BT4beta GNOME edition

[purehate]

Instead of specifying a particular kind of terminal (e.g. xterm, kterminal, xfterm), maybe specify a script which can be modified, or even just specify a symbolic link that can be redirected to different terminal emulators.

That's just a five-second idea so it might not come to anything, but I can see it working... somehow... some way

I understand what you are saying but we need it to work with the default term. For example if I remove kde from backtrack and install xfce4 , it needs to work with the default stuff. Thats the whole point of FDF compliance. I do appreciate your input though as I know you are a good programmer and have xfce4 experience

[Archangel-Amael]

I understand what you are saying but we need it to work with the default term. For example if I remove kde from backtrack and install xfce4 , it needs to work with the default stuff. Thats the whole point of FDF compliance. I do appreciate your input though as I know you are a good programmer and have xfce4 experience

Yes I understand (and sorry if there was any misconceptions with) the .desktop and FDF compliance. I have the latest edition of xfce4.6.1 and as I stated above. I have worked with both the new versions and .desktop files and older versions with both the xml and or the destktop file.
The first thing I did was download through synaptic xfce from the repos.
Since older versions can use either .desktop files or a .xml menu file I have tried with both. I also tried with the latest version. I d/led the source and went from there. But still the same boat. I talked to some of the guys at xfce and xubuntu but was told that it wouldn't work with non-gui apps.
But I don't believe this.

pureh@te: what you just described is what I have done. I took a vmware image and stripped all the other desktop managers out. I also have a stock image and one with kde and xfce4 installed, for testing on the server.
Like I said with a xml menu file it was rather easy to do. I followed the layout for tools "category view" for ordering purposes. As for using desktop files
I made some for several of the tools. Anything that is gui based I can get to work no problem but anything terminal based doesn't seem to work.
I even tried using different terminal emulators to no avail.


I hope you all understand what I mean.


EDIT: I just tried making a (command line based) launcher under xubuntu (jaunty whatever) and again the same thing happens.
EDIT2: I can make a terminal open and run the command but again it closes after the command is run. This is exactly what the guys at xfce told me it would/should do. While it does as they advertise I am still working on it. Will update here in this thread as needed.
EDIT3: According to various documents found on the net (which is what I thought earlier), there is no way to manipulate the parent shell through the child shell.
Since the "exec" command does just that. It spawns a new shell and runs whatever is after it and then returns to the shell from whence it came.
So effectively as I see it there is no way to implement it save making a script for every single tool.
Again I could be wrong and there is probably a way to do it but I am not finding anything.

[Virchanza]

The following keeps a usable commandline open.

xterm -e "iwconfig && su"

I dunno if it's the optimal way of doing it, but it's a start.

(Where we tryna get xterm to stay open, or xfce4-terminal to stay open?)

[Archangel-Amael]

The following keeps a usable commandline open.

xterm -e "iwconfig && su"

I dunno if it's the optimal way of doing it, but it's a start.

Tried that and its not viable. Not to mention it will dump you back to where ever you came from. For instance /

(Where we tryna get xterm to stay open, or xfce4-terminal to stay open?)

As pure_hate mentioned above if it is to be FDF compliant then it must be the default terminal, in this case xfce4-terminal.
EDIT: Staying open is not a problem that can be done. But the problem is that the prompt returns to root.
Read above I posted about it, in this thread.

[Virchanza]

As pure_hate mentioned above if it is to be FDF compliant then it must be the default terminal, in this case xfce4-terminal.

Oh....... I misunderstood.

When yous were talking about the "default terminal", I presumed yous meant xterm because that's the terminal emulator that's available on every Linux machine.

If I understand correctly, what you're saying is that xfce4-terminal is the default terminal on Xfce and therefore that's the one you want to use.

Anyway... I have a little idea...

Take the source code for xfce4-terminal, and edit it to add a new commandline option, maybe something like "--reusable". I'm sure it wouldn't take more than an hour's work to get it working the way we want it. Then compile it, and ship this binary with Backtrack.

Later, send the source code changes to the guys that make xfce4-terminal, and see what they think about integrating it into the official program.

Just as an aside, xfce4-terminal isn't great. When I was testing my Internet Prober program, I couldn't figure out why on earth the text wouldn't flash on screen when I wanted it to flash. On a hunch, I ran my program in xterm, and it worked perfectly in xterm. I then sent an e-mail to the guy who gave me this response:

Some emulators implement blink, some implement it "some" of the time
(I noticed one a while back that doesn't combine blink with color...).

Looking at xfce-terminal 0.2.8, I see it doesn't implement blink
(using vttest, menu 2 - vttest shows other problems).

On Debian/testing - I see it also sets $TERM to "xterm" which is incorrect. I hadn't paid much attention to xfce-terminal specifically since it's just a lightweight (though ldd lists 56 libraries) wrapper for the VTE widget, which is used in gnome-terminal.

A terminal description that matches the terminal properly won't list capabilities that the terminal doesn't support.

Oh, another option would be to use xterm for everything.

[orange]

archangel.amael,

we're pretty much talking at cross-purposes here. Let me explain (sorry for being not too specific at first glance): The major work I've done is not to install GNOME but to make the Desktop Entries FSF complaint as pureh@te already explained. You're right with the --hold and -e switches and that's exactly how I started as well some weeks ago, but you just need to execute the provided scripts to "convert" the Desktop Entries in BT4beta into an appropriate (FSF compliant) format.

See, in BT4beta the Exec keys are like Exec=command;command or even more commands in series. That's the problem with any terminal-emulator besides Konsole in KDE - such an Exec key is not allowed by the specification, Konsole just works here as KDE is not that strict on the specification and allows non-standard Exec keys. The FSF specification allows ONE command per Exec key like Exec=command. Thus my script parses all Desktop Entries for Occurrences of Exec=command;command and replaces them with Exec=sh -c "command;command" - that way you achieve the same behavior as with --hold and/or -e on-the-fly - the script also takes care of much more difficult Exec keys like e.g. Exec=cd /somepath; echo "something";command;command;command. In addition to that the script takes care that restricted characters like " are escaped by \". I'd like to encourage you to just try it out (this would at least make the discussion about it much easier and you'll get rid of the --hold and/or -e switches in no time, cause the script does nothing else but make the Desktop Entries appropriate for "cross-terminal" operation) - you'll see that this method will solve all your issues with terminals that open and close again or blinking cursors and such. As of XFCE: Could be that it introduces another problem that I'm not aware of but with gnome-terminal it works perfect, Konsole doesn't lose any of it's previous behavior and I see no reason why xfce4-terminal should cause any issues here (certainly untested due to lack of time) - I mean that's the reason for the FSF specification - making things cross-desktop compatible.

I hope this clarifies what I've done with the scripts actually. Please ask if something is still unclear. Also please have a closer look on the awk script - should be pretty much self-explanatory.

thanks,
orange

[purehate]

or4n9e , the modifications we made to the .desktop files for gnome DO NOT work with xfce4. I have already tried as I mentioned in my earlier post.

[Archangel-Amael]

Don't take any of the following the wrong way.

Let me explain (sorry for being not too specific at first glance): The major work I've done is not to install GNOME but to make the Desktop Entries FSF complaint as pureh@te already explained.

See above post 22.

See, in BT4beta the Exec keys are like Exec=command;command or even more commands in series.

See above post 22 edit 3.

you'll see that this method will solve all your issues with terminals that open and close again or blinking cursors and such.

Nope that will not fix it either.

As of XFCE: Could be that it introduces another problem that I'm not aware of

There is, and that is what I have been working on as well.

I see no reason why xfce4-terminal should cause any issues here (certainly untested due to lack of time)

I don't see a reason why it would not work either. The guys that I have been in contact with at xfce, xubuntu and debian xfce, all say either two basic things. One if the command runs (by run I mean a terminal is opened and the command is processed and the terminal closes, or is rendered useless.) then it works ( as far as what I gathered from them, they are happy with that)
Two what I am trying to achieve can not be done. But as I have stated before, I do not believe this.

I hope this clarifies what I've done with the scripts actually. Please ask if something is still unclear. Also please have a closer look on the awk script - should be pretty much self-explanatory.

As for the scripts yes it is nice work and a nice share, so thanks for that. But as purehate mentions above (and I tried this last night), it does not work with xfce neither 4.4.2 nor 4.6 which is what I tested last night.

Cheers

[orange]

Don't take any of the following the wrong way.

No worries, I won't. I have to admit that I just had a few minutes to overfly the rather long discussion between pureh@te and yourself - I'm sorry for that.

As for the scripts yes it is nice work and a nice share, so thanks for that. But as purehate mentions above (and I tried this last night), it does not work with xfce neither 4.4.2 nor 4.6 which is what I tested last night.

or4n9e , the modifications we made to the .desktop files for gnome DO NOT work with xfce4. I have already tried as I mentioned in my earlier post.

Weird thing. I had hoped that my scripts would solve this ultimately for whatever desktop environment/terminal-emulator. If time allows I'll setup a XFCE4 install as well in the next days and try to help you guys. I'll report back if I happen to find something out not documented here already. Please keep me in the loop about the further progress as well. I'm also excited to achieve a XFCE4 edition.

PS: Btw, have you tried my scripts with other terminal-emulators (rxvt, eterm and so on)? Just curious if it's just xfce4-terminal.

[purehate]

It may work with other terminal emulators but thats not what we want. We need it to work with whatever the default term is. or4n9e, I do appreciate you help with gnome and if you find away to include xfce4 please let me know on IRC. Thanks.