Desktop in Container, Alt+F6 not responding

[Misaligned]

So far I have added fatdog to the containers. My first problem I had with it, it did not show up in the menu, only as desktop icon. Solved this by first removing the entry in the menu manager (yes, it was showing up under the available entries) and then adding it back. I also had to restart X in order for it to actually show up.
Now if I start the container, either from the menu or from the desktop icon, the fatdog desktop shows up and is functional ( without checking every program that is available), I just can not switch back with Alt+F6, no response at all. To get back to the regular desktop I just rebooted. The same thing happens with the dunfell desktop.
I want to mention, that it initially worked. It seems turning off all desktop icons (including container icons @ .initrc) might have caused the problem? But turning all desktop icons back on again does not change anything. Turning all desktop icons on again also required a restart X, in
addition to the regular restart X, that is performed by the script.
Not sure if I am doing something wrong, or if this is a bug?

Thanks

[BarryK]

I am reminded, someone else had that problem, reported on this forum, and they fixed it I think ...can't recall, it might have been some other key on their keyboard that did the switch.

Do you have a English USA layout keyboard?

[Misaligned]

Yes, US layout. It is just odd that it initially worked, but it seems that after hiding the desktop icons including the container icons it started to be inresponsive.

I will try to load some additional containers and see what that does.

[Misaligned]

Weird things are happening. I tried installing additional desktop containers (Slackware, Fossa). Launching sfsget I see them listed (downloaded them previously) and selecting either one of them I do not get the INSTALL button, only DOWNLOAD button. So I canceled.

Next step was to create a new USB of Easy 3.2.1 per easy-dd, but before I shut down to reboot into the newly created USB, I thought I give it another try and launched sfsget again. This time the INSTALL button showed up ???, on either one of them. I did not install at this point, instead I rebooted to see what happens then. And after reboot and launching sfsget again, I only get the DOWNLOAD button.

I also tried this on a different computer, with the same results. I will try and see what happens with the newly created USB.

[Misaligned]

Same results with newly created USB. First I copied the sfs folders over from the old drive, but no INSTALL button, only DOWNLOAD.
Next step was to delete all the sfs folders and re-downloading the sfss, and this point I skipped the install, since I wanted to download more than one. Then I lauched sfsget again to install the downloaded files, but I only get the DOWNLOAD button, canceled it, rebooted and tried again. No difference. The only difference now is, I can launch Dunfell in a container and switch back with Alt+F6.

[BarryK]

I don't have that problem. If a sfs has already been downloaded, then I consistently get the INSTALL button.

Is your experimenting all being done on the same usb stick?
EDIT: oh, I read your last post properly, you did try a different usb stick.

Maybe also you should do a RAM check. Easy has a utility for that: memtester
Run it without X, and can grab most of the available RAM to test.

[BarryK]

So far I have added fatdog to the containers. My first problem I had with it, it did not show up in the menu, only as desktop icon. Solved this by first removing the entry in the menu manager (yes, it was showing up under the available entries) and then adding it back. I also had to restart X in order for it to actually show up.

Hmmm, I wonder if that has anything to do with the recent jwm version bump.

When the container is created, "fixmenus" then "jwm -reload" are run. The first one reconstructs the jwm menu file at /root/.jwmrc and the second one reloads the menu.
These operations have been rock solid for years.

[user1111]

I am reminded, someone else had that problem, reported on this forum, and they fixed it I think ...can't recall, it might have been some other key on their keyboard that did the switch.

Containers run in a separate Xephyr window/session and in full screen mode. It may be that they'd toggled the focus and might need to press Ctrl-Shift first.

In the Fatdog version I use that's much the same I have a sys-tray icon to show whether the focus is locked or unlocked as a visual aid. When locked alt-tab will for instance only step between windows within the container, when unlocked alt-tab steps between the Xephyr and other main session windows. Security AFAIK isn't compromised if toggled to unlocked. Extracts/snippets of the code I use to create the icons and monitor the status ....

Code: Select all

_locked_svg() {                             # Locked host-grab .svg icon for tray

        cat <<EOF >$HOST_GRAB_IMG
<svg height='32' width='32' viewBox='0 0 16 16'>
 <radialGradient id='rg' fx='50%' fy='50%' cx='50%' cy='50%' r='50%'>
   <stop offset='60%'   stop-color='white' stop-opacity='1'/>
   <stop offset='100%' stop-color='#00A5FF' stop-opacity='1' />
 </radialGradient>
<rect width='14' height='13' x='1' y='1' rx='2' ry='3' fill='url(#rg)'/>
<g font-size='11' font-style='normal' font-variant='normal' font-weight='bold'
font-stretch='normal' text-align='center' line-height='125%' letter-spacing='0'
word-spacing='0' text-anchor='middle' fill='darkblue' fill-opacity='1'
stroke='none' font-family='sans' dominant-baseline='central'>
<text x='50%' dy='12'>L</text>
</g>
</svg>
EOF
}

_unlocked_svg() {                                   # Unlocked .svg icon for tray

        cat <<EOF >$HOST_GRAB_IMG
<svg height='32' width='32' viewBox='0 0 16 16'>
 <radialGradient id='rg' fx='50%' fy='50%' cx='50%' cy='50%' r='50%'>
   <stop offset='60%' stop-color='#04FA17' stop-opacity='1'/>
   <stop offset='100%' stop-color='white' stop-opacity='1' />
 </radialGradient>
<rect width='14' height='13' x='1' y='1' rx='2' ry='3' fill='url(#rg)'/>
<g font-size='11' font-style='normal' font-variant='normal' font-weight='bold'
font-stretch='normal' text-align='center' line-height='125%' letter-spacing='0'
word-spacing='0' text-anchor='middle' fill='black' fill-opacity='1'
stroke='none' font-family='sans' dominant-baseline='central'>
<text x='51%' dy='12'>U</text>
</g>
</svg>
EOF
}

_hostgrabstate() {       #                            We background this function
                         # hostgrab task in main system to report when the Xephyr
                         #   windows title (that is otherwise unseen due to being
                         #                                 full screened) changes
        sleep 1
        while [ -z "$WID" ]; do
            sleep 1                                 # time for container to start
            WID=$(wmctrl -lp | grep "Xephyr on :2" | cut -d ' ' -f 1)
        done
        xprop -id $WID -spy WM_NAME >/tmp/.host-grab  # Start 'spying' the Xephyr
                    # window title (we use inotifywait to pick up on the changes)
}

_hostgrabmon() {   # ctrl-shift locked/unlocked toggle indicator in Xephyr's tray

        [[ "$TRAYICON" = "ball" ]] && echo $BLUESVG>$HOST_GRAB_IMG || _locked_svg
        touch /tmp/.host-grab  # sit & inotifywait modify require pre-exist files
        _hostgrabstate &        # Start monitoring of Xephyr window title changes
        PIDhostgrab=$!
        while [ $ACTIVE -eq 1 ]; do
            {
                inotifywait -qe 'modify' /tmp/.host-grab || exit 1
            } >/dev/null 2>&1
            C=$(tail -1 /tmp/.host-grab | grep "grabs")
            if [ ! -z "${C}" ]; then     # if no 'release' Xephyr window in title
                [[ "$TRAYICON" = "ball" ]] && printf "%s\n" "$GREENSVG" \
                >$HOST_GRAB_IMG || _unlocked_svg # alternative to green ball icon
            else
                [[ "$TRAYICON" = "ball" ]] && printf "%s\n" "$BLUESVG" \
                >$HOST_GRAB_IMG || _locked_svg    # alternative to blue ball icon
            fi
        done
}

That uses 'sit' to load the icon into the tray of the Xephyr (:2)

DISPLAY=:2 sit $HOST_GRAB_IMG "${HOST_GRAB_TIP}" "${CLICK}" &

Basically because Xephyr is full screened rather than windowed you don't get to see the window title message of "ctrl-shift grabs mouse and keyboard" and when not correctly toggled/focused ALT-F6 gets sent to the wrong place (main session instead of the Xephyr). Or something like that.

[Misaligned]

@BarryK, and @woofwoof

Thanks for your reply. I did run a memtest, did not use memtester though since I was not quite sure which parameters to add. I used Hirens boot disk which has a memory test utility on it. It took almost three hours to get thru the first pass, which did not show any errors. After almost five hours I canceled it (it was still chewing on the second pass).

Anyways while the test was running, I created another USB stick on another computer, just to see what this does.

Rebooted with the new stick (still on the other computer), downloaded another sfs (fossa) and created container right
away. This worked out as expected. Launched fossa and was able to switch with Alt+F6.
Removed container per container management (successful, after closing fossa session) and tried to recreate it again with sfsget (sfs already downloaded). This time I only got the DOWNLOAD button.
I have to mention to this point I always just tried to create the container by clicking on the appropriate radio button.
After some back and forth I also clicked on the listed file in the right hand part of the dialog, this finally gave me the desired results.
Although, I remember just clicking on the radio button gave me the desired results before.

So I went ahead downloaded and installed the Slackware sfs, created the container right away, desktop icon and menu entry showed up and everything worked as expected. Including Alt+F6.
Removed container per container management, recreated the container with sfsget form already previously downloaded files ... and this time
by just clicking on the radio button, I was good to go. No extra click on listed sfs required?

It is still all a mystery. The behaviour is, for some reason, not consistent.

I also tested this again with previously created USB stick on initial computer and now I can get the INSTALL icon, I may have to additionally click on the listed file.

But Alt+F6 seems to work fine now. Still having some issues with running desktop containers, haven't played with that too much yet. Like fossa for example does not show desktop backround. It does when I click on the desktop, but the next click hides it again (replaced by just solid color). I get an initial error message about PuppyPin, haven't paid too close attention to it yet. I just wanted to mention it.

Thanks again for your responses.

[BarryK]

@Misaligned ,
I just now went through the exercise. Downloaded Fossapup via the "sfsget" icon, chose to install it as new container.

Then clicked on the new icon on the desktop. Got a desktop, but no wallpaper just a blank wallpaper. ALT-F6 worked to flip back.

Checked via "sfsget" that button now says "INSTALL".

Killed fossapup by right-click in the tray and choose "kill".

Menu "Filesystem -> Easy Container Management", chose to delete the fossapup container.

Checked via "sfsget", the button says "INSTALL", as expected.

It would only say "DOWNLOAD" if the 'fossapup_9.5-r1_amd64.sfs' and 'fossapup_9.5-r1_amd64.specs' files at /mnt/wkg/sfs/puppy/ubuntu/focal had been deleted. But they are still there.

[Misaligned]

@BarryK, Thanks for looking into this.
I went through the whole exercise again starting from scratch, meaning I deleted all the previously downloaded sfss.

Step 1 - launching sfsget - I had my sfs folder open to see what happens. At this point, before I even downloaded anything, all the folders for every desktop container sfss were created and populated with the "specs" and "logo-pngs". I guess this is supposed to work like this and it doesn't cause any problems.

So far so good, I went through the process, container got created, but I had to restart X for the desktop icon to show up. After that I am able to launch it and ALT+F6 works.
Quote: "Got a desktop, but no wallpaper just a blank wallpaper." Same here. The message I get launching it the first time is as follows

-"No pinboard was in use ... the 'Default' pinboard has been selected. Use 'rox -p=Default' to turn it on in future."
BTW, clicking on the desktop turns on the wallpaper and desktop icons are reduced to homefolder only. Clicking again on the desktop switches back to previous state.

Step 2 - removed container per container management without deleting the previously downloaded files.
Rebooted, then restarted sfsget, no "Install" button only after highlighting the file name

02-sfsget-1st-launch-after-reboot-focal.png (86.45 KiB) Viewed 373 times

03-sfsget-1st-launch-after-reboot-focal-selected.png (88.05 KiB) Viewed 373 times

After that, I can switch to the other choices and get the "Install" button right away.

Step 3 - rebooted again without installing any of the downloaded containers/sfs. If I launch sfsget now, I get the "Install" button right away without selecting the filename.

05-sfsget-2nd-launch-after-reboot-focal.png (85.28 KiB) Viewed 373 times

Notes: I also tried Kodi. This did not work at all. I actually only got the Kodi choice after selecting Xenial, which is listed as dependency. So, highlighting Kodi and clicking on download does not download Xenial, this was a seperate step. After I had both sfs files downloaded, I installed Kodi first and than Xenial. But neither one works. Clicking on Xenial switches the screen blank for a while like it is trying to load, but then it just goes back to the normal desktop. Clicking on Kodi itself does not do anything. Launching from command line gives me no hints either.
I also tried the reverse order of installing the containers, with the same results.

[Misaligned]

I probably should mention, I haven't had any more issues with Alt+F6 not being responsive, it just works now.

[BarryK]

Thanks for the detailed reply, with snapshots.
Yes, that is a problem with the user interface.