Crystal ROX! HOWTO
(Read as "Crystal rocks!")

Written by: Maciej Delmanowski <harnir@linux.net.pl>

Short info:
In this HOWTO I will show you how to setup FVWM-Crystal desktop with ROX-Filer
file manager, so they are working smoothly.

What is ROX-Filer?

(From the ROX-Filer manual)
ROX-Filer is a graphical file manger for the X Window System. Its user
interface is based on the RISC OS filer and it supports similar features such
as application directories and drag-and-drop loading and saving of files. The
filer can also act as a pinboard, allowing you to pin frequently used files
onto the desktop background.

Homepage: http://rox.sourceforge.net

Debian Sid packages:
deb http://www.hrw.one.pl/apt/ sid/

In Crystal, while you can utilize an application-based work system (open an
application and from it's menu open a document), ROX-Filer will let you use
also document-based work style (open a document file in selected application),
of course after a little customization of Filer's settings.

How to make ROX-Filer work with FVWM-Crystal?

Install ROX-Filer. I assume that executable is called 'rox'. If name is
different, change it accordingly or make a symlink to '/usr/local/bin/rox'.

In ~/.fvwm/user-preferences/Startup you can find something like this:

-----< ~/.fvwm/user-preferences/Startup >------------------------------------
# Launch ROX-Filer with pinboard
#Test (x rox) Exec rox --pinboard=Default
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you want to use ROX's pinboard, uncomment line which starts ROX-Filer and
restart your X session.

If everything was correctly installed, FVWM-Crystal should run with gray
background and "Home" icon in the upper-left corner of the screen (that's
ROX's pinboard). Now click on the background and from the menu select
"ROX-Filer"->"Options". Go to "Iconified windows" and turn off "Show iconified
windows" option. Now go to "Compatibility" section and turn on "Pass all
backdrop mouse clicks to window manager" option. This way you will be able to
open terminal windows using RMB on the desktop. ROX-Filer menu can be still
accessed by clicling with RMB on the icons. You can now change ROX's options
at will.

Now look in ~/.fvwm/user-preferences/Variables. There should be something like this:

-----< ~/.fvwm/user-preferences/Variables >----------------------------------
# What command is used to set wallpapers?
#SetEnv WallpaperCommand "fvwm-crystal.habak"
#SetEnv WallpaperCommand "fvwm-crystal.rox"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Uncomment the line which sets "fvwm-crystal.rox" as the WallpaperCommand. Make
sure that 'fvwm-crystal.rox' script is in your $PATH. After this you should be
able to set the wallpaper on the ROX-Filer's desktop using FVWM-Crystal menu.


Known issues:
- window thumbnails aren't transparent, probably because FVWM doesn't use
  ROX's pinboard as the source of transparency for it's icons?
- Icon selected on the desktop stays selected; that's because ROX-Filer sends
  all mouse button clicks to the window manager. If you don't want a selected
  icon on the desktop all the time, open a directory or launch a file from
  your desktop.
- while quitting, a blank desktop is shown and quit dialog appears weird,
  that's because Filer's pinboard is a normal window. When you quit X session,
  this window is closed, leaving behind a clean background. I could put
  the same wallpaper on the root window to avoid this effect, but thus it
  would cost more RAM and time to launch, so I didn't do it. Feel free to do
  it on your own.

