[Wiki] Configuring desktop environments

[sailfish-containers]

[Wiki] Configuring desktop environments

[edp17]

Speaking as a first time user, I've just spent ~3 hours setting up a Debian GUI container with XFCE4 on a non-keyboard device (XZ2). These were the biggest pain points (in the order of magnitude haha):

Well done! :) To save a little time, you should have read the instruction here: https://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=101080
You don't need 2 terminals if you use the script that I wrote. (Basically, you don't need terminal at all if you run the script with Shellex)

[Kabouik]

More documentation in the wiki would still be welcome, but harbour-containers 0.8 should make it less critical since we now have:

• README stating clearly which distributions are supported
• Easy installation from Chum GUI
• Usable default configurations for Onboard, as well as both Xfce4 (scaling, single clicks to navigate directories) and i3 (keybndings (see Alt+h), i3bar, terminal), with a new option to install i3 at container creation
• Touch scrolling by default in Firefox
• Dynamic orientation (for SFOS ≥ 4.2, the old selector in container settings is still available for SFOS < 4.2)
• Good base keybindings for i3 to make it usable without ssh
• Optional mount entry in container configurations /var/lib/lxc/<containername>/config to uncomment if SFOS's home folder is to be shown in LXC
• Right click emulation on long tap (finicky, and only in Arch)

[edp17]

Yes, I tried to scroll down with keeping my finger on, but that didn't help either. It just did not select the option I wanted. However, I found a workaround. I tap on the dropdown (it opens and closes but doesn't matter) then in Onboard I use the down/up arrows to select the wanted option. Fortunately, this works. :)

[edp17]

Regarding the mouse cursor issue, I have found this topic. I have tried the compiled version, but seemingly it needs to be recompiled under sailfish. (Or might this won't work at all.)

Edit: If somebody needs that, the source of that program (mouse_poll) is available here.

[Kabouik]

Does it display the cursor?

[edp17]

Nope, that app doesn't run. :(

[Kabouik]

Ok. You can try the following, it works on Pro¹.

devel-su nano /var/lib/environment/compositor/droid-hal-device.conf

And add -plugin evdevmouse at the end of the LIPSTICK_OPTIONS: line.

This enables the mouse, including right click and scroll wheel, in all LXC apps, and even in some native apps (sometimes only in some screens of the apps). However there are still some quirks to fix: the cursor is not visible, and the mouse behaves as if the phone was in portrait, even if it is in landscape.

[edp17]

Yeah, I have added that plugin into the config but without seeing the cursor, it is not really usable. Clicks do work, but I don't really see where I click on. :)

[Kabouik]

Absolutely, it's unusable right now. I've tried adding icon themes in SFOS but no luck so far. Rotation is also an issue, as xinput doesn't seem to be able to change settings for virtual devices in xwayland, and libinput, the Wayland alternative, could only rotate trackpoints even if we could compile it for SFOS. I wonder if landscape rotation for the pointer could be hardcoded in the compositor, since most mouse users would have their container rotated in landscape anyway.

…

On 2020-07-30 22:04 edp17 ***@***.***> wrote: Yeah, I have added that plugin into the config but without seeing the cursor, it is not really usable. Clicks do work, but I don't really see where I click on. :) -- You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly or view it on GitHub: #10 (comment)

[Kabouik]

Note that I forgot to post it here, but the cursor is now fully usable thanks to @elros34. Still a little hacky, but if you're there wanting a cursor in your LXC container, you may not mind the couple extra steps: sailfish-on-fxtecpro1/droid-config-t5#41 (comment)

[vaskas]

Speaking as a first time user, I've just spent ~3 hours setting up a Debian GUI container with XFCE4 on a non-keyboard device (XZ2). These were the biggest pain points (in the order of magnitude haha):

1. Realising I needed to run 2 terminals, one for qxdisplay, the other one for start_desktop.sh - in addition to running the Containers app. This is really clunky and I wish the Containers app did all that. The X session button does nothing for me.
2. Configuring XFCE4 and onboard to behave in a more touch-friendly way, e.g.

• Onboard to have bigger buttons and appear automatically when an input field is focused
• XFCE4 to have a bigger DPI
• Thunar to accept single clicks to navigate directories

3. Having to figure out which was the best supported distro. That said, I knew from Kabouik's brilliant videos that it had to be Debian. If I didn't watch them I would go with Arch and waste time.
4. Having to install packages by hand to install harbour-containers and its dependencies.

These were the things I really liked:

1. The container creation experience. Very smooth even with the terminal popping up at a certain time.
2. The button to install the X session dependencies
3. The existence of this awesome project!

I don't believe in Wiki articles (the docs always rot) and IMHO the best approach would be to create one dead-simple preset for touch devices, and another one for the keyboard ones. Then the power users can customise them further, or keep them as they are.