Re: [orca-list] Orca and XFCE or LXDE

[Michael Whapples <mwhapples aim com>]

Hello,
To answer a number of questions which have been asked in this topic.

1. Does GNOME need to be installed to use XFCE or LXDE? Strictly 
speaking, the whole of GNOME need not be installed, only components of 
gnome are used. However I am uncertain which components exactly are the 
minimum required and so if you have the space it may be best to just 
install all of gnome.
2. How do I start LXDE or XFCE? If using GDM (instructions for the one 
in gnome 3) to start your session, press enter on the user you wish to 
login as and enter your password. Before pressing enter to start logging 
in, press tab and focus will move from the password field to the session 
chooser combo box. From this combo box select what desktop system you 
wish to use and tab to the log in button (if you are logged in at a text 
console it may be named unlock).

If you start X using the startx command, there are instructions on the 
respective archlinux wiki pages for that desktop system.

3. What is the crash issue for LXDE when pcmanfm is installed? If you 
start LXDE from a login manager like GDM, X will crash if you have 
pcmanfm (version 0.9.8, I believe other versions may work fine) 
installed. This crash has always occurred for me when using GDM and 
pcmanfm 0.9.8. However if you use startx then the issue will not be 
observed and LXDE will start.

4. What accessibility issues may I expect to find with XFCE or LXDE? For 
XFCE it may be worth looking at these plans for accessibility planned 
for XFCE 4.10 http://wiki.xfce.org/releng/4.10/roadmap/accessibility. I 
think that page says the menu should be bound to alt+f1, my system seems 
to be bound to ctrl+esc. I know less about LXDE accessibility, I 
encounter no icon accessibility in LXDE due to not having pcmanfm 
installed because of the issue described in 3. I haven't discovered a 
keyboard shortcut to move to the LXDE notification area, however I seem 
to have a memory from a previous look at LXDE that when I moved the 
mouse over it orca spoke some stuff (not sure how much). Also common to 
both of these, I find that if using at-spi over corba, the 
at-spi-registry may be started to late for some parts of the desktop 
system and so not all is accessible. In the case of at-spi2 on dbus, 
this doesn't seem to be such an issue.

As XFCE and LXDE are different and may appeal to different types of 
user, it may be worth just trying them both and see which you prefer.

Michael Whapples
On 01/-10/37 20:59, Albert Sten-Clanton wrote:
> Fololowing up Steve's question, am I right that even using one of the
> lighter-weight desktops (or desktop managers) you still need gnome installed
> in order to use orca?
>
> Al
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: orca-list-bounces gnome org [mailto:orca-list-bounces gnome org] On
> Behalf Of Steve Holmes
> Sent: Saturday, May 07, 2011 11:05 AM
> To: orca-list gnome org
> Subject: Re: [orca-list] Orca and XFCE or LXDE
>
> This may be a dumb question here, but how does one change the desktop from
> gnome to one of these other environments? Is there some general
> documentation that explains which packages to install or whatever?  I plan a
> trip to the GNOME_3 Arch wiki in a little bit to see if it says anything
> there as well.
>
> On Sat, May 07, 2011 at 06:32:09AM -0400, Kyle wrote:
> > With all the talk of problems with GNOME3, I've been hearing some
> > fairly good reports about usability of XFCE and LXDE. I'm seriously
> > considering switching to one of these environments on my system, and
> > would like to know what problems I can expect from either.
> >
> > First, other than the desktop icon issue, what issues can I expect
> > from XFCE? Will I have a working notification panel for things like
> > Pidgin and Dropbox? Is Thunar mostly usable with Orca? Is there
> > anything else I should be aware of with XFCE in general?
> >
> > About LXDE, it seems as though it's fairly new compared to XFCE.
> > What problems has anyone had with it? I know there's a crash problem
> > with the file manager when LXDE is started from GDM. Is this a common
> > occurrance, or does it happen rather infrequently? The same question
> > about panels and notification areas applies to LXDE. Will I be able to
> > see my Pidgin, Dropbox, etc. there? Is there a good selection of
> > applets for LXDE? Again, is there anything else I should be aware of
> > about LXDE in general? Thanks for any advice anyone may have.
> > ~Kyle
> > _______________________________________________
> > orca-list mailing list
> > orca-list gnome org
> > http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> > Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> > The manual is at
> > http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> > The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> > Netiquette Guidelines are at
> > http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelin
> > es Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org Find out
> > how to help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp
> _______________________________________________
> orca-list mailing list
> orca-list gnome org
> http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/orca-list
> Visit http://live.gnome.org/Orca for more information on Orca.
> The manual is at
> http://library.gnome.org/users/gnome-access-guide/nightly/ats-2.html
> The FAQ is at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions
> Netiquette Guidelines are at
> http://live.gnome.org/Orca/FrequentlyAskedQuestions/NetiquetteGuidelines
> Log bugs and feature requests at http://bugzilla.gnome.org Find out how to
> help at http://live.gnome.org/Orca/HowCanIHelp