A few notes on installing Jackfield

First: Jackfield is not ready yet. You are welcome and encouraged to download the code and have a play with it, but it’s for hackers at this stage, not for users. Anyway, that aside, a note or two on how to get it running.

First, don’t download the tarball: instead, check the code out of my subversion repository at http://svn.kryogenix.org/svn/jackfield/trunk/.
Secondly, the code pretty much assumes at this stage that it’s being run on my machine. You want to edit Control.py and change WIDGET_DIRS so that it points at the directory with the widgets in it.
Thirdly, if you’re using this on Dapper, there’s a bug with gtkmozembed; the LD_LIBRARY_PATH stuff below gets around this bug.
Fourthly, it can be run in one of two ways. You can start the Jackfield icon bar with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing (if you’ve got it checked out in a directory called “jackfield”, or you can start an individual widget with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py /path/to/WidgetDir/.

These hints should be enough to get you started. Let me know if they are not!

(They’ll go into a readme file in the project at some point, but I want to make it easier to run this stuff first.)

113 Responses to “A few notes on installing Jackfield”

  1. [...] Update (2006-07-07): don’t download the tarball. Instead, read the more up-to-date install instructions. [...]

    as days pass by » Jackfield: Apple’s Dashboard for the Linux Gnome desktop
  2. Hello, I’ve installed if from svn
    using
    svn co -N http://svn.kryogenix.org/svn/jackfield/trunk/
    cd trunk/
    svn up jackfield
    And then widgets with
    svn up Widgets

    Then, as I use kubuntu dapper, I added the library path and everything worked fine…
    Some widgets aren’t completely working (I mean, there’s no content) btw it’s a great project.

    Anyway, you always say “gnome”, but it works well in KDE too :)

    Treviño
  3. Great Idea but i am a bloody linux (ubuntu dapper) beginner, but xgl runs fine at my desktop ;-) hope that you will release a bet or alpha ? as deb soon best wishes and good luck!!!

    Anonymous
  4. Oof. It was a huge pain just getting it to run at all on SUSE 10.1. For anyone else: install the gecko-sdk package from dvd, then download and compile gnome-python-extras using –prefix==/usr/ in order to enable gtkmozembed at all.

    Now all I have to do is figure out why it crashes and burns after just showing the outline of the control. It throws a bunch of failed assertions in wnck_window_get_application (WNCK_IS_WINDOW, WNCK_IS_APPLICATION, and so on). Fun fun fun, but now it’s bed time. (:

    dersk
  5. [...] Les instructions pour pouvoir l’installer se trouvent sur leur Blog [...]

    Costalfy’s Blog » Blog Archive » Untitled
  6. [...] Per funzionare Jackfield utilizza il motore di render di Firefox, mentre l’installazione ad oggi è possibile solo compilando i sorgenti. Se siete abbastanza smanettoni da provarlo farete un favore allo sviluppatore che sta cercando feedback per trovare eventuali bugs. [...]

    Jackfield, dashboard per Gnome
  7. worked great for Ubuntu Edgy. Still trying different widgets. Btw, in the mac version of dashboard, you can flip it over to fill out information. Like a weather widget needs your zip code. How can you do this for jackfield?

    czer323
  8. czer323: there should be a little “i” icon on which you can click, which does the flip. It’s certainly there for some widgets; it should be there for all, but, well, see the stuff about it not being finished yet ;)

    sil
  9. I’m using gentoo.
    For the gtkmozembed module you need to emerge the gnome-python-extras package with “firefox” USE like this :

    USE=”firefox” emerge gnome-python-extras

    I’m trying to start it but when i run

    python Control.py start showing

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “Control.py”, line 72, in ?
    dbus_server = jackfield_dbus.server(iconbar)
    File “/tmp/LATEST/jackfield/jackfield_dbus.py”, line 50, in server
    session_bus = dbus.SessionBus()
    File “//usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/dbus/_dbus.py”, line 266, in __new__
    return Bus.__new__(cls, Bus.TYPE_SESSION, use_default_mainloop, private)
    File “//usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/dbus/_dbus.py”, line 99, in __new__
    bus._connection = dbus_bindings.bus_get(bus_type, private)
    File “dbus_bindings.pyx”, line 1695, in dbus_bindings.bus_get
    dbus_bindings.DBusException: Unable to determine the address of the message bus

    instead to start an individual widget it works.
    bye,

    ar3ac

    P.S.
    I’m using it on Gentoo AMD64

    ar3ac
  10. Great Work man!

    QUASAR FREAK
  11. [...] A Jackfield jelenleg erős fejlesztés alatt áll, de már letölthető belőle egy snapshot. Már tudja futtatni az Apple Dashboard widget-eket, de nem mindegyiket, és van amelyikkel még baj van. A telepítéséhez még nincs korrekt dokumentáció, így egyelőre innen lehet infókhoz jutni. [...]

    Xorp Blog Podcast » Blog Archive » Jackfield: Apple Dashboard (és más) kompatibilis widget motor GNOME-ra
  12. ar3ac: I suspect you don’t have dbus running. You need to have the dbus daemon installed. Don’t know how to do that on Gentoo, I’m afraid.

    sil
  13. [...] Di solito non parlo del software che non riesco a far andare ma questa volta,vuoi perche’ si chiama come me,vuoi perche lo sviluppatore ha bisogno di feedback,ho deciso di farlo.Jackfield e’ un programma per chi pensa che superkaramba e gdeskles non siano abbastanza per linux,difatti il software in questione permette di far andare su una linuxbox i widget di apple,yahoo,microsoft ecc(i quali ahime’ sono decisamente piu’ carini).Non ho ancora visto in giro binari o pak quindi, per chi volesse provarlo, consiglio di compilarsi i sorgenti,anche perche’ il tar.gz con i precompilati non sono riuscito a farlo andare decentemente ed e’ pure sconsigliato dall’autore.Cmq Jackfield come dice l’autore: Jackfield is not ready yet. You are welcome and encouraged to download the code and have a play with it, but it’s for hackers at this stage, not for users [...]

    JackField:Apple’s Dashboard,Yahoo’s Widget,Microsoft’s Gadget Sidebar Opera Widgets su LINUX « NetJack Blog
  14. mmm python

    Jackfield looks pretty sweet. Keep up the good work.

    Anon
  15. Where does one send patches, if I’d get around doing some work. :)
    I’m sure you’ve written it somewhere on the page, but I’m just too stupid to find it right now.

    Notevenime
  16. Notevenime: posting a link to patches here would be OK, or have a look at my contact details at http://www.kryogenix.org/contact for mail etc.

    sil
  17. I love the idea man. Keep up the good work. Most widgets load fine on my system but arn’t functional yet.

    Duncan
  18. I’am interesting to test this version of jackfield in my ubuntu edgy r.c. but i don’t understand point three and four:

    “Thirdly, if you’re using this on Dapper, there’s a bug with gtkmozembed; the LD_LIBRARY_PATH stuff below gets around this bug.
    Fourthly, it can be run in one of two ways. You can start the Jackfield icon bar with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing (if you’ve got it checked out in a directory called “jackfield”, or you can start an individual widget with LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py /path/to/WidgetDir/.”

    you have some ideas for run this software in ubuntu???

    thanks.

    Italoc
  19. Tried, failed. Every widget I try to run gets me either “Not a widget”, “not a complete widget” or “segmentation fault”. I’m running Dapper on an Intel machine.

    Kshitij
  20. Kshitij: can you post the command line you’re using?

    sil
  21. Same thing happening here, Kshitij. Also Dapper on an Intel. Any ideas?
    thx

    Trenpix
  22. Excellent work! Keep it up.

    I had the same thought sometime ago too but was too lazy to do anything about it. Tried with a few MaxOS X widgets and they seem to vaguely work though few look quite right and function precisely. I suppose you suggest binging toggle.sh to some key like F12 or whatever it is on the Mac.

    What about this __MACOSX directory in with some widgets. Do you know what that’s about? You don’t seem to make use of it yet — typically it contains some JavaScript files.

    tOnY
  23. tOnY: toggle.sh exists for precisely that reason; you can bind it yourself. I would hope that if Jackfield ever gets to the stage of being shipped with distros that they would bind it for you on installation, but it’d be very bad mannered of me to have it do that for you since F12 might already be bound to something.

    The __MACOSX folder is not relevant; it contains copies of some of the files, because OS X has “resource forks” which the files go in. You don’t have to worry about it.

    sil
  24. I get this on a brand new Edgy install: (All paths have been verified):

    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “jackfield/Control.py”, line 7, in ?
    import jackfield_dbus
    File “/home/jasonk/Data/Apps/jackfield/jackfield_dbus.py”, line 56, in ?
    raise NotImplementedError(”DBus “+dbus.version+” untested!”)
    TypeError: cannot concatenate ’str’ and ‘tuple’ objects

    Am I doing something wrong?

    I attempt to start it with:

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python /home/jasonk/Data/Apps/jackfield/Control.py start

    JedTheHead
  25. JedTheHead: can you edit jackfield/jackfield-dbus.py, line 56, and change

    raise NotImplementedError(”DBus “+dbus.version+” untested!”)

    to

    raise NotImplementedError(”DBus “+str(dbus.version)+” untested!”)

    and then let me know what it says?

    sil
  26. OK, I’ve just tested it myself under edgy and…it doesn’t work. The D-Bus API changed again. So I’ll try and fix that in time.

    sil
  27. OK, it doesn’t work under Edgy. I’m working on it.

    sil
  28. Thanks for looking into it! Can’t wait to see it up and working (but will wait ;)

    Thanks for your efforts!!!

    JedTheHead
  29. I think somebody said so already, but on Ubuntu Edgy, python-dbus version is 0.71. Since I’m trying to learn python, I’ll look into it and if I find anything I’ll contact you.

    This is the best idea every, by the way. Keep up the great work and I hope I can help, at least testing Mac and Yahoo Widgets (I’m primarily a mac user).

    Tony Pitale
  30. Has there been any success with Edgy yet?

    William Smith
  31. hi, this project looks great, especially since gdesklets seems to be forgotten about check their website none of the links work. i would also like this to work with edgy. I change line 56 but had the following error. see below.

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python /home/dan/trunk/jackfield/Control.py start showing
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “/home/dan/trunk/jackfield/Control.py”, line 7, in ?
    import jackfield_dbus
    File “/home/dan/trunk/jackfield/jackfield_dbus.py”, line 56, in ?
    raise NotImplementedError(”D-Bus “+str(dbus.version)+” untested!”)
    NotImplementedError: D-Bus (0, 70, 0) untested!

    danielhewes
  32. hi,
    just had another look, this is my first attempt with python and i haven’t program for along while but noticed that line 15 of jackfield_dbus.py may need to be changed. Original reads as

    elif minor >= 40 and minor = 40 and minor = 40:

    then the code would be executable on any untested versions of dbus, with perhas a note stating that this software has not be tested on dbus versions 52 and above? and then alter to suit when end-users report errors?

    now im getting a white box running under the gnome start panel, which i guess means i need to load some widgets some how. if i get any further i let you all know

    danielhewes
  33. Sorry post wrong, try again .

    hi,
    just had another look, this is my first attempt with python and i haven’t program for along while but noticed that line 15 of jackfield_dbus.py may need to be changed. Original reads as

    elif minor >= 40 and minor =40 and minor =40:

    then the code would be executable on any untested versions of dbus, with perhas a note stating that this software has not be tested on dbus versions 52 and above? and then alter to suit when end-users report errors?

    now im getting a white box running under the gnome start panel, which i guess means i need to load some widgets some how. if i get any further i let you all know

    danielhewes
  34. ok for some reason i cant post my correction in the manner i original wrote it. so here it is again.

    Change line 15 of file jackfield_dbus.py to

    elif minor >= 40 and minor = 40:
    and have an output stating that Jackfield is not tested on dbus > 52

    danielhewes
  35. ok really strange i cant post text copied from “kate” so i try again please remove the last three posts.

    change line 15 of file jackfield_dbus.py to

    elif minor>=40 and minor =40

    then have an output warning message that jackfield is un tested on dbus version 52 and greater?

    danielhewes
  36. ok one more attempt at posting a solution change line 15 of file jackfield_dbus.py to read

    elif minor>=40 and minor=40

    danielhewes
  37. i try agin without correcting any spee typo erorrsd then
    line 15 of jackfield_dbus.py to
    elif minor>=40
    :

    danielhewes
  38. Attempting this fix with the latest code from CVS / svn results in this for me:

    Introspect error: The name org.kryogenix.jackfield was not provided by any .service files

    Thanks for all the efforts!

    JedTheHead
  39. I should comment though, that I am able to launch widgets by themselves via:

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py /path/to/widgets/

    The above error occurs from toggle.sh

    Thanks!

    JedTheHead
  40. JedTheHead: yep. D-Bus stuff is currently broken. Launching widgets individually doesn’t use D-Bus (that’s only used to pop up and shut down the toolbar), so it should work.

    sil
  41. Gotcha. Thanks! The last thing I will pass along ;)

    Seems like most of the widgets I have tried that load data from the www result in errors like this:

    uncaught exception: Security Error: Content at file:///home/jasonk/Data/Apps/jackfield/Widgets/SlashBot.wdgt/.SlashBot.html may not load data from http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rss?1162830524885.

    I have tried several security settings in firefox (assuming that that is the culprit) but to no avail. Not sure if it is a jackfield related issue or not, but thought I would pass it along.

    Edgy / Firefox 2.0

    Thanks again!

    JedTheHead
  42. I tested with Arch Linux 0.7.2. I had to install dbus-python. Though some of the widgets are not working, it is great!

    KaruppuSwamy.T
  43. Would somebody be so kind to publish a short but detailed installation guide? I am very curious about this software but I am not able to install it properly on Edgy. HELP!

    loyod
  44. Hi, im trying to install this but when im on step 3, it gives me this: ImportError: No module named wnck

    what can i do??

    tnx

    CYPHERC
  45. CYPHERC: on Ubuntu, install the python-gnome2-desktop package. On other distros, I’m not sure.

    sil
  46. Has anyone else experienced this or, more importantly, found a fix? EVERY widget I try that needs to pull data from the Internet gives this error. I can’t find any resolution on the WWW for it - but have seen that its a security feature in Firefox dating back to the beginning of 2006. Not being able to resolve / workaround this would result in Jackfield being pretty ineffective. Anyone?

    Error:
    uncaught exception: Security Error: Content at file:///home/jasonk/Data/Apps/jackfield/Widgets/SlashBot.wdgt/.SlashBot.html may not load data from http://slashdot.org/slashdot.rss?1164490062852.

    Thanks!

    JedTheHead
  47. Love the idea and work :D

    So far after a bit of fiddling I managed to get it sort of working…the iconbar along the top appears and I can get a google-widget to appear however it doesnt work :(

    Havent tested many other widgets though… hope to see more good work soon ;)

    BTW, are there any plans to implement an OSX-like inverse-zoom affect? At the moment the dashboard spins in (Compiz’s sidekick animation) which is cool but id like an inverse-zoom too :D

    Rashid
  48. I need help in installing Jackfield. I tried to install the program but I got an error message. This is what I have done:

    1) I downloaded all the files @ http://svn.kryogenix.org/svn/jackfield/trunk/ in one folder renameing it “Jackfield”
    2) Idownloaded and unzipped a widget from the apple website
    3) I edited the Control.py changing the line WIDGET_DIRS in such a way to point to the folder in which I saved the above widget. Note that I put the same pattern before and after the comma (do not know if it is corect) ["~/myuser/home/desktop/jackfields","~/myuser/home/desktop/jackfields"]
    4) i inserted the line “LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing” as it is in the terminal

    the error mesage I got is “LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing”

    What am I doing wrong?? (please consider I am new to Linux)

    loyod
  49. loyod: firstly I ought to say that Jackfield isn’t really ready unless you’re a developer. That aside, thanks for trying it out!

    Can you cut-and-paste from the terminal window everything you wrote into it and everything that it then said afterwards?

    sil
  50. once comleted the passages from 1-3 (please refer to previous post) I open the terminal and copy and past (as it is)the following line:
    “LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing”
    The error message I get is the following:
    “python: can’t open file ‘jackfield/Control.py’: [Errno 2] No such file or directory”

    Thank you for your help. It is very kind from you. Regards

    loyod
  51. loyod: that “jackfield/Control.py start showing” is a command to run the file “Control.py” in the folder “jackfield” and give it two bits of information, “start” and “showing”. “jackfield/Control.py” is a file path — this means that it’s a description of where the Control.py file is from where you are. You might find a guide to Linux command lines for beginners useful at this point: Google suggests http://www.linux.ie/newusers/beginners-linux-guide/ as one example.

    sil
  52. on ubuntu amd64 with gnome, I had a cat error in jackfield_dbus.py. After commenting out the last line: “”"raise NotImplementedError(”DBus” + dbus.version + “Untested!”)”"”, I got it to work, but couldn’t get any widgets to work properly. Nice project though. I’m pretty interested, but not fluent in python. Maybe this will get me going. ;-)

    cq
  53. Jed:

    “Has anyone else experienced this or, more importantly, found a fix? EVERY widget I try that needs to pull data from the Internet gives this error.”

    It’s a security feature to prevent XSS attacks. This could be worked around by using a javascript HTTPRequest object to retrieve the HTML from the site, then dumping it to the widget. Or, Jackfield widgets could be rendered in XUL rather than HTML, and would then be in the chrome context (like Firefox extensions). Or, you can create a user.js file in jackfield/mozilla-profile and add the following line to it:

    user_pref(”security.checkloaduri”, false);

    That will allow loading remote URLs locally; but it is not overly safe (and probably more unsafe in the context of Jackfield’s javascript-python bridge stuff).

    If you run Firefox and have a more recent version (>=1.5), you can create a custom policy to only allow loading of a particular (set of) external site(s). That way a malicious widget would not fare as well, since you’d have to manually add the URL for the site it wants to open to the user.js file.

    See also: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Links_to_local_pages_don%27t_work

    MonkeeSage
  54. MonkeeSage: Jackfield already has a load of stuff in its custom mozilla-profile to allow remote requests, but I’m doing it command-by-command. I didn’t actually know about security.checkloaduri. Now I get to think about whether it’s a good idea to just enable it wholesale :)

    sil
  55. Hello, I’m trying to using jackfield on Ubuntu 6.10. I lunch the program with the following command LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python Control.py start showing. When I lunch the program I receive this error:
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “Control.py”, line 72, in ?
    dbus_server = jackfield_dbus.server(iconbar)
    AttributeError: ‘module’ object has no attribute ’server’

    Where is the mistake??

    Please help me, and congratulation for the better idea.

    Thanks

    Cosby
  56. Nobody can help me???

    Cosby
  57. Cosby: it’s because Ubuntu 6.10 has a different version of some software that Jackfield requires than Ubuntu 6.06 did. I’ll be working on getting this fixed in the next couple of weeks; keep an eye on the Jackfield weblog for more updates.

    sil
  58. Any progress on this lately? I’ve been building off svn for a while hoping my one and only widget FidelitymarketManager would start working properly.

    I’ve also been trying to trace the errors it gets (currently some errors in the javascript parts + problems with resizing the window)

    The error message window popups are inconclusive to lead me to the problem.

    Any tips on stepping through javascript bits to watch things progress? (eg: is there a heavily instrumented version of jackfield which would lead me to the real problem?)

    Escher
  59. Escher: there isn’t an instrumented version, because I can’t think of a good way of hooking in a JS debugger, and there aren’t any good JS debuggers :)

    Is your widget available? I could take a look at it.

    Resizing the window is currently a problem. The only way I know of of fixing that is integration with Compiz/Beryl, which is a huge topic that I haven’t yet had time to look at (even though lots of people want it…)

    sil
  60. I am able to run jackfield using LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-2.0.0.1 jackfield/Control.py start showing

    There is a bar created on top of my desktop, but when i clock on some working widgets, the program segfaults.

    I am using Fedora Core 6

    I see there is a reference to /usr/libexec/Jackfield where as the jackfield ins in my home.

    vishy
  61. vishy: where’s the reference to /usr/libexec/Jackfield?

    sil
  62. I see this error in bug-buddy

    ** (bug-buddy:8411): WARNING **: Couldn’t load icon for Open Folder
    /usr/libexec/Jackfield: No such file or directory.

    vishy
  63. vishy: ah, that’s Bug Buddy’s fault, not mine. Not a lot I can do about that, other than stop Jackfield crashing so you don’t get bug-buddy show up at all…

    sil
  64. Hi! The Fidelity Market Monitor is here
    http://www.apple.com/downloads/dashboard/business/fidelitymarketmonitorwidget.html

    I noticed also, that resizing issue on some other widgets so played around a bit with the Fidelity Mkt Monitor widget and Widget.py to force a bigger window , so I could see what was going on at least.

    The main problem on my side seems to be web transfer aspects of the widget (a separate problem from the sizing issue, which is what I have been trying to debug, unsuccessfully )

    Escher
  65. how to find what caused the crash for jackfield ?
    is there any debug option available ?

    vishy
  66. vishy: not very easily, because Jackfield itself is very unlikely to crash; what will crash is the embedded mozilla that actually shows the widgets, and I don’t know how to debug that.

    Does the /usr/lib/firefox-2.0.0.1 exist?

    sil
  67. Yes /usr/lib/firefox-2.0.0.1 exist

    vishy
  68. PS: I would be interested in hearing your thoughts on how to handle the resizing issue [I don't understand how Beryl/Compviz could help, please explain]

    I was thinking of the issue a bit myself and one crazy hacking way would be a global ’screen resolution-sized’ container where all the widgets live. That way, the resizing would be handled properly by the mozembed portion, and then you’d only need to keep track of the individual widget positions and stacking order inside that container (+ some changes to how the close button was composited onto each widget)

    Anyway, I’m suspect you’ve thought of this, and know already about the problem I haven’t seen yet!

    Escher
  69. Escher: the reason that resizing is a problem is that when I initially create a widget I create a mask for it, in the initial window size, so that it’s a shaped window. However, if the widget then resizes later I don’t get to know about it, and I don’t have a way of seeing what size the widget is now, so I can’t redo the mask.

    Compiz should, theoretically, help here because instead of using a mask I ought to be able to say “make the background of the gtkmozembed genuinely transparent” and then Compiz takes care of it all for me. I’m not sure whether that’s actually the case, though, because I can’t run compiz (ATI card which doesn’t do 3d with the free drivers).

    The screen-sized single gtkmozembed…hm. The reason I’m not keen is that I basically have to implement a window manager in JavaScript to do it. On the other hand, it would *work*, I think.

    I may look at it. Good idea.

    sil

  70. Anonymous
  71. I am on Ubuntu Edgy and can get a white bar appearing using the following command;
    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing

    and i can start a widget using this command;

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py /home/darren/trunk/Widgets/Tests/sync.wdgt

    How can i get the widget to start in the bar?

    Thanks for any help.

    Darren
  72. Darren: put the widgets in /home/darren/Library/Widgets.

    sil
  73. I keep getting segmentation errors,
    [terlmann@raven jackfield]$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python Widget.py /home/terlmann/Desktop/zipped/Elements-1p0f.zip_FILES/ElementsWidget.wdgt/
    Segmentation fault

    [IMG]http://images.wikia.com/uncyclopedia/images/thumb/1/18/Pigletmugshot.jpg/340px-Pigletmugshot.jpg[/IMG]
    This guy is a deadly criminal.Have any of you seen him?

    terlmann
  74. terlmann: does /usr/lib/firefox exist? Also, please don’t add signatures to your comments, because this isn’t a forum and they don’t work :)

    sil
  75. yes , it does.
    browserconfig.properties libgkgfx.so plugins
    chrome libgtkembedmoz.so regxpcom
    chrome.manifest libgtkxtbin.so res
    components libjsj.so run-mozilla.sh
    defaults libldap50.so searchplugins
    dictionaries libmozjs.so TestGtkEmbed
    extensions libmozz.so xpcshell
    firefox libprldap50.so xpicleanup
    firefox-bin libxpcom_compat.so xpidl
    greprefs libxpcom_core.so xpt_dump
    icons libxpcom.so xpt_link
    init.d libxpistub.so
    libgfxpsshar.so mozilla-xremote-client

    in /lib/ :
    mozilla
    mozilla-1.7.13
    exist as well

    terlmann
  76. terlmann: OK, useful. Can you tell me which distribution you’re using?

    sil
  77. foresight linux 1.0 , based off of rpath , i686.
    irc: #foresight@freenode.net
    firefox 2.0
    gnome
    compiz
    source tarball
    some apple widgets , but none that query the system for hard info.
    a clock was the first thing I tried, and it gave the error i mentioned.

    terlmann
  78. ubuntu edgy: i can’t start jackfield. when i start it i get an error message about a not implemented dbus version.

    daniel@nox:~/jackfield/trunk$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “jackfield/Control.py”, line 7, in ?
    import jackfield_dbus
    File “/home/daniel/jackfield/trunk/jackfield/jackfield_dbus.py”, line 56, in ?
    raise NotImplementedError(”D-Bus “+str(dbus.version)+” untested!”)
    NotImplementedError: D-Bus (0, 70, 0) untested!

    daniel
  79. Exactly the same problem on Ubuntu as Daniel had …

    Cliff Nolan
  80. I’m using Suse 10.2 and have downloaded the latest SVN as of 21-Mar-07.
    I’ve modified jackfield_dbus.py line 16 to “elif minor >= 40:” so that the sub-minor doesn’t need to be less than 50.

    When I run the Control.py, I get the blank white bar at the top.
    I’ve tried several widgets and never get it to work, failing with

    File “jackfield/Widget.py”, line 236, in run
    fp = open(self.__mainHTML)
    IOError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: u’/home/lonestranger/trunk/trunk/Widgets/USWeather/.main1.htm’

    To debug, I display the value of self.__mainHTML and get “/home/lonestranger/trunk/trunk/Widgets/USWeather/.main1.htm”
    So somewhere in the parsing, an extra period/full-stop gets appended to the begining of main1.htm
    To quickly work around this, I reassigned __mainHTML to the correct filename but then it crashes with a seg fault a few lines down at
    ” self.moz.append_data(data,long(len(data)))”

    Any ideas? I have not worked with Python much at all.

    LoneStranger
  81. I found the extra ‘.’ and removed it to solve my first problem, but still segfaults when appending the data…

    Change from ** self.__mainHTML = os.path.join(self.__path,’.'+self.__info["MainHTML"]) ** to **
    self.__mainHTML = os.path.join(self.__path,self.__info["MainHTML"]) **

    I checked that ‘data’ was valid and equals the HTML file and tried several widgets with the same results.

    LoneStranger
  82. LoneStranger: the extra dot is correct. For various boring reasons, Jackfield creates a copy of the HTML files in the widgets, called .whateverthenamewas.html, and uses the copy.

    Does it work if you explicitly run a widget with jackfield/Widget.py path/to/widget/directory ?

    sil
  83. Ok too much info… I figured out the ‘.’ was a copy of the original .html file and did exist. I still get the segfault for all widgets, including the Test sync/async widgets included.

    I’m using Suse 10.2, with firefox 2.0 “Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686 (x86_64); en-US; rv:1.8.1) Gecko/20061023 SUSE/2.0-30 Firefox/2.0″

    D-Bus installed: “dbus-1-mono-0.63-28
    dbus-1-32bit-1.0.0-7
    dbus-1-glib-0.71-26
    dbus-1-x11-1.0.0-7
    libqt4-dbus-1-4.2.1-18
    dbus-1-1.0.0-7
    dbus-1-qt3-0.62-38
    dbus-1-python-0.71-28
    helix-dbus-server-0.3.0-26
    dbus-1-glib-32bit-0.71-26″

    LoneStranger
  84. If you’re getting a segfault then it’s a problem in the “gtkmozembed” widget. I’ll have a think.

    sil
  85. Same problem as above.. trying to run jackfield from svn trunk, on fedora core 6:

    bash-3.1$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-1.5.0.9/ python jackfield/Widget.py /home/xxxx/Desktop/Clockish.wdgt
    Segmentation fault

    Luca
  86. Ditto, segfaults on self.__win.show_all()

    Paul Priest
  87. Odd. Luca: is firefox 1.5.0.9 your system Firefox?

    sil
  88. Same problem:

    user@ws:/usr/local/bin/jackfield$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py Widgets/Tests/sync.wdgt
    Segmentation fault (core dumped)
    user@ws:/usr/local/bin/jackfield$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Widget.py Widgets/Tests/async.wdgt
    Segmentation fault (core dumped)

    Ubuntu Feisty
    firefox-2.0.0.3

    rusart
  89. Hey, I’m pretty much a newbie at Linux, but I thought that this sounded pretty cool. So I was wondering, is it possible that someone could post some code that could be pasted into the terminal to install Jackfield? I’m using Ubuntu 7.04 “Feisty Fawn”, by the way

    Linux 101 Dropout
  90. Actually, I think I can download it myself (although a script would still be nice). What directory am I supposed to put the files in, though?

    Linux 101 Dropout
  91. Linux 101 Dropout: you can put Jackfield itself anywhere you like. The widgets can go in any folder you like as well, but you have to edit control.py and put in the folder containing the widgets, as described. I know this is awkward, and it’s better in the next version (which isn’t out yet).

    sil
  92. Thanks. Will the script still work if i put the Jackfield files anywhere, though? Or is the script at the top of the page for a specific directory?

    Linux 101 Dropout
  93. It’ll work anywhere. In the line

    LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python jackfield/Control.py start showing

    the jackfield/Control.py part means “in the folder called jackfield, run Control.py”. It doesn’t care where the folder called “jackfield” is, just that your shell is currently in its parent folder.

    sil
  94. Thanks. Just one more thing (like I said… I’m a newbie at this). So I CD into the correct directory, then? And where do I put the widgets? (I guess that’s actually 2 things)

    Linux 101 Dropout
  95. L1D: I ought to say before I start here that Jackfield isn’t ready for users at the moment, so if you’re having difficulty here then you might not be in a position to use it. Nonetheless:

    Create a folder called jackfield somewhere.

    cd into the folder

    svn checkout http://svn.kryogenix.org/svn/jackfield/trunk/ .

    edit Control.py, find the line that mentions WIDGET_DIRS and set it to be the folder you’ve put widgets in

    Run jackfield with the LD_LIBRARY_PATH line above.

    sil
  96. Thanks for the instructioins. Actually, I just wanted to know how to make it work before installing it, so I don’t completely mess up my system. I’ll leave a post later to leave my results on whether it works or not on my distro.

    Linux 101 Dropout
  97. zcold@home:/usr/bin/jackfield/trunk$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox python Widget.py /usr/share/widgets/._Facebook\ Watch\ 2_1.wdgt
    Widget.py:55: DeprecationWarning: raising a string exception is deprecated
    raise “Not a widget”
    Traceback (most recent call last):
    File “Widget.py”, line 242, in
    w = Widget(pth)
    File “Widget.py”, line 55, in __init__
    raise “Not a widget”
    Not a widget

    This is the error I receive when running any widgets..

    cold
  98. Hi There,

    I couldn’t find control.py inside the trunk folder…is there any other file for this purposes?

    Go Lnx
  99. Any chance at an updated tarball?

    Sonic
  100. Can’t get jackfield running… I’ve just done svn up jackfield and svn up Widgets but how do you run it now ? I’m running Gentoo btw.

    Mexflubber
  101. Mexflubber: python jackfield.py

    sil
  102. [...] No proper documentation here yet. See the weblog post at http://www.kryogenix.org/days/2006/07/07/a-few-notes-on-installing-jackfield for more. Please be aware that Jackfield is not stable yet! It doesn’t run all widgets; a lot of widgets have some problem or another that stops them working. [...]

    Gadgets for apple, gnome, windows and other » New gadgets
  103. I successfully installed Jackfield from source, but when running it my whole screen is covered in black. The white line comes in when I click the Jackfield logo top left, and I tried with two Apple widgets. The only way to shut Jackfield down seems to be to ctrl+c it in terminal. Tried both with Metacity and Compiz Fusion, with the same results. Using Ubuntu Feisty (7.04).
    Really hoping to see your project take off, and hopefully you can merge it with screenlets in some way.
    Also hoping to see some more notes on installing, since it wasn’t really obvious what to do anymore (the notes on this page were somewhat misguiding now).
    Anyway, good luck!

    Ketil
  104. By the way: I noticed that you gave
    python jackfield.py

    That gives me a segfault, whereas
    ./Jackfield
    works. (Well sorta, see my previous post)

    Ketil
  105. [...] Desde hace unos dias he estado probando Jackfield una aplicación que nos permite correr los widgets de Apple en Gnome y que pronto soportara los widgets de Yahoo! y OperaWidgets , aun que la instalación y configuración es un poco tediosa una vez instalado te sorprende lo que Jackfield puede hacer, Jackfield es un proyecto joven que incluso aun no existe una paquete (.deb, .rpm, etc) para ninguna distro, si quieres instalarlo tendrás que descargarlo y compilarlo tu mismo, asegurarte que tienes todas las dependencias necesarias y pedirle a “Dios Stallman” que todo salga bien. [...]

    Widgets de Apple Dashboard en Gnome /
  106. I got jackfield working but can’t add any widgets .. can anyone help me?. Ty. I also want to help to develop Jackfield and maybe join it with screenlets or something like that. I’ve asked the Compiz-Fusion Team to try to join Jackfield with compiz.

    Mexflubber
  107. Seems that this project is deadish..?

    Whise has set up something that maybe pretty much makes this project obsolete, here:
    http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Dashboard+Screenlet?content=70324
    This is the Dashboard stuff, but this is even cooler to me:
    http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/Widgetizer+Screenlet?content=70799

    Here’s the rest of his stuff:
    http://gnome-look.org/usermanager/search.php?username=Whise&action=contents

    - Ketil

    Ketil
  108. On Fedora 8, svn version for jackfield..
    running Jackfield doesn’t work. I had to copy py pref.js first then, te prompt returns no output and I don’t see icon bar.

    Metal3d
  109. can’t find the command “start”

    i run “LD_LIBRARY_PATH=…/Control.py start showing”

    traceback:
    bash: start: command not found

    wc
  110. wc: you need a space before “python”.

    sil
  111. svn propset svn:ignore “*.pyc”

    SebDE
  112. What is up, man? Don’t tell me you have a life beyond this project.

    Get back to work!

    I’m just pissed because this thing is so promising… and it has a cool name.

    Don’t let it die.

    John
  113. John: if someone wants to help out, get them to say the word. I do, sadly, have a life beyond this project…

    sil

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