desktop icons - kfm and blackbox

[possumpuss]

hi i've been trying to get desktop icons using kfm and blackbox
i have: rh7.1, bb .61.1
i've edited ~/.xinitrc to include the line
exec kfm &...
exec blackbox
etc.
but that doesn't seem to do the trick
i can get icons if i include the line
exec gmc &
to my .xinitrc but i'd rather not load gmc and kfm

the blackbox docs suggest loading kfm on startup to get desktop icons, but it's not working in my case. am i missing something?
thanks
possum

[The Whizzard]

I havn't tried to use a file manager in blackbox, nor have i tried editing .xinitrc. But it would make sense to me to execute blackbox before kfm.

[possumpuss]

i;ve tried switching around the order they're loaded in .xinitrc
it doesn't seem to make a difference when blackbox is loaded... :confused:

[The Whizzard]

I just found this (http://www.draknor.net/kbb/) it may help you out.

[possumpuss]

i've read that one
here's how my .xinitrc looks, by the way maybe it's how i've coded it that's preventing desktop icons in kfm:

exec kcontrol -init &
exec kfm &
exec kaudioserver &
exec kwmsound &
exec krootwm &
exec xscreensaver &
exec blackbox &
exec bbpager &
exec bbkeys -w


what do you think?

[The Whizzard]

Hmm......It may be the way you have it coded. This is what I found from the link I gave you.

d. Creating a .xinitrc file
I have created a .xinitrc file which runs the various programs needed to integrate all of KDE's features and Blackbox together.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
kcontrol -init
kfm &
kaudioserver &
kwmsound &
krootwm &
blackbox

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


NOTE: This is a basic configuration file to run KDE services and Blackbox. Feel free to add any other programs (such as any of the bb-tools utilities) before the blackbox line. The line containing kfm is needed to display icons on the desktop. The line containing krootwm might not be needed if Blackbox styles are used.
This works if the system boots into a text-based prompt, and then startx is used. If a graphical login is used, additional modifications are needed (if someone wants to add instructions to do so, let me know).


Maybe removing the 'exec' and putting blackbox as the last line will help.

[possumpuss]

i tried removing exec
when i do, i'm not able to boot into x windows
:confused:

[The Whizzard]

I like Blackbox, but don't use it much because of the lack of icons. So, I'm gona try to do what you are doing. If I get it going, I'll let you know what I did. I might not be able to start for an hour or two, but I'll get it going as quick as I can.

[possumpuss]

thanks
that's really helpful
i'm running rh7.1 with bb .61.1 remember,
so you may not be able to reproduce what's going on with my machine entirely

anyways, let me know...

[Screamin' Soulman]

Originally posted by possumpuss:
<STRONG>i've read that one
here's how my .xinitrc looks, by the way maybe it's how i've coded it that's preventing desktop icons in kfm:

exec kcontrol -init &
exec kfm &
exec kaudioserver &
exec kwmsound &
exec krootwm &
exec xscreensaver &
exec blackbox &
exec bbpager &
exec bbkeys -w


what do you think?</STRONG>

Edit ~/.xinitrc to:

kcontrol -init &
kfm &
kaudioserver &
kwmsound &
xscreensaver &
bbpager &
bbkeys -w &
exec blackbox

[possumpuss]

ok.

still no icons though...

[The Whizzard]

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I wanted to replcate as closely as possible. So, I thought I'd do a network install of RH7.1 on a spare machine. Lots of people must be interested in RH7.1, 'cause almost every mirror has reached maximum number of anonymous users. After I did find a decent mirror and got the netboot.img, the install would hang when trying to fetch the package lists. After trying for several hours, I decided to put debian back on. Thats where I'm at now. But in the meantime, see what happens if you just have the blackbox specific entries in your .xinitrc. Then open a xterm(or whateer term you use in X) and load kfm from there.

[Neurotica]

does it have to be kfm? DFM is much better if you need icons.. or even rox.. both are on freshmeat.

[possumpuss]

whizzard -
i'll try it out, but i think i may have tried that already
i think this desktop icon problem may be specific to rh7.1 and bb.61.1 - i've been thinking: why am i spending so much time on this, isn't the lack of desktop icons one of the advantages of bb? having to do everything from a terminal i think is actually good for me, as i am forced to learn more about shell commands

neurotica -
i actually tried dfm and it worked. the problem is - dfm replaces the blackbox popup menu with one of its own, which doesn't retain the bb theme visualizations...

[Neurotica]

You can disable it from stopping bb popup menu, its in the options.

[possumpuss]

neurotica -
thanks. that sounds like a plan