Get the Linux desktop you always wanted in 10 easy steps!

Discussion in 'Linux' started by rjm, Sep 28, 2008.

  1. rjm

    elf69

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2008
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    This worked great!

    but now my repostitory library has gone!

    I cannot install or uninstall things...

    any help?
     
    elf69, Oct 1, 2008
    #21
  2. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    Jeepers... you mean all of it? How on earth did you manage that...

    Mine works just fine. You do realize you have to be connected to the internet to open the package manager or install/remove software? And it must be a clear connection, not proxied.
     
    rjm, Oct 1, 2008
    #22
  3. rjm

    avel3976

    Joined:
    Aug 12, 2008
    Messages:
    4
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    HI All
    Just wanted to say a big thank you to everyone on this forum. I am a newbie who is now in love with linux. Learning everyday and so glad that there are so many helpful people out there!
    Happy Linux User :D :D :D :D
     
    avel3976, Oct 1, 2008
    #23
  4. rjm

    elf69

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2008
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    you do not have to be online to open the manager....
    you do to install anything....

    I have no ieda what happened...
    I folloed the instructions on the forum to the letter!!!

    it tells me I can redownload it...

    It asks where to get it from...
    or should I restore it and to it all over again?
    I love the new look... much better than the acer style.....

    now why didnt acer do this to start with?
     
    elf69, Oct 1, 2008
    #24
  5. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    I would follow along and redownload it, just to see where it leads and on the slight chance it fixes it.

    If it doesn't work its usually quicker in the long run to give up, restore, and start from the beginning.

    I don't know what you did, the only possible thing I can imagine is the step where you move .config/desktop/xfce4 and xfce4-session, if you had a typo and moved all of desktop rather than the subdirectories... or something along those lines. xfce4-session.rc and xfdesktop have nothing to do with the software installer...
     
    rjm, Oct 1, 2008
    #25
  6. rjm

    elf69

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2008
    Messages:
    11
    Likes Received:
    0
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    I would follow along with the download but it want to know where to download it from...
    and where to put it...

    It took me ages to do this mod (im a little slow and new to linux)
    back to square one I suppose...

    I dont think I made a typo...
    i followed the instruction as good as I can (i think)

    But many thanks guys...

    Time to restore and start again...
    only 20 mins with an external CD rom, not bad...
     
    elf69, Oct 1, 2008
    #26
  7. rjm

    jccguays

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2008
    Messages:
    36
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Spain
    Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

    Thanks, I found it
     
    jccguays, Oct 1, 2008
    #27
  8. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Update: I edited the original post to make it easier to follow.

    With regards to some of the issues people are reporting, could people who complete the mod please confirm that they don't have the same problem? i.e. you can use the package manager ok and USB drives mount automatically. My machine works fine, but I'd like to confirm that the instructions I wrote are correct.
     
    rjm, Oct 2, 2008
    #28
  9. rjm

    blackhawk

    Joined:
    Aug 19, 2008
    Messages:
    122
    Likes Received:
    0
    For me, the easiest way is change /etc/rc.d/rc.S to:
    Code:
    ...
    #   echo noX
    #   /usr/bin/xinit -- -br>/dev/null 2>&1 &
       /usr/sbin/gdm
    #   sleep 1
    #else 
    ...
    
    and then installing KDE:
    Code:
    $ sudo yum install kdebase
    $ sudo yum install kdeutils
    
    Reboot, select KDE as the default desktop in GDM. KDE very user friendly, have many advance feature and fast enough on AA1. The latest version (3.5.10-1.fc8) faster than the stock FC8 release on AA1.
     
    blackhawk, Oct 2, 2008
    #29
  10. rjm

    Cesium

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2008
    Messages:
    26
    Likes Received:
    0
    rjm

    i've modded my system according to your original walk through and I'm not having any problems with the package manager- everything works as it always has. USB on the other hand isn't so good. Doesn't mount in thunar automatically. If I plug it in and then click from standard to advanced mode it will show up, but it wouldn't otherwise. Not sure why.

    Does anybody know what designation (sdb, sda, etc...) each one of the usb ports is given? I'd like to see if I can get into my usb drives by just going through /mnt/etc...

    edit-
    ok- i have no idea why, but it's now automounting again. Can't explain why it wouldn't work one minute, but would the next.
     
    Cesium, Oct 2, 2008
    #30
  11. rjm

    jccguays

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2008
    Messages:
    36
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Spain
    Hi,

    As Cesium had, I'm having the same problem with USB, but I don't mind to chech Thunar to advanced mode, only I would like to find where I can fix advanced mode in Thunar forever.

    About the USB ports, I know that the one close to the storage expansion is sdb, and the hard drive is sda. The others I don't have any idea because one of them I use for a mouse and the other I don't normally use.

    Regards
     
    jccguays, Oct 2, 2008
    #31
  12. rjm

    RTB

    Joined:
    Aug 24, 2008
    Messages:
    5
    Likes Received:
    0
    Many thanks for this. I really did not like acer's desktop much. Also to customise it was a pain. The clean desktop really changes the look and feel of the aspire one for the better. Sadly I guess we have been a bit brainwashed by the look of w**d**s but perhaps the desktop has evolved in the right direction over the years.

    I wonder if the instruction would be improved by including steps to return to the terminal and the forum instructions after rebooting the first time. I know it is obvious that you lose the navigation to both the terminal and the browser. However, when presented with a clean screen it was not immediately obvious to me how to open the terminal (until I remembered alt F2) and also how to run the browser. Although it is possible to run the forum instructions on another computer it is useful to be able to copy and paste the command lines and code changes to pevent any errors.

    Finally does anyone know whether the changes be affected by any future live update. I had customised the acer desktop and noticed that some things reverted after the last live update.

    Thanks for help :D :D
     
    RTB, Oct 2, 2008
    #32
  13. rjm

    jccguays

    Joined:
    Jul 28, 2008
    Messages:
    36
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Spain

    Hi, you could, in the desktop, click the right button of the mouse and open a launcher for the browser, terminal, etc....

    Regards
     
    jccguays, Oct 2, 2008
    #33
  14. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    Not quite so simple I'm afraid as at that point the xfce-managed desktop hasn't been enabled so the right-click menu function doesn't work.

    Alt-F2 is your friend. I made a minor edit of the first post to emphasize that after step 5.
     
    rjm, Oct 2, 2008
    #34
  15. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    With the normal desktop free from the rescaling problems of the Acer icon boxes, you can start thinking about getting your One to work with external monitors, and, most importantly for me, projectors.

    After plugging in the display bring up the display settings dialog, from the xfce menu or by the xfce-setting-show command. This dialog now has the various options enabled. When both displays are used the resolution is still stuck at 1024x600 on both, but if you select the external display only, the list will populate with the supported resolutions.

    With no display attached to the VGA port, or the display power off, the display settings dialog will be greyed out.

    I can output Powerpoint presentations (converted from office 2007 down to office 2003 first) at 1024x768 and they look great. Tried it on both a projector and external monitor, worked flawlessly on both.

    With this the last barrier falls, my Acer One now behaves exactly like I want it to.

    I didn't have to edit the xorg.conf from the default, 1024x768 was enabled automatically. For 1280x1024 you may need to edit it as per the Jorge's guide, just increasing the virtual setting may be all that's needed.

    http://jorge.ulver.no/2008/08/06/acer-a ... nd-tricks/
     
    rjm, Oct 3, 2008
    #35
  16. rjm

    metoo1956

    Joined:
    Sep 30, 2008
    Messages:
    8
    Likes Received:
    0
    hi all
    having just got a aao (sept) i have found these pages & others very useful. sure is a steep learning curve to go from that MS system to the linux version.

    for jccguays & Cesium: the sda & sdb etc refer to scsi assignments as found on the usb chain, the sda is the main memory, but the sdb will be assigned to the next usb stick no matter which slot is used. if you look closer at the main memory you might see sba1 & sba2 the 1 & 2 suffux refers to individual partition within the device. (i also put in an 8 gig SDHC card into the expansion slot, this is seen as mmcblk0, this card is noted as not being compatable with all devices & doesn't work with my camera, card reader or windows laptop).

    for RTB : i found in 'macles.blogspot.com" :
    September 10, 2008
    Deselecting updates in the Online Updater
    Acer is still updating the system via the Online Updater, which is good. Not so good is that updates are mandatory and cannot be deselected. If you removed some applications they will be re-downloaded and re-installed whenever a patch is available for them. It is actually possible to untick updates, but only if they are marked as optional, and those are rare. Almost all of them are marked as critical. Fortunately the line below makes all updates optional. Alternatively you can also use a hex editor and edit offset 0xa950 instead.

    sudo sed -i.bak s:Critical:Optional: /usr/bin/onlineupdate

    regards to all
     
    metoo1956, Oct 3, 2008
    #36
  17. rjm

    rjm

    Joined:
    Jul 24, 2008
    Messages:
    345
    Likes Received:
    0
    [​IMG]

    Normally I don't have any desktop icons except for temporary files and shortcuts. Made a little launcher for Firefox instead and put it on the left hand side of the taskbar.
     
    rjm, Oct 4, 2008
    #37
  18. rjm

    bobynux

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2008
    Messages:
    7
    Likes Received:
    0
    Well thank you for the very usefull howto. Everything worked as a charm but point 8 didn't :

    I can't get rid of the file icons on the desktop.
    I did create the file desktoprc :

    Code:
    more ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/desktoprc
    [file-icons]
    show-filesystem=false
    show-home=false
    show-trash=false
    Any idea ? Thanks
     
    bobynux, Oct 4, 2008
    #38
  19. rjm

    Reno

    Joined:
    Aug 13, 2008
    Messages:
    28
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    Vernon BC Canada
    Since I'm a Linux newbie I am very very appreciative of the post/posts by rjm! Without this forum and the helpful people in it I would still be trying to figure out how to switch to a better desktop. Everything works great, looks great. USB stick mounts automatically when I plug it it and I can still access the Repositories. Also my wallpaper sticks on re-start. I was waiting for OneLinux to be finished but now (for the time being anyway) I am very happy with my AAO and the XFCE desktop running Firefox, Thunderbird and VLC Player.
     
    Reno, Oct 4, 2008
    #39
  20. rjm

    kapinouwi

    Joined:
    Aug 15, 2008
    Messages:
    183
    Likes Received:
    0
    Location:
    france
    hey bobynux try with this! ~/.config/xfce4/desktop/xfdesktoprc

    ;)
     
    kapinouwi, Oct 4, 2008
    #40
Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments (here). After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.