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Full Version: [RELEASE] Launcher - application launcher plugin for Linux, Mac, Windows, and Xbox
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digitalhigh Wrote:I'm sorry...I am definitely not a linux person. I was just re-iterating what I saw in the documentation.

Googling a bit led me to this, it seems to make sense.

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=255573

yeah, i got that passed that, as the edit said. but the problem is that firefox is running in "the background" with launcher in the background saying 100%, if i press enter, the launcher responds instead of firefox.

i dunno, but this also seems to hang the launcher and to get back to xbmc, i have to reboot it.

edit: this seems to be reported by at least one more user.
slacker666 Wrote:yeah, i got that passed that, as the edit said. but the problem is that firefox is running in "the background" with launcher in the background saying 100%, if i press enter, the launcher responds instead of firefox.

i dunno, but this also seems to hang the launcher and to get back to xbmc, i have to reboot it.

Again, not a linux person, so this is more of me throwing off ideas but...

What version of XBMC are you using? I believe that there were some issues (for windows, at least) regarding XBMC not giving up focus to the launched program? Perhaps installing? a newer version could help?
i am using one of the latest versions, pre-9.04 build 18153 for Ubuntu. (compiled on February 28th)
unfortunately this is standard-behaviour.
I "fixed" this by editing
Launcher/resources/lib/launcher_plugin.py
and calling something like

os.system("%s" % ('devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-mini.ds &'))
before
os.system("%s %s" % (launcher["application"], launcher["args"]))
and
os.system("%s" % ('devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-unminifs.ds &'))
after it, so it looks somehow like:

Code:
elif (sys.platform.startswith('linux')):
                    os.system("%s" % ('killall -9 devilspie &'))
                    os.system("%s" % ('devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-mini.ds &'))
                    os.system("%s %s" % (launcher["application"], launcher["args"]))
                    os.system("%s" % ('devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-unminifs.ds &'))

And similar edits near the rom-launcher line somewhere below.
the "killall -9 devilspie" line makes sure that that, yes,
devilspie is killed.

where
xbmc-mini.ds

Code:
(if
(contains (window_name) "XBMC Media Center")
(minimize)
)


and

xbmc-unminifs.ds

Code:
(if
(contains (window_name) "XBMC")
(unminimize fullscreen)
)

Of course you need devilspie installed to un-/minimize xbmc.
Far from being perfect, but it worked quiet fine here as long as I used it.

I hope
http://trac.xbmc.org/ticket/5628
will grow up fast, to get rid of Launcher plugin.
(it was very cool for the beginning, no doubt, but application launching
should be built in imho)

atm I use the netbook-launcher application
(https://launchpad.net/~njpatel/+archive/...hive-extra)
under xbmc and simply launch apps from there. less complicated for now.
And it also can be perfectly controlled with remote, so when done with "launching apps" I can navigate in the netbook-launcher to xbmc
(or, what I prefer, simply hit my xbmc button on the remote Smile )
thanks for the ideas frostwork.

however, im confused when it comes to xbmc-mini.ds and xbmc-unminifs.ds
are these existing files and if so where are they located? if they aren't existing already, where do i create them?

also, how do u launch netbook-launcher from xbmc?
you need to create both xbmc-mini.ds and xbmc-unminifs.ds (or whatever you would like to call them Smile ).
I have mine in $HOME/.devilspie/
(you probably also need to create the .devilspie directory first if you want to use the same path), but it doesn't matter where the files are, as long as you provide the
absolut path to devilspie
(check the code in my previous post).

regarding netbooks-launcher:
I expressed very bad with saying "under xbmc".
In fact I meant below xbmc, means I autostart both netbook-launcher and xbmc (where xbmc is on top).
You could add a script (f.e. netbook.py) containing

Code:
#!/usr/bin/python
import os
os.system('devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-mini.ds &')

to your $HOME/.xbmc/scripts/My\ Scripts/

and create an other bashscript (f.e unminixbmc) like

Code:
#!/bin/sh
devilspie $HOME/.devilspie/xbmc-unminifs.ds

which uses a /usr/local/share/applications/unminixbmc.desktop

like
Code:
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=unminixbmc
Exec=/usr/local/bin/unminixbmc
Icon=/usr/local/share/pixmaps/$whatever-icon.png
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Settings

On that way you can minimize xbmc from xbmc,
will be dropped to the netbook-launcher
(which you could even tweak a little, so it'll look more
like your fav. xbmcskin Smile ), launch your apps there, and
unminimize xbmc when you're done with your apps.
i dont think i am doing it right, i've created those .ds files but it still takes focus of the firefox app. meaning xbmc responds and not firefox.

i autostart my ubuntu to run xbmc, so i never get to the actual desktop of ubuntu.
ah, so some small wm like openbox,xfce4,evilwm,whatever
should fix this.
hmm, could you tell me what those do exactly? and how i use them? not familiar with any of them.
slacker666 Wrote:hmm, could you tell me what those do exactly? and how i use them? not familiar with any of them.

I'm sure their very own homepages/docs can answer those questions best.
mhhm I have a Problem, I have XBMC-Windows and tried to use the Launcher 1.02 plugin, but this error message comes up:
Image
Image
frostwork Wrote:I'm sure their very own homepages/docs can answer those questions best.

dont see how they can help me as i ONLY run XBMC, nothing else (except Ubuntu backend).

Any ideas how to fix the things you described earlier, they seem to be my best shot atm.
leo2 Wrote:Known Bugs:
2. (Windows Only) Minimizing and not maximizing back the XBMC after program finished.

I'm having this problem. XBMC will minimize, launch the standalone app, I exit the app, and XBMC doesn't maximize back.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

Also, how can I add my Launcher app to the home screen main menu?
this application is in major need for an update that will fix the problems regarding "losing focus" on the opened application.

it seems no one actually have been able to (properly) run firefox for example?
slacker666 Wrote:this application is in major need for an update that will fix the problems regarding "losing focus" on the opened application.

it seems no one actually have been able to (properly) run firefox for example?

I have no problems with losing focus and i am able to launch firefox without any problem.
I'm not using devilspie, netbook-launcher or any other tool mentioned in the previous posts.
The only thing i did was create a script which will start the gnome windowmanager and launch firefox.

Just launch this script with the Launcher plugin:

firefox.sh:
Code:
metacity &
firefox
killall -9 metacity

That's all. Once you quit firefox, the script will kill the windowmanager and XBMC will regain focus.

But maybe things depend on the way you autostart XBMC? I use gdm to launch XBMC as a session. The behavior might be different when using others methods...