One channel #IRC for JWM

[holmeslinux]

hi guys and Joe, what do you think of creating a channel #IRC to discuss things JWM?

for example, i tested the iso Torios and i would say and ask a few thing for Israel.

i do not know if the GitHub would at this!

what do you think?

vlw fwi, Holmes :)

[ghost]

@holmeslinux there is #torios on freenode. I am usually there.

[kafran]

Hey guys. I would like to try to build a desktop environment on top of JWM myself. What set of applications do you recommend to use with?

[ghost]

@kafran what distro are you using? If you are using Ubuntu/Debian you can install the ToriOS PPA and tweak what it gives you.

I personally like using pcmanfm, the x11 apps, imagemagick, and scripts/yad/zenity for most everything else. With ToriOS we have a startup script that runs JWM and automatically starts things (most stuff in the /etc/xdg-autostart) as well as sets some environment variables I also have a nice xdg menu for jwm (it reads your /usr/share/applications and the local folder as well) plus it will localize the content automatically if you have the language variable set, and a localization works. @holmeslinux has a pretty nice setup as well, and uses conky to give the desktop a good look as well. The Manjaro JWM distro was quite pretty last time I used it!!

Puppy uses a bunch of stripped down programs, and has some of their own utilites, but most require gtk-dialog. The filemanager they use is Rox, though rox is no longer maintained and requires some ingenuity to mount drives!

If you want specifics please ask

[kafran]

Hey @Israel- thanks for answering. I will take a look at TorinOS PPA. For sure @holmeslinux did a good job with Manjaro JWM, it made me want to try JWM =).

Right now I'm on Xubuntu on my notebook and I want to try JWM on my netbook, if I like it and adapt to it I will try to install it on my notebook too. Things seems to be really fast on JWM and also I want to learn how things works.

With ToriOS we have a startup script that runs JWM and automatically starts things (most stuff in the /etc/xdg-autostart) as well as sets some environment variables. I also have a nice xdg menu for jwm (it reads your /usr/share/applications and the local folder as well) plus it will localize the content automatically if you have the language variable set, and a localization works.

This is where I need help, as I usually just install Xubuntu and everything is working. For example, there are things I don't even know if I need it. So... a DE is basically: (1) a panel, (2) a session manager, (3) a window manager, (4) a compositing manager, (5) a desktop (login) manager. And a few useful tools: (6) a network/wireless manager, (7) a bluetooth manager, (8) a clipboard manager, (9) a power manager, (10) a sound manager and (11) an app launcher. Right? Well, at least this is what I have. Now the question: 1) The panel and the window management the JWM provides. So... 2) Do I need a session manager? Like xfce4-session or lxqt-session, etc? 4) Do I need compositing? xfwm seems to have compositing. I had screen tearing when scrolling on Firefox and with videos, but I solved this enabling TearFree option on Xorg for intel driver. Well, this kind of trouble seems to be related to compositing. So, do I need to install compton or something like this? 5) Do I need a desktop (login) manager? It seems we have only LightDM as DE-Agnostic desktop manager. I'm the only user on the machine, so, I don't know if this is really useful. Well, at least its more beautiful then the tty login. Maybe this is the kind of thing you never know when you gonna need until you need it, for example for a guest user. Am I right? There is the XDM too, but people seems to prefer LightDM. 6) Network/Wireless manager. Everybody except KDE seems to use gnome network manager. Am I right? This seems to be the only/better option. 7) Bluetooth manager. I'm lost here, I use what Xubuntu provides to connect my mouse and phone. I don't even know how they achieve this. 8) Clipboard manager. I use the XFCE one. I like it a lot. Is it possible to use this one with JWM or is there a better option? 9) Power manager. Well, I use what XFCE provides. It seems I can use the same tool on JWM, is that right? Or is there a better option? I really need this, all my machines are battery powered. 10) Sound manager. Pulse/Alsa?? I have no idea what are these about, but this seems to be an area of debate on linux world. It seems like Xfce4 mixer and Xfce4 volumed are no longer being maintained upstream, well... on Xubuntu sound just works and I can raise volume with keyboard volume key, change the sound to HDMI/Headphone/etc. (= 11) App launcher. Probably I'm gonna use Rofi, I really like it =), simple, easy and beautiful. I like the simplicity of GMRun too but it fails to search, you need to know the exact name of the app, for example you can't type just 'calc' you need to type 'gnome-calculator'. I hardly use the Menu. It would be nice to have something simple and fast as Rofi but like the Gnome Shell Launcher where I can do math and search for files, worldwide time, etc. Is there something like this?

Well, this is it =) this is what I (think) need to have a functional computer. Then I can install the apps I'm used to. As you can see, I'm not used to the terminal.

Thank you for your time.

Just a note: Hey @Israel- , about the Menu I remembered the Debian JWM maintainer have an issue opened: https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=735607 I think you're the guy to help =).

[ghost]

Hi @kafran You have the basic idea right! The DE is comprised of the applications, window manager, tray/panel, and the session manager For ToriOS it is a script (possibly xfce uses a script as well...) others use a binary (lxsession,gnome-session). A display manager is nice to have for login/logout, but it is not needed (you can log in through the console and run your startup program, like starttorios OR startx), but since you are not into the terminal stay with lightdm since you are used to it. Others (SLiM,xdm, etc...) can work fine, but require more effort and don't provide all the same features (which can be good or bad) A power manager is nice, but I have a yad script that does the same thing, as well as a volume icon, though the program volumeicon-alsa (in ubuntu) is quite nice and simple. However you will need at least ALSA, though Pulseaudio/jack have their own uses as well. To raise/lower volume you will need a) a script to do this and set it to run in a JWM keybinding for example (my jwmrc)

    <Key key="XF86AudioMute">exec:amixer-toggle</Key>
    <Key key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">exec:amixer-up</Key>
    <Key key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">exec:amixer-down</Key>

At one time I had built a simple app launcher in FLTK I will dig around for it and see if I can find it and update it some. It worked fairly well to do simple searches for apps, and display an icon as well. compositor is not needed. I don't use bluetooth, so... that is something I'd have to research

For network you can use network-manager, though there is a lighter program called wicd-gtk that works quite well. But if you like network-manager then feel free to use it.

I don't use a clipboard manager, but copy/paste works fine for me. I also like the 'middle click' paste

About the Debian bug: @samueloph is active here sometimes, and has worked quite diligently to get JWM updated into Debian. I have also helped him bring the packaging up to date to provide support for svg/jpeg/png/etc.. and offered the use of my programs in Debian. We have an open channel to communicate, but both of us are quite busy :smile:

[holmeslinux]

hello all, maybe you could run the isos (Manjaro and ToriOS) and see the applications. also i suggest the git Manjaro JWM. there you will have the applications of information (https://github.com/holmeslinux/Manjaro-JWM/blob/master/Packages-Jwm). i left the project Manjaro JWM because i had problems with Calamares (graphical installer). the latest updates of profile Manjaro JWM are in git. same not creating iso, i will update the profile.

vlw fwi, Holmes :)

[samueloph]

Hi all,

Did someone summon me? XD

Indeed i'm always following the discussions here and Israel helped me a lot in fixing up JWM, unfortunately i'm not so quick replying and there's still a lot of things that could improve JWM experience on Debian, i still have a lot of things to study from Israel (which i still have one email pending to reply) and Holmes's changes to make this happen.

Anyway, JWM is maintained under collab-maint on Debian, so any help is highly appreciated.

@holmeslinux I told my friend (@tiagorlampert) about Manjaro's JWM and he's right now testing it next to me, i'm quite amazed by how nice it is cooked.

edit-> I've just realised that me, holmes and kafran are brazilians, fala aí galera :) and now i understood the part "same not creating iso, i will update the profile", i think you mean "even" instead of "same" (the portuguese literal translation of these words is the same but the semantic value differs).

About the IRC, maybe a mailing list would fit better? I think it would be better, considering a lot of people will make use of the archives.

[ghost]

There is #jwm on freenode "Weclome to the official JWM (Joe's Window Manager) channel. Main topic is JWM but no topic is really restricted" :smile:

[holmeslinux]

great IRC #jwm i'm going in!

vlw fwi, Holmes :)

[ghost]

@joewing Since freenode has a #JWM channel, I think this can be closed