Custom Keyboard to give Amiga look (kind of)

There is a company called WSAD, who will make custom keyboards for around $140 US with a choice of around 8 colors and with various pictures for you can choose from to design unique keyboards. This is a design I came up with which gives an Amiga look.

It uses mechanical switches so should make for a sturdy and long lasting keyboard.

... and just for fun, a mock up with the Amiga sticker.

AmiWM configuration explained

The amiwm configuration file is mostly self explanatory but will give some descriptions to assist people setting this up for the first time. Apologies for any inaccuracies as I'm typing this from memory (I'll fix things as I test later). The configuration file is stored in your home directory as .amiwmrc

Here are the parameters with descriptions;

FastQuit No - Prompt on exit amiwm
SizeBorder bottom - where the resizing handles are placed for windows
ForceMove manual - Whether windows can be moved off screen (yes/no/manual). With Manual, holding the shift key allows windows to be moved off the screen.

CustomIconsOnly yes -  uses amiga icons for applications rather than the linux icons.
IconPalette MagicWB - The color palette used (System, MagicWB, schwartz)
ShortLabelIcons yes - Whether to shorten icon labels
DefaultIcon "def_tool.info" - sets the default icon used when using CustomIconsOnly 

Example icon replacements when using customIconsOnly
The icon location I found to work is /usr/local/lib/amiwm/.

style { class "Navigator" icon "firefox.info" }
style { class "grafx2" icon "DPaint4.info" }
style { class "xpaint" icon "DPaint4.info" }
style { class "xterm" icon "Shell.info" }

This section is for each screen you want to set up.
Screen "Ubuntu 10.04.2 (lucid) - Workbench 1" - sets the title for the screen
Module "Background" "-tile -fullscreen /home/username/Pictures/tuxamiga1.jpg" - desktop image

TitlebarClock yes
TitleClockFormat "%a %b %e %Y   %l:%M %p"

Screen "Ubuntu 10.04.2 (lucid) - Workbench 2" - the second screen setup
Module "Background" "-tile -fullscreen /home/c915101/Pictures/tuxamiga2.jpg"
 
This is useful for keyboard short cuts. Only works when numlock is off
Module "Keyboard" "\
    <F1>:all:rotatescreens\
    <F2>:window|frame:iconify\
    <F3>:window|frame:front\
    <F4>:window|frame:back"

This is for the applications menu.
The format is ToolItem "<MenuEntry>" "<Command> [Arguments]"
ToolItem Separator
ToolItem "Volume" "gnome-volume-control"
ToolItem Separator
ToolItem "Apps"
       {
       ToolItem "VirtualBox" "VirtualBox"
       ToolItem "Media Player" "/usr/bin/vlc"
       ToolItem "LibreOffice" "/opt/libreoffice/program/soffice"
       ToolItem "Paint.net" "pinta"
       }
ToolItem "Tools"
       {
       ToolItem "Calculator" "gcalctool"
       ToolItem "AMOS" "sdlBasic"
       ToolItem "Deluxe Paint" "grafx2"
       ToolItem "DirOpus" "worker"
       }

I'm using defaults but you can also set up custom colors for the windows borders;
Bardetailpen "green"
Backgroundpen "black"
Barblockpen "black"
Highlighttextpen "blue"
Textpen "green"
Filltextpen "green"
Fillpen "black"
Bartrimpen "green"
Shadowpen "green"
Shinepen "blue"
Blockpen "yellow"
Detailpen "red"

Useful only for latest BZR version (asking permission before providing links) 
Module "Launcher" "(Computer) (def_HD.info) (rox-filer -n /) (VLC) (def_disk.info) (vlc)"
Module "Launcher" "(Home) (def_drawer.info) (rox-filer -n ~) (VLC) (def_disk.info) (vlc)"
Module "Launcher" "(RamDisk) (Ram-Disk.info) (rox-filer -n /mnt/ramdisk) (VLC) (def_disk.info) (vlc)"

My unedited .amiwmrc file

Looking for a better Microsoft Windows Manager

I've gone off on a tangent which happens a lot to me. I'm still running AmiWM as my main WM on Linux but as I am still also a Microsoft Windows user I've looked at replacing explorer.exe as my windows manager on Windows 7.

Why? because I'm tired of seeing the desktop come up but then have to wait for 2 to 5 minutes watching the spinning circle before I get control and can start using the computer. I've looked into this a number of times, trying to speed up the boot process with no luck. Probably my virus checker or anti malware software which seems necessary on a Microsoft set up.

As an experiment, I tried a couple of third party Desktop replacements to see if they were faster. Most I tried were buggy and abandoned but I found one glimmer of hope, BBLean a fork of BlackBox which I installed with no dramas (easy to put in and easy to roll back to explorer.exe). My testing found that even though there was still programs trying to load in the background, once the GUI came up, it was usable. Very impressed. It takes a bit of getting used to as everything is menu driven and you don't have desktop icons so it will encourage good computer management practices. BBLean is very customizable with many different themes to choose from. My favorite features are the multiple virtual desktop support built in and the ability to keep windows on top of others. Handy when watching movies while browsing the net

Compatibility was a concern since it does play with the window borders and does not have the explorer.exe layer but other than a couple of things, it works very well. Chrome and Firefox use custom borders which don't play well with BBlean. I had to put the basic non Aero theme on Windows before BBLean would work properly. My G15 keyboard volume and mute controls did not work (although probably because I run two sound cards) which I've temporarily fixed with a hack for now. Global Agenda did not like starting in a window for some reason but other than that it has been a pleasure to use. Even alt-tabbing from 3d games back to desktop was quick and stable for me.

Very impressed with BBLean as an alternative to what Microsoft gave me to use. Anyone who is used to Linux Window Managers who use Microsoft Windows out of need should give this a try as it gives the look and feel of linux on your MS Windows OS.

http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/

Working Memory free in the title now

More fiddling with the source code resulted in some extra text in the title bar. A little bit more like the original Amiga OS but more importantly, a way for me to easily watch the battery life and volume.

The way I achieved this is to have amiwm read a text file and display the result in the menu. Then I have another script that populates the file with what ever I need at the time. Ugly I know, but it means flexibility and works for me in the short term. Eventually I'll polish the code and make it more user friendly and cleaner.

Early progress using amiwm and ubuntu 10.04

I managed to compile the latest snapshot of amiwm which has a launcher plugin that I've used for workbench icons linked to rox-filer for home, root and ramdisk.

Although it is a bit rough, I've modified amiwm to check for usb drive insertion and places an icon on the desktop when this occurs. The eject is via the workbench menu and when selected, makes the icon disappear and un-mounts the drive correctly.

This screenshot shows amiwm set up with two screens, shell, rox-filer, minimized application (deluxe paint clone) and a usb drive.

I've also made a video of some of the features I'm testing;

NB: I had to hit eject twice because umount does not work while you have drawer open.

Introduction

As a Commodore Amiga fanboy, I regularly (until recently) bushed the dust off my old A600 and had retro gaming days. That was until it decided to die. I mostly run Linux Ubuntu now and hoping to make my system capable of running old games easily and seamlessly while giving it an Amiga look and feel.

I know of a number of applications which will help be achieve my goals but many of these were written years ago and abandoned. I'm not really a coder but hoping to make minor fixes and enhancements to these to firstly, make them stable and secondly add valuable features that are common in other OS's and Windows Managers.