What's the deal with "gdesklets"?

[southpaw]

Well I was interested in trying them out, but for whaterver reason I can't seem to get any of them to run. They installed just fine and when I click on the "manage desklets" key to configure them in the gdesklets shell is pretty much where I hit a wall. From there on they won't run...
I have tried looking for any kind of documentation on this, but I keep running into a dead end, any ideas?

[bryansmith]

Do you get any errors?

Bryan

[GNOME_n00b]

southpaw
install all the gnome-python and python packages you can find. to run them every session, add 'gdesklets start' to Sessions in the gnome control centre. to start off the gdesklets, first type in 'gdesklets start' on the command line to start the daemon. then add the gdesklets that you want using 'gdesklets open <whatever the gdesklet is called>'.

let me know how you get on.

[oz]

... another option might be to try adesklets to see if they'll work for you. They don't have nearly so many dependencies.

[southpaw]

Thanx for the quick response guys,
well I'll address you guys in the order your posts came in. First off, Bryan,
yes I do get errors, when I type gdesklets in the terminal I get this:

 $ gdesklets
Error in sys.excepthook:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/__init__.py", line 23, in _pretty_excepthook
    deep_trace = True)
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py", line 76, in format
    import vfs
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py", line 119, in _new_imp
    module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/vfs.py", line 120, in ?
    exists = exists_urllib2
NameError: name 'exists_urllib2' is not defined

Original exception was:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gdesklets", line 4, in ?
    from main.DisplayList import DisplayList
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py", line 119, in _new_imp
    module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/main/DisplayList.py", line 4, in ?
    from utils import vfs
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/ErrorFormatter.py", line 119, in _new_imp
    module = _old_imp(name, globs, locls, fromlist)
  File "/usr/lib/gdesklets/utils/vfs.py", line 120, in ?
    exists = exists_urllib2
NameError: name 'exists_urllib2' is not defined

...So, I tried the same thing in root, but I got the same error. Now all of this is a little strange to me because I was able to start the gdesklets daemon yesterday without any problem I just couldn't start the individual desklets from the desklets shell. Now I just get that error. So, GNOME_noob, is there any other python related packages that I should install other than these:
* dev-python/python
* dev-python/gnome-python
* dev-python/gnome-python-extras
...These are the "GNOME/Python" related packages that I already have installed. Also, I noticed that you mentioned that I should "add gdesklets start to Sessions in the gnome control center", I guess I never did mention that I'm not using Gnome as a window manager, but Fluxbox is what I'm using as a window manager. I guess I figured it would look pretty cool to have gdesklets on Flux, like many screenshots I've already seen . Anyway, Ozar, I've seen adesklets and I know that they are there as another option just incase I can't work my way through the gdesklets issue, but I noticed that adesklets doesn't have as many desklets as gnome does. Which is why I tried gdesklets first .

[GNOME_n00b]

southpaw
there are quite a few gnome-python packages that need to be installed - you have hardly any, so its not surprising gdesklets won't run. although you have gentoo, here are some of the gnome-python packages in fedora that you'll need to install:
http://download.fedora.redhat.com/pu...s/Fedora/RPMS/
there's no harm in installing all of them, but it will near guarantee that gdesklets should run.

if you build gdeklets from source or even install the rpm, you can do this successfully without installing all the necessary gnome-python and python packages. i don't know why. it should actually complain about dependencies, but it doesn't, though. i've come to believe that almost every time gdesklets fail to run is down to the gnome-python packages not being installed.

just add 'gdesklets start' to your sesssions in fluxbox (if it allows this. i don't know because i've never used it).

[genesus]

when I used gdesklets I always had to build from source, as posted above, for some reason whenever I emerged it nothing would work. Though, I was trying to use it with enlightenment

[southpaw]

So, you mean to tell me that I have to compile all 16 of those "Gnome-Python" packages just to get a few gdesklets to run on my system. Hmmm, doesn't really seem like it's worth it huh?

[southpaw]

Hello forum folks,
I hope that everyone had a safe and happy thanksgiving . Now, genesus, I was wondering where I could find those "gnome-python" packages as plain old source tarballs, because the link up above to the Fedora package list is all in the .rpm format, and if possible I would like to stick with source as opposed to .rpm binaries if it is not too much trouble, thanx .

[GNOME_n00b]

I hope that everyone had a safe and happy thanksgiving

i didn't .


southpaw
apologies for answering a question directed at genesus, but i'm not aware of any central place where you can download all the gnome-python stuff. i think you may have to try places such as freshmeat.net and sourceforge.net. i had a look at the python homepage and they don't seem to be there.