

(p.s. was only able to add this image after I discovered Microsoft Vista’s hidden Snipping Tool, and enabled it.  And the process of enabling it tied up all the resources on my computer, practically crashing the entire system (every application went to “not responding” and the whole system slowed to a crawl. It hung indefinately on a screen that said “This might take several minutes” with no progress bar, then it jumped to 100% progress and hung for another 5 minutes.  Seriously – to install a f****ing screen grabbing tool?!  You’d think I was installing a major system update or something.  Ugh, another reason I can’t stand Windows!  Let me make enough money this quarter so I can buy a MacBook to run my business, and wipe this computer and install Ubuntu for systems admin tasks.

Wow, huge diversion/non-sequitor.  Anyway next, decided i wanted it to run on MacOS X, so I could connect using physical cat6 cable on dedicated connection instead of running on laptop over wireless.  Still yet to determine what the bandwidth implications of doing this will be – but we’ll see.

Installing on OSX not so easy however – I had to install a new version of X11 because apparently the one with Leopard is missing newer components for a successful GTK2 install.  Here’s an article that indicated the issue:

The error: i686-apple-darwin9-gcc-4.0.1: /usr/X11/lib/libXdamage.1.1.0.dylib: No such file or directory

Installed replacement X11 as per the article above. Then installed macports version of GkrellM.

sudo port install gkrellm (on mac)

worked!!

Only took three hours to get to this point of course… but hey, that’s what being unemployed is all about… time to err… learn.

Ok, so now still not what I wanted to monitor the server.  Came across a linux tool called apachetop - that’s pretty close to what I want, real-time reporting ont he server via command line (no bandwidth issues here).

Happened at this time to want to check email and I was going to open Outlook but decided against it – I wanted a more integrated view of my email, so while I was still connected remotely to my Mac on LogMeIn, I decided to research what made Outlook suck so much at dealing with IMAP folders, and if there was a solution.  I DID find something, and I’m going to write about that project later.

This clearly relates to my issue with Focus.

Anyway, back to the task at hand.  If you’re still following me that is.

Installing apachetop on Ubuntu 8.1 isn’t that simple.  There’s a bug, and it requires a patch.

Dediced to run it all on my local box to save the bandwidth, and then I could scp the resulting .deb file to the server for installation.  It’s 4:30pm now.

I need to finish my taxes today – did most of the work already, just wanted to check a few things before it gets sent out.  Gonna take a break and come back to this.

Okay, so back now…

First of all, great tutorial on how to incorporate patches from source on the Ubuntu Wiki.

Heres’s what I did:

$ sudo aptitude install build-essential fakeroot devscripts
$ cd /tmp
$ wget http://launchpadlibrarian.net/23140325/apachetop_0.12.6-8ubuntu1.debdiff
$ aptitude source apachetop
$ sudo aptitude build-dep apachetop

Change to the source directory:
$ cd apachetop-*
$ sudo patch -p1 < apachetop_*.debdiff

Compile Source File to .deb Package

$ sudo dpkg-buildpackage -uc -us

Install Resulting .deb Pacakge

$ sudo dpkg -i ../apachetop*.deb

So everything worked, except for some reason I can’t use any commands such as “filters”, so the information is only so useful. It’s simply too late now and I’ll have to re-explore this problem later.

The Gkrellm package that comes with Slackware 12.2 doesn’t have the i8k plugin but installing it is simple.  First compile i8kutils then i8krellm . Now from the command line /sbin/modprobe i8k force=1.  Make sure to run gkrellm once before doing a make install of i8krellm in order to create the needed folders.

I upgraded Firefox fairly recently. The only bad thing about this is that Evolution broke. So, rather than re-emerge evolution, I decided to play with a different client: mutt. Not knowing much about the inner workings of email, I thought mutt would just be a drop-in replacement for Evolution. This is not the case, and a number of different programs are required to create a working setup:

• fetchmail to grab mail off the Gmail server and pass it on to
• procmail which sorts and filters the mail into different mailbox files which are then read by
• mutt where I can read and process the emails, and pass emails which need to be sent on to
• nbsmtp which interfaces with my gmail account to send emails out.

At first this seems like an awkward, hard-to-manage mismash of programs. This is not the case. It is actually a surprisingly flexible and configurable system. For example, my mail is sorted long before it reaches my inbox. This is different from Evolution, where mail is sorted into folders every time I open the client. Also, mutt’s startup time is much, much faster than Evolution.

But there is something missing from the setup. I needed something to run fetchmail periodically and alert me when I had new mail. I could have run fetchmail in daemon mode, but that’s boring. I decided to use GKrellM. This is a very cool, configurable “geek eyecandy” system monitor. It displays graphs of CPU, disk, and network usage. It can also monitor mailbox files and run fetchmail every so often, and display a little animated penguin when it detects new mail.

My GKrellM screen

So, I now had a sleek, efficient email system. But it was still fairly run-of-the-mill and needed a bit of “zing”. This came in the form of a nifty perl script:

This pauses my music player, plays a sound file, and starts the music player again(if it was playing at the start). The sound file is a recording of me saying “Yoou’vee got maaail!”. The script is run every time GKrellM detects unread mail in my inbox.

This is the icing on the cake of an awesome email setup. It is just so cool to be listening to music, then suddenly hear it pause and my voice sing out that I have mail.

Email, perl, console mailreaders, music player daemons, scrolling graphs, animated penguins, and Google. If that isn’t a geekgasm, I don’t know what is.

My final mail setup

Um bom programa que monitore o desempenho do computador é muito importante, pois assim o usuário pode detectar qualquer problema que venha a acontecer com o seu computador. Ao mesmo tempo, todos os programas que conheço, também disponibilizam outras funcionalidades e informações úteis para os usuários, como relógios bonitos, monitoramento do clima, anotações, timers e muitos outros.

Usuários do WindowsXP tem a sua disposição o Yahoo! Widgets e o Google Gadgets. Usei os dois no Windows XP dos dois computadores aqui de casa e minha preferência é pelo Yahoo! Widgets.

O Windows Vista já vem com seus próprios Gadgets. Como desinstalei o Vista que veio no computador mais novo, não sei como é.

Para o Mac OSX existem os Dashboard Widgets. Não tenho Mac então não sei como é.

E usuários do Linux tem também vários programas a sua disposição:

Superkaramba – Por ser programado com a biblioteca gráfica QT é o mais indicado para quem usa o ambiente desktop KDE. Não dou opinião pois como não uso o KDE, então também nunca usei o Superkaramba.

gDesklets – Muito bom, com uma grande quantidade de desklets, permitindo um grande leque de usos. Infelizmente tive péssimas experiências para conseguir instalar ele.

Adesklets – Mais fácil de instalar que o gDesklets, infelizmente perde para este na quantidade de desklets disponíveis.

Screenlets – No mesmo estilo que os dois anteriores, precisa necessariamente que o composite esteja funcionando, caso contrário não ativa as transparências. Possui uma boa quantidade de desklets, mas ainda está em estágio inicial de desenvolvimento. Muitos desklets acabam nem abrindo.

Torsmo – Exibe as informações em forma de texto. Sua configuração exige que se edite manualmente o arquivo .torsmorc no home do usuário, oque obriga que este tenha um conhecimento acima do normal. Tive problemas com o refresh que piscava a tela inteira.

Conky – Um fork do Torsmo. Assim como este, também é necessário editar manualmente o arquivo .conkyrc no home do usuário. Tive o mesmo problema de refresh que o Torsmo tinha.

GKrellM – O mais antigo programa de monitoramente que conheço no mundo Linux. Criado usando a biblioteca gráfica GTK e depois a GTK2, é o mais indicado para os ambientes desktop Gnome e XFCE. Utiliza o sistema de plugins para adicionar novas funcionalidades e o visual é definido com o uso de skins. Nunca tive problemas em instalar ele, nem em fazê-lo funcionar. Foi o primeiro que usei e sempre acabo voltando para ele, pois nunca me deixou na mão como os demais. Este eu recomendo sem medo.

Na imagem a direita, o GKrellm do meu computador, com o skin Elcedee, exibindo de cima para baixo:

- Nome da máquina

- Relógio analógico

- Calendário

- Relógio digital

- Plugin com as fases do dia

- Plugin com as fases da lua

- Monitoramente das duas CPU’s

- Plugin exibindo os 3 programas que estão usando maior percentagem de CPU

- Monitoramento dos processos ativos no computador

- Monitoramente da temperatura das CPU’s e da placa-mãe

- Monitoramente das rotações do cooler da CPU

- Monitoramente das voltagens da placa-mãe

- Monitoramente do disco

- Monitoramente do tráfego da placa de rede

- Monitoramente da memória RAM e swap

- Plugin para controle do volume

- Uptime do computador

Ne secam se tacno kako je i kada pocelo ali danas ne mogu da zamislim desktop bez nekog sistem monitora na njemu. Godinama sam koristio gkrellm  i kombinovao sam ga sa raznoraznim deskletsima i drugim programcicima slicne namene. Nekada je ta kombinacija izgledala lepo , nekada mswin lepo od cega mi je pripadala muka, a nekada nije izgledala nikako. Osnovni problem ovih programa je, pored cestog windows look-a-like, sto zauzimaju veliki deo desktopa i nisu stalno  vidljivi pa je  potrebno prozore otvorenih programa zatvarati ili suzavati po sirini.  Dakle, ne bas jako funkcionalna resenja, a ja nisam neko ko sedi ispred zajebanog wallpapera nacickanog jos zajebanijim deskletsima i divi se satima svom “umetnickom delu”. Tu dolazi na scenu conky  koji spaja funkcionalnost i dizajn.

Sama instalacija programa je opisana detaljno na arch wiki stranici. Kada je  program instaliran i kada je .conkyrc fajl na svom mestu, krece potraga za odgovarajucim tekstom koji ce konfigurisati program. Ko prati oficejlnu stranu samo ce biti zbunjen. Najbolji nacin za kofiguraciju je kopiranje od drugoga. Stari trik svakog web dizajnera. Moj izvor conky config fajlova je bio arch linux forum.  Ovde su ostavljeni screenshotovi kao i konfiguracioni fajlovi. Nakon kratkog uporedjivanja config fajlova sa onim sto se vidi na slici jasno je da .conkyrc fajl ima dva dela.  Jedan odredjuje i opisuje globalno kao ce program da se ponasa, gde ce da se nalazi na desktopu, koji su difolt fontovi i boje dok drugi deo config fajla ispod reci TEXT opisuje koje ce procese i infomracije conky da posmatra i kako ce da ih  ispisuje na desktopu. 

Na primer linija :  ${color #5b6dad}CPU: ${color grey}$cpu%  

Prva boja ${color #5b6dad} odredjuje kako ce biti ofarban ispisani tekst.  CPU: je tekst koji ce biti ispisan. Druga boja ${color grey} odredjuje kako ce biti ofarbana promenljiva cifra koja ispisuje rad CPU u procentima $cpu%.  Po ovom principu funkcionise gotova sva konfiguracija.   

Najvaznje od svega je da sam mogao da ga postavim na dno ekrana i razvucem tekst celom sirinom. Tako sam izbegao da moram da suzavam ili zatvaram prozor otvorene aplikacije.  Naravno, donji gnome panel je podesen na autohide.

Screenshot mog conkyja

conkyrc (opcije u TEXT delu su ispisane u samo dva reda kao sto izgleda na screeenshotu. wordpress je sam formatirao ovaj deo u 9 redova  a ja ne znam kako da to promenim)

Continued from here.

My screen was replaced and tested for just 4 hours at an acer authorised service center.
Makes me wonder why it took 9 days and 5 reminder calls to get my laptop back; seems quite long considering that it is a carry-in warranty and not a home delivery too. Nine days! sigh.

I hopped back home in joy; hoping that troubles are over and getting eager to work. I was baffled the very moment unpacked my lappie from the box. Reason – two uneven surfaces near the battery compartment. It looked as if they’ve used some tools like screwdriver to lift the compartment. I called up the service center and they denied opening the compartment. According to them they had replaced only the LCD and that doesn’t require opening any of the compartments.
I never knew acer laptop compartment seals could self break!

Fair enough, lets boot up now. The beautiful Mandriva 2008.1 booted up and brought me to the login screen. My eye caught something – the time. Its wrong!

desk @ home

I checked the BIOS setup and found that time, date, boot sequence and few other options were changed. Why would these require change if they were servicing it for display issue?
Anyway, I had to complete my pending tasks. I worked on the laptop for about 30 minutes and here it is – A new problem. The left side of the keyboard was warmer than it used to be. I checked the ventilation slots and it was blowing hot air at high speed. Never before was the laptop so hot. I could smell hot lead at the ventilation slots.

I installed lm_sensors, and it showed 60 C for CPU temperature. That’s real crazy considering the fact that it rained and room temperature was cool, it was night time and moreover I had the room fan on at the highest speed. On top of all these I had a laptop cooling pad. Boy, this is not good.

I logged a new support request with the help of acer tech support and took the laptop back to the same authorised dealer/service center. I showed them the broken compartment seals; only then they admitted opening it for checking internal components. They have taken in the laptop and promised 4 days for problem resolution (the same way they did the last time, may be 4==9).
Before leaving, I asked them if their engineers worked on linux too (my lappie has mandriva linux). They nodded and claimed that they know it all.

Next day I was waiting for their call. They told me they would notify if the hardware needs to be replaced. It was almost evening and impatiently I gave them a call to inquire status. Surprisingly, they didn’t check it because my laptop didn’t have WindowsXP!! Hello, this is a linux laptop. Acer shipped it with linpus linux and your tech support doesn’t work on linux! It was just yesterday you claimed that they know it all.
I then explained the steps to go to my 3rd workspace in KDE, where I had gkrellm monitoring the CPU load and temperature. If they would have admitted not knowing gnu/linux when I gave in the laptop, I’d have showed them and given a small tutorial also (FOR FREE).

So, again I am on a waiting mode for their call.
Hardware vendors who claim to support GNU/Linux should try to walk the talk.

GKrellXMMS2 es un plugin para GKrellM que te permite utilizarlo como un front-end para XMMS2.

Para instalarlo en Hardy se hace un:

sudo aptitude install gkrellxmms2

Importante: Es nesesario tener instalado xmms2 para poder usarlo, si no lo tenés hay que instalarlo así:

sudo aptitude install xmms2 xmms2-plugin-all

Ahora podés activar el plugin desde la configuración de GKrellM:

Ventana de configuración de GKrellM

Ahora hay que ejecutar xmms2, apretá ALT + F2 y escribí xmms2d y eso es todo.

Apretando la M que aparece en el applet aparece la lista de reproducción para comenzar a agregar musica para reproducir.

En el post anterior vimos como instalar GNU/Linux Debian, haciendo uso de un disco de instalación por red (Net Install). Una instalación bastante básica, además, me decidí a instalar Fluxbox (Window Manager) en lugar de un sistema de escritorio (KDE, Gnome, etc). Antes de empezar a personalizar nuestro sistema, veamos un poco acerca de la gestión de paquetes en Debian, si estás dando tus primeros pasos en el uso de este sistema operativo, esto te será de mucha utilidad, si por el contrario consideras que conoces lo suficiente acerca de la gestión de paquetes, puedes saltarte esta sección e ir al punto siguiente.

Gestión de paquetes en GNU/Linux Debian

De acuerdo al tipo de paquete y la forma como estos son gestionados, suelen agruparse las distribuciones GNU/Linux, por ejemplo tenemos los rpm de Red Hat y sus derivados, los deb de Debian y sus derivados tan solo por mencionar algunos.

¿Qué es un paquete Debian?

Los paquetes normalmente contienen todos los archivos necesarios para implementar un conjunto de órdenes o características relacionadas. Hay dos tipos de paquetes Debian:

• Paquetes Binarios, contienen ejecutables, archivos de configuración, páginas man/info, información de copyright, y otra documentación. Se distinguen normalmente por tener una extensión de archivo ‘.deb’. Los paquetes binarios se pueden desempaquetar usando la utilidad Debian dpkg.

• Paquetes Fuente, consisten en un archivo .dsc que describe el paquete fuente (incluyendo los nombres de los siguientes archivos), un archivo .orig.tar.gz que contiene el código fuente original sin modificar en formato tar comprimido con gzip, y usualmente un archivo .diff.gz que contiene los cambios específicos de Debian al código fuente original. La utilidad dpkg-source empaqueta y desempaqueta los archivos fuente de Debian.

Las utilidades de paquetes de Debian se pueden usar para:

• Manipular y gestionar paquetes o partes de paquetes,

• Ayudar al usuario en la fragmentación de paquetes que deben ser distribuidos a través de un medio de tamaño limitado, como disquetes,

• Ayudar a los desarrolladores en la construcción de archivos de paquetes, y

• Ayudar a los usuarios en la instalación de paquetes que residen en un servidor de FTP remoto.

Las herramientas principales para la gestión de paquetes deb son:

dselect – herramienta de administración de paquetes basada en menús (alto nivel)

dpkg – instala paquetes (package-file centric)

apt-get – instala paquetes (package-archive centric, CLI APT)

tasksel – instala tareas (conjunto de paquetes)

aptitude – instala paquetes (paquetes y tareas, interfaz de APT basada en ncurses)

deity – otra interfaz para APT basada en ncurses

synaptic, gsynaptic – otras interfaces gráficas para APT

Estas herramientas no están en un mismo nivel. dselect se ejecuta encima de APT (apt-get) y dpkg.

En cuanto a la dependencia entre paquetes, tenemos que apt-get obtiene automáticamente los paquetes que dependen entre sí (depends) pero ignora los paquetes recomendados (recommends) y sugeridos (suggests). dselect, en cambio, ofrece un control más avanzado de los paquetes basado en menús que ofrece la posibilidad de elegir paquetes basándose en depends, recommends y suggests. aptitude tiene la opción de descargar todos los paquetes automáticamente basándose en depends, recommends y suggests.

Algunas herramientas prácticas son:

apt-cache – búsqueda de paquetes en el caché local

dpkg-reconfigure – vuelve a configurar un paquete ya instalado (si utiliza debconf)

dpkg-source – se encarga de los archivos fuentes

dpkg-buildpackage – automatiza la creación de un paquete

Algunos Ejemplos. La mayoría de estas órdenes deben ser ejecutadas como root, si aun no nos hemos hecho con la cuenta de administrador, en la consola escribir lo siguiente: su [Intro] y luego la contraseña de nuestro superusuario.

su (Switch User – Cambiar de usuario) Si no se especifica ningún parámetro el sistema asumirá que queremos cambiarnos a la cuenta de root. Para cambiarnos a una cuenta distinta a la del superusuario debemos ejecutar la siguiente orden: su nombre_del_usuario [Intro]

Ejemplos

- apt-get install nombre_del_programa –> Para instalar un programa

- apt-get remove nombre_del_programa –> Para eliminarlo

- apt-get update –> Para actualizar la información de los paquetes

- apt-get upgrade –> Para actualizar el sistema

- apt-get dist-upgrade –> Para actualizar el sistema entre distintas versiones de Debian GNU/Linux

- apt-get install -s nombre_del_programa –> Para simular la instalación de un programa

- apt-cache show nombre_del_programa –> Para consultar la información de un programa

- apt-cache showpkg nombre_del_programa –> Para consultar dependencias

- apt-cache search texto –> Para buscar un texto determinado entre los programas disponibles

- apt-cache depends nombre_del_programa –> Mostrar dependencias con respecto a un programa

- dpkg -i nombre_paquet.deb –> Instala un deb.

- dpkg -l –> Lista paquetes instalados.

- dpkg-reconfigure nombre_paquete –> Reconfigura paquete.

- dpkg -I nombre_paquete.deb –> Información fichero.

- dpkg -r nombre_paquete –> Borra paquete isntalado.

- dpkg –purge nombre_paquete –> Borrado más exaustivo, también borra los ficheros de configuración del paquete.

Para más detalle acerca estas herramientas (funcionamiento, parámetros, etc) Activar la ayuda desde la línea de comandos. Por ejemplo.

arnaldo@tatsu: man apt-cache

Personalizando nuestro Fluxbox

Por tratarse de un Window Manager no disponemos de muchas de las funcionalidades que ofrece un sistema de escritorio, de modo que no contamos, con: Fondos de Pantalla, Iconos, opciones para arrastrar y soltar objetos en el escritorio, etc. Sin embargo, haciendo uso de ciertos programas podemos disponer de muchas de estas características.

- Ajustando el Fondo de Pantalla

Fluxbox cuenta con una aplicación llamada fbsetbg para configurar el fondo de pantalla. fbsetbg es el wrapper (script lanzador de programas) encargado de mantener una imagen en el fondo del escritorio. Cuando se lanza (fbsetbg) éste busca en nuestro sistema alguno de los siguientes setter, es decir, programas que colocan una imagen en el fondo del escritorio:

Esetroot
wmsetbg
feh
hsetroot
chbg
display
qiv
xv
xsri
xli
xsetbg

El orden es el mejor primero y el peor por último. Para hacer funcionar todo adecuadamente, se ha de elegir uno al principio de la lista. Usaremos Feh dado que es pequeño y muy eficiente, así que procedemos a instalarlo:

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ su

password:

tatsu:home/arnaldo# apt-get install feh

Terminada la instalación, podemos verificar que feh es el setter a utilizar, lo hacemos desde la línea de comandos:

tatsu:home/arnaldo# fbsetbg -i

Feh is a nice wallpapersetter. You won’t have any problems.

En caso de no contar con un setter se obtendrá el siguiente mensaje:

display doesn’t set the wallpaper properly. Transparency for fluxbox
and apps like aterm and xchat won’t work right with it. Consider
installing feh, wmsetbg (from windowmaker) or Esetroot (from Eterm) and
I’ll use them instead.

Bien ya tenemos nuestro setter, nos hace falta una imagen para colocarla como fondo de pantalla. Crearé un directorio llamado wallpapers en mi directorio home, en el que colocaré la imagen que baje desde la web.

tatsu:home/arnaldo# exit

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ mkdir wallpapers

Ahora si, momento de colocar la imagen que descargamos como fondo de pantalla, lo hacemos de la siguiente manera:

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ fbsetbg -f ~/wallpapers/debian.png

El resultado será algo como esto.

Si en este punto decidimos reiniciar nuestro sistema, durante el próximo inicio de sesión notaremos que el fondo que recién configuramos ya no está disponible. Para evitar que nuestro fondo desaparezca, tenemos que editar el archivo ~/.fluxbox/init

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ nano .fluxbox/init
Y agregamos el siguiente texto:

session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -l

Nota: En versiones de Fluxbox posteriores a 0.9.15 (Nuestro caso), session.screen0.rootCommand ha sido eliminado según tengo entendido por razones de seguridad, por lo que recomiendan agregar la orden fbsetbg -l al archivo ./fluxbox/startup yo lo he probado y no me ha funcionado por eso recurrí a la forma de hacerlo en versiones anteriores de Fluxbox.

- Monitor del Sistema

Utilizaremos gkrellm (soporta plugins y temas) así que procedemos a instalarlo:

tatsu:home/arnaldo# gkrellm gkrellm-leds gkrellm-reminder gkrellm-volume gkrellshoot

Si queremos que arranque automáticamente cada vez que iniciamos sesión, debemos editar el archivo ~/.fluxbox/init

Así que ubicamos la línea session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -l

y adicionamos lo siguiente & gkrellm nos debe quedar de la siguiente manera:

session.screen0.rootCommand: fbsetbg -l & gkrellm

Si queremos ejecutar programas al inicio de cada sesión, solo debemos agregarlos a la línea antes indicada; separando cada programa con el símbolo & por ejemplo, podríamos instalar xscreensaver e iniciarlo en cada sesión, de la misma forma en que hemos iniciado gkrellm (otra forma de hacerlo es editar el archivo ~/.fluxbox/startup este archivo tiene ejemplos, por lo que no resultará complicado, si nos decidimos por esta opción)

En este punto nuestro sistema tiene el siguiente aspecto

Para configurar gkrellm, sobre él, hacemos con el botón izquierdo del mouse y nos mostrará un popmenu, ya es cosa de cada quien ajustar este monitor de sistema a sus necesidades. Por ejemplo, pueden cambiar su ancho, decirle que recuerde su posición en pantalla en posteriores inicios de sesiones, que no aparezca en el toolbar, etc. Incluso si no les gusta el tema lo pueden cambiar.

Cambiemos el tema, lo primero es descargarnos un tema que sea de nuestro agrado, lo hacemos desde el siguiente sitio

El archivo que descarguemos lo guardamos en el directorio:

~/.gkrellm2/themes

Debemos descomprimir el archivo:

arnaldo@tatsu:~/.gkrellm2/themes$ tar -zxvf CoplandOS.gkrellm.tar.gz

Para cambiar el tema, vamos a las opciones de configuración de gkrellm y seleccionamos el temas que deseemos, También pulsando las tevlas AvPag y RePag podemos cambiar rápidamente de temas.

Respecto al toolbar, podemos configurar sus atributos, haciendo clic (botón izquierdo del mouse) de esta manera podemos cambiar los valores por defecto, ancho, posición, etc. Para modificar los atributos cuyos valores sean numéricos, lo hacemos con la ruedita del mouse.

- Atajos de teclas

Por defecto Fluxbox nos ofrece unas pocas combinaciones, si queremos agregar nuevos atajos, debemos editar el archivo ~/.fluxbox/keys y agregar líneas considerando lo siguinete:

Combinación de teclas : Aplicación Parámetros

Teclas Especiales

Mod1 se conoce normalmente como la tecla “Alt”

Mod4 es la tecla (windows/super).

Control es Control

Shift es mayúscula

Acciones que pueden ser asignadas a las teclas:

Un ejemplo bastante completo del archivo ~/.fluxbox/keys

  1  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  2  !
  3  ! file   : $HOME/.fluxbox/keys
  4  ! about  : fluxbox key bindings
  5  ! author : mathias gumz <akira at fluxbox dot org>
  6  !          ( ak|ra or akira )
  7  !
  8  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  9  !
 10  !  hints:
 11  !
 12  !  o syntax of the fluxbox-keys-file:
 13  !
 14  !       <mod> [<mod> <mod>] key [key key] :command <commanoptions>
 15  !
 16  !    so, what is a <mod> ? its called "modifier" and you can use
 17  !    'xmodmap -pm' to see, what modifiers are available. if you 
 18  !    dont want to press any "modifier" then use 'None'
 19  !
 20  !  o what are those $XTERM, $EDITOR entries?
 21  !
 22  !    if you set a variable like XTERM to a sane value like
 23  !    "xterm" before fluxbox comes up, fluxbox would use that
 24  !    variable in the :ExecCommand. one can use the :Export or 
 25  !    :Setenv command to change that variable on the fly... eg to
 26  !    "urxvt" or "aterm".
 27  !
 28  !  o you can find a valid syntaxfile for vim here:
 29  !
 30  !       http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=882
 31  !       http://darkshed.net/files/vim/syntax/fluxkeys.vim
 32  !
 33  !    if you like it, rate it. (if not too  )
 34  !
 35  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 36
 37  Control Mod4 Delete       :Reconfigure
 38  Control Mod4 Shift Delete :Restart
 39
 40  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 41  !
 42  !  menus
 43  !
 44  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 45  None Menu                 :RootMenu
 46  Control Menu              :WorkspaceMenu
 47  Control Mod4 Menu         :WindowMenu
 48
 49  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 50  !
 51  !  frame - handling
 52  !
 53  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 54  Mod4 Left                 :PrevTab
 55  Mod4 Right                :NextTab
 56  Shift Mod4 d              :DetachClient
 57  Shift Mod4 Left           :MoveTabLeft
 58  Shift Mod4 Right          :MoveTabRight
 59
 60  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 61  !
 62  !  window - handling
 63  !
 64  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 65  Mod4 s                    :Stick
 66  Mod4 q                    :Minimize
 67  Shift Mod4 q              :Deiconify LastWorkspace
 68  Control Shift Mod4 q      :Deiconify Last OriginQuiet
 69  Control Shift Mod1 Mod4 q :Deiconify All OriginQuiet
 70  Mod1 Control q            :Close
 71  Mod4 d                    :ToggleDecor
 72  Mod4 f                    :Shade
 73
 74  Mod1 Up                   :RaiseLayer
 75  Mod1 Down                 :LowerLayer
 76
 77  Control Mod4 1            :SetHead 1
 78  Control Mod4 2            :SetHead 2
 79
 80  ! 1 - cycle groups
 81  ! 2 - skip stuck
 82  ! 4 - skip shaded
 83  ! 8 - cycle linear
 84  ! 0 - cycle default
 85
 86  Mod1 Tab                  :NextWindow 1
 87  Mod1 Shift Tab            :PrevWindow 1
 88
 89  Shift Mod1 Mod4 Up        :FocusUp
 90  Shift Mod1 Mod4 Down      :FocusDown
 91  Shift Mod1 Mod4 Left      :FocusLeft
 92  Shift Mod1 Mod4 Right     :FocusRight
 93
 94  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 95  !
 96  ! accessibility + mousehandling
 97  !
 98  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 99
100  Control Mod1 a            :ExecCommand accessx
101  Control Mod1 Mod4 m       :ExecCommand ax +mousekeys
102  Control Mod1 m            :ExecCommand ax -mousekeys
103
104  Control Mod4 KP_Home      :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp  -50 -50
105  Control Mod4 KP_Up        :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp    0 -50
106  Control Mod4 KP_Prior     :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp   50 -50
107  Control Mod4 KP_Left      :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp  -50   0
108  Control Mod4 KP_Right     :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp   50   0
109  Control Mod4 KP_End       :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp  -50  50
110  Control Mod4 KP_Down      :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp    0  50
111  Control Mod4 KP_Next      :ExecCommand xwit -rwarp   50  50
112
113
114
115  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
116  !
117  !  workspace - handling
118  !
119  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
120  !Control Mod4 Right        :RightWorkspace
121  !Control Mod4 Left         :LeftWorkspace
122  Control Mod4 Right        :NextWorkspace 
123  Control Mod4 Left         :PrevWorkspace 
124  Control Mod4 Down         :RightWorkspace 3
125  Control Mod4 Up           :LeftWorkspace 3
126
127  Mod4 KP_Home              :Workspace 1
128  Mod4 KP_Up                :Workspace 2
129  Mod4 KP_Prior             :Workspace 3
130  Mod4 KP_Left              :Workspace 4
131  Mod4 KP_Begin             :Workspace 5
132  Mod4 KP_Right             :Workspace 6
133  Mod4 KP_End               :Workspace 7
134  Mod4 KP_Down              :Workspace 8
135  Mod4 KP_Next              :Workspace 9
136  Mod4 KP_0                 :ExecCommand fbcmd_osd.sh print ws_name
137
138  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
139  !
140  ! resize / movement of window
141  !
142  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
143  Control Mod1 Right        :MoveRight 10
144  Control Mod1 Left         :MoveLeft 10
145  Control Mod1 Up           :MoveUp 10
146  Control Mod1 Down         :MoveDown 10
147
148  Control Mod1 KP_Home      :Move -50 -50
149  Control Mod1 KP_Up        :Move   0 -50
150  Control Mod1 KP_Prior     :Move  50 -50
151  Control Mod1 KP_Left      :Move -50   0
152  Control Mod1 KP_Right     :Move  50   0
153  Control Mod1 KP_End       :Move -50  50
154  Control Mod1 KP_Down      :Move   0  50
155  Control Mod1 KP_Next      :Move  50  50
156
157  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Home         :Resize -10 -10
158  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Up           :Resize   0 -10
159  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Prior        :Resize  10 -10
160  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Left         :Resize -10   0
161  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Right        :Resize  10   0
162  Mod4 Mod1 KP_End          :Resize -10  10
163  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Down         :Resize   0  10
164  Mod4 Mod1 KP_Next         :Resize  10  10
165
166  Mod4 Mod1 Left            :Resize -1    0
167  Mod4 Mod1 Right           :Resize  1    0
168  Mod4 Mod1 Up              :Resize  0   -1
169  Mod4 Mod1 Down            :Resize  0    1
170
171  Shift Mod1 Left           :MoveTo 0 * Left
172  Shift Mod1 Right          :MoveTo 0 * Right
173  Shift Mod1 Up             :MoveTo * 0 Upper
174  Shift Mod1 Down           :MoveTo * 0 Lower
175
176  Shift Mod1 KP_Home        :MoveTo 0 0 UpperLeft
177  Shift Mod1 KP_Up          :MoveTo * 0 Upper
178  Shift Mod1 KP_Prior       :MoveTo 0 0 UpperRight
179  Shift Mod1 KP_Left        :MoveTo 0 * Left
180  Shift Mod1 KP_Right       :MoveTo 0 * Right
181  Shift Mod1 KP_End         :MoveTo 0 0 LowerLeft
182  Shift Mod1 KP_Down        :MoveTo * 0 Lower
183  Shift Mod1 KP_Next        :MoveTo 0 0 LowerRight
184
185  Mod1 Return               :MaximizeWindow
186  Shift Mod4 s              :MaximizeVertical
187  Control Mod1 s            :MaximizeHorizontal
188  Control Mod4 f            :Fullscreen
189  Control Mod4 p            :TakeToNextWorkspace 1
190  Control Mod4 o            :TakeToPrevWorkspace 1
191  Control Mod1 p            :SendToNextWorkspace 1
192  Control Mod1 o            :SendToPrevWorkspace 1
193
194
195  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
196  !
197  ! execute commands
198  !
199  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
200
201  Control Mod4 KP_Enter     :ExecCommand xcalc
202  Control Mod4 a            :ExecCommand $XTERM
203  Control Mod1 1            :ExecCommand urxvt-rc
204  Control Mod4 c            :ExecCommand $XCALC
205  Control Mod4 d            :ExecCommand date | osd_cat -c white -f -*-lucida-medium-r-*-*-20-*-*-*-*-*-*-* -o 20 -p top -A center
206  Control Mod4 e            :ExecCommand licqsh -o
207  Control Mod4 l            :ExecCommand alock -bg blank -auth sha1:hash=8843d7f92416211de9ebb963ff4ce28125932878
208  Control Mod4 m            :ExecCommand quax
209  Control Mod4 q            :ExecCommand $BROWSER
210  Control Mod4 x            :ExecCommand fbrun -nearmouse -font Matto -w 500 -h 50
211  Control Shift b           :ExecCommand fbrun -nearmouse -font Matto -title "enter url..." -text "$BROWSER http://www." -w 500 -h 50 -hf ~/.fluxbox/browse_history
212  !Mod4 colon                :CommandDialog
213  Control Mod4 y            :ExecCommand $XTERM -name mutt -title "mutt : mails" -e mutt
214  Control Mod4 s            :ExecCommand $XTERM -name abook -T "addresses" -e abook
215  Control Shift Mod4 c      :ExecCommand xcalendar
216  Control Shift Mod4 e      :ExecCommand env | sort | xmessage -file -
217  Mod4 Mod1 d               :ExecCommand ding
218  Mod4 c                    :ExecCommand xclipboard
219  Mod4 g                    :ExecCommand gentoo
220  Mod4 e                    :ExecCommand $EDITOR
221  Mod4 n                    :ExecCommand $EDITOR $HOME/.notes
222  Mod4 t                    :ExecCommand $EDITOR $HOME/.todo/
223  Mod4 x                    :ExecCommand xmag
224  Mod1 Mod4 x               :ExecCommand wmagnify
225
226  !
227  ! soundkungfoo - volume control
228  !
229
230  ! sound stuff, basicly control the volume via amixer (alsa)
231  Mod4 m                    :ExecCommand amixer -a sset Master,0 toggle 2&>1 > /dev/null
232  Mod4 Shift a              :ExecCommand aprofile_ctl.sh -m set_volume 5%+
233  Mod4 Shift y              :ExecCommand aprofile_ctl.sh -m set_volume 5%-
234  Control Shift Mod4 a      :ExecCommand $XTERM -name alsamixer -e alsamixer
235  Control Shift Mod1 Mod4 a :ExecCommand alsamixergui
236
237  ! switch between normal / headphone settings
238  Control Mod4 n            :ExecCommand aprofile_ctl.sh -m switch -p normal
239  Control Mod4 h            :ExecCommand aprofile_ctl.sh -m switch -p headphones
240
241  !
242  ! skip bad songs quickly  
243  Mod4 Tab                  :ExecCommand MPD_HOST=localhost MPD_PORT=6600 mpc next &> /dev/null
244  Control Mod4 Tab          :ExecCommand MPD_HOST=localhost MPD_PORT=6600 mpc prev &> /dev/null
245  Mod4 1                    :ExecCommand MPD_HOST=localhost MPD_PORT=6600 mpc toggle &> /dev/null
246  Mod1 Shift a              :ExecCommand MPD_HOST=localhost MPD_PORT=6600 mpc volume +10 &> /dev/null
247  Mod1 Shift y              :ExecCommand MPD_HOST=localhost MPD_PORT=6600 mpc volume -10 &> /dev/null
248
249  ! screenshots
250  ! xmodmap -pke | grep -i print => xmodmap -e "keycode 111 = F13"
251  ! => i press "Print" and it dumps the screen  
252  None F13                  :ExecCommand sleep 1 && scrot -s -q 75 'shot-%Y-%m-%d-%H%M%S-$w-$h.jpg'
253
254  !
255  ! dvd / cdcontrol stuff
256  !
257
258  Mod4 plus                 :ExecCommand cdctrl speed 32 /dev/dvd
259  Mod4 minus                :ExecCommand cdctrl speed 4 /dev/dvd
260  Control Mod4 plus         :ExecCommand cdctrl close /dev/dvd
261  Control Mod4 minus        :ExecCommand cdctrl open /dev/dvd
262
263  Shift Mod4 plus           :ExecCommand cdctrl speed 32 /dev/cdrom
264  Shift Mod4 minus          :ExecCommand cdctrl speed 4 /dev/cdrom
265  Control Shift Mod4 plus   :ExecCommand cdctrl close /dev/cdrom
266  Control Shift Mod4 minus  :ExecCommand cdctrl open /dev/cdrom
267
268
269  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
270  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
271  !
272  ! below this line only experimental stuff is listed. its not supposed to WORK
273  !
274  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
275  !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
276  !
277  !Shift Mod4 p :FocusTo (xterm)
278  !Shift Mod4 o  umpTheme
279
280  !Mod4 p m                   lace max_space allow_smaller
281  !Mod4 p v                   lace expand_vertical allow_smaller
282  !Mod4 p V                   lace max_vertical_space allow_smaller
283  !Mod4 p h                   lace expand_horizontal allow_smaller
284  !Mod4 p H                   lace max_horizontal_space allow_smaller
285  !Mod4 p g                   lace draw_grid
286
287  Control Mod4 colon :FocusCommandTool
288
289  Mod1 x p :ExecCommand urxvt -tint red
290
291  ! attention: the next command is just to show that syntax-hl in vim works
292  Control Mod1 Mod4 x :MacroCmd {Exec xterm} {Move 10 10} {Exec bla} {Move 10 10}
293
294  !Mod1 t v :TileVertical 3
295  !Mod1 t s :TileHorizontal 3
296  Mod1 t w :ArrangeWindows
297
298
299  Mod4 Mod1 p            :CycleDecor
300
301  ! vim:ft=fluxkeys

- Agregando iconos

Utilizaremos idesk,así que procedemos a instalarlo.

tatsu:home/arnaldo# apt-get install idesk

Terminada la instalación, con el editor de nuestra preferencia procedemos a crear el el archivo .ideskrc en nuestro directorio home.
tatsu:home/arnaldo# exit

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ vim .ideskrc
Dentro de .ideskrc debemos colocar lo siguiente:

 table Config
   FontName: tahoma
   FontSize: 8
   FontColor: #ffffff
   Locked: false
   Transparency: 150
   HighContrast: true
   Shadow: true
   ShadowColor: #000000
   ShadowX: 1
   ShadowY: 2
   Bold: false
   ClickDelay: 300
   IconSnap: true
   SnapWidth: 55
   SnapHeight: 100
   SnapOrigin: BottomRight
   SnapShadow: true
   SnapShadowTrans: 200
   CaptionOnHover: false
 end
 table Actions
   Lock: control right doubleClk
   Reload: middle doubleClk
   Drag: left hold
   EndDrag: left singleClk
   Execute[0]: left doubleClk
   Execute[1]: right doubleClk
 end

Los valores de los atributos los podemos cambiar, para más detalles sobre los valores que pueden tomar los atributos debemos revisar el archivo README que se encuentra en el directorio /usr/share/doc/idesk

Ahora mostraremos en pantalla nuestros iconos, ademas asociaremos una acción a cada uno de ellos.  En nuestro home debemos crear el directorio .idesktop

arnaldo@tatsu:~$ mkdir .idesktop

Dentro de .idesktop colocaremos archivos con extensión lnk, el formato sería algo así: nombre_del_archivo.lnk
Creemos uno:
arnaldo@tatsu:~/.idesktop$ vim home.lnk

Dentro de home.lnk colocamos lo siguiente:

 table Icon
   Caption: home
   Command: rox-filer
   Icon: /home/Tu_Usuario/imagenes/iconos/home.png
   Height: 40
   Width: 40
   X: 100
   Y: 50
 end

Caption: El nombre que queremos mostrar

Command: La aplicación que queremos ejecutar, en este caso para la gestión de archivos, tenemos rox-filer.

Icon: Debemos indicar la ubicación del icono que deseamos utilizar.

Height: Atributo para controlar el alto del icono mostrada.

Width: Atributo para controlar el ancho del icono mostrado.

X: Posición horizontal.

Y: Posición Vertical

Ahora solo nos falta ejecutar idesk:

arnaldo@tatsu:~/.idesktop$ idesk &

Para que se ejecute cuando iniciemos fluxbox, debemos agregar idesk en el archivo ~/.fluxbox/init

específicamente en la linea: session.screen0.rootCommand

Debemos tener algo así:

session.screen0.rootCommand: gkrellm & fbsetbg -l & idesk

Listo!!!! el resto es imaginación, aquí les dejo un screenshot de mi configuración personal.

Si les interesan los iconos, temas, etc. Escríbanme y se los hago llegar…

After upgrading to ubuntu gutsy, i came to think that it is much bloated for my pc.
Switched to Xubuntu.. and think its great

Update:

I tried to edit somehow my desktop, this time with conky and compressed my panel…

Here is my conkyrc, edited it a little bit, source from ubuntuforums, lots of 733t there:

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_hints undecorated,below,skip_taskbar, sticky
#own_window_type yes
background no

${offset 240}${color slate grey}FAT: ${color }${fs_free /media/hda1}/${fs_size /media/hda1}
${offset 240}${fs_bar 3,100 /media/hda1}
${offset 240}${color slate grey}NET:
${offset 240}${color}Up: ${color }${upspeed eth0} k/s
${offset 240}${upspeedgraph eth0 20,130 000000 ffffff}
${offset 240}${color}Down: ${color }${downspeed eth0}k/s${color}
${offset 240}${downspeedgraph eth0 20,130 000000 ffffff}