Need help with Menu bar...

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Need help with Menu bar...

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Started 11 years ago by ardvark
Latest reply from purcaribe
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ardvark

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Hi all...

A little background: I was looking around for a lightweight distro to possibly save an emachines T1090 (with a socket 370 Celeron, 256 MB's of memory and the Intel 810 graphics chipset) from being scrapped and parts sent to one of the the local computer recycling non-profits and happened to learn of yours. I burned a copy on my laptop and was able to get it installed and working pretty well (despite some glitches) but need some help to tie up some loose ends....

1. I wanted to change the time to resemble normal time display, not military, so I deleted the code that was already written in "Clock Format" under "Digital Clock Settings" and put one in that I learned from when I tried Lubunti in a system. That fixed that problem. Unfortunately, doing that led to the bottom menu and task bar disappearing after the next reboot. I Google searched and found this thread...

http://forum.slitaz.org/topic/start-menu-task-tray-bar-gone

but the instructions are a little advanced for me. While I've been using Ubuntu on my personal system for over a year now, I don't know all of the commands and tricks. I was hoping that I could get easier instructions from you all in trouble shooting this. Trixar_za tried to help me with this on IRC a little bit ago but when I followed his (possibly her) instructions and typed in "lxpanel --profile slitaz &" in Sakura, I received this message in return: "There is already an instance of LXPanel. Now to exit" and the problem remains unresolved.

2. I initially had a problem upgrading or installing new packages because the mirror address that was included in the .iso was no longer working, coming back with error messages. With information found on another thread, I was able to solve that problem. I originally installed Firefox 17 but found that it didn't work, so I installed 10. While that does work, it is too slow so I wondered if 3.6 would work better. Is there an easy way to get that version installed in SliTaz?

Speed wise, this OS works faster than the copy of Windows XP that was originally on it although I feel some fine tuning is definately necessary. Thank you in advance for the help, much appreciated! :-)

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
Aleksej

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Hi!
Side question. As far as I interested in correct SliTaz localization on existing officially supported languages, it is curious - please, tell me more about "military time" and "normal time". Where I can read more? We here, in the Ukraine have only one official format for date/time (it is varies only long/short format).

Also, tell me please what date/time codes was in the default installation, and what codes you wrote? Now I'm write using smartphone and can't check, but as far as I know date/time codes "+X +x" will give you correct format of date and time used in your (and my, and third) country. Its output is depends on your locale settings. Also, what is your country, and what locale you use?

Returning to your question. Before you run LXPanel using code above, you need to completely stop ("kill") running instances of LXPanel. Use command: killall lxpanel
Read answer. It is not a big error from your side if you tried to kill not running application. After it you can run: lxpanel -p slitaz &

Posted 11 years ago #
ardvark

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Hi Aleksej...

Thank you for your help! With the instructions you provided, I was able to get the menu bar back up. I will check to see if it stays upon reboot here in a bit. :-)

To answer your question: standard time would be, say, 10:30 pm, while the military equivelent would be 22:30, which is what SliTaz and Lubuntu defaults to upon installation. I live in the United States and the code I used was: %I:%M %P

The default installation was: %A %d %B - %R

I'm not sure what is meant by locale. Now to get Firefox taken care of! :-)

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
ardvark

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UPDATE:

The menu bar keeps disappearing after each reboot no matter what I try. This is a very serious bug that will be a "dealbreaker" for me if I can't get it fixed! I can't give this system to someone with it like this. :-(

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
Trixar_za

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Key Master

I use xfpanel myself. Since lxpanel doesn't die cleanly for you, no restart code would fix it. So just replace it with something else.

Posted 11 years ago #
mojo

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Key Master

@ardvark

the mirror address that was included in the .iso was no longer working

The iso you installed is likely not an official slitaz iso or is old and not compatible with any slitaz repo.
What is the mirror address on the iso that no longer works?
What is the download url and md5sum of the slitaz iso you installed?
If this iso is on mirror.slitaz.org I will contact the mirror administrator Pascal Bellard and request the iso be removed immediately.

Download the official slitaz 4.0 release:
http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/4.0/slitaz-4.0.iso
http://mirror.slitaz.org/iso/4.0/slitaz-4.0.md5

Information on known problems:
http://doc.slitaz.org/en:releases:4.0:errata

Posted 11 years ago #
emgi

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Regarding the "Military Time". UTC is sometimes referred to as "Zulu Time" which is used by NATO.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coordinated_Universal_Time

I guess that is what ardvark meant(?)

/emgi

Posted 11 years ago #
Aleksej

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emgi,
No, "military time" for Americans is just 24-hour time :)
They used to say no "14:25", but "2:25 pm". While "real" military time is "1425J" (not using colon, and optional use of letter).
Read more @ wikipedia: 24-hour clock.

Posted 11 years ago #
ardvark

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Member

Hi all...

I did download and install the official 4.0 version and the workaround listed here...

http://doc.slitaz.org/en:releases:4.0:errata

to get the bottom menu bar back up did not work. How would I go about getting xfpanel?

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
subreptice

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Member

Hi ardvark,

I don't know about how to get xfpanel.

But about disparition of menu,

# rm ~/.config/lxpanel/slitaz/panels/*

(then reboot)

had worked for me.

Posted 11 years ago #
Aleksej

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ardvark, subreptice,

I want to explain. Definitions:

LXPanel — name of software to show single panel or multiple panels.
lxpanel — name of file and of process that shows panel(s).
global LXPanel's settings — settings described in the /etc/lxpanel folder and subfolders.
user LXPanel's settings — settings described in the ~/.config/lxpanel folder and subfolders.
LXPanel's profiles — set of settings, i.e. one set describe dual panel layout, and another set describe single top panel.
single application — lxpanel process can be only the single, but it can serve/display up to 4 panels.
starting commands — typical command: lxpanel --profile slitaz & where: lxpanel — name of application binary (it is /usr/bin/lxpanel file); --profile of just -p — argument that says to use specified profile when lxpanel starts; slitaz — name of specified profile, you can find default settings of the slitaz profile in the /etc/lxpanel/slitaz; & — this symbol at the end of the command let you close your terminal (where you type this command) without closing of LXPanel.
stopping commands — if LXPanel works not properly, or display corrupted panels, or not displays at all, you need: to stop LXPanel, to change some LXPanel settings, to start LXPanel again.
LXPanel applets — all the icons, buttons, indicators and clocks placed on the panel.
incompatible applet — seems like battery applet is incompatible with some types of CPU. This applet produces some sort of arithmetical error that prevents to normal work of LXPanel, and LXPanel closes. How to detect this type of problem? Start LXPanel using terminal, but not close terminal immediately — read the output. If LXPanel closes just after starting and you can read some errors arithmetic related, try to remove battery applet. How? Only by editing configuration file using text editor.

Ok, let's go.

When LXPanel is started, it looks for user LXPanel's settings. If it found then LXPanel show their panel(s) as described in the user's settings. If it not found user's settings, it try to fing global LXPanel's settings; global settings exist on every SliTaz instance.

@subreptice, you just remove user settings (and lose your customized panels) and LXPanel backs to global settings (predefined "factory" view of panels).

@ardvark: the "golden" rule:
If you use multi-panel view (i.e., one panel at top, and another panel at bottom), and if you customized one panel, then you should customize another panel too.
Why?
When you customized panel, then LXPanel copied file with panel settings from global settings (default global settings can't be changed by user) to user settings. When you customize only one panel in the two-panel layout, then only one file will be copied. Next, when you restart your system, LXPanel found your user settings (with only one file — with only one panel) and will not proceed to use global settings.
You need to customize another panel, but you do not want to do this? Please, change something, save settings (just close all setting's dialogs to do it), latter you can revert your settings. Let's say, you can change height of panel to one pixel bigger, or add/remove some applet.

I hope that I have shed light on the work LXPanel. Happy SliTaz! ;)

Posted 11 years ago #
ardvark

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Member

Hi all...

@subreptice: Thank you but this did not work for me, same results. :-(

@Aleksej: Thank you very much for the time it took to write your detailed response! What you said towards the bottom is pretty much identical to what emgi said in the other thread I linked to. I have gone back and tried to make changes in both panels after getting bar back up using "lxpanel -p slitaz &" but to no avail. This included height (pixel) changes on both as well as changing the time format. If there is something I'm doing wrong, I don't know what that is.

Thanks again for all the help, everyone!

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
Aleksej

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Coder-hobbyist

ardvark,
The type of your SliTaz installation is interested. Do you really have your home folder (with all your files and settings)? Can you save picture or any other file to your Desktop folder, and reboot? Is your picture or file gone, or still here? If you boot LiveCD, then you can't save any settings or files to your home folder, because of lack home. In the some "weird" types of SliTaz booting (for example, if you boot ISO image) you have no home, and you get system "from scratch" after each rebooting.

If all Ok, next check "Autostarted applications" (somewhere in the Applications menu - Settings. You can add command you know for starting LXPanel here.

Do you can start LXPanel via this command in terminal? Maybe you try to remove Battery applet (thick vertical line near clocks)?

Posted 11 years ago #
ardvark

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Member

Hi Aleksej...

I installed the OS on the hard drive, so I should have the home folder. I will try to look into your questions later this afternoon (it's almost 1:30 am) and get back to you. :-)

Regards...

Posted 11 years ago #
christophe

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Member

I suggest you use the default lxpanel instead of the slitaz one. I found the problems with the slitaz panel arise if you try to modify them. For some reason, they are not saved properly. I did not investigate that because i hate the slitaz double panel (i still have a small screen, ie not enough real estate for 2 panels)

You can start it with the command lxpanel --profile default, after the former lxpanel was killed (killall lxpanel will kill it if required). I do this manually each single time because I was too lazy to investigate how to run it properly at first.

Someone here will tell you in what script lxpanel is started at first at startup time (Trixar or Alex ?), this is where you need to make the modification .

Posted 11 years ago #

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