[SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

thia11 · 2018-11-06 17:27:04

Hello!

I searched for a long time for THE most lightweight, battery friendly distro available, and (I hope) I found it. The lack of a desktop looks interesting, but I'm sure that one can avoid that with a few tricks.

First, I would like to know whether this script will work in bunsenlabs

#!/bin/bash 

tty -s || xterm -e $0 "$@"
rsync -av ~Desktop/"My Files"/ /media/user/usb/"My Files"/
read -p "Press Enter" reply

I dunno much about terminals, and allegedly most distros have an xterm somewhere inside, even if they use some other terminal as main.

I have a few other questions, so if you could answer some of them, that would be nice.

2. Is this one of the top x most lightweight battery friendly distros available, better than Lubuntu?

3. Can I pin icons somewhere, or should I use the file manager as desktop? (Having all the files I need in one folder)

4. To do 3, I need shortcuts. Are shortcuts supported?

5. Does the cool info bar on the right use a lot of cpu and battery?

6. where can I find a picture book for 5 year olds that outlines how to edit those files that change the stuff on the desktop?

I am brand new to this, and any help is welcome. I just bricked my peppermint, so I thought "might as well use this as an opportunity to upgrade my battery life (hopefully) and learn some new stuff"
Thank you!!!

Last edited by thia11 (2018-11-06 22:11:37)

damo · 2018-11-06 17:48:18

Getting Started -> Introduction to the BunsenLabs Desktop

Why not run a Live session and get most of your answers there?

NB Openbox is a window manager, and BL doesn't use a Desktop Environment by default. That would be something you have to install and configure yourself if you want desktop icons. Perhaps like many Openbox users you will find a WM is a simple and blessed relief! Keyboard shortcuts and Tint2 buttons provide much of the same functionality.

The "info bar" on the right is the default Conky, the one at the top is "Tint2". Each is highly-configurable, and BL ships with many choices. Run htop to see what resources individual processes are using.

The Help menu item gives links to many resources to assist with configuring BL applications.

Battery management may take some tweaking by you, but there are forum threads on the topic.

iMBeCil · 2018-11-06 19:07:58

@thia: Your backup script will (probably) work. The 'xterm' is quite ubiquitous in linux GUI, whichever it is.

As for the OpenBox WM (=window manager) which comes preconfigured in BL, there is no DE (=desktop environment) in BL. (This is the same as @damo said, but I added clear abbreviation meanings.) I would suggest, too, that you give the BL a try, see if you can live without desktop clutter (icons, and whatnot).

If you cannot live without desktop icons, you may install additional software (iDesk comes to mind, but it seems outdated; perhaps there are other programs ...). Or you can try some other lightweight distro, based for example on Xfce DE.

@damo: the first image link in the post you have recommended doesn't work.

Last edited by iMBeCil (2018-11-06 19:08:42)

damo · 2018-11-06 20:10:39

iMBeCil wrote:

...
@damo: the first image link in the post you have recommended doesn't work.

Oops, I'll get on it

thia11 · 2018-11-06 20:12:06

Thanks for the answer.

I know that BL doesn't have a desktop environment. I just thought whether ther is some established way of circumventing this. Like, I would personally make a file somewhere, put all the shortcuts to all my favourite programs in there, and then add a shortcut to that folder to the taskbar or the right click. That way I would be one click away from a makeshift "desktop".

I just added the B in tint 2 so I cna see the battery percentage. Now I just have to see whether I want to use conky or not. I'm only really interested in the battery percentage, and the useful shortcuts.

And then I gotta figure out how to add icons to tint2 for my shortcut, and that will be it. Then I just install a few of my programs and get to work.

The distro looks pretty cool. It's maybe the coolest looking distro I have ever seen. But some times, I gotta wait like 20 seconds for some editor programs to start up. Hope this is only like this the first time.

iMBeCil · 2018-11-06 20:46:18

^You're welcome.

thia11 wrote:

The distro looks pretty cool. It's maybe the coolest looking distro I have ever seen.

Quite, it is very neat distro, and devs/maintainers are doing superb job. (Not, I'm not using it any more. I did use it, but migrated to even lighter stuff ... debian sid with i3-wm, and stuff ...) And the community is rather nice and really helpful - even with the non-BL related stuff.

thia11 wrote:

But some times, I gotta wait like 20 seconds for some editor programs to start up. Hope this is only like this the first time.

Yes, I think there have been similar complaint, but they were present only the first time, as you noticed yourself. If not, you can always ask here for help.

As for the desktop icons ... please reconsider your position, and give the BL WM without desktop a try. You will feel awful for a few days, but afterwards you will never look back That's how most of the people here had it.

Anyway, good luck and have fun

thia11 · 2018-11-06 21:19:36

iMBeCil wrote:

I did use it, but migrated to even lighter stuff ... debian sid with i3-wm, and stuff ...

Wow, I was just watching a video about that the other day. Looks cool, but also hard. Bunsen is as far as I'm willing to go

Anyway, I have one last question. I sorted everything out with conky and now I have a cool battery percentage and bar display, and the last thing I need to do is appearance. See, I reeally need dark colors because of my eyes. I always use arc dark or something similar, but the only dark thing on the list here was crocus-remix, which unfortunately has white parts. Now, when I click on the color tab, it tells me that "setting color scheme is not available without lxsession as session manager". Now, I wouldn't want to clutter my fresh install with lxde and all the stuff that comes with it just so I can change colors. Should I just download custom themes somewhere somehow? Or should I download lxsession (whatever that is)?

Thanks for the help !

Last edited by thia11 (2018-11-06 21:20:45)

damo · 2018-11-06 21:21:52

thia11 wrote:

Thanks for the answer.
I know that BL doesn't have a desktop environment. I just thought whether ther is some established way of circumventing this. Like, I would personally make a file somewhere, put all the shortcuts to all my favourite programs in there, and then add a shortcut to that folder to the taskbar or the right click. That way I would be one click away from a makeshift "desktop".
I just added the B in tint 2 so I cna see the battery percentage. Now I just have to see whether I want to use conky or not. I'm only really interested in the battery percentage, and the useful shortcuts.
And then I gotta figure out how to add icons to tint2 for my shortcut, and that will be it. Then I just install a few of my programs and get to work.
The distro looks pretty cool. It's maybe the coolest looking distro I have ever seen. But some times, I gotta wait like 20 seconds for some editor programs to start up. Hope this is only like this the first time.

As I said, look at the Help menu for Tint2 about how to create a launcher or exec button.

The first boot of a new install may be slow to load the desktop, as BL populates the user configs.

Some have an issue with Thunar (file manager) being slow when first opening. This can often be solved by editing, as root, /usr/share/gvfs/mounts/network.mount and change AutoMount=true to AutoMount=false.

damo · 2018-11-06 21:30:37

Download any theme you like, and install to /usr/share/themes or ~/.themes. If you can't find a matching Openbox theme, it is easy enough to copy and edit the colours of an existing one. Some of my own dark ones are on my DeviantArt pages.

thia11 · 2018-11-06 22:10:54

Thank you all very much, now I am ready to continue my projects on a new and interesting distro

johnraff · 2018-11-07 01:39:23

thia11 wrote:

I would personally make a file somewhere, put all the shortcuts to all my favourite programs in there, and then add a shortcut to that folder to the taskbar or the right click. That way I would be one click away from a makeshift "desktop".

Making a folder with links to your favourite programmes is certainly one way to do it. Another way would be to edit the right-click menu and add entries for those programmes. (On the menu see "Help & Resources" > "Bunsen Help Files" > "How to Edit Menu") There are also many utilities you can install which would add that sort of function, eg xfce4-panel.

PackRat · 2018-11-07 02:25:06

First, I would like to know whether this script will work in bunsenlabs

It should, as long as xterm and rsync are installed; I believe both are installed by default with BL. If not, both can be installed using apt.

johnraff · 2018-11-07 03:14:01

In fact xterm is not installed in BL by default, but is not even needed as long as the backup script is run from a terminal. (I would suggest replacing 'xterm' with 'x-terminal-emulator' anyway.)

thia11 · 2018-11-07 08:42:03

johnraff wrote:

(I would suggest replacing 'xterm' with 'x-terminal-emulator' anyway.)

Is there a way to see a list of terminals I have in BL, or do I just pick the main one, find its name somewhere, and then use that? Because, like you said, there is no xterm installed.

Also, I would like to know if tint2 panel only supports .desktop launchers, because I'd like to put a link to my special folder there. Is it possible to make a .desktop launcher point to a folder?

Also, when I shift+ctrl+drag_and_drop a .desktop file to my special location, it doesn't pull the icon (even though everything is nicely configured when you open the file in a text editor), and it also always gives me a warning that this shortcut is bad and I should feel bad for putting it in an unprotected location. What should I do?

Tnx!

EDIT: I think I figured it out! I just somehow edit the path to the opening directory of the launcher of the file manager. That way I don't have to copy it and rename it and have two of them in the panel. I dunno actually.

Last edited by thia11 (2018-11-07 09:30:29)

iMBeCil · 2018-11-07 09:54:06

johnraff wrote:

In fact xterm is not installed in BL by default, but is not even needed as long as the backup script is run from a terminal. (I would suggest replacing 'xterm' with 'x-terminal-emulator' anyway.)

8) I was under impression that the 'xterm' is ubiquitous, same as 'sendmail'. Even if there is no 'sendmail' installed, distros are symlinking it to the installed MTA. Perhaps, you should consider making a symlink to the x-terminal-emulator during BL install? (Just an idea ...)

@thia11: sorry for the wrong information about the script ... indeed, there is no xterm in BL, but you probably already figured it out.

thia11 · 2018-11-07 10:16:50

iMBeCil wrote:

you probably already figured it out.

Yes, terminal is all good. I just need one final piece of info. I copied the file manager .desktop file, and renamed it so I can put it back in the same place. I need just the answer what to put in

Exec=bl-file-manager %F

Do I put it like
Exec=bl-file-manager %F /home/username/super_special_folder

Or some other way? Like, without the F (whatever that means), or with something else?

I am making a file manager desktop file that points ot a specific directory, which I will use as my makeshift desktop. and I will put it on tint2 then

Tnx!

Last edited by thia11 (2018-11-07 10:18:15)

johnraff · 2018-11-07 11:36:45

%F is a placeholder that the application accessing that .desktop file would substitute with whatever file(s) they wanted to send to it. In your case, you don't need it, so

Exec=bl-file-manager /home/username/super_special_folder

should work.
Edit the Name= field too so it doesn't clash with the original, and consider putting something in Comment= too.

To avoid having to use root powers (sudo...) you can put homemade .desktop files in /home/yourname/.local/share/applications .

damo · 2018-11-07 11:36:47

thia11 wrote:

...
Or some other way? Like, without the F (whatever that means), or with something else?
...
Tnx!

Thunar -> Edit -> Configure Custom Actions. Open one for editing and you will see all the possibilites for "%x".
%F = 'paths to all selected files'.

PackRat · 2018-11-07 14:14:13

johnraff wrote:

In fact xterm is not installed in BL by default, but is not even needed as long as the backup script is run from a terminal. (I would suggest replacing 'xterm' with 'x-terminal-emulator' anyway.)

Is rsync installed by default?

johnraff · 2018-11-07 14:38:07

Yes, rsync is in the default install list.
Here's what the netinstall script installs, but of course dependencies will be pulled in too:
https://github.com/BunsenLabs/bunsen-ne … kgs-norecs

#1 2018-11-06 17:27:04

[SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#2 2018-11-06 17:48:18

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#3 2018-11-06 19:07:58

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#4 2018-11-06 20:10:39

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#5 2018-11-06 20:12:06

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#6 2018-11-06 20:46:18

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#7 2018-11-06 21:19:36

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#8 2018-11-06 21:21:52

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#9 2018-11-06 21:30:37

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#10 2018-11-06 22:10:54

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#11 2018-11-07 01:39:23

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#12 2018-11-07 02:25:06

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#13 2018-11-07 03:14:01

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#14 2018-11-07 08:42:03

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#15 2018-11-07 09:54:06

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#16 2018-11-07 10:16:50

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#17 2018-11-07 11:36:45

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#18 2018-11-07 11:36:47

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#19 2018-11-07 14:14:13

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

#20 2018-11-07 14:38:07

Re: [SOLVED] Will my backup script from Peppermint work here too?

Board footer