Window Manager help

[John J. Karcher]

Norman,

Could you add this as a quick Genodians article?  It seems like the 
perfect companion to Josef's post about the Debian ISO & VirtualBox 
Guest Additions.


On 3/4/19 4:36 AM, Norman Feske wrote:
> Hello Joel,
>
> thanks for giving Sculpt CE a try. The documentation for the new version
> is not there yet. Sorry about that. Let me try to fill the gap.
>
>> Working on Sculpt CE with framework version 19.02. I've got Debian downloaded but I'm doing a terrible job of getting it to run. Running without any window manager has the Debian install boot up but I can't interface with it at all. So Im guessing I need to build my GUI software stack before it will work. I just have no idea where to begin! It was all done almost automatically with Sculpt VC. Can anyone show me how to properly setup the window manager so I can properly run vbox5-nova-sculpt?
> the easiest way is using the "themed_wm":
>
> 1. Connect to the network, which is needed to install software.
>
> 2. In the '+' menu, go to "Depot... -> genodelabs -> GUI..." and select
>     the "themed wm" and install it. Wait until the download is finished.
>
> 3. In the routing dialog, connect the themed wm as follows
>
>     GUI (focus)  -> keyboard focus
>     GUI          -> system GUI server
>     Report       -> system reports
>
>     After clicking "Add component", the graph should show the themed wm
>     running.
>
> 4. For a quick test that the themed wm is running properly, you may
>     start "Depot... -> genodelabs -> Demos... -> nano3d" with the
>     following connection:
>
>     GUI -> themed wm
>
>     You should now see a spinning 3D shape in a window. When pressing
>     F12, you should be able to move the window around.
>
> 5. Start the "vm_fs" component by clicking on the corresponding launcher
>     at the top level of the '+' menu. This is a chroot instance that
>     provides the <sculpt-partition>/vm/debian directory as a file system.
>
> 6. Start the "shared_fs" component analogously to the vm fs. This chroot
>     instance provides the <sculpt-partition>/shared/ directory as a file
>     system.
>
> 7. Start the "usb_devices_rom" component from the '+' menu, which can
>     be used to assign USB devices to the VM.
>
> 8. To add the VM, select
>     "Depot... -> genodelabs -> Virtual machines... -> vbox5-nova-sculpt"
>     and connect it as follows:
>
>     File system (vm)     -> vm fs
>     File system (shared) -> shared fs
>     GUI                  -> themed wm
>     Network              -> nic router
>     ROM (capslock)       -> global capslock state
>     ROM (platform info)  -> platform information
>     ROM (usb devices)    -> usb devices rom
>     Report (shape)       -> themed wm
>     Report               -> system reports
>     Region maps          -> custom virtual memory objects
>     Real-time clock      -> system clock
>     USB                  -> direct USB device access
>
> Now the virtual-machine window should come up.
>
> BTW, it is possible to start the VM without any window manager. If no
> window manager is running, you may connect "GUI" to "keyboard focus",
> which will allow the VM to obtain (and manage) the keyboard focus. Note
> however, that only one component can manage the keyboard focus.
> Normally, this would be the window manager.
>
> The upcoming documentation will of course go into more detail what all
> those assignments are about.
>
> As two other practical hints:
>
> * Your current system state corresponds to /config/managed/deploy (you
>    can see it using the inspect window). To use it automatically at boot
>    time (or when you select the sculpt partition for "use"), copy the
>    file to <sculpt-partition>/config/19.02/.
>
> * Alex noticed that the default RAM assignment of the
>    genodelabs/vbox5-nova-sculpt package is set to 8 GiB where the default
>    RAM assignment used in Sculpt VC was 4 GiB. I changed the default back
>    to 4 GiB in my version of the package (you may use it from
>    "Depot... -> nfeske").
>
> * If you want to easily start and remove the VM without going though
>    the routing dialog each time, you can create a launcher from the
>    information of the /config/managed/deploy by copying the corresponding
>    <start> node to a new file /config/launcher/vm and rename <start> to
>    <launcher>. This also gives you a nice way to customize the component,
>    e.g., be adding 'ram="6G"' as attribute.
>
> I hope these hints will accommodate you with migrating to Sculpt CE. If
> you encounter any problem or have questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
>
> Cheers
> Norman
>