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[SeattleXO]

At a meet-up yesterday, someone mentioned they thought there was a way to disable the Frame from appearing every time you mouse into a corner.  You would then need to use the Frame key (far upper right key on keyboard) to bring the Frame up.

I would like to disable that nuisance, every time I mouse to the Menu in Opera, I first have to endure the Frame appearing as I overshoot the menu.

Can anyone help, please?

Chris Altwegg

[vasqued2]

Comment out (add a # in the first column) lines 56 & 57 of the following file:
    /usr/share/sugar/shell/view/frame/eventarea.py

After the change, they should look like this:

#        invisible.connect('enter-notify-event', self._enter_notify_cb)
#        invisible.connect('leave-notify-event', self._leave_notify_cb)

[decibel]

Comment out (add a # in the first column) lines 56 & 57 of the following file:
    /usr/share/sugar/shell/view/frame/eventarea.py

After the change, they should look like this:

#        invisible.connect('enter-notify-event', self._enter_notify_cb)
#        invisible.connect('leave-notify-event', self._leave_notify_cb)

How do you do that? You'll have to remember, some of us *cough* need complete guides. So, we talking root access? Does it have to be rebooted to take affect? What's the command to open those files?

[Jimmy]

Comment out (add a # in the first column) lines 56 & 57 of the following file:
    /usr/share/sugar/shell/view/frame/eventarea.py

After the change, they should look like this:

#        invisible.connect('enter-notify-event', self._enter_notify_cb)
#        invisible.connect('leave-notify-event', self._leave_notify_cb)

Wow. These things are so user-friendly.  And they are supposed to be for a child in a third world country...good luck.

[Chris J]

Hacking the UI is never user-friendly, and isn't supposed to be. But little mods like this are pretty easy if you learn a little Linux and get familiar with the Terminal.

If you really want to do much of this sort of thing, a file browser like Midnight Commander (discussed elsewhere) makes it much easier.

[vasqued2]

Detailed instructions:

1.  Open a the Terminal activity.

2.  Change to superuser by typing the following:
          su

     You can validate this worked by confirming that your prompt now ends w/ a # instead of a $.

3.  Change directory to the directory of the file you want to edit by typing the following:
         cd /usr/share/sugar/shell/view/frame

     You can validate this worked by typing 'pwd' to display your present working directory and it will respond with /usr/share/sugar/shell/view/frame.

4.  Create a backup copy of the file you are about to change by typing:
         cp eventarea.py eventarea.py.bak

5.  Validate that the backup copy was created by listing all the files in the directory by typing the following:
        ls

      This will provide a list of all the files in the directory including eventarea.py and eventarea.py.bak

4.  Open an editor to edit the 'eventarea.py' file by typing the following:
        nano eventarea.py

5.  Type cntl-W and type in 'enter_notify' to find the two lines to comment out.  It will take you there.

6.  Insert the '#' symbol in the first column of the two lines that need changed.

7.  Type cntl-X to exit and enter Y when asked if you want to save the changes and hit enter when it lists the file name to save as 'eventarea.py'.

8.  Restart sugar or reboot your machine.


And now some general comments:

1.  Don't be afraid to try stuff, if it doesn't work, keep trying.  For example, if you tried to do this without changing to 'su' you'd get a 'permission denied' error when trying to save.  That's usually an indication to switch to 'su'.

2.  If you noticed that it didn't take after immediately making the changes, reboot and see what happens.

3.  It's hard to tell the experience level of the person asking the question and giving step-by-step instuctions is always open to a typo here or there from either side that could make them not work.

4.  Jimmy - Sounds like if you're not happy w/ the laptop you should just donate it to someone else so that they can enjoy.  Don't take it out on those of us just trying to help and aren't associated w/ it in any way.

5.  decibel - Hope this helps, if you run into problems, let me know and I'll try to clarify.

[meshdish54]

Works great.  Thanks for the detailed instructions.

[Jimmy]

4.  Jimmy - Sounds like if you're not happy w/ the laptop you should just donate it to someone else so that they can enjoy.  Don't take it out on those of us just trying to help and aren't associated w/ it in any way.

Sorry. I didn't mean to take anything out on anyone, other than the OLPC team.

My classroom and students are the  target audience for these machines. I bought the hype and got donors to get us XO's. Now that we have them, it's been big disappointment.

These machines may be physically designed for little kids, but the OS and software apps are NOT. It is going to be hard to show the donors how these machines can help teach literacy in the classroom. People don't want command line interfaces. We evolved away from them 25 years ago. Why bring them back for the third world?

[John_G1G1D1]

I started learning computers with LOGO on a old Apple II.  I eventually learned basic BASIC, and my semi-nerd status grew from there.  The power lies in the command line.  True, people like having a smiling clown/paper clip/dog tell them how to do things.   But others don't.  Thinking is one thing people don't do enough of anymore.  If you can learn from the command  line, you're head and shoulders abve people who didn't, and can only use MS apps, and forward emails about FaBeeze containing Agent Orange that will help you recover money from a Nigerian King.

[Roto]

These machines may be physically designed for little kids, but the OS and software apps are NOT. It is going to be hard to show the donors how these machines can help teach literacy in the classroom.

Disabling the mouse trigger for the frame requires editing code because it's not really a supported feature.  Getting WPA to work on the current build requires the command line because its broken.  There are a whole ton of things that you *can* do with the right knowledge of the underlying system.  Never did anyone say that it's intended that first graders in Afghanistan will be expected to figure out the Linux command line in order to use the laptops.

If the command line interface or the fact that you can modify the code to make it do whatever you want bothers you, from now on, whenever you see a response that says to do something through the command line or to edit a python file, just take that to mean it can't be done at this point, that it's missing or broken in the current software.

Say you're on Windows and you have the taskbar set to autohide, but it annoys you when you move your mouse down to the bottom of the screen and it pops up over the bottom of your window.  You want it to be set up so that it only appears when you push the Windows key.  You'd have to complain to Microsoft and hope that they added such a feature to the next version of Windows.  What you're asking for is essentially the same thing, only in this case, someone's able to tell you how you can do it because you have the ability to modify the system, unlike a Windows machine.  That still doesn't make it easy, it just means it's possible instead of being told no, you can't do that.

People don't want command line interfaces. We evolved away from them 25 years ago. Why bring them back for the third world?

You're being incredibly naïve.  Yes, the average person can boot up a Windows machine or a Mac, or even a Linux machine these days and never once have to type a single command.  You must understand that computers don't magically appear in the world with fully-functioning graphical interfaces.  While our methods have gotten better and architectures have become more streamlined, the underlying architecture is pretty much the same as it was twenty years ago.  The only way it's humanly possible to build up to a modern graphical operating system is one layer at a time.  Sugar is quite different from anything else out there, and it's still evolving and changing quickly as it's still under heavy development.  That development involves writing lots of code and typed commands.  To believe that such things no longer exist or are no longer necessary is simply naïve.

[ishtar]

Detailed instructions:

Thank you very much, vasqued2, this was perfectly clear.

Ishtar in NJ

[bananascanner]

Thank You so much for the detailed instructions.
I couldn't get it to work at first, but I listened to your word of wisdom and kept trying. At last....It Worked!!
I have never in my life had to go into the OS and change things. I'm so proud of myself.
BUT....without people like you I could never do this.
THANK YOU

Detailed instructions:

And now some general comments:

1.  Don't be afraid to try stuff, if it doesn't work, keep trying. 

5.  decibel - Hope this helps, if you run into problems, let me know and I'll try to clarify.

[openmike]

Thank-you vasqued2 for the info on disabling the mouse trigger for the frame.

I think the XO is much more usable in this state.

Coupled with the often "autonomous" mouse pointer movements, the interface had a general feel of instability. At least now the frame isn't coming and going at random.

[SharpSet]

Wanted to offer my thanks also to vasqued2 for the clear (and patient) instructions.

The advice to try stuff out was even more worthwhile.

Thanks again. 

[dporter]

Thanks Vasqued2

Your instructions were the clearest I have seen yet.

If all the experienced Linux gurus would document their suggestions to the same degree, Many more of would rapidly become linux happy

David Guest
St Petersburg, Fl

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