Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

BoppreH · 2009-02-09 20:15:37

I'm currently using stalonetray and lal on my openbox environment. They are both set to act as "dock" and the "Openbox Configuration Manager" states: bottom right, vertical, hide off screen. One is on top of the other, both hiding and showing perfectly, no problem here.

The first odd behavior is the order. Sometimes lal is on top, sometimes stalonetray is, randomly. I guess it's a race condition initiated at my autostart.sh:

thunar --daemon &
parcellite &
sh ~/.fehbg &
pidgin &
export OO_FORCE_DESKTOP=gnome &
lal --format "%T Day %d" --width 115 --color black &
stalonetray -w -p &

It's not a big problem, but I would like to understand it.

[EDIT] Solved the order problem putting a "sleep 3 &" between the lal and the stalonetray lines. It was clearly a race condition.
[EDIT2] It's not a 100%. The orders were inverted again for a single session.

The second odd behavior is that sometimes parcellite's icon is missing. I have two auto-start icons (pidgin and parcellite) and sometimes parcellite's icon is just not there. Restarting the program adds nothing to the tray bar, although the functionality is always there. I couldn't get what the trigger is, but it's something that happens roughly once every two "clean" sessions.

What's happening? Does openbox play dice?

Last edited by BoppreH (2009-02-09 23:18:00)

monstermudder78 · 2009-02-09 20:42:26

I don't know if I can help you understand the first condition, but to keep it consistent I would move the app you want on top to the end of the list and put sleep 1 or 2 or 3 in front of it. I would use the lowest delay that consistently works. Just my $.02

BoppreH · 2009-02-09 20:47:15

monstermudder78 wrote:

I don't know if I can help you understand the first condition, but to keep it consistent I would move the app you want on top to the end of the list and put sleep 1 or 2 or 3 in front of it. I would use the lowest delay that consistently works. Just my $.02

It seems to have worked and proves that the problem was a race condition. Thanks.

Inxsible · 2009-02-09 22:51:07

I have noticed issue number 2 as well. I have skype and pidgin running and sometimes it will be pidgin or sometimes skype that will not show the icon... killing the app and restarting it doesn't help, but logging out of openbox and back in does. I always thought that was quirky but never paid much attention to it since they are both messengers -- not some critical app that I cannot do without.

But it's interesting to see there are others as well.

This could be again related to the race condition. I have a sleep 1 before I start pidgin and skype. You may want to start stalonetray prior to starting parcellite and pidgin. I am not a 100 % sure if that will help, but you might as well try.

Here's my autostart

#!/bin/sh
# Run the system-wide support stuff
#. $GLOBALAUTOSTART

# Programs to launch at startup
eval `cat $HOME/.fehbg` &
conky &
#conky -c $HOME/Conky/calendarwhite

# Programs that will run after Openbox has started
stalonetray &
(sleep 1 && pidgin) &
(sleep 1 && skype) &

Last edited by Inxsible (2009-02-09 22:54:52)

BoppreH · 2009-02-09 23:20:59

Good idea. But the "sleep" is not totally reliable: even with "sleep 3", stalonetray managed to be launched before lal for a single session here.

I will try starting stalonetray at first and post my result.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-02-09 20:15:37

Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

#2 2009-02-09 20:42:26

Re: Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

#3 2009-02-09 20:47:15

Re: Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

#4 2009-02-09 22:51:07

Re: Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

#5 2009-02-09 23:20:59

Re: Openbox - stalonetray and lal odd behaviors

Board footer