[maemo-developers] Running X11 applications on maemo

[From: Eero Tamminen]

Hi,

(please keep CC on maemo-developers.)

ext Oleksandr Shneyder wrote:
>> The window needs to have the standard WM_CLASS property that corresponds
>> to the string given in the .desktop file corresponding to the running
>> application.  (this has been discussed earlier, you can google for
>> more info)
> 
> Thank you very much for your answer, it was a solution for my problem!
> Unfortunatly in application that i need, properties WM_CLASS and WM_NAME
> was not seted. I have modified this application using function
> XSetClassHint and now it works for me.
> 
> I have researched this problem and have found that some x-applications
> not setting properties WM_CLASS and WM_NAME. Well, we can  modify all of
> them to use with maemo, but it's a large amount of work. And it still
> not solving problem if we running applications exported from another pc
> (for example with ssh -X).

Btw. for "ssh -X" to work, you need to install "xauth", see:
	https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=3556

(You need to use "-v" ssh option to find this out, it doesn't warn
about this by default!)


> We must also create for every small application a .desktop file.

This is not a problem if you're using RDP (rdesktop) or VNC, then only
the client application showing the remote desktop needs this "fix".


> It is still possible to write a wrapper, or application, that search
> windows without WM_CLASS (and or without .desktop file) and create
> taskbar entry for such windows. By activating this entry, window will be
> restored using function XMapWindow.
> 
> But I don't understand why WM on maemo does not display all X-Windows on
> taskbar, as all other WMs do?

In the Hildon Desktop Task Navigator component, all the application
(window) information is tied to the information about .desktop files,
so fixing this would require a largish change to Task Navigator.
The sources for Hildon Desktop are open if you're interested into
looking at that.


 > Is it a bug or feature?

This issue has been there since the first (770) release.

In the current device some things have multiple windows of which only
one is supposed to listed by Task Navigator (Marbles, media player...),
so fixing that might require some changes in them also.

The Hildon Desktop implementors think of it more as a feature, but
as an open source  developer who at home deals more with SDL than Gtk
code, I think of this more as a bug, though. .:-)


	- Eero