People _can_ post a walk through, but you're going to have to pick a few things before we can.

I'm assuming you're using the eeepc the way it came "out of the box", so you have the user interface with the huge icons, and no start button and the tabs across the top.  Right?

If so, is THAT what you're hoping to put a wallpaper on, or do you want to REPLACE that with a more normal "desktop" type thing? 

If you want to do that, the FIRST STEP is to follow the step by step instructions on the wiki to turn on the start button.  which you have done...:-)

The "simplest' replacement desktop is probebly Rox, and I'll be adding a walk-through for that in the next day or so.  If you're wanting someone to post customization information for backgrounds on the AsusLauncher, I can't helpwith that since the first thing I did with those tabs was kill them, and replace them with a start button.

The thing you need to know is that in Linux, you get to CHOOSE any of several programs which provide the desktop, not "just" windows explorer which provides the desktop on windows.   There are several choices, and the instructions about setting the background for different desktops are -- big suprize -- different.

In Rox, which is really nice, changing the wallpaper is just right-clicking, choosing  background from the popup, and dragging an image to it.  Simple dimple.

But we have to install Rox first, instructions on that in the next day or so, or you could pick a different desktop.   Havefun reading.

Rick

Last edited by rboatright (2007-12-23 11:03:40 pm)

rboatright wrote:

People _can_ post a walk through, but you're going to have to pick a few things before we can.

I'm assuming you're using the eeepc the way it came "out of the box", so you have the user interface with the huge icons, and no start button and the tabs across the top.  Right?

If so, is THAT what you're hoping to put a wallpaper on, or do you want to REPLACE that with a more normal "desktop" type thing? 

If you want to do that, the FIRST STEP is to follow the step by step instructions on the wiki to turn on the start button.  :-)  If you can do that, you can do the rest of it, but that is sort of a test of following instructions and what level of feedback you need.

The "simplest' replacement desktop is probebly Rox, and I'll be adding a walk-through for that in the next day or so.  If you're wanting someone to post customization information for backgrounds on the AsusLauncher, I can't helpwith that since the first thing I did with those tabs was kill them, and replace them with a start button.

The thing you need to know is that in Linux, you get to CHOOSE any of several programs which provide the desktop, not "just" windows explorer which provides the desktop on windows.   There are several choices, and the instructions about setting the background for different desktops are -- big suprize -- different.

In Rox, which is really nice, changing the wallpaper is just right-clicking, choosing  background from the popup, and dragging an image to it.  Simple dimple.

But we have to install Rox first, instructions on that in the next day or so, or you could pick a different desktop.   Havefun reading.

Rick

Rick, thanks for the in depth response, i appreciate the time spent.

I've managed to get the start button activated through IceWM.... but after that i seemed to have lost my way with all the scripting, nano scripting, text editors etc etc....... a step by step from there i may be able to handle..... at the moment my head is hurting from all the hunting through threads.. the element of adding distro's frightens me from what i've read on the wiki, Hence no further tweaking via that method.

Having said that though, i look forward to reading the wiki on Rox, it sounds interesting.

Last edited by sg (2007-12-23 11:05:37 pm)

oh, I'm not changing distros...  I just am replacing the default tabbed desktop thing with something better.

here's a way to try this without doing anything that changes anything permanently...  this is just a way to see if you like a desktop.

ctrl-alt-t   to get a terminal

assuming you haven't done it, you want to switch from xterm to a terminal that let's you cut and paste more easily...  so,  _I_ would do

konsole &

which opens up konsole and then you can close the xterm.  I have changed the key-mappings to start konsole instead of xterm myself (I like the larger fonts too.)

now, since you have the start menu in already, we can kill the asus launcher tab thing (just for a minute, at this point, if you reboot, it will come back.)   

Down in the system tray, click the green square, which brings up task manager.  Find AsusLauncher and kill it.   close the task manager, and minimize everytning else and you willl find yourself with a BLANk Desktop, 'cause no desktop manager is running.  Now you COULD just put a background on the bare icewm using icecc  ( http://icecc.sf.net/ )  or, you can run a desktop manager which is more "interesting."   Let's try that, knowing that at this point no config files have been changed and you can always just say "Rick's an idiot, I hate that." and re-boot.



So, bring Konsole back up (you just minimized it, right?) and we're going to get rox filer and run it... 

so, in console do

sudo apt-get install rox-filer

(if that doesn't work you need to add additional repositories...  follow the walk through in the wiki, and make sure to follow the instructions for pinning them.)

Now, try running the rox filer (still in konsole)

rox -p=main &

now, minimize everything again....  and you've got the rox desktop running (and there will be some icons for the running applications.) 

find a blank place on the desktop and right-click

pick "backdrop'  and (oh yeah, you should have file manager open and in a small window with the image you want as a backdrop showing.  -- I forgot that part)

anyway   --- pick "backdrop" and then a little window comes up and you can drag and drop your image to it, and magically, the image is in th backdrop of the rox desktop,  it's very cool.

If you want to KEEP it, you need to follow the instructions in this thread http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?id=4759

which will allow you to permanently kill the AsusLauncher, and make rox auto-start.   It's a good thing.  --  otherwise, someone else has posted how to change the backgrounds in the AsusLauncher.   

Rick

judland wrote:

This is how I've done it (I use the command line to do this, just because it's quicker for me - that is, CTRL-ALT-T):

I'm not sure if all of this is necessary, but it works for me.  I make four files from the .jpg I want to use as a wallpaper.  For demonstration purposes, let's call my file "bigbluesky.jpg" and it's in my /home/user directory.  I make four files in the /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher directory; "accessibility_bigbluesky.jpg", "business_bigbluesky.jpg", "student_bigbluesky.jpg", and "home_bigbluesky.jpg"

I do so with this command: sudo cp /home/user/bigbluesky.jpg /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/accessibility_bigbluesky.jpg

I repeat the above command for each of the other three files.

Now I edit the simple.rc file in the same directory, like this: sudo kate /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher/simpleui.rc

In this document, I now find the five places that reference the "background=" settings and change them to say background="bigbluesky.jpg".

Save the file and then restart... I now have new wallpaper for my desktop.

Again, there may be a quicker/easier way to do it, but this works for me.

Additional:  You may want to make a copy of the simple.rc file before you start mucking with it.  Screw it up and you'll have more work than you've bargained for.  A backup will save time if you need to revert back to it later.

Thank you also judland for your time...... i'll give that a bash and see how i go.

sg wrote:

judland wrote:

This is how I've done it (I use the command line to do this, just because it's quicker for me - that is, CTRL-ALT-T):

YOU SIR ARE A GENIUS!!!!!!!!!! Did it!!!!

Thank you so much for your help Judland 

Hey, you're most welcome!  Glad I could help out.

I don't know if all of those steps are really necessary for it to work, but it does.

Anybody feel like posting some screen shots of their ROX desktop?

Chum

It's easy in the sense that there is very little for novice computer users to "fiddle" with.  They just need to point and click on their icons and they're doing what they need to do.  Sort of like an electronic kiosk you'd use at the mall or your vehicle's GPS device.

Frogwhomper wrote:

It looks as though your problem has been solved, but you might be interested in the entry on this page from Mary Ellen Lee at this link . . .

http://asuseeehacks.blogspot.com/

thanks mate..... i'll be sure to keep that one saved as well if there are any issues with the current method Judland offered me........ someone above mentioned that the altered jpeg in simpleui.rc may revert with an update, i'll just wait and see i guess.

Then again, i can just redo the method again, as it's definately the easiest way i've come across.

red wrote:

OK
I'm basically an idiot about this Linux thing.
I tried what Mary Ellen suggested on her blog, but it wouldn't let me copy the new jpg into the /opt/xandros/share/AsusLauncher file.
So then I was going to try what o2smartphone wrote above, but i did quite get the first step. What/where is the set_wallpaper.sh file? And the hyperlink didn't work when I clicked on it.
I'm confused...
does anyone know where i'm going wrong?
(oh, and i have enabled the start button with icewm which was discussed a bit at the top of the thread if that makes a difference)

Sorry, typo in the link, now fixed. This is a sure work way and if you still get any problem, just ask again.

Thanks so much o2smartphone!! Here is my first attempt at changing the background.  I may try a more mundane picture next time because this looks a bit busy.  It was super easy to just edit the file to change th blue theme and then run it!  Thanks for the help!

http://bp2.blogger.com/_oo1eqrtUpj8/R4e … pshot1.png

Last edited by red (2008-01-11 11:35:19 am)