With customisable menu location providing isolation for easier and update proof personalisation
Quick Install:
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/domichal/GameSH-etc/master/install-mylauncher.sh | bash
mylauncher is a modification of the ClockworkPi's Python launcher and beside the improvements listed below it does not differ from the original.
Original README.md by clockworkpi can be found here.
mylauncher can be used side by side with both original launchers (launcher and launchergo) and they can all be switched between easily with a provided script. It can also run on it's own, however it's advised to leave the original launcher intact to keep the functionality up to date with oncoming clockworkpi additions.
Poorly organised, growing list of items on GameShell's main page and updates that were messing with my tidying ups. I like to move things around, categorize games in folders and don't want new items to pop up on my home screen uninvited, but I also don't want to miss out on what clockworkpi adds so want to be able to update GameShell launcher without a hassle too. I needed an up to date bare bone launcher that won't mess with my content and this is it.
- User Menu is moved outside the repository allowing complete separation*
- Icon matching mechanism added, no need for icon location to follow menu structure anymore!
- [UI] Focus is set on the first, most left page item*
- [UI] Refreshed icon set thanks to this great source
*These can be changed back to defaults in the config
To be able to switch between all launchers, it was necessary to make original "switch to launcher/launcher go" methods dysfunctional to prevent them from breaking xstartup scripts when called from mylauncher.
This script is not required by the launcher to run, but it makes life easier. Other way to use different launchers would be to rename launcher folders, or manually modifying .bashrc. This scripts handles the latter.
The script will detect any number of launchers as long as they are located in /home/cpi and their name contain lowercase word launcher.
mylauncher folder can also be renamed in accordance to the above.
There's one for installation script: zip.
I don't remember if it was installed on GameShell by default, but if not:
sudo apt install -y zip
Note: The script will install the launcher and modify .bashrc file. The file will be backed up to .bashrc.bak for easy rollback. Fore details, see manual installation steps.
Install from GameShell console:
curl -sSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/domichal/GameSH-etc/master/install-mylauncher.sh | bash
Then proceed with adding contents.
Download here.
The script can also be run on PC to install mylauncher on sd card. In this case download the script and change homedir variable to point to the correct cpi home location before running it.
After installing go to add contents.
Download mylauncher.zip and unzip the contents inside /home/cpi
Rename unzipped folder to /home/cpi/mylauncher
and paste there the following code:
#!/bin/bash
LAUNCHER=mylauncher
if [ -f "$homedir/\$LAUNCHER/.cpirc" ] && [ -z "\$SSH_CLIENT" ] && [ -z "\$SSH_TTY" ]; then
echo "Starting \$LAUNCHER"
. "$homedir/\$LAUNCHER/.cpirc"
fi
Optional: Change file permissions to rw-r--r--
chmod 644 /home/cpi/.startrc
cp /home/cpi/.bashrc /home/cpi/.bashrc.bak
if [ -f /home/cpi/.startrc ]; then
. /home/cpi/.startrc
el
JUST BEFORE (no spaces, new lines, nada!) the following "if" statement at the end of the file: (there may be "$HOME" instead of "/home/cpi" there, but it points to the same thing at this point, so no worries)
if [ -f /home/cpi/launcher/.cpirc ]; then
. /home/cpi/launcher/.cpirc
fi
so you end up with something like this:
if [ -f /home/cpi/.startrc ]; then
. /home/cpi/.startrc
elif [ -f /home/cpi/launcher/.cpirc ]; then
. /home/cpi/launcher/.cpirc
fi
That's it! Ok, not entirely, the launcher will work, but it will have nothing but a power button in it, so let's
Add your own contents to myMenu as you normally would, but if it comes to launcher functionalities, unless you are determined to get rid of the original launcher, don't copy things over, link them!
This way you'll keep original clockworkpi functionalities up to date if they're changed or if stuff is added in the future.
PowerOFF is a link too, see?:
$ ls -la ~/Menu/GameShell
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 cpi cpi 4096 Oct 19 01:59 .
drwxr-xr-x 3 cpi cpi 4096 Oct 19 01:59 ..
lrwxrwxrwx 1 cpi cpi 45 Oct 19 01:58 99_PowerOFF -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/99_PowerOFF
This is the only item in this folder and it's recommended to keep it this way.
Time to play with the separated menu, so log in as cpi, if you aren't:
su cpi
and move to the new menu folder:
cd ~/mylauncher/myMenu
I like my GameShell related items to be in their own folder, so I've done this:
mkdir 98_GameSH\>
ln -s ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/10_Settings 98_GameSH\>/
ln -s ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/30_RetroArch.sh 98_GameSH\>/
ln -s ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/98_TinyCloud 98_GameSH\>/
ln -s ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/90_Reload\ UI.sh 98_GameSH\>/
Launcher tools will go there too:
ln -s ~/mylauncher/scripts/91_Launcher\ Tools.sh 98_GameSH\>/
I'll also link Switch Launcher script to the ~apps/Menu so it's available from other launchers:
ln -s ~/mylauncher/scripts/92_Switch\ Launcher.sh ~/apps/Menu/
Music player to the main screen:
ln -s ~/launcher/Menu/GameShell/97_Music\ Player .
Utils will be nice to have, but let's call it Applications:
ln -s ~/apps/Menu/60_Utils 60_Apllications
and games, of course:
ln -s ~/apps/Menu/20_Retro\ Games .
ln -s ~/apps/Menu/21_Indie\ Games .
So now I have this structure in the menu:
myMenu
├── 20_Retro Games -> /home/cpi/apps/Menu/20_Retro Games
├── 21_Indie Games -> /home/cpi/apps/Menu/21_Indie Games
├── 60_Applications -> /home/cpi/apps/Menu/60_Utils
├── 97_Music Player -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/97_Music Player
└── 98_GameSH>
├── 10_Settings -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/10_Settings
├── 30_RetroArch.sh -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/30_RetroArch.sh
├── 90_Reload UI.sh -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/90_Reload UI.sh
├── 91_Launcher Tools.sh -> /home/cpi/mylauncher/scripts/91_Launcher Tools.sh
└── 98_TinyCloud -> /home/cpi/launcher/Menu/GameShell/98_TinyCloud
while all the original items are still in the original launcher folder. Cool, huh? But hold on, there's more:
If you tried to organise things your way on GameShell previously, you know that now it should be time for some folder traversing to be done to move icons where they should be. Sure you can do that, but guess what, you don't have to!
mylauncher is modified to look for icons in application launcher parent folders, so for all the items put in GameSh> if the icons aren't there, it will look in myMenu too. By default it searches up to two levels up, so if you want to grow big trees in your menu, you will need to increase this value - look for this line: allowed = "../.." in the skin manager.py.
Cascade search for Icon is done in the following order:
- original location and up - this location isn't searched for icons in the original launcher.
- user set skin and up
- default skin and up
Ok, it's time to restart. Your gameshell should boot into mylauncher now.
Just a tiny bit of.
All the launcher related settings (both of them) can be found in sys.py/myconfig.py and perhaps the comments will make it clear of what these settings change.
# ADDMENU_PATH - Path to the secondary menu folder, feel free to move it outside the launcher folder
# DEFAULT_FOCUSED_ITEM - Item to be highlighted by default on page render
#
# The values below will make the launcher behave/look like original
#
# ADDMENU_PATH = "/home/cpi/apps/Menu"
# DEFAULT_FOCUSED_ITEM = 1
ADDMENU_PATH = "/home/cpi/mylauncher/myMenu"
DEFAULT_FOCUSED_ITEM = 0
/home/cpi/
├── apps
│ ├── emulators
│ └── Menu <- By default, this is not used by mylauncher
├── launcher
├── launchergo
├── mylauncher <- We are here
│ ├── Menu
│ ├── myMenu <- Default menu location used by the launcher
│ ├── skin
│ └── sys.py
├── games
│ ├── FreeDM
│ ├── MAME
│ └── nxengine
├── music
└── skins
mylauncher is fully compatible with the default clockworkpi gameshell builds and can work without any disturbance to other launchers and vice versa.
Update mylauncher (git) option is only available if the launcher folder is checked out with the repository.
No regular updates are planned. I will try to sync this repo with the clockworkpi repository from time to time though. Some improvements in the future are possible too. We'll see.
cd /home/cpi
mv ~/.bashrc.bak ~/.bashrc
rm ~/.startrc
rm -rf ~/mylauncher
You may also like my GameShell dark skin.