Sol-Roth

Is a PowerBook G3 PDQ 266 MHz of late 1998, running OSX 10.4.11 Tiger and Mac OS 9.2.2.

NetBSD 9.3 on a PowerBook G3 Pismo

I’ve managed to install NetBSD 9.3 on a Pismo 400 MHz. Let save the procedure here.

It’s a dual boot MacOS9 - NetBSD 9.3, on a 32 Gb HD, the Pismo has 512 + 256 = 768 Mb of RAM which I intend to make a full Gb when I get another 512 Mb RAM card.

I used several tutos, each of much help, but each not fitting completely with my configuration, so had to use a mix of all these commands.

Here the links :
Cameron Kaiser’s install on a MacMini G4.
Another MacMini G4 install.
The obligatory online Installation procedure for NetBSD/macppc 9.3.

Let’s go :

• Boot your Pismo on a Mac OSX 10.4 or earlier CD or DVD.
  With Disk Utility, make two partitions, first one of 8Gb HFS+, and rest in Apple UFS or just free space . Make sure to check « install MacOS9 drivers ».
  
  
• Grab the NetBSD-9.3-macppc.iso in the iso list here and burn it to a CD.
  
  
• Insert the CD in the Pismo, and boot in OpenFirmware.
  Thankfully the Pismo has OF v.3.0, so it’s a bit more easy than on previous OF versions to boot from a NetBSD cd. I’ve tried innumerable combinations to try to boot it on a Kanga’s OF v.2..x with no success… The boot command that works for the Pismo is :
  
  boot cd:,\ofwboot.xcf netbsd.macppc
  
  
• Once it as done his things, it will ask you to choose Install=I or Shell=S or another option I can’t remember… type S to go to a shell.
  NOTE, erase/backspace key will not work in this shell, so be careful in all the commands you type. Usually the shell and pdisk will not understand if you type gibberish and will tell you, but still be VERY CAREFUL, specially when we are going to use pdisk. To correct any mistakes, <Control>H (not <Command>H, <Control>H) works just as well as a backspace. Thanks to "Doq" on the PowerPC Macrumors forum for the tip.
  
  
• We are going to create our SWAP and Unix partition from the 21 Gb free space or UFS partition we’ve created earlier with the OSX Disk Utility, using pdisk for that. So type :

pdisk /dev/wd0c

To edit the disk. Then type P and enter to have all the partitions listed :



All the partitions are numbered here from 1 to 12.
Nmr 10 is your HFS+ for OS9, all before that are Mac OS drivers and stuff, do not touch.
Nmr 11 is a partition created also by OSX Disk Utility, not sure of the use, red that you can delete it, but I left it, It’s just 8.5 Mb anyway.
Nmr 12, is your 21 Gb free space for NetBSD and Swap.
Note, if you have formatted these 21 Gb in Apple UFS, you first have to delete it. Like so, type :

d

pdisk will ask you which partition to delete, type :

12p

For partition nmr 12. Now type P again to verify, and you’ll see the 12th partition as free space like the image above.

Now let’s first create our SWAP partition.


• Type c for creating a partition.
Pdisk will ask the first block, that is from where to create that partition. Type 12p for that 21 Gb free scape :

First block: 12p

Pdisk will then ask for a partition size in blocks. I want a 1Gb SWAP , so that is 2097152 blocks :

Length in blocks; 2097152

It will then ask for a name for that partition, make it swap:

Name of partition: swap

It will then ask for a label for your Apple_UNIX _SVR2 format partition. Choose b for a swap partition :

Available partition slices for Apple_UNIX _SVR2:
a root partition
b Swap partition
c do not set any bb bits
d user partition
Other lettered values will create user partitions
Select a slice for default bzl values: b

looks like this :



Type P again to check and it should display your swap as partition nmr 12 and remaining free space as nmr 13 :




• Now the NetBSD partition. Type c to create it. Pdisk will again ask where to start, type 13p for that empty space nmr 13 partition :

First block: 13p

When asked for the partition size (Length in blocks), we want the full 20 Gb left in blocks, that is 43484384 you’ll find on the third column of the 13 rd partition line :

Length in blocks: 43484384

Then let’s give it a name (netbsd) :

Name of partition: netbsd

then It willl ask for a label for your Apple_UNIX _SVR2 format partition. Choose a for root partition :

Available partition slices for Apple_UNIX _SVR2:
a root partition
b Swap partition
c do not set any bb bits
d user partition
Other lettered values will create user partitions
Select a slice for default bzl values: a

should look like this :



We’re done setting up the disk, let’s type P to verify if there’s no goofs :



All looks fine. Now write the changes to the disk by typing w, then y to confirm.
Then quit pdisk with q to return to the shell.

• Now we need to format our root partition to something NetBSD can read, that is ffs. So do :
  
  newfs /dev/wd0a
  
  And let it do his things (note wd0a, it can also be typed rwd0a, « a » is for the partition labeled as root).
  
  
• Next we need to mount that root partition, and write a fstab file for it and the swap partition. First mount it like so :
  
  mount /dev/wd0a /mnt
  
  then create a etc folder at the root of the partition :
  
  mkdir /mnt/etc
  
  Then create the fstab file into that folder using the included ed text editor which works a bit like vi. like so :
  
  ed /mnt/etc/fstab
  a
  /dev/wd0a / ffs rw 1 1
  /dev/wd0b none swap sw 0 0
  .
  wq
  
  Note at one point, ed will say « /mnt/etc/fstab: No such file or directory », no worries, the file is indeed not there but it’s creating it.
  « a » then enter is for entering edit mode in ed. Next two lines are the actual content of the fstab file. « . » then enter is to quit edit mode.
  And wq then enter is to save file and quit ed.
  You can verify your work by typing :
  
  cat /mnt/etc/fstab
  
  And it should show you the content of the created fstab file in etc.
  Then unmount the root partition, like so :
  
  umount /mnt
  
  
• Next we go into the installation utility, by typing :
  
  sysinst
  
  Before installing anything we need to make a small change to how the root partition will be mounted, for that go to « e: Utility menu » :
  
  
  
  Then to « d: Partition a disk » :
  
  
  
  Select « b: wd0a (4.2BSD) » and hit enter :
  
  
  
  Then « a : Edit » :
  
  
  
  Check that the mount point is really at / . For some reasons it may be at /mnt, Sysinst taking into account that we mounted wd0a root partition there when we created the fstab file. If it is so, navigate to « i : Mount point : /mnt » then hit enter and type « / » (without quotes) and enter. should look like so :
  
  
  
  Then go back to Sysinst first menu by going to « x: Ok » and enter.
  And choose « a: Install NetBSD to hard disk » and enter :
  
  
  
  Choose « a: wd0 (30G) » and enter :
  
  
  
  Then « a: Use existing disklabel partitions » :
  
  
  
  Then navigate down to « x: Partition sizes ok » and hit enter :
  
  
  
  At the next screen, choose full installation « a: Full installation ».
  Then « a: CD-ROM / DVD » .
  And let the installer do his things. Once it is finished, hit enter to continue, and you’re in the Sysinst menu to set up your system, which is really easy to follow. There you can set the time, your host name, set up the root passwd, create a user, start a number of services like sshd or ntpd …etc.
  Also set up the network BEFORE installing Pkgin and Pkgsrc package managers. I had trouble installing these before setting network.
  For this, have your router address handy and choose an available local IP address for the machine as only static address will do, for now no dhcp.
  Also when asked to choose a DNS server, choose a default Google one (8.8.8.8) as when I tried with my provider’s DNS server, it couldn't find NetBSD mirrors for installing Pkgin and Pkgsrc. It can be changed after install anyway.
  Now install Pkgin and Pkgsrc package managers. When all this is done, navigate back to Sysinst first menu and choose « d: Reboot the computer » and enter.
  
  
• Still here ? And no, it won’t boot into NetBSD yet. If you have already installed MacOS9 on the HFS+ partition, it will boot into it.
  If not, the Mac will see no operating system, and you’ll have a blank screen with a Ø in the middle. No panic.
  To boot NetBSD, you need to boot in Open Firmware, and OF can only read the NetBSD booter « ofwboot.xcf » and kernel « netbsd-GENERIC.gz » from the HFS+ partition. These are on the NetBSD 9.3 CD rom we’ve been using to do the install. So we need to put it there on that HFS+ partition.
  For that we have two options :
  - If you have another Mac and Firewire cable handy, connect the two via Firewire and boot the Pismo in target mode (holding t key) and copy the « ofwboot » and « ofwboot.xcf » booter files, and the kernel which is at /macppc/binary/kernel/netbsd-GENERIC.gz, from the NetBSD CD in the other Mac to the root of the Pismo’s hard drive. Note Cameron Kaiser says in his howto it can be helpful to put a decompressed copy of the « netbsd-GENERIC.gz » kernel there too… So I did.
  - Or, boot the Pismo on a MacOS9 installer CD, install OS9 (no formating or installing drivers please). Once done, reboot in MacOS9, insert the NetBSD 9.3 installer CD and copy the « ofwboot » and « ofwboot.xcf » booter files, and the kernel which is at /macppc/binary/kernel/netbsd-GENERIC.gz, to the root of the hard drive.
  
  
• Everything should be Ok to boot the Pismo on the installed NetBSD now. For that reboot in Open firmware,then type :
  
  boot hd:,\ofwboot.xcf hd:10/netbsd
  
  After a dozen of lines, it should again ask « boot », just type :
  
  netbsd
  
  And enjoy.

After logging, install stuff is just a matter of logging as root and doing « pkgin install foobar ». Pkgin/Pkgsrc have their own paths, that is /usr/pkg. Binaries will be in /usr/pkg/bin. Once sudo is installed for example, the sudoers file will be in /usr/pkg/etc.

If the xdm logging manager as not been set up to start at boot during the installation, then « startx » will start Ctwm minimalistic default wm. But there many other you can install.
if we go into antiquity, you can install a full CDE desktop following instructions here :
http://45.76.81.249/NetBSD/macppc/
Which is what I did :

There are lots of available packages :
http://cdn.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/macppc/9.3/All/
Even Arcticfox is there, but beware, it was too much for my Pismo to run. Only managed once to use it (slow), and next try it crashed the computer.
Rebooting, the disk showed some errors at system checks, and I had to run fsck_ffs -y /dev/wd0a twice to save the system…

Anyway, a Pismo is not really ideal to run a heavy browser and surf the web, and Netsurf or Lynx are there too.

Sound worked out of the box, I could use cmus to listen to radio streams. Audacious installs fine too, but thrown errors when trying to read streams tho...

I've not tried Wifi cause this Pismo is a bit of a hybrid with a lombard screen, so can't install the airport card internally. Will see how it works with an PC Card maybe.

Since this install, NetBSD 10 is out, I also tried it but after booting the CD, I get a black screen :/ seems consistent with some infos on the NetBSD MacPPC doc that some versions would need the install to be done via serial console, which I’m not ready to try yet… But why does that happen with a new version ? Mystery.

I also did an install on a 500MHz Titanium, install went fine, but the video is all borked up half way into booting from the HD. So for now, I’m playing with the Pismo.

Titanium Hinge Madness

Gosh... almost forgotten I had this blog... Will post here things I've posted on forums as a way of backup.

I allow anyone to question my sanity when reading my stubborn and futile attempt at repairing a stupid 18 years old computer hinge.Having said that, I have a Beautiful Ti 1Ghz that suffered from the infamous hinge problem.The right one became stiffer and stiffer with time, no matter what I’ll do , oil on the hinge, loosen the hinge screws a bit, it became harder and harder to open the lid. Then one day :

It broke itself and my heart… Anyway that Ti is otherwise in very good shape, so I had to do something. Could have changed the whole display as I have some spares, but it bothered me to be then left with a good working screen inside a lid with a broken hinge. So I thought it was the occasion to see if I could disassemble a Titanium display without destroying the frame, following the tutorial I saved a while ago :

macdan-Titanium_PowerBook_display_repair.pdf

The front aluminum frame is basically glued to the screen with strong epoxy. So you have to use some thin clear plastic strips and carefully pass it between the frame and the screen to unstick it, and between the frame and the back display parts.

It’s much better explained in the tutorial linked above. Need good patience, cause the thing is very well glued. Took me an afternoon with some few stops between hard moments , not to throw that display across the room... 

And:

Success. Note I took care of protecting the screen display with tape and paper. 

Ok then, now to the root of the problem. That is the black metallic fixation that holds the hinge axis. That thing was incredibly stiff.

Just impossible to turn it on the axis. No wonder these weak hinges breaks after some time.

Wanting to try repairing the hinge, it became evident that I wouldn’t be able to repair it as strong as new. And anyway even a new hinge would break with such stiff fixation. So I did a spare fixation, with a 1mm thick aluminum sheet cut and formed around the hinge axis. It’s strong enough, but much more loose than that black metallic fixation.

Now the hinge itself. It broke in 3 parts. I replaced the long L shaped « harm » that goes on the side of the screen with a new one, again cut from 1mm thick aluminum .

I then dug a small groove on top part of the broken hinge to fit that L shaped aluminum part in. Glue these together clearly wouldn’t be strong enough for some pieces having to rotate and hold the display assembly. So I also dug two grooves around that axis hinge piece to place some strong metal wire in and around that hinge and L piece. Like so :

The remaining hinge part that goes above the axis was then glued to the L aluminum shaped piece :

With strong epoxy glue. Also used to fill all the grooves and damages done on the axis piece.

I left the epoxy to harden 48 hours, then sanded the excess . To get this :

Now the color… Found a paint in spray can that almost matches the « pearl » color of the Ti hinges. It’s called « Vanille » (Vanilla) and it’s satin.

Only thing it doesn’t have that bit of metallic or nacreous effect that the original Titanium light grey has. Anyway, its the closest I Could find.

And in place :

Looks Ok , but this is were I goofed… even if it fits well in the lid , I glued it back in place in the lid before checking if there was no problem when reassembling the lid to the computer. Turns out I had to sand here and there for the things to fit…

Anyway, here is the result :

Doesn’t look tooo bad. Could have done better with the fit before gluing the hinge back in place, can see it’s not perfectly aligned.

Also the paint difference is visible. But until I find that nacreous light grey…

But it’s strong enough, holds display assembly quite well, and rotate much better.

… and it was some fun handiwork.

My WindowMaker config on Jessie, Part 2

Dock and  DockApps.

We've already seen how to customize the Dock and Guake icons, but there something new about the Dock itself in WindowMaker 0.95.5. In Previous versions you could (as in NeXT systems) grab the dock icon and slide it down to hide all the docks apps. In 0.95.5 , if you do so the bottom most dock apps will re-appear at the top of the screen as you slide the dock down, like in a loop. Don't know if that's a feature (that I don't understand…) or a bug...? Anyway asked about it on the Wmaker users mailing list. Got no "official response", only another user kindly told me he had the same problem, and the walk around he used was to turn off the Dock all together, use the Clip instead and use Wmdrawer (see down this page) as substitute the Dock's drawer. I still use the Dock myself, maybe the thing will be corrected once 0.95.6 will be available in Jessie ?…

Then, in third position down the Dock is Wmbutton.

An app launcher with nine buttons each set to launch different apps either from left, middle or right mouse click. That makes 9 x 3 = 27 possible combinations, which is quite enough for me, I don't even use them all. This is configurable via a ".wmbutton" file situated in your home directory that looks like this :

# .wmbutton - Configuration file for wmbutton
# Last Modified 9/19/01
#
# Note: This is a very limited configuration, see /usr/share/doc/wmbutton/sample.wmbutton
#       for a more exhaustive configuration file to be modified and copied to ~/.wmbutton
#
# Buttons are numbered as follows 
# Left 1 2 3 Middle 11 12 13 Right 21 22 23
# button 4 5 6 button 14 15 16 button 24 25 26
# 7 8 9 17 18 19 27 28 29
#

1 iceweasel &
11 xterm 'links2' &
21 midori &

2 xterm -geometry 80x25 -sb -T 'term' -fg black -bg grey45 &
# 12 xterm -geometry 80x45 -sb -T 'xterm' -fg black -bg grey20 &
22 remmina &

3 xterm -fg black -bg grey70 -T 'FTP' -e ftp &
# 13 gftp &
23 filezilla &

4 claws-mail &
14 balsa &
24 xterm -geometry 150x30 -fg black -bg grey80 -T 'Alpine' -e alpine &


5 pcmanfm &
# 15 pan &
25 GWorkspace &

6 xterm -name bitchX -title bitchX -exec bitchx -geometry 90x50+395+0 -bg black -fg white &
# 16 xchat &
26 ViewPDF &

7  xterm -fg white -bg black -T 'Editor' -e editor &
# 17 emacs &
27 xedit &

8 gimp &
# 18 xpaint &
28 eog &

9 xterm -exec dselect &
29 xterm -geometry 120x35 -fg black -bg grey70 -T 'WMButton Config Editor' -e editor ~/.wmbutton &

# The above don't need to be in any particular order.
# Repeated entries should be ignored

Self explanatory. it shows 1 , 11 and 21 triggers the first button, 1 opens Iceweasel from left mouse click, 11 opens an Xterm terminal with the text web browser Links2 from middle click and 21 opens Midori browser from right click.
For example, line :

29 xterm -geometry 120x35 -fg black -bg grey70 -T 'WMButton Config Editor' -e editor ~/.wmbutton &

Means that a right click on the very last button will open a Xterm window of 120x35 pixels size ("-geometry" option),  font color should be black  ("-fg black") , window background be a 70% grey ("-bg grey70"),  window title should be "WMButton Config Editor" ("-T ''WMButton Config Editor " option), and the default system text editor, that is Nano, should open file .wmbutton situated in my home folder ( "-e editor  ~/.wmbutton &").
So basically , anything that can be launched from the command line (well , that's everything in linux, if you know the command…) can be launched by Wmbutton.
There is also the possibility to change the small icons on the buttons, but I did not investigated that just yet.

Number four in the Dock is Wmclockmon. It's a beautiful digital clock, that can be used as alarm too.
"Backlight" can be turned on and off, colors can be changed. These options are available through the combination of Left/Middle/Right mouse button and Ctrl key. By default it shows an LCD look.

Some wmclockmon colors options

There are many other options, too many to list here. See this man page if you want to play with it :
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/raring/man1/wmclockmon.1.html

Number Five is Wmcpuload, to display your … cpu load.

It uses the same LCD look as wmclockmon. "Backlight" can also be turned on and off with a click, colors can be changed too through the command line. All options here on this man page :
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/en/man1/wmcpuload.1.html

Then in sixth position is Wmbatppc, it will nicely display your Powerbook battery charge, if it's plugged to power or not , time left on battery… ect.

Man page here : http://dev.man-online.org/man1/wmbatppc/

Seventh is Wmnd (that is for "Window Maker Network Device"), to display in and out network traffic/activity. Left click on the interface name will cycle through the interfaces available, left click on the graph cycle through the graphic modes.

Wmnd display options

Again many other options :
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/hardy/man1/wmnd.1.html

In eight , we have another network monitoring app, that is Wmifinfo.

Will display your network interface ip address , router, MAC address. Click on the interface name cycle through the interfaces available.
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/precise/en/man1/wmifinfo.1.html

Ninth is Wmhdplop. It's a graphic hard drive read/write process monitor. Shows nothing when there is no activity…

Idle

 gets very colorful when you copy/write/read files from your HD, SWAP activity is shown too (in green color…).

Doing something… Can get much more colorful though.

Appart from being funny , it can be useful to watch is a process is finished or not.
Just type wmhdplop in the run menu to launch it. It that case all the hard-drives/volumes will be monitored. But you can tell it what hd/partitions to watch, first check your volumes IDs by typing :
df -h
in a term (that nice Guake you have now). It will show you all your disk and partitions IDs. Choose the one on which you Debian is installed , in the case of this machine is sda4. Then type the following in the "run" menu :
wmhdplop -d /dev/sda4
And there you go with psychedelic hd read/write displays...
And no, it will not enlarge your hard-drive, as the author page says :
http://hules.free.fr/wmhdplop/

Tenth is Wmauda , which is a dock app control for Audacious music player.

Wmauda dockapp, idle and running.

Not too much to say on that one, just a Audacious front end to control music volume, play, pause…ect.

Next is the drawer . Now that we have Windowmaker 0.95.5 with Jessie, we have that integrated.
Here is how it looks opened, customized with an OpenSTEP system icon, it's done just like any other "tile" icons, already with a bunch of apps added :

Very easy to setup.

Just a right-click on the dock, and "Add a drawer" (1). A new "tile" with default app icon will appear, that's your new drawer. To add an app to it , drag an App "tile" to the drawer (2). You also have access to options by right-click on it and go to "Drawer options".

In Wheezy , we have Windowmaker 0.95.3, not yet drawer option in that version. But we can install Wmdrawer that can be configured to look like WindowMaker 0.95.5 drawers :

But setting up is much less intuitive. When it's first launched , you get something that looks like that :

With a nice penguin icon, drawer opening up, and a set of 10 icons. Question marks correspond to apps you don't have installed but that are setup to launch by wmdrawer in the configuration file called ".wmdrawerrc" located in your home directory.
All setup , side on which the drawer opens, numbers of apps, ect… is done through that file.
Here is my .wmdrawerrc file for the setup to look like the WindowMaker drawer :

# Config file example for wmdrawer
[general]
# Dock's icon [optional]
dock_icon ProjectBuilder.App-apn.tiff

# Drawer's opening direction [required]
# Top to bottom = 0
# Right to Left = 1
# Bottom to Top = 2
# Left to Right = 3
direction 1

# Image used for icons' background [optional]
#icons_bg defaultTile.xpm

# Allow icons' enlargement to fit them to buttons' size [optional, default 1]
# 0 indicate that icons should never be larger than their original size.
icons_expand 0

# Activate the drawer's pseudo-transparency [optional, default 0]
# if you choose transparency, icons_bg will be ignored
#transparency 0

# dock's width: min=12, max=128 [optional, default=64]
#dock_width 64

# dock's height: min=12, max=128 [optional, default=64]
#dock_height 64

# buttons' size: min=12, max=128 [optional]
# Useful for the people who want for example to have big icons
# and to define several columns.
btns_size 64

# Icon's highlight type: 0, 1 or 2 [optional, default 2]
# 0 : no highlight
# 1 : target (unavailable if transparency activated)
# 2 : shading
#highlight 2

# Image used as highlight [optional]
# only used if you choice target type
#highlight_img highlight.xpm

# Tint icons by a specified color [optional, default #ffffff]
# only used if you choice shading type
#highlight_tint #ffffff

# Shade icons at a specified level [optional, default 60]
# only used if you choice shading type
#highlight_sh 60

# Display buttons' tooltips [optional, default 1]
#tooltips 1

# Tooltips' font [optional, default fixed]
#tooltips_font fixed

# Drawer's animation speed: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 [optional, default 1]
animation_speed 2

# Mouse cursor in drawer: 0, 1, ..., 76 [optional, default 30]
#cursor 30

# Auto opening of the drawer: 0, 1 [optional, default 0]
show_on_hover 0

# Auto closing of the drawer: 0, 1 [optional, default 0]
hide_on_out 1

# drawer's hiding timeout in miliseconds [optional, default 1000]
#hide_timeout 1000

# Runs the dockapp in windowed mode: 0, 1 [optional, default 0]
# Useful for AfterStep, Fvwm, Sawfish or KDE users.
windowed_mode   0

# Instance name so window manager can distinguish between multiple copies
#instance_name distinguish_name

# Drawer's border size in pixels [optional, default 1]
#border_size 1

# Images directories
[images_paths]
/usr/share/pixmaps
/usr/local/share/pixmaps/
/usr/local/share/pixmaps/icons-xpm

# A first column with 5 buttons
# Each button must be defined with this syntax:
# (tooltip)  (image)  (command)
[column]
(Grab)           (Grab.App-grab.xpm)                (gnome-screenshot -i)
(XScreensaver)   (BackSpace.App-corner.xpm) (xscreensaver-demo)
(Leafpad)   (leafpad.png)                     (leafpad)
(Alsamixer)        (Sound.App-apn.tiff)                 (gnome-alsamixer)   
(LuaKit)           (luakit.png)                         (luakit)

Nothing too difficult. Everything is explained. You maybe first want to change the direction to which the drawer opens by setting "direction" to 1. Set the "btns size" to 64 to have the same buttons size as the docks "tiles". You can add your images path for icons to put on buttons after "[images_paths]".

Then add the apps you want to be shown after "[column]". for example for leafpad text editor , add a line with (Leafpad) , that will be the name of the app displayed when you mouse over the button, then (leafpad.png), that is the icon to be displayed for Leafpad found in the image path you've specified earlier, and then (leafpad), that is the command to launch the app.

There are many more options… Home page is here:

http://people.easter-eggs.org/~valos/wmdrawer/

Note it can be set to look like the WindoMaker drawer , but it don't behave exactly like it, i.e. when you launch an app from one of the buttons, the launched app will display her icon on your desktop. Buttons are launchers , not the apps "tiles" icons themselves like on the WindowMaker drawer…

There is one last Dockapp I want to mention , and that I usually install , but unfortunately doesn't work in Jessie. That is Wmpomme :

It's specific for Apple laptops, and displays your screen luminosity level, sound volume level and should also display the keyboard luminosity level , but I've never managed to make work that last.

Works with Pommed

Anyway, it's broken in Jessie, even though I have Pommed installed , and Pbbuttonsd ( that is another PowerBook/iBook special keys deamon) uninstalled to avoid conflict… It launches , but displays nothing.

Voilà for my DockApps config…

Next, GNUStep install.