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Bwb desktop environment

Note

When opening Bwb in a browser window, Bwb will not be maximized, and a file explorer will be open, too. To maximize Bwb, simply close or minimize the file explorer, and maximize the Bwb window on the desktop displayed in the browser window.

The following video will illustrate the desktop environment in the Bwb. In particular, you can minimize and re-size the Bwb window. The Bwb window also includes scroll bars. You will also learn how to manage files, open a browser and quit the container. You will also be introduced to built-in utilities in the Bwb environment, including right-click, starting a terminal, and using a text editor.

Resize Bwb window - Automatically resizing the Bwb window in the browser requires editing the url in the address bar. If you're working on a workflow with changes, save the changes first as resizing will cause Bwb to reset.

The current url should be something like this: http://example_address/vnc.html?autoconnect=1

Edit the address to http://example_address/?auto and press Enter. After a few seconds, Bwb will reload at the current size of your browser window.

Minimize/Maximize - All open windows’ taskbar icons span the entire bottom of the Bwb interface. To maximize the window, click the long taskbar icon corresponding to your working window. Minimization can be performed by clicking the dash button in the upper-right corner of the Bwb window. Minimization can also be performed by clicking the long taskbar button at the bottom right of the screen, clicking this button again will maximize the Bwb window.

Minimize Bwb window

Maximize Bwb window

Switch workspaces - In the bottom left corner of the Bwb workspace there will initially be text of “Workspace 1” with arrows on either side of the text. Clicking either of these arrows will move the increment or decrement the workspace by 1 and switch the contents of the workspace window.

Right-click menu - To access additional applications from the Bwb desktop environment, right-click the Bwb desktop environment and not the open Bwb window (either minimize the window or select a new workspace). When right clicking, the following menu will appear:

Bwb right-click menu

The following named menu items can be selected to perform different tasks in the desktop environment.

  • Bwb: Opens a new Bwb window, can be helpful if accidentally closing the initial Bwb window.
  • Files: Is a file explorer that can be used to browse the files in the current instance of Bwb.
  • Terminal: Can be used to enter Linux commands for manipulating the environment.
  • geany: A simple text editor that can be used to edit files on the Bwb instance.
  • firefox: Opens a Firefox browser window.
  • QUIT Container: Prompts with a window to shut down the container.

NOTE

After quitting the container, re-starting Bwb requires you to enter a command from the GitPod terminal tab. This command is entered once the terminal prompt has returned after Bwb has shut down. The command to enter:

./restart_bwb

Entering this command will restart Bwb on the same GitPod instance. Bwb can then be accessed from the ports tab, just like before.

The other menu items not mentioned are more advanced features that will be explained in later tutorials.