#1 Yesterday 15:23:17

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 345

I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

How does it work?  What does it do?  Why can't I figure out how to make it work?  Why aren't there examples of launchers in any of the config files?

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 345

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

@ceeslan.  You've used it.  Tell me how to

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,706

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

wmalauncher is a dockapp ( https://www.dockapps.net/ ) that will create a launcher button and place it in the window manager's dock. Fluxbox, openbox, peckwm, and wmaker all have docks that will accept dockapps. I don't know if icewm has a dock so wmalauncher may not work properly.

Do you have it installed? If so, from a terminal run:

wmalauncher --command /usr/bin/firefox --icon firefox.png &

That should create a launcher for firefox and place it in the dock if you have one. Substitute some other command for firefox is you don't have firefox installed.

Put several commands or a script in your window manager startup file to create the buttons.

You can copy one of the included configuration files from /usr/share/wmalauncher/ to ~/.config/wmalauncher/wmalauncher.conf
The configuration file defines the size of the button, colors etc ....

Scroll down to the usage section - https://sourceforge.net/projects/wmalauncher/files/

There should also be a wmalauncher man page.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 345

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

I tried running that command from the addressbar and a launcher popped up on my desktop.  The problem is I don't know where to place the launcher commands in the wmalauncher.conf file and I can't make it execute.  I can make it executable, but all that does is open the conf file in Geany.

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,706

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

That's because it is a dockapp  So the launcher button will look for that. If there is no dock, as in your case, it will just sit on the desktop.

IceWm? If it has a dock, you will need to configure it so the dockapp is placed in the dock.

You still have openbox installed? Log into that and configure the placement of the dock using obconf (should be a menu entry). Once you have the dock configured, run that command and the button should sit in the dock.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

PackRat

jgmenu user Numero Uno

Registered: 2015-10-02

Posts: 2,706

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

I don't think the launcher commands are placed in the wmalauncher config file. That is just for aesthetics; button size, color, few other options.

Put the commands in the autostart file for your window manager.

---

You must unlearn what you have learned.
    -- yoda

MarkW

Member

Registered: 2024-11-03

Posts: 345

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

I'm too stupid to understand this conf file.  I might as well give up

# Copyright 2018-2021 Sébastien Ballet. All rights reserved.
#
# Use of this source code is governed by the BSD 3-clause license
# that can be found in the LICENSE file. 
#

# This attribute defines the terminal emulators, in order of preference,
# as a comma separated list of entry.
#
#   -------------------------------------------------------------------
#  ! At runtime, the 1st terminal in this list presents on the system  !
#  ! is defined as to be used to execute the command/application, when !
#  ! (1) the option --run-in-terminal is passed in argument, (2) the   !
#  ! desktop file passed to option --desktop-file includes an entry    !
#  ! 'Terminal=true'.                                                  !
#   -------------------------------------------------------------------
#
#  Each entry in this list must be to the following syntax :
#
#    term[:exec-option]
#
#  term:
#    The program name, with or without path specification, in which case
#    wmalauncher will search the program on the PATH.
#
#  exec-option:
#    The option to pass to the terminal to execute a program. When not
#    specified, wmalauncher assumes the terminal supports the option '-e'
#    the same way as xterm.
#
# By default, this is set to: xterm:-e,xfce4-terminal:-x,konsole:-e
#
# preferred-terminals =

# This allows to re-define the window size. Default to 64 which is the
# standard size of dockapps.
#
# window-size         =

icon-padding              = 4
border-size               = 2
background-color          = Gray80
hover-background-color    = Gray80
border-color              = White
hover-border-color        = White

# This attribute allows to specify path(s) that must be prepended to 
# the "icon search path", ie. the list of path used by wmalauncher to
# search for icons.
#
# At startup, the "icon search path" is set to :
#   ~/.icons:/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable:/usr/share/icons/Adwaita/48x48:/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable:/usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48:/usr/share/pixmaps:/usr/share/icons
#
# icon-search-path =

# This attribute allows to specify path(s) that must be prepended to 
# the "font search path", ie. the list of path used by wmalauncher to
# search for fonts.
#
# At startup, the "font search path" is set to :
#   ~/.fonts:/usr/share/fonts/TTF:/usr/share/fonts/truetype:/usr/share/fonts/truetype/dejavu:/usr/share/fonts/truetype/liberation:/usr/share/fonts/dejavu:/usr/share/fonts/liberation
#
# font-search-path =

# This attribute allows to specify path(s) that must be prepended to the
# ".desktop files search path", ie. the list of path used by wmalauncher
# to search for .desktop files.
#
# At startup, the ".desktop files search path" is set so that wmalauncher
# searches in the folder 'applications' of each path specified by the 
# environment variables XDG_DATA_HOME(1) and XDG_DATA_DIRS(2).
#
#  (1) When XDG_DATA_HOME is either not set or empty a default equal to
#      '$HOME/.local/share' is used.
#
#  (2) When XDG_DATA_DIRS is either not set or empty a default equal to
#      '/usr/local/share:/usr/share' is used.
#
# desktop-file-search-path =


tooltip-font              = DejaVuSans-Bold/10
tooltip-background-color  = LightYellow
tooltip-foreground-color  = Black
tooltip-border-size       = 1
tooltip-text-padding      = 4
tooltip-show-delay        = 500
tooltip-hide-delay        = 10000

icon-grayscale            = off
hover-icon-grayscale      = off

frame                     = Gray75/Gray75:Gray35/Gray35:1

icon-brightness           = 0.0
hover-icon-brightness     = 0.1

icon-contrast             = 1.0
hover-icon-contrast       = 1.0

icon-gamma                = 1.0
hover-icon-gamma          = 1.0

# This attribute defines whether or not wmalauncher must terminate
# on right-click. Can be set to 1,yes,on,true,0,no,off (default),false.
#
exit-on-right-click       = off

I give up

ceeslans

Member

Registered: 2015-09-30

Posts: 198

Re: I Don't Understand WMALauncher.

@MarkW : yes, I'm running wmalauncher on my fluxbox setup (both mx-linux and devuan).

wmalauncher needs the 'slit' in fluxbox; I guess it will call the 'dock' in openbox (or is it called 'slit' too - I really don't know).
I've created a tiny startup script called wmaDock which calls one of the conf files included in the config subfolder.
Have a look at all the configuration settings in the (currently selected) papirus.conf  file. I assume you have the papirus-icontheme installed?
Most likely the majority of listed applications will not be present on your system, but surely you will get an idea how these can configured to match yours. Please realize that the other two conf files look for icons that are most likely not in your system; let me know if you want me to share those too.

Execute the wmaDock script to start it. Note however that it needs to set in the slit or dock of the window-manager - and I have no idea whether yours is already configured (or even present on your system).

below archive contains the wmaDock folder. Don't split it up, the scripts rely on the presence of the 'config' folder within this main folder.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QLGmri … sp=sharing

Also note that wmalauncher is a quite resource-hungry application. Basically each launcher will eat 5-6mb memory, so running 10 launchers will easily consume 50mb...
Wouldn't it make sense to use tint2 as a launcher dock? That is very easy to configure and it certainly uses way less memory... below is a sample of a basic dock.tint2rc :

### Created 2021 by the MX community for MX-Fluxbox and released under GPLv3 ###

#---- Generated by tint2conf 15e7 ----
# See https://gitlab.com/o9000/tint2/wikis/Configure for 
# full documentation of the configuration options.
#-------------------------------------
# Gradients
#-------------------------------------
# Backgrounds
#
# Background 1: Launcher
rounded = 0
border_width = 0
border_sides = TBLR
border_content_tint_weight = 0
background_content_tint_weight = 0
background_color = #00112b 100
border_color = #00112b 100
background_color_hover = #00112b 100
border_color_hover = #00112b 100
background_color_pressed = #00112b 100
border_color_pressed = #00112b 100

# Background 2: Launcher icon
rounded = 0
border_width = 0
border_sides = TBLR
border_content_tint_weight = 0
background_content_tint_weight = 0
background_color = #00112b 100
border_color = #00112b 100
background_color_hover = #00112b 100
border_color_hover = #00112b 100
background_color_pressed = #00112b 100
border_color_pressed = #00112b 100

# Background 3: Panel
rounded = 0
border_width = 4
border_sides = TBLR
border_content_tint_weight = 0
background_content_tint_weight = 0
background_color = #3b4252 100
border_color = #3b4252 100
background_color_hover = #3b4252 100
border_color_hover = #3b4252 100
background_color_pressed = #3b4252 100
border_color_pressed = #3b4252 100

#-------------------------------------
# Panel
panel_items = L
panel_size = 60% 64
panel_margin = 0 0
panel_padding = 0 0 0
panel_background_id = 3
wm_menu = 1
panel_dock = 0
panel_pivot_struts = 0
panel_position = center left vertical
panel_layer = normal
panel_monitor = all
panel_shrink = 1
autohide = 1
autohide_show_timeout = 0.1
autohide_hide_timeout = 0.5
autohide_height = 1
strut_policy = none
panel_window_name = tint2
disable_transparency = 0
mouse_effects = 1
font_shadow = 0
mouse_hover_icon_asb = 100 0 20
mouse_pressed_icon_asb = 100 0 -5
scale_relative_to_dpi = 0
scale_relative_to_screen_height = 0

#-------------------------------------
# Launcher
launcher_padding = 4 4 10
launcher_background_id = 1
launcher_icon_background_id = 2
launcher_icon_size = 0
launcher_icon_asb = 100 0 0
launcher_icon_theme_override = 0
startup_notifications = 1
launcher_tooltip = 1
launcher_item_app = /usr/share/applications/pcmanfm-qt.desktop
launcher_item_app = /usr/share/applications/firefox-esr.desktop
launcher_item_app = /usr/share/applications/mx-tools.desktop

#-------------------------------------
# Tooltip
tooltip_show_timeout = 0.5
tooltip_hide_timeout = 0.1
tooltip_padding = 6 3
tooltip_background_id = 0
tooltip_font_color = #dddddd 100
tooltip_font = sans 9