Hello Fedora Xfce community.
First a question: is there someone directly responsible for the Xfce spin? Or we shape it by reporting bugs to its components?
Last ISO I tried was the nightly build from Sep 21st. I'm not on it now as my system (single-core, 1GB RAM) struggles with it when I use it for a while. I would like to know tips on how to disable some stuff so it loads lighter (I think I'll try selinux) and also boot 'fromiso' (it works differently than F17 so the old way doesn't work and boot from USB isn't an option for me as USB 1.1 is just as slow as a CD, maybe slower). I'll ask on the test list later anyway for those tips.
Now to the issue of appearance, specially icons. Package libXcursor (required in F17 by xfce4-settings and gtk2/3) installs /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme:
[Icon Theme] Inherits=Adwaita
This looks like a bug. It points to Adwaita, but Adwaita doesn't point only to a cursor theme, instead it defines GTK, Metacity, icon (calls 'gnome') and cursor themes. /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/index.theme:
{snip} GtkTheme=Adwaita MetacityTheme=Adwaita IconTheme=gnome CursorTheme=Adwaita CursorSize=24
Problem, in the live-CD this overrides whatever settings in Xfce. Even if cursor theme was set to 'Bluebird', GTK theme for something else than 'Adwaita' and icon theme for something else than 'gnome' (actually it's set to 'Rodent'), it would load Adwaita GTK/cursor and gnome icons, as it does now.
So this is the first issue that needs to be addressed. Either libXcursor uses an alternative system (so each spin uses its choice of theme) or it calls a desktop-agnostic theme, like 'Fedora' (which would need a fix to call a cursor theme and maybe a GTK theme). If Adwaita is to be the default Fedora theme then it must be fixed to comply with Xfce too. This means mostly that 'gnome' icon theme would need some improvements or Adwaita should call 'Fedora' icon theme instead.
The main icon missing for Xfce (in 'gnome' - thus 'Mist', thus 'Fedora' -, 'Tango' and 'Rodent') is system-suspend (see http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=25811#p25811 ), the 'Suspend' icon in the 'Actions' panel plugin. But a proper icon theme should have system-hibernate too (currently xfce4-session uses a workaround for this lack, shipping its own icons for the logout dialogue).
Besides that we have a particular issue with the Xfce choice for icons. Currently it's set to use 'Rodent' (package xfce4-icon-theme-0:4.4.3-7.fc18). This theme is inconsistent *and* still isn't more compatible with Xfce than the other themes. If this package is to be kept, I suggest to update to a more consistent icon theme. Maybe https://github.com/shimmerproject/elementary-xfce ? I didn't try it with the live-CD or else (and I don't use the 'Actions' plugin on my installed setup). Download is 4.2 MB, doesn't seem too large. Then it probably would just need to inherit 'Fedora' icon theme or maybe not even that as there's no more need for 'start-here' icons (and never was in Xfce). We should look if it doesn't use Ubuntu logos in its icons too.
So that's it folks. I guess I'll post a version of this message on the test list so we can discuss the issue of default system-wide theme first before opening a bug report.
elementary-xfce works properly. If size isn't an issue (and it isn't that big anyway) I would replace 'Rodent' for it in xfce4-icon-theme. I found a couple of issues with application icons (dark 'symbolic'-like icons on a dark menu theme) but it's actively maintained so it's just a matter of reporting a bug.
On Tue, 25 Sep 2012 11:20:36 -0300 Sergio Cipolla secipolla@gmail.com wrote:
Hello Fedora Xfce community.
First a question: is there someone directly responsible for the Xfce spin? Or we shape it by reporting bugs to its components?
Both. There's a group of people who have commit to the spin's kickstart file. They usually make changes on it based on discussion here or in bugs.
Last ISO I tried was the nightly build from Sep 21st. I'm not on it now as my system (single-core, 1GB RAM) struggles with it when I use it for a while. I would like to know tips on how to disable some stuff so it loads lighter (I think I'll try selinux) and also boot 'fromiso' (it works differently than F17 so the old way doesn't work and boot from USB isn't an option for me as USB 1.1 is just as slow as a CD, maybe slower). I'll ask on the test list later anyway for those tips.
Yeah, not sure what it would be off hand. I doubt disabling selinux will help much. If you come up with something, let us know. ;)
Now to the issue of appearance, specially icons. Package libXcursor (required in F17 by xfce4-settings and gtk2/3) installs /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme:
[Icon Theme] Inherits=Adwaita
This looks like a bug. It points to Adwaita, but Adwaita doesn't point only to a cursor theme, instead it defines GTK, Metacity, icon (calls 'gnome') and cursor themes. /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/index.theme:
{snip} GtkTheme=Adwaita MetacityTheme=Adwaita IconTheme=gnome CursorTheme=Adwaita CursorSize=24
Problem, in the live-CD this overrides whatever settings in Xfce. Even if cursor theme was set to 'Bluebird', GTK theme for something else than 'Adwaita' and icon theme for something else than 'gnome' (actually it's set to 'Rodent'), it would load Adwaita GTK/cursor and gnome icons, as it does now.
Yeah, please file a bug on it?
So this is the first issue that needs to be addressed. Either libXcursor uses an alternative system (so each spin uses its choice of theme) or it calls a desktop-agnostic theme, like 'Fedora' (which would need a fix to call a cursor theme and maybe a GTK theme). If Adwaita is to be the default Fedora theme then it must be fixed to comply with Xfce too. This means mostly that 'gnome' icon theme would need some improvements or Adwaita should call 'Fedora' icon theme instead.
Feel free to propose that to the Adwaita maintainers.
The main icon missing for Xfce (in 'gnome' - thus 'Mist', thus 'Fedora' -, 'Tango' and 'Rodent') is system-suspend (see http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=25811#p25811 ), the 'Suspend' icon in the 'Actions' panel plugin. But a proper icon theme should have system-hibernate too (currently xfce4-session uses a workaround for this lack, shipping its own icons for the logout dialogue).
Upstream Xfce doesn't really care about icons much. ;( It's up to us to do the best we can.
Besides that we have a particular issue with the Xfce choice for icons. Currently it's set to use 'Rodent' (package xfce4-icon-theme-0:4.4.3-7.fc18).
That shouldn't be the default... is it? or did you change to it?
kevin
On 09/26/2012 04:42 PM, Kevin Fenzi wrote:
Now to the issue of appearance, specially icons. Package libXcursor (required in F17 by xfce4-settings and gtk2/3) installs /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme:
[Icon Theme] Inherits=Adwaita
This looks like a bug. It points to Adwaita, but Adwaita doesn't point only to a cursor theme, instead it defines GTK, Metacity, icon (calls 'gnome') and cursor themes. /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/index.theme:
{snip} GtkTheme=Adwaita MetacityTheme=Adwaita IconTheme=gnome CursorTheme=Adwaita CursorSize=24
Problem, in the live-CD this overrides whatever settings in Xfce. Even if cursor theme was set to 'Bluebird', GTK theme for something else than 'Adwaita' and icon theme for something else than 'gnome' (actually it's set to 'Rodent'), it would load Adwaita GTK/cursor and gnome icons, as it does now.
Yeah, please file a bug on it?
So this is the first issue that needs to be addressed. Either libXcursor uses an alternative system (so each spin uses its choice of theme) or it calls a desktop-agnostic theme, like 'Fedora' (which would need a fix to call a cursor theme and maybe a GTK theme). If Adwaita is to be the default Fedora theme then it must be fixed to comply with Xfce too. This means mostly that 'gnome' icon theme would need some improvements or Adwaita should call 'Fedora' icon theme instead.
Feel free to propose that to the Adwaita maintainers.
The main icon missing for Xfce (in 'gnome' - thus 'Mist', thus 'Fedora' -, 'Tango' and 'Rodent') is system-suspend (see http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?pid=25811#p25811 ), the 'Suspend' icon in the 'Actions' panel plugin. But a proper icon theme should have system-hibernate too (currently xfce4-session uses a workaround for this lack, shipping its own icons for the logout dialogue).
Upstream Xfce doesn't really care about icons much. ;( It's up to us to do the best we can.
I have to check these things further. I suspect by booting to runlevel 3, changing things and seeing how the desktop looks the first time it's loaded.
To add system-suspend and system-hibernate icons so they show on 'Action Buttons' plugin is quite simple. Just symlink xfsm-suspend to system-suspend and xfsm-hibernate to system-hibernate in /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps (those xfsm-xxx icons are installed with xfce4-session, IIRC).
Besides that we have a particular issue with the Xfce choice for icons. Currently it's set to use 'Rodent' (package xfce4-icon-theme-0:4.4.3-7.fc18).
That shouldn't be the default... is it? or did you change to it?
That's what's set as default when opening Settings>Appearance. But what's showing up the first time the desktop loads is the gnome theme.
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Kevin Fenzi -
Sergio Cipolla