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Thread: How do I install xbanish?

  1. #1
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    Dec 2020
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    How do I install xbanish?

    Trying to make the mouse pointer disappear when I start typing, I discovered that this feature is not inherent in the window manager, and so I need to install xbanish.
    https://github.com/jcs/xbanish
    However, the github repository doesn't have any prebuilt versions. So, I downloaded the project and tried to run the makefile. I found that "make" is not on my system, so I installed it. I ran make but it failed because cc is not on my system, so I installed it. Ran make again, but it failed because X11/X.h couldn't be found. At this point, I gave up. Is there an easier way to install xbanish?

  2. #2
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    Oct 2005
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    Lab, Slovakia
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Are you running an Xorg based system or a Wayland based system?

    People who don’t understand UNIX are doomed to reinvent it. That is what happens with Linux over and over again. For example Init, Alsa, X etc. New guys don’t understand something, rewrite it from scratch and sometimes it is better, sometimes not.

    Wayland is one of the latter.
    Last edited by HermanAB; February 25th, 2021 at 09:39 AM.

  3. #3
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Sorry, I should have mentioned that I'm running Xorg, I think. It's whatever the the 20.04 LTS installation defaults to. I thought Xorg and X were the same thing.
    Are you suggesting that xbanish may not be necessary?
    Last edited by robert99999; February 25th, 2021 at 11:29 PM.

  4. #4
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    Dec 2014
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    No, he's telling you that it probably will not work if you're using Wayland.

    If you want to compile from source, you need additional packages with header files (c source files which tell the compiler what functions are in which libraries).
    After a short look at the source I'd say you should run
    Code:
    sudo apt install build-essential x11proto-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev
    'build-essential' installs make, the c compiler, the c++ compiler, the headers for libc and tools for building .deb-files. The others are developers packages containing headers for X11 and various extensions to X11. On my XUbuntu 18.04 system (which already had these and many other sets of headers) it compiled without any problems and seems to work as advertised.

    If you don't want to compile the program yourself, there's a PPA that seems to have it.

    Holger

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Mar 2010
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    Ubuntu

    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Always prefer using a trusted PPA over compiling yourself. Of course, an unknown PPA shouldn't be trusted so do a little research about the team/person who setup the PPA. If it is created by the team that creates the software, there is very little risk. After all, you've already agreed to run that code.

  6. #6
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Quote Originally Posted by Holger_Gehrke View Post
    No, he's telling you that it probably will not work if you're using Wayland.

    After a short look at the source I'd say you should run
    Code:
    sudo apt install build-essential x11proto-dev libx11-dev libxfixes-dev libxi-dev
    Thanks, but it didn't help. It tells me that all of those are already installed, and after it's done and I try 'make' again, I still get this:
    Code:
    cc -O2 -Wall -Wunused -Wmissing-prototypes -Wstrict-prototypes -Wunused -I/usr/X11R6/include -c xbanish.c -o xbanish.o
    xbanish.c:37:10: fatal error: X11/Intrinsic.h: No such file or directory
       37 | #include <X11/Intrinsic.h>
          |          ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    compilation terminated.
    make: *** [Makefile:28: xbanish.o] Error 1
    I'd rather compile this myself, if possible, rather than deal with an untrusted repository. The source code and the make file look simple enough that I don't mind trying it as long I don't get stuck in an infinite loop chasing after missing files.

  7. #7
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    Dec 2014
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Looks like I missed one. '/usr/include/X11/Intrinsic.h' is in the package 'libxt-dev'. By the way, you can look up files in packages on packages.ubuntu.com (the first form looks for packages that have the search term in its name or description, the second form searches for files in packages).

    Holger

  8. #8
    Join Date
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    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Be sure that libXt is included in the makefile if the link step fails. That would be a -lXt

    I looked at the project source. This is clearly a personal hobby for someone. If you open some bugs on the documentation, they might consider it helpful.

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
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    34

    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    Quote Originally Posted by Holger_Gehrke View Post
    Looks like I missed one. '/usr/include/X11/Intrinsic.h' is in the package 'libxt-dev'. By the way, you can look up files in packages on packages.ubuntu.com (the first form looks for packages that have the search term in its name or description, the second form searches for files in packages).

    Holger
    Thanks. I installed that, and the make file now runs and compiles properly.
    Next problem: I realized that I didn't know what to to to make it run when the system boots up, but I found the following at https://github.com/jcs/xbanish/issues/47
    Code:
    cd xbanish
    echo "~/xbanish/xbanish" >> ~/.xinitrc
    It's now working as I wanted, but it occurs to me that before installing xbanish, the pointer had been hiding automatically in some applications such as the text editor, but not in others such as Firefox. With xbanish installed, it's now hiding in Firefox.
    Hopefully, I haven't accidentally done something that will eventually destroy my system.
    Thanks all.

    EDIT:
    BTW, it was good to actually build and install an application for my first time ever. I've done a lot of automated installs, but I don't learn anything from doing that. It's nice to find out where all of these things are getting installed.
    Last edited by robert99999; February 27th, 2021 at 02:40 AM.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Dec 2020
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    34

    Re: How do I install xbanish?

    I'd marked this thread as Solved last night, but I've now changed it back to Unsolved, because xbanish doesn't appear to be running at boot time. Or, if it is, it must be quitting at some point. If I open a terminal session and run it, the mouse pointer hiding works. But as soon as I end the terminal session, I'm back to the non-hiding pointer. As mentioned in my previous post, I ran the following:
    Code:
    cd xbanish
    echo "~/xbanish/xbanish" >> ~/.xinitrc
    and it created the file .xinitrc in the home directory. I confirmed that the contents of the file are:
    Code:
    ~/xbanish/xbanish
    But apparently I'm still missing a step somewhere.

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