Re: [tlug] Running without Gnome/KDE/xfce/whatever. (was: Ubuntu 16.04-LTS Japanese Text Input)

[Attila Kinali <attila@example.com>]

Hoi Stephen


On Wed, 27 Apr 2016 18:27:10 +0900
"Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com> wrote:


> I think dbus probably gets run somewhere in there on Debian.  

There are two parts of dbus. A system part and a per-user part.
The system part is run from the dbus init script (which comes
with the package). The user part you have to start yourself
using `dbus-launch` in your .xinitrc/.Xsession

> There's
> too much s**t that barfs, spasms, and dies if dbus isn't available
> (why?)

Because dbus has become the defacto IPC mechanism for all kind
of applications, even though the ICCCM explicitly forbids any
IPC outside X11.
(The original idea of dbus was to have a system that could communicate
system wide events, like hardware being plugged in, to desktop applications)

 
>  > and how do you handle display of things like input method and
>  > NetworkManager icons?
> 
> Icons are just windows as far as the X server is concerned.  A button
> bar is just a very specialized window manager.  I don't bother.  Erm,
> on second thought, I do all my input via XEmacs, and I manage my
> network with ifconfig and route -- maybe those icons don't work
> without a button bar, I wouldn't know.  But the icons I use do.

There is something called the "system tray"[1] which is kind of a standard
on how these fancy "buttons" should announce their presence and get
integrated into the responsible window manager. IceWM has its own
system tray handler (which you need to start seperately) for the case
it runs without gnome. I'm sure other WM, like your beloved XEmacs,
do similar things.


And while we are at it: My setup uses an aeons old .xinitrc (yes, i
still use startx :-) that fires up ssh-agent, dbus, scim, sets the
screen setup with qrandr, etc.
On my desktop i use a static network config, hence no need for
networkdamager. On my laptop i use wicd for wireless.


			Attila Kinali

[1] https://specifications.freedesktop.org/systemtray-spec/systemtray-spec-0.3.html
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