Wallpaper corruption in containers maybe fixed

When you bootup EasyOS, on the desktop there is an icon labelled "dunfell", clicking which will launch the entire Dunfell 2.6.2 desktop in a container. The key combination ALT-F6 flips back to the main desktop. Other puppies can also be run in a container.

A problem we have had right from the start, is wallpaper corruption in the container. It is ROX-Filer that manages the desktop wallpaper and icons, and the instance of ROX that runs in the container is not completely isolated from the ROX on the main desktop. I have not been able to understand exactly what the cause of the problem is, but a "sleep 4" after starting JWM and before running ROX results in OK wallpaper -- but not always, it seems some PCs require longer sleep.

What this means is that when you click on "dunfell" the first time, which sets up and starts the container and switches into it, there is a delay where you will see the JWM tray along the bottom, the rest of the screen white, for about 4 seconds, then the desktop icons and wallpaper appear.

I was extremely interested in the overhaul of the /proc filesystem in the 5.8+ kernel, and I thought this might be the fix. Phoronix have explained:

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-5.8-Modernizes-Procfs

Running the 5.10.26 kernel, I have reduced that startup delay from 4 to 0.5, and not getting wallpaper corruption. I tested on three different PCs, including my old Compaq Presario, and consistently got a non-corrupted desktop.

I didn't do anything different when mounting /proc, it seems the overhaul has made each mount of /proc more of an independent proper filesystem, so /proc in the container is more independent. So it seems.

Of course, if someone posts that they are getting wallpaper corruption with EasyOS 2.6.2 Dunfell-series, that will shoot down my theory that the 5.10 kernel has fixed the problem. Anyway, the delay is now 0.5 seconds, so startup of the container will be much faster.  

Tags: easy