Endless 4.0 custom build questions

[voerman]

I have successfully done a custom build of Endless 4.0. I managed to add a couple of apps to the desktop. The problem is that the app icons appear on a newly created third page on the desktop when the original second page is not full.
If I do a normal (non-custom) install and then add the apps using App Center the app icons appear on the second page as one would expect. Is there any way to fix this?
Also the documentation says I can modify the desktop icon grid as part of the custom build. I have not been able to figure out how to accomplish that. Presumably changing the icon grid would allow me to fix the above problem. In addition I would like to move Hack from its first position on the grid. Any advice?

Thanks,
Lou Voerman

[wjt]

As you have probably discovered, unfortunately we currently don’t have any examples on https://support.endlessos.org/en/deployment/image-builder of how to customise the icon grid.

The short version is, in your custom configuration, set:

[image]
icon_grid_add = data/icon-grid/icon-grid-C.json

Create a file called data/icon-grid/icon-grid-C.json as a copy of https://github.com/endlessm/eos-shell-content/blob/master/data/settings/icon-grid-C.json.in with the changes you wish to make.

This is then processed by the hooks/image/63-icon-grid hook which I believe is enabled by default.

In addition I would like to move Hack from its first position on the grid.

I believe this is possible by explicitly placing Hack somewhere else in the grid. For historical reasons Hack is handled specially by the code which loads the icon grid layout so this may not work quite right.

[voerman]

Thanks for the response. I was able to put the icons for the added apps on the second page and eliminate the third page so the first part of my problem was solved.

I was not able to move Hack from the first location on the grid. Looking at the code you linked, it seems that Hack is hard coded to be placed at the first icon grid location regardless of any attempt to override its position. This appears a little inflexible for no apparent reason. Is there any chance this can be changed (two lines of code need to be commented out)?

Also Hack is made one of the “favorite” apps by default, can this be overridden in a custom build?

Thanks,

Lou Voerman

[wjt]

@voerman

This appears a little inflexible for no apparent reason. Is there any chance this can be changed (two lines of code need to be commented out)?

This behaviour was added when we wanted to deploy Hack to all existing systems, and have it appear at the start of the icon grid. We could not simply update the built-in layout with this change because many (in fact, most) deployed systems had a customized layout, which we have no mechanism to change during an OS update, and we wanted this to apply to existing users’ desktops, too.

We could probably change this behaviour now, and accept that some systems will not end up with Hack at the start of the grid. I’ll file an internal ticket but I can’t promise when we will be able to get to it.

I believe that, as a workaround, if you place com.hack_computer.Clubhouse.desktop into a folder, it will not appear at the top level.

@voerman

Also Hack is made one of the “favorite” apps by default, can this be overridden in a custom build?

Yes. I believe you need to add the following config:

[image]
settings_add = data/settings/favorite-apps

and in data/settings/favorite-apps add the following:

[org/gnome/shell]
favorite-apps=['org.gnome.Software.desktop', 'org.chromium.Chromium.desktop', 'org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop']

These files are in the syntax accepted by dconf compile. They are processed by hooks/image/60-dconf-prepare and hooks/image/61-dconf-compile.chroot, both of which are enabled by default. You can override other GSettings in the same way, but note that the syntax is not quite the same as the GSettings vendor overrides syntax – essentially, the group names use the a/b/c syntax not a.b.c.

[wjt]

I have adapted the notes above for the documentation on our wiki:

Endless OS Image Builder

[voerman]

Thank you - I will give everything you suggested a try. I do not mean to be down on Hack. The organization I volunteer for distributes thousands of computers running Endless each year to school children, and to adults involved in our computer literacy classes. For the children, Hack in the first desktop icon location can be a distraction and for the adults, it can be slightly intimidating. We considered removing it all together but decided that it was worth keeping. Moving it to a later place on the desktop seemed like a good solution and indeed we are doing this manually after each install. Putting it in a folder should also work.

The EOS customization feature you added, once we match it to our needs, will help simplify our install procedure. Those installs are usually carried out by volunteers with widely varying degrees of skill and/or experience so the more we can automate the better.

Thanks again,

Lou Voerman