Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

Jerry3904 · 2019-05-28 18:55:03

Near the end of his blog piece last week, Simon threw in this sentence:

Finally it’s worth mentioning that we decided to drop the splash screens.

Argggh. A couple of us have been experimenting with a splash for the next release MX-19, and I remember a post here a few months ago with some good design ideas. So there is at least some user interest out there.

I found a GitHub project that could be useful, as it purports to allow a custom splash be inserted directly into the list that Xfce presents on the config screen. Although the project is quite recent, I was unable to make it function, and the dev has not (yet?) answered the two issues I posted.

That developer speaks of using "the Xfce4 Mice Splash Engine," which leads me to 2 questions:

1) what/where exactly is this putative splash engine? Thanks to the always-awesome Arch Wiki, I see these 2 dating from 15 years ago:

/usr/include/xfce4/xfce4-session-4.6/libxfsm/xfsm-splash-engine.h

/usr/include/xfce4/xfce4-session-4.6/libxfsm/xfsm-splash-rc.h

Is that it? Is there any documentation on how to use these (haven't had any luck so far)?

2) can whatever constitutes the XMSE be sequestered for use with 4.14? Or is it being dropped b/c it won't work with gtk3 and nobody wants to do the work of porting it over?

Thanks for any help.

Last edited by Jerry3904 (2019-05-28 21:06:44)

ToZ · 2019-05-28 20:42:21

Jerry,
The removal of the splash screens was a surprise to me as well. I didn't see anything on the dev mailing list regarding a decision to remove them. Perhaps you can either ask directly in the xfce4-dev mailing list why they were removed (and make a plea to bring them back), or create a bug report asking that they be restored. Perhaps the rationale for the decision to remove them would be documented.

I'm not sure which thread you refer to, but in this one I documented how you can create custom splash screens using the existing (now gone) balou splash screen functionality. Looking at the github code, it's difficult to make sense of the directions, but it looks like it just duplicates the mice splash screen code. This particular splash screen allows you to cycle through a series if images. (Here is the default mice image. Notice the multiple images embedded in one with changing transarency of the mouse. This code allows to use your own custom cycling image.

ochosi · 2019-05-28 21:29:35

Hi Jerry,
the rationale can be explained quite quickly: splash screens (plus their engines) were never ported to Gtk+3 and nobody was willing to work on this topic, i.e. in xfce4-session 4.13.x the splash screens never worked.
In order not to further delay Xfce 4.14 we decided (on IRC, so there wasn't a mailinglist thread) to drop the splash screen feature (also with the background that on modern hardware you practically don't see them anymore, plus there is already a splash screen before you log into your session with e.g. plymouth).

Unfortunately xfce4-session hasn't gotten a lot of attention over the last few years, Eric did quite a few improvements for 4.13 and Romain, Florian and me also contributed to fixing essential things like race conditions at session start or more accessible session saving/choosing/restoring.
So it felt like a very natural choice and I also currently don't plan on bringing this feature back (and neither does anyone else, as far as I know).

I hope this makes sense to you!

Jerry3904 · 2019-05-28 22:20:47

Thanks for the explanation; it does make sense in terms of process, though less (to me) in terms of output. We have a lot of users who do not necessarily have "modern hardware," who pride themselves in fact on keeping serviceable machines going and are especially pleased with Xfce for that reason. I'm sorry to see it go.

ToZ · 2019-05-28 23:51:41

Thanks as well for the info @ochosi. I need to find the time to visit the IRC channel more often.

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#1 2019-05-28 18:55:03

Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

#2 2019-05-28 20:42:21

Re: Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

#3 2019-05-28 21:29:35

Re: Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

#4 2019-05-28 22:20:47

Re: Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

#5 2019-05-28 23:51:41

Re: Can the "splash engine" be rescued?

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