skeezix
Internal Development
Making skins for minimenu is actually pretty easy, if you don't mind spelunking into a textfile
Many parts of the Pandora firmware use searchpaths to find files, which allows for you to put 'overrides' or additions to things on SD cards. For instance, if you want to mess with minimenu's main config (mmenu.conf from /etc/pandora/conf in the firmware), you can just make a copy of it and drop it into your SD's /pandora/mmenu directory, and hack away; if you totally blow things up, just eject your SD and back to factory defaults.
Similarly, you can drop skins right onto your SD so they don't eat up valuable space in your NAND, so you can just download them from somewhere and plop them on your SD to experiment with, and have no real risk when hacking around on them -- eject your SD and reboot, good to go. Minimenu just looks for all the skins it can find, and keeps a list of them. If you have 2 SD cards, it'll search both of them for directories that look like skins, and give the list to you to pick from when you hit Select -> Pick a skin.
The way skins are searched for is like this:
minimenu will look across your SD cards (or plugged in usb devices, etc), and its looking for a 'mmskin.conf' file. It looks in the following directory on each SD card:
/pandora/mmenu/skins
... within a directory for each skin.
ie: /pandora/mmenu/skins/myskin and /pandora/mmenu/skins/other_skin would be directories, each with mmskin.conf inside.
So if you create a directory..
/pandora/mmenu/skins/Fooby and stick a 'mmskin.conf' file into that directory (ie: /pandora/mmenu/skins/Fooby/mmskin.conf) -- thats it, you've got a skin available in the Select -> Pick a skin menu option in minimenu.
In practice, it is easiest to copy an existing skin (or download one), and use it as a starting point.
ie: Copy the defalut skin, call it 'copy', and boom, you now have two identical skins.. one called 'default' and another called 'copy'. Thats it
The default skin is available as a download here: http://www.codejedi....efault-skin.zip
You could also open Thunar (the directory browser) or use the Terminal to copy the files .. from /etc/pandora/mmenu/skins/default (or something like that)
Just extract the zip into your SD /pandora/mmenu/skins directory; the directory of name 'default' SHOULD BE RENAMED so as not to collide with the build in default. Change it to say 'Fooby' or 'MySkin' or 'whatever'.
example:
Extract the zip, and call the directory 'whatever'. On your SD, thats:
/pandora/mmenu/skins/whatever
--> with file 'mmskin.conf' and a bunch of .png graphic files inside 'whatever' directory
Thats it -- now you have a new minimenu skin called 'whatever', showing up in your list; you can select it in minimenu, and it'll work fine, and look exactly like the default skin.
If you reboot without an SD, or break the skin entirely, minimenu should try to fall back to the default built in skin, so as not to break your system.
At this point, you'll have 'mmskin.conf' and a bunch of .pnd (graphic) files in your 'whatever' directory on your SD.
Hack away -- edit them as you see fit! You can make a pile of skin directories, or download a pile of them and tweak them. Use any normal text editor (Notepad, vi, emacs, Textpad, whatever, as long as you're not saving the file out as a Word doc. Try to use Unix line-endings.)
Minimenu is pretty flexible, but not really insanely flexible (yet) in this regard -- it was designed to be minimal, easy and fast to use, not the most expandable tool ever. But we'll see where it goes.
The mmskin.conf file is pretty well documented -- it described where to draw things, how many rows and columns in the grid, what fonts and colours to use, and so on. If you like, I can expand upon the commentary there.
jeff
Also see this older 'configuration guide' which might be a little out of date:
http://pandorawiki.org/User_manual#Minimenu_-_Comprehensive_Configuration_Documentation
Many parts of the Pandora firmware use searchpaths to find files, which allows for you to put 'overrides' or additions to things on SD cards. For instance, if you want to mess with minimenu's main config (mmenu.conf from /etc/pandora/conf in the firmware), you can just make a copy of it and drop it into your SD's /pandora/mmenu directory, and hack away; if you totally blow things up, just eject your SD and back to factory defaults.
Similarly, you can drop skins right onto your SD so they don't eat up valuable space in your NAND, so you can just download them from somewhere and plop them on your SD to experiment with, and have no real risk when hacking around on them -- eject your SD and reboot, good to go. Minimenu just looks for all the skins it can find, and keeps a list of them. If you have 2 SD cards, it'll search both of them for directories that look like skins, and give the list to you to pick from when you hit Select -> Pick a skin.
The way skins are searched for is like this:
minimenu will look across your SD cards (or plugged in usb devices, etc), and its looking for a 'mmskin.conf' file. It looks in the following directory on each SD card:
/pandora/mmenu/skins
... within a directory for each skin.
ie: /pandora/mmenu/skins/myskin and /pandora/mmenu/skins/other_skin would be directories, each with mmskin.conf inside.
So if you create a directory..
/pandora/mmenu/skins/Fooby and stick a 'mmskin.conf' file into that directory (ie: /pandora/mmenu/skins/Fooby/mmskin.conf) -- thats it, you've got a skin available in the Select -> Pick a skin menu option in minimenu.
In practice, it is easiest to copy an existing skin (or download one), and use it as a starting point.
ie: Copy the defalut skin, call it 'copy', and boom, you now have two identical skins.. one called 'default' and another called 'copy'. Thats it
The default skin is available as a download here: http://www.codejedi....efault-skin.zip
You could also open Thunar (the directory browser) or use the Terminal to copy the files .. from /etc/pandora/mmenu/skins/default (or something like that)
Just extract the zip into your SD /pandora/mmenu/skins directory; the directory of name 'default' SHOULD BE RENAMED so as not to collide with the build in default. Change it to say 'Fooby' or 'MySkin' or 'whatever'.
example:
Extract the zip, and call the directory 'whatever'. On your SD, thats:
/pandora/mmenu/skins/whatever
--> with file 'mmskin.conf' and a bunch of .png graphic files inside 'whatever' directory
Thats it -- now you have a new minimenu skin called 'whatever', showing up in your list; you can select it in minimenu, and it'll work fine, and look exactly like the default skin.
If you reboot without an SD, or break the skin entirely, minimenu should try to fall back to the default built in skin, so as not to break your system.
At this point, you'll have 'mmskin.conf' and a bunch of .pnd (graphic) files in your 'whatever' directory on your SD.
Hack away -- edit them as you see fit! You can make a pile of skin directories, or download a pile of them and tweak them. Use any normal text editor (Notepad, vi, emacs, Textpad, whatever, as long as you're not saving the file out as a Word doc. Try to use Unix line-endings.)
Minimenu is pretty flexible, but not really insanely flexible (yet) in this regard -- it was designed to be minimal, easy and fast to use, not the most expandable tool ever. But we'll see where it goes.
The mmskin.conf file is pretty well documented -- it described where to draw things, how many rows and columns in the grid, what fonts and colours to use, and so on. If you like, I can expand upon the commentary there.
jeff
Also see this older 'configuration guide' which might be a little out of date:
http://pandorawiki.org/User_manual#Minimenu_-_Comprehensive_Configuration_Documentation