ROX-All
ROX-All is a single archive containing launchers for most of the ROX applications. It contains everything you need to get started with ROX. Because actually putting all the software in this archive would make it very big and quickly out of date, it will download the latest versions of programs when you run them the first time. Therefore, you will need a network connection (but only when downloading or upgrading programs).
Network install
This is the most efficient way to get ROX. Only programs you use will be downloaded, and only the version for your system.
- Download the latest tar.bz2 archive from the download link above.
- Unpack the archive. Normally clicking on it in your existing desktop envionment will do this. If not, open a 'terminal emulator' (like xterm, gnome-terminal, or konsole) and type this command:
$ tar xjf rox-all-1.4.tar.bz2 - Read the INSTALL.html file inside the ROX-All directory for more information. The steps are:
- If the 0launch command is not yet installed, get it (either from your Linux distribution or from 0install.net.
- Then, run the rox script to download and start ROX-Filer. This will open a directory viewer showing you all the other applications:
If you're curious about where the applications got unpacked to, right click on one and choose "App dir (name)/Help" to open its Help sub-directory. Go up to the parent directory to see the rest of its files.
No-network install
If the target machine doesn't have an internet connection, you can instead download the rox-all-no-network.sh script from the Downloads link above, and run that. This includes Linux x86 and x86_64 (64-bit) binaries of most of the programs. To use it:
- If the 0launch command is not yet installed, get it (either from your Linux distribution or from 0install.net).
- Run 0launch -g from a terminal (e.g. gnome-terminal).
- Go to Preferences and set Network Use to Off-line. Otherwise, it will try to download updates. You can cancel the dialog box now.
- Run the self-extracting archive from the terminal:
sh rox-all-no-network.sh
Note that the package does not include everything in the ROX-All package. For example, if you try to run the games then you'll still be prompted to download them.
Programs provided:
At the time of release, ROX-All contains all the programs listed on the ROX Zero Install index page, plus a few games (which are not part of ROX). To get software released since ROX-All, just drag the links from the index page to the AddApp program (Configuration/AddApp).
Note on platform-specific packages
Many of the programs above are written in Python and will therefore work on all systems. Those written in C (including ROX-Filer itself) will only work if a binary is available for your platform. If no binary for your platform is available, please consider creating one for future users. At the time of writing (2005-10-26), Linux-x86 and PPC binaries are available.
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Binaries for unusual platforms
If you have an unusual system (x86_64, etc) then please consider compiling a binary for ROX-Filer and making it available for others.
See the ROX-Filer binary packaging tutorial for step-by-step instructions on how to do this using 0publish.
Binaries for unusual platforms
This is a bit easier now: some programs (currently Pager and ROX-CLib) show a Compile button in the interface properties dialog. See this blog post.
If the build fails, click on 'Notify developers' so we can see why. I suspect that our GLib headers may cause problems on non-x86 systems, but no-one has complained and I don't have a system to test on, so I'm waiting for a bug report ;-)
Setting the window manager
If you run ROX-Session to get a complete ROX desktop (rather than just using individual programs within your existing desktop), it will offer to download the OroboROX window manager by default.
To choose a different window manager, cancel this dialog and you will be asked to choose an alternative.
To use a local version of OroboROX you already have (rather than downloading a new copy), double-click on OroboROX's line in the dialog and click on the Add Local Feed... button.
To change window manager later, quit (or kill) the current one and you'll be prompted to choose a different one.
rox-session
It seems that when I use zeroinstall to call rox session, I don't have an option to run it. so instead I call it via a window in rox.
It asks me if I want it to be my manager and I agree, it then requests to logout and when I try to return zeroinstall brings up the rox-filer update but greys out the option to download and then returns an error that oroboROX could not be d/l.
Startx becomes an error and fluxbox it rendered inoperable!
I am confused?? This has happened twice, I've re-installed twice trying to figure it out and it's rox-sessions. It bungles up with no option, error lines show nothing except that OroboxROX is requesting a download and cannot receive it from rox's end.
There is also NO information available for this problem. no forum, I couldn't be the only person facing this?
a small sentence of advice would be more than I have been able to gather from the beast that is google.
thanks in advance.
Architecture?
What kind of machine is this? Standard Linux-x86 or something else?
If there's no binary available it will say "(choose)" in the version column. Right-click there and compile from source.
If you cancel running OroboROX, it should ask you to choose a different window manager.
No offence
No offence, but the half of ROX-All doesn't work properly, so why recommend it?
E.g. instruct Wallpaper to use xplanet leads to an assertion error because it tries the default entry with xearth...
I expected it works better than a single installation of the components.
Wallpaper example command
The command is just an example, so you can see the format. You should edit it to use a command of your choosing.
While the default command could be changed to download XEarth automatically, that would make the example harder to understand.
Debian Sid installation borked !
I installed zeroinstall-injector (what a mouthful) ...downloaded rox-all-1.4...unpacked it in my home directory..and ran rox. It came up and I TRIED to getRox to manage the session...it wanted a password which I assume is the root password....I don;t have a root account and it wouldn't accept my user password. Tried also to get it to manage session for one user...it did nothing... I run Debian Sid with GDM...I have a Gnome desktop and also choose Icewm once in a while. Is that the problem ?? What is the problem? Frustrated beyond belief.
Have a look on the GDM screen
Have a look on the GDM screen for a session type option. You probably need to select it after entering your name and before entering your password. Might have a name like "default" or "last session" (you want it to run ~/.xsession when you log in).