Debian Bug report logs - #22286
fvwm2: menu icons use too many colors in 8-bit mode

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Package: fvwm2; Maintainer for fvwm2 is (unknown);

Reported by: <stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov>

Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 19:18:03 UTC

Severity: normal

Found in version 2.0.46-BETA-3

Done: unknown

Bug is archived. No further changes may be made.

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Report forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>:
Bug#22286; Package fvwm2. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to <stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov>:
New bug report received and forwarded. Copy sent to Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #5 received at submit@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: <stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov>
To: submit@bugs.debian.org
Subject: fvwm2: menu icons use too many colors in 8-bit mode
Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 13:08:05 -0600
Package: fvwm2
Version: 2.0.46-BETA-3

Hi,

It is necessary for me to use 8-bit mode and I prefer fvwm2.
However, many packages install menu icons that are very nifty
and colorful.  I would be nice if there was some kind of run-time
method to limit the number of colors available to icons.  I noticed
the programs in /usr/doc/fvwm2 for generating a reduced-color icon
set.  But many of the menu icons have hard coded paths so just changing
the PixmapPath to point to a reduced color set won't work.  Clearly
this is not really fvwm2's fault, but it seems like fvwm2 is where
a work-around would have to go.

For now, I am simply running a sed script that strips out all the icons
in /etc/X11/fvwm2/menudefs.hook.  Perhaps such a script could be run
at postinstall time to generate a 8bit-menudefs.hook file  and the
appropriate menudefs.hook file could be chosen at runtime? 

thanks for listening,
Stuart

-- System Information
Debian Release: 2.0 (frozen)
Kernel Version: Linux rotsei 2.0.33 #1 Sat Mar 7 22:08:35 MST 1998 i586 unknown

Versions of the packages fvwm2 depends on:
libc6	Version: 2.0.7pre1-4
xlib6g	Version: 3.3.2-4
xpm4g	Version: 3.4j-0.6


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>:
Bug#22286; Package fvwm2. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Austin Donnelly <austin@greenend.org.uk>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #10 received at 22286@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Austin Donnelly <austin@greenend.org.uk>
To: <stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov>
Cc: 22286@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#22286: fvwm2: menu icons use too many colors in 8-bit mode
Date: Mon, 11 May 1998 20:45:27 +0100 (BST)
On Sat, 9 May 1998, stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov wrote:

> It is necessary for me to use 8-bit mode and I prefer fvwm2.
> However, many packages install menu icons that are very nifty
> and colorful.  I would be nice if there was some kind of run-time
> method to limit the number of colors available to icons.

Yup, this question has been discussed on the fvwm2 maintainer's
mailing list.  The main maintainer has said he was to keep this kind
of code out of the fvwm2 binary, because he's still interested in
keeping fvwm2 as small as possible (yes, really!).

The suggested "fix" is the colourmap reduction stuff you've already
found.

I think the correct move on Debian's part is to ensure that icons use
only a shared limited subset of the colourmap.  To keep the people who
like flashy 16-bit deep desktops happy, two sets of icons might need
to be shipped - one in the full colour depth, the other optimised for
the common palette chosen for 8-bit displays.  That, coupled with
removing absolute paths to icons should allow you to point your
PixmapPath to the correct set as you suggest.

However, as you can understand, co-ordinating all of this is likely to
be a bit of a nightmare :)

I'll see if I can get people to discuss this.

Austin


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>:
Bug#22286; Package fvwm2. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Austin Donnelly <austin@greenend.org.uk>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #15 received at 22286@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Austin Donnelly <austin@greenend.org.uk>
To: Stuart Marshall <stuart@broome.llnl.gov>
Cc: 22286@bugs.debian.org
Subject: Re: Bug#22286: fvwm2: menu icons use too many colors in 8-bit mode
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 19:59:05 +0100 (BST)
On Mon, 11 May 1998, Stuart Marshall wrote:

> Thanks for the reply.  Until the coordination of all those
> pixmap colors gets done I am just running a sed script that
> deletes all the icons in menudefs.hook.  Unfortunately something
> very strange is happening on one of my debian machines.  It appears
> that update-menus gets run every day a 6:43 AM since that is the
> time-stamp on the shiney new menudefs.hook file I find each day.
> My other frozen machines don't do this but they have slightly 
> different update histories.  I can't find the cron job.
> My cron.daily directory only has:
> 
> acct*       cfengine*   ipac*       netbase*    standard*   tripwire*
> apache*     dwww*       man-db*     news*       sysklogd*
> calendar*   find*       mgetty*     ppp*        tmpreaper*

The menu files are rebuilt indirectly by the dwww cron job, since it
to runs dwww-build.  I'm not sure why it needs to do this - I keep
meaning to look into dwww (I hear it's quite good) but I haven't had a
chance yet.

> The other choice would be to edit the /etc/menu-methods/fvwm2
> file to exclude icons.

Yes, this seems to be the (temporary) solution people on debian-devel
are advocating.

It turns out that the menu policy document tells developers to stick
to the 24 colours present in cmap.xpm.  It appears the some developers
dont.  You could file a bug report against the individual packages
which are provide icons you can't use.

> It might be viable to give that choice when fvwm2 is installed.  I
> personally don't want my menus taking up all kinds of space.  Neat
> and simple is fine with me.

Prompting when fvwm2 is installed is a possibility, but remember that
if people upgrade their graphics cards they don't want to have to
tweak 1001 config files to get a more colourful display.  *shrug*

Austin


Information forwarded to debian-bugs-dist@lists.debian.org, Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>:
Bug#22286; Package fvwm2. (full text, mbox, link).


Acknowledgement sent to Yann Dirson <ydirson@a2points.com>:
Extra info received and forwarded to list. Copy sent to Austin Donnelly <and1000@debian.org>. (full text, mbox, link).


Message #20 received at 22286@bugs.debian.org (full text, mbox, reply):

From: Yann Dirson <ydirson@a2points.com>
To: Austin Donnelly <austin@greenend.org.uk>, 22286@bugs.debian.org
Cc: <stuart@rotsei.lanl.gov>
Subject: Re: Bug#22286: fvwm2: menu icons use too many colors in 8-bit mode
Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 09:11:56 +0200 (CEST)
Austin Donnelly writes:
 > The suggested "fix" is the colourmap reduction stuff you've already
 > found.
 > 
 > I think the correct move on Debian's part is to ensure that icons use
 > only a shared limited subset of the colourmap.  To keep the people who
 > like flashy 16-bit deep desktops happy, two sets of icons might need
 > to be shipped - one in the full colour depth, the other optimised for
 > the common palette chosen for 8-bit displays.  That, coupled with
 > removing absolute paths to icons should allow you to point your
 > PixmapPath to the correct set as you suggest.

Yes !  I was near to think I was the only one using an 8bit display ;)

 > However, as you can understand, co-ordinating all of this is likely to
 > be a bit of a nightmare :)

I guess this could be made policy; then (or even now) lintian can
warn for pixmaps referenced from menu files that do not comply with
the reduced colormap.  When we have a policy on where should which
icons go, then the check will be possible to fine-tune, and turn into
an error.

 > I'll see if I can get people to discuss this.

Please do !

Happy I won't be the only one to report such bugs,
-- 
Yann Dirson  <ydirson@a2points.com>      | Stop making M$-Bill richer & richer,
alt-email:     <dirson@univ-mlv.fr>      |     support Debian GNU/Linux:
debian-email:   <dirson@debian.org>      |         more powerful, more stable !
http://www.a2points.com/homepage/3475232 | Check <http://www.debian.org/>


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