Xfce

This page is a reference for all things window manager related.

GUIs for the Pandora

Over the development of the Pandora, many different graphical interfaces have been discussed, but there has always been some recognition that there are different use cases. There is the full-desktop style environment, set up for multi-tasking etc. and a minimal, no overhead, gaming optimised environment. These environments are referred to as the Graphical User Interface for the Pandora. Currently, both run on top of the X-windowing system and the Linux operating system. For the application (be it word processor or emulator) this should mean that the active GUI makes little difference.

MiniMenu

minimenu is designed as a fast and easy to use launcher, without a lot of fancy frills. A grid of icons to launch, and use the d-pad or touchscreen to fire one off. It is fairly configurable and skinnable and is fully featured, and very fast. If you recall the interface on the gp32, gp2x, wiz, and gmenu2x you will be right at home and then some!

MiniMenu offers an application developer a high degree of flexibility, see Minimenu configuration documentation. This gives the appearance of the applications being closely integrated with the Pandora's built-in menuing system.

XFCE

XFCE is a window manager, even known at Desktop Linux. It offers a very reduced interface but the usual stuff of the freedesktop.org protocols e.g. DBUS notifications,...

Change The Default Browser

This also applies to other applications. To change the default browser to chromium[1] Go to SETTINGS, PREFERRED APPLICATIONS and in the drop down list choose other and enter the following :

'pnd_run /media/SD_CARD_NAME/pandora/apps/APPNAME.pnd' "%s"

The quotes are important, use the a key and the s key. You need to use the name which you have given to your SD card, it does not matter which slot the card is in, but this will then only work properly when the browser application is in an inserted card.

Adding other GUIs

In order to add other window managers or graphical environments, you should edit this file /etc/pandora/conf/gui.conf[2]

At the moment, it looks like this:

XFCE4;The full desktop Environment;startxfce4;xfce4-session-logout --logout
MiniMenu;A very simple but flexible menu;startmmenu;stopmmenu

Each line is one GUI. Various parameters are there delimited with a ;

The first is the Name of the GUI (what appears when you select Switch GUI or Change Default GUI).

The second is a short description.

The third is the actual command to start the GUI.

The fourth is the actual command to stop the GUI.

So as an example, for Gnome you could make a line like that:

Gnome;The Gnome Desktop;gnome-session;gnome-session-save --kill

Now you can select Switch GUI from XFCE4 or MiniMenu and Gnome will appear there as well. If it is installed correctly, it will load up.

By using Switch GUI, you make sure your system will bootup even if the new GUI doesn't work. Once you have confirmed that it does work fine, you can slect your new GUI in the startup settings, to be used all the time.