Run everything launcher

Figure 1

Of course, like every good desktop environment, Enlightenment has a “run dialog” that allows the user to run a command, without having to open up a terminal window.

The Everything Launcher is similar to GNOME Do, minus the ability to search for files. But by pressing the Alt-Esc combination a window (like that in Figure 1) will pop up allowing you to enter a command for launching. As you can see I have entered “claw” which instantly pops up both Claws Mail and clawsker. Both of these are applications. You can either click on one of the icons or finish the command and hit enter.

You can also click text and then copy whatever you have entered to the clipboard. Very handy, if you ask me.

But what if you want to make an icon or menu entry for an application? For that you have to (in E17 parlance) create a new application.

Creating new application

This actually isn’t creating a new application, but instead creates a launcher for the application, that can be added to a shelf or menu. Here’s how this is done.

Figure 2

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > New Application.
2. Fill out the basic information (The Application entry is the actual command for the application.)
3. Create an Icon for the application by clicking on the Icon tab and then entering the path to the icon in the field.
4. Add any options, if necessary.
5. Click OK.

You have now created an application. But where can you launch that application from? Let’s add it to the favorites menu. To do this, follow these steps:

Figure 3

1. Click Settings > All > Apps > Favorite Applications.
2. From this new window (see Figure 3) scroll up or down to find the new application you created.
3. Click on the application and then click Add.
4. Click OK to finish adding the application.

There is, of course, an easier way to do this. Once you have the application opened do the following:

Right-click the title bar of the application.

Select the application name and then either:

• Add to Favorites Menu
• Add to iBar.
• Create Keyboard Shortcut.

Figure 4

In order to create a Keyboard Shortcut do the following:

1. After you click Create Keyboard Shortcut the Keyboard Bindings window will open.
2. Click the keyboard shortcut combination you want to use.
3. Click on the Command entry under Launch.
4. Enter the command to be launched in the Action Params area.
5. Click OK.
6. Now test the keyboard shortcut.

If you make a mistake in the above steps, you can click the Escape key to get out of this.

Final thoughts

You will be hard pressed to find a desktop environment more flexible than E17. And with the help of tips like this, it becomes a very user-friendly desktop environment as well.

What is Ecomorph? Ecomorph is an OpenGL compositing manager that was created for the E17 desktop. Prior to this modules’ creation, E17 could not enjoy Compiz-like visual effects. Now, it can. Let’s take a look at how to get Ecomorph goodness with Bodhi Linux.

Installation

If you are using one of the latest releases of Bodhi Linux (0.1.7) you should already have Ecomorph installed. To find out if Ecomorph is one your desktop do the following:

1. Left click on the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Modules.
3. Clock on the System tab.
4. Scroll down until you see the Ecomorph listing.
5. If you see it listed, it’s installed. If there is a green dot on the right side of the Ecomorph entry, it is loaded.
6. If you do not see Ecomorph listed, it is not installed. If it is listed, but not loaded, select it and then click the Load button.

If, for whatever reason, Ecomorph is not installed I would highly recommend you not try to manually install it. I attempted this on a 0.1.4 installation and it was a miserable failure. There are dependencies that can not be met without serious work. So, if you are in this boat, backup your data and do a fresh install of the latest Bodhi Linux.

Configuring

Figure 1

Now it’s time for the configuration of Ecomorph. To get to the configuration panel left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu and click Settings > Ecomorph. In this settings window (see Figure 1) you control all aspects of Ecomorph (besides mouse and key bindings).

This panel is broken down into sections. You will certainly want to visit the General section first, as there are some crucial features to enable. Those of you who know Compiz well, you will be familiar with the Cube and the Shift switcher. To enable these items you must first do so in the General section.

Under Viewport Plugins you can enable both the Cube and Cube Rotate. Make sure they are checked and then click Apply. Under Switcher Plugins you can enable the switcher you want to use.

After you enable the plugins you can then scroll down to the individual plugin sections and configure the plugin. Although you will find most of the configuration options in Ecomorph, that you are available in Compiz, there are some that you will find missing. Most notably are the Skydome and Cube Caps for the Cube. But you can configure zoom while rotating as well as transparency.

Final thoughts

I am very happy to see Ecomorph finding its way to other distributions. For those that enjoy what Compiz brings to the desktop, the addition of Ecomorph to E17 could be considered a thing of beauty.

Menu tips

One of the features I like most about Enlightenment (that has been available since the early days) is the mouse menu. This menu allows you to left-click anywhere on the desktop to get a main menu where you can open applications, open configuration settings, etc. Let’s take a look at some cool things you can do for that menu.

Add Favorites

To open up applications you navigate through Applications and then into the sub-categories you have in the main menu. But for those applications you frequently use you can add them to a Favorites menu, so they are much quicker to access. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Apps entry.
4. Click on Favorites.
5. Scroll through the list of applications and, when you see one you want to add, select it and click the + button.
6. Click the OK button when finished.

Now when you open up the mouse menu you will see the Favorites menu entry, at the top, housing your favorite applications.

Shorten (or lengthen) application name entries

Figure 1

If you look into your menu you will notice the application names might look like those you see in Figure 1. For my taste, those menu entries are simply too long. Fortunately, it’s very easy to shorten them. Follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Menus entry.
4. Click on the Menu Settings button.
5. In the Display section select if you want to display the Name (the application name), the Generic name (the category the application belongs to), and/or the Comments (a comment about the application.
6. Click OK when you’re done.

For the shortest menu entries, just enable Name.

Focus follows mouse and Autoraise windows

I was weened on Linux when the Window Manager was King. Because of this I grew used to focus follows mouse and autoraise. Focus follows mouse just means that whatever window the mouse is in will have focus. That way you don’t have to click on the window to give it focus.

To enable Focus follows mouse, follow these steps:

1. Left-click the desktop to open the mouse menu.
2. Click Settings > Settings Panel.
3. Navigate to the Windows entry.
4. Click on the Window Focus button.
5. Select Window under mouse.
6. Click OK.

Now to enable Autoraise, follow these steps:

1. From the Settings Panel click the Windows entry.
2. Click on the Window Stacking button.
3. Select Raise windows on mouse over.
4. Click OK
5. Close the Settings panel.

Final thoughts

E17 has so many cool features, you could play around for hours and still only scratch the surface. We’ll come back and revisit this topic again, so you can enjoy E17 to its fullest.

Out of the box, some might say the E17 desktop on Bodhi is a bit lacking in the effects and eye candy department. Although that was my initial reaction, I knew my new desktop was but a few clicks away from having enough pizzazz to bring my desktop to life. So, I thought I would share those configurations.

Invisible shelves

Figure 1

By default, your E17 on Bodhi will have a solid shelf (panel) across the top (at least the Laptop configuration will). That shelf reminds me too much of a variation on the GNOME desktop, so I like to change it up (this is E17 after all, which is all about options.) Figure 1 illustrates what I am talking about. As you can see, the top shelf has been made “invisible” so the various applets appear to just sit on the desktop.

In order to make the “panel” portion of panels invisible do the following:

Figure 2

1. Right click one of the applets on the shelf and select Shelf NAME > Settings (Where NAME is the name of the name of the shelf in question.).
2. In the resulting window (see Figure 2) move to the Style tab.
3. Select Invisible.
4. Click OK.
5. The Shelf should now resemble what you saw in Figure 1.

Compositing

One of the best eye-candy features of E17 is the compositing. Not every video card will work with compositing, but if yours does, it’s worth turning on. In order to do this follow these steps:

1. Left-click on the desktop to open the main menu.
2. Select Settings > Modules.
3. In the resulting window move to the Look tab.
4. Click Composite and then Load.
5. Click Close.

Now you should be experiencing visual effects made possible by the built in compositor.

Themes

Figure 3

Of course you are going to want to theme your new installation and E17 won’t disappoint. You will find plenty of themes to download from the E17-Stuff. After you download a swell theme for your desktop, left-click on the desktop to bring up the main menu and click Settings > Theme. From the new window (see Figure 3). From within the theme window click the Import button, locate your theme, and add it to the Personal section. You can now select and apply your theme to see how it looks.

If you click on the Advanced button you can really fine tune the look of your theme by mixing and matching pieces of themes to other themes. Say, for instance, you like to borders of Theme A but all other elements of Theme B, you can use Theme B and then go to the Advanced properties and select the borders of Theme A and apply them.

Final thoughts

E17 is an outstanding desktop. Couple that with Ubuntu and you get a really nice, lightweight Linux distribution called Bodhi Linux. Although it might seem a bit plain out of the box, you can configure it to have as much eye candy as your heart desires.

You will find many distributions dedicated to Enlightenment. One of those is the new Bodhi Linux. This distribution offers the E17 desktop on top of Ubuntu 10.04, so it melds a lightweight desktop on top of an efficient operating system. As you can expect, this distro is lean and mean.

System requirements

Certainly this distribution would have some fairly low requirements. That assumption is exactly correct. The requirements are:

• 300mhz i386 Processor
• 128megs of RAM
• 1.5g HD space

Think that out of date machine you have sitting around can handle that?

Why yet another distribution?

This question is not always the easiest to answer. As there are already distributions dedicated to the Enlightenment desktop, one wonders why bother create another? The reasons the Bohdi developers set out to create yet another distribution are twofold:

• Enlightenment
• User choice

As you well know, Ubuntu will soon be making the switch to the Unity desktop. When this happens users will be happy to know they have a choice – they can go with what Canonical offers or they can opt to go a different route. For those that want to stick with Ubuntu, but aren’t happy with Unity…there is a choice and that choice is Bohdi and Ubuntu.

Features

• Ubuntu 10.04 core.
• Enlightenment E17 desktop.
• Dark and light themes.
• Kernel 2.6.35-22.
• Firefox 4 beta 10

And much more.

Why you should try Bodhi

If you have been looking for a distribution that focuses on a lightweight, feature-rich desktop that strays from the normal desktop metaphor, you need to give Bohdi a try. If you’re a fervent Ubuntu user but are unhappy with the options that will be available to you when 11.04 is released, you should give Bodhi a try. If you just want to experience something different – yes, you should give Bohdi a try.

It’s new, is it stable?

If you are concerned about stability, you should know that the melding of two very stable pieces of software (Ubuntu 10.04 and E17) should certainly result in a stable environment. I have to say, of the various Enlightenment-based distros I have tried over the years, Bohdi Linux is, by far, the most stable and usable. Even when Compositing is turned on, Bohdi still runs like a seasoned veteran distribution.

What does it look like?

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows a sample of the Bohdi Linux desktop (using the Light theme). As you can see it’s a very clean desktop with plenty of features (including the Linux pager, a handy clock and calendar widget, an included shelf and “notification area” (created by using a second shelf).

Final thoughts

If you are looking for a distribution to showcase the Enlightenment desktop environment, you can not go wrong with Bohdi Linux. With the foundation of Ubuntu 10.04 and E17, it’s made for speed, stability, and user-friendliness.

The only problem with E17 is the installation. Getting this desktop installed on some distributions is a nightmare at best. So when there is a distribution that ships with E17 as the default, I always give it a good look see. One of the newest options for this is PCLinuxOS – Enlightenment edition. I thought I would share my thoughts on this special distribution.

What’s included

Besides the ever-wonderful E17 desktop environment, you will enjoy the following on the PCLinuxOS E17 edition:

• Kernel 2.6.33.7-pclos6.bfs.
• Nvidia and ATI fglrx driver support.
• Multimedia playback support for many popular formats.
• Wireless support for many network devices.
• Printer support for many local and networked printer devices.
• Addlocale allows you to convert PCLinuxOS into over 60 languages.
• GetOpenOffice can install Open Office supporting over 100 languages.
• MyLiveCD allows you  to take a snapshot of  your installation and burn it to a LiveCD/DVD.
• PCLinuxOS-liveusb – allows you to install PCLinuxOS on a USB key disk.
• ark-4.5.3 – Archiving Client
• choqok-0.9.92 – Microblogging Program
• clementine-0.5.3 – Music Manager
• digikam-1.5.0 – Photo Client
• dolphin-4.5.3 – File Manager
• drakconfig-12.17 – Computer Control Center
• dropbox-0.7.110 – Online Backup Storage Program (2 gig free)
• firefox-3.6.12 – Web Browser (Chromium and Opera also available from repository)
• gimp-2.6.11 – Graphic Drawing Program
• gwenview-4.5.3 – Graphic Viewer Client
• k3b-2.0.1 – Burn CD/DVDs
• kcalc-4.5.3- Calculator
• kwrite-4.5.3 – Text Editor
• ksnapshot-4.5.3 – Capture Screenshots
• ktorrent-4.0.4 – Bitorrent Client
• liveusb-0.7.4 – Put PCLinuxOS on USB key disk (New on LiveCD)
• okular-4.5.3 – PDF Viewing Program
• nscd-2.10.1 -Caches name service
• pidgin-2.7.4 – Instant Messaging Program
• shorewall-4.4.11 – Firewall
• smb4k-0.10.9 – Samba Share Client
• synaptic-0.57.2 – Package Manager
• thunderbird-3.1.6 – Email Client
• tvtime-1.0.2 – Television Viewing Client (Requires a TV tuner)
• vlc-1.1.4.1 – Multimedia Video Program
• xchat-2.8.8 – IRC Chat Program

As you can see, oddly enough, PCLinuxOS E17 edition is heavily dependent upon KDE, as it is filled with KDE applications.

What you will not find, strangely enough, is an email client. You will also notice that PCLinuxOS E17 edition does not pre-install OpenOffice. You actually have to do this installation yourself. I have to admit I was a little shocked at the decision to not include a mail client and and office suite. Yes, KWrite is included, but why not add the entire KOffice suite so the distribution is complete?

What it looks like

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows what the default PCLinuxOS E17 desktop looks like. The only thing I have done is install The GIMP (in order to take a screenshot).

As you might expect, the desktop behaves very much in the way a standard E17 desktop would. The only thing missing (from my perspective) is the Ecomorph module. If the makers of this distribution want to take this to another level, they should consider adding that particular module to give it a broader appeal (with a great 3D compositing engine).

How it performs

Even using this distribution in “live form” you immediately feel that you are using a distribution built for speed and simplicity. What really surprised me was how stable the distribution was. With serious claims of HEAVY DEVELOPMENT you would think PCLinuxOS E17 would be more prone to bugs than it is. I have yet to come across one (other than the lack of an office suite and mail client – but you can’t really call that a “bug”).

Who should try it

If you are one of those that prefers an alternative desktop, or if you’ve been wanting to give E17 a try, this might be your best bet. Since PCLinuxOS is one of the most user-friendly distributions, you will get the Enlightenment experience with little to no headache.

But subversion isn’t always the easiest tool for the end user to get up to speed with. So, with the end user in mind, this article will attempt to explain how subversion can be used in the process of installing software on the Linux operating system.

When is subversion the right tool to use?

This is a fairly tricky question. There are two obvious reasons to use subversion:

Keeping archives of older versions: By nature, subversion is a version control system, so it handles this task perfectly.

Collaboration: If you are working on the development of an application with more than one person, then subversion is perfect for you as well. Using subversion this way allows developers to check out code, work on it, and check it back in.

And of course, you can use subversion to check out the latest version of code and then install said latest version.

How it all works

The first step in this is to install subversion itself. This is simple, as subversion will be found in your standard repository. To install open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo apt-get install subversion

or on Fedora like so:

yum install subversion

Once the software is installed you are ready to go.

Let’s assume you are wanting to check out the latest version of a piece of software. Let’s illustrate this with the Enlightenment E17 window manager/desktop environment. Now, as this is a fairly complex package, there are dependencies that must be resolved. Those dependencies can be resolved using your regular installation tool (like yum or apt-get). Those dependencies are:

• m4
• autoconf
• automake (1.7 or higher)
• cvs
• libtool
• pkg-config
• texinfo
• zlib
• libpng
• jpeg
• freetype2
• liblua (5.1 or higher)
• xorg-x11 or xfree86
• x11-libs
• dbus
• hal
• pam (required for desklock)

You might also want these optional dependencies:

• librsvg2
• inotify (linux only)
• curl
• openssl
• libungif
• libtiff
• gettext

Once you have all the dependencies met, you can then proceed with the subversion installation.

The first thing you have to do is check out and install all of the dependencies (that can not be installed via the normal means). These are all done using the subversion svn command. The basic usage of the command is:

svn co ADDRESS

Where ADDRESS is the actual link to the CVS repository. NOTE: co stands for check out. Now we are going to check out all of the dependencies and then install them all from CVS. to do this, issue the following commands (one at a time):

svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/eina eina-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/eet eet-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/evas evas-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/ecore ecore-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/efreet efreet-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/embryo embryo-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/edje edje-svn
svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/e_dbus e_dbus-svn

Each of the above commands will create a new directory. For example the first command will create the directory eina-svn within the directory from which the command is run. You will need to cd into each of these directories (one at a time of course) and then issue the following commands:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

After you have done this for all of the dependencies it’s time to check out and install the main software. This is done with the following:

svn co http://svn.enlightenment.org/svn/e/trunk/e e17-svn

Now it’s time to install. Change into the newly created e17-svn folder and issue the following commands:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

After a fairly lengthy time, Enlightenment E17 should then be installed on your machine. You should now be able to log out and log back in with E17.

Final thoughts

Installing with the help of subversion is actually quite a nice way of keeping on the bleeding edge of your software. And some software, like E17, can only be installed (on certain distributions) in this manner. I hope this has helped you to understand how useful and how easy subversion can be.

With many window managers you are stuck editing flat-text files to add or remove contents. This is certainly the case with E16.  Fortunately E17 has a very easy to use tool to edit the Favorites menu. The only hitch is knowing what tool to use and where to add the apps. Without understanding your tools and targets, this can get a bit tricky. That’s where Ghacks comes in. In this article you will learn how to add to your Favorites menu and configure your Main menu.

Difference between the menus

The first thing you must know is what menus you have to choose from. There are two primary menus in E17: The Main menu and the Favorites menu. The Main menu is the menu you see when you either click the “E” button on your main shelf or left-click any empty space on the desktop. This menu, as stated earlier, it not editable (unless you are willing to do some hacking of .c files). NOTE:  There is much discussion of this subject and hopefully a tool will be created to allow the editing of the Main menu.

The other menu is the Favorites menu. This menu is a user-configurable menu that allows you to easily add and remove applications. This menu is accessed by right-clicking an empty spot on the desktop.

Now, let’s see what we can do with these menus.

Main menu

Figure 1

The main menu is one of the many places where you can launch various applications. Although you can not add or remove applications/actions from this menu, you can configure the menu in a number of ways. The configuration of this menu is handled from within the Enlightenment Configuration window (see Figure 1).

When you open that window you might have to scroll to the right (using the right-pointing arrow) to find the “Menus” entry. Once that entry appears, click it to reveal the two options available to you: Menu Settings and Client List Menu. Click on the Menu Settings to reveal the options available.

When the Menu Settings window opens the first thing you want to do is click on the Advanced button to reveal the full set of options (see Figure 2). In this window you can set a few options. Most of these options really don’t appeal to too many users. You can configure the menu to include or not include both the Applications sub menu and the Favorites sub menu. You can also configure the following:

Figure 2

What to list in the menu: Name, Generic, Comment.

Autoscroll: Distance from from the edge of the screen before the menu needs to autoscroll.

Menu Scroll Speed: How quickly to scroll the menu.

Fast Mouse Move Threshold: What mouse speed is considered a fast move.

Click Drag Timeout: How much time between a mouse press and release that will keep the menu up.

That’s about it for the changes you can make to your Main Menu. Now let’s move on to the real fun.

Favorites Menu

The Favorites menu is a menu that gives you quick access to applications and actions. You might be asking yourself “Isn’t that what the iBar is for?” Yes it is. However, you do not want an iBar across the bottom of your screen filled to overflowing with application launchers. Eventually you would run out of room. To pick up that overflow you can use the Favorites menu. Or you can use the favorites menu to place only certain types of applications. Or you could even create a bunch entries that serve as quick launchers to favorite web sites.

Figure 3

To add applications to the Favorites menu you go back to the Menu section of the Settings window and select Favorites Menu. When you click that a new window will open up (see Figure 3) that allows you to search the listing of applications and add them to the Favorites. Just select the application you want to add and click the Add button. When you are done adding your applications, click OK button to apply the changes and dismiss the window.

As you can see I have added Firefox, Chrome, and Claws Mail to my favorites menu. These entries will show up when I left click the desktop. I can also include this favorites menu in the Main menu (as described earlier).

Say you want to add an entry to open up Firefox to Ghacks. To do this you would have to go to do the following:

• Go to the Settings tool,
• Click the Apps section.
• Select “New Application”.

Fill out the following:

• Name: Ghacks
• Executable: firefox http://www.ghacks.net
• Comment: Ghacks

You will also need to add an icon. You can navigate to /usr/share/pixmaps to find a custom icon for each link you create.

Final thoughts

It is my hopes that someone will eventually create a tool that will allow the user to really get in and edit the Main menu. Until then you can use the Favorites menu to give you some sense of flexibility with the E17 menu.

Another nice aspect is that there are plenty of themes available for the desktop. So with all of that said, let’s take a look at how to theme the E17 window manager.

Where to find themes

Before we go on it would be best to point out a couple of outstanding locations to find themes. There are two sites that house plenty of E17 eye candy (there used to be three main sites until Freshmeat dumped themes – BOO HISS!). Those sites are: Get-E and E17 Stuff. The latter has far more themes, but the former’s themes are much more interesting.

The files you are going to download are .edj files and contain every thing you need for your theme (including wallpaper). You can download them to any directory, so long as you have permission to access the directory. I would place them in a centralized location in your ~/ directory (like ~/Downloads). Once you have imported the theme you can them remove the .edj file from your directory.

Sift through these sites and download a few themes that you like.

The theme tool

Figure 1

If you open up your main menu in E17 (left click the mouse on a blank spot on your desktop) you will see the Settings menu. Click on that menu entry to open up the tool (see Figure 1) you will use to import and/or select your theme.

You will notice there are two radio buttons at the top left. Here you can switch from the system themes (pre-installed) or your personal themes (themes you have imported). When you import a theme you won’t have to make this switch.

With this tool open (and your themes downloaded) click on the Import button. When

Figure 2

you click this button a small window will open where you navigate around to locate theme you want to import. After you’ve located your theme click the OK button and you will see your theme instantly appear in the Personal listing of themes (see Figure 2). Select that them and then click the Apply button to make the change. The change in theme might seem to not happen at first. Give it a second or two and the change will magically happen.

Wallpaper

You can chose to either use your theme’s wallpaper or your own personal wallpaper. To make this change click on the Main menu and then on the Settings menu. In this you will see the Wallpaper entry. Click that to open up the Wallpaper tool (see Figure 3).

Figure 3

As you can see you can select Personal wallpaper (wallpaper you have downloaded), System wallpaper (default wallpaper installed with E17), or Theme wallpaper (wallpaper included with the them). Make your selection and click OK.

If you click the Advanced button it allows you to set which desktops the wallpaper will be assigned to.

Final thoughts

Themeing a desktop has never been so easy. With Enlightenment E17 your desktop can look fairly amazing with only a few clicks.

Enlightenment E17 is one of those very special desktops that has a foot in both the window manager and desktop environment arenas. It is, at the same time, both and one or the other. E17 is the natural progress of E16 which is a much more lean and simple window manager. The biggest difference is that E17 offers more in terms of traditional desktop metaphor. But just what does it have to offer? Let’s take a look.

Features

E17 has much to offer, including:

Menus: E17 has both a main and a root menu. The main window is what you would consider a “Start” menu. The root menu is a menu that appears when you click an empty space on the desktop.

Shelf: This is what you would call a panel in most parlance. The E17 desktop can hold multiple shelves which can be placed in one of twelve locations around the desktop.

Modules: You can load or unload modules as you need them.

Gadgets: You can add different gadgets to your desktop or your shelves.

Let’s take a look at some of these pieces.

Figure 1

As you can see, in Figure 1, the E17 desktop is one of the more elegant desktops available. In this image you see the main Shelf (bottom), the root menu (lower left mid section), Gimp main window (upper left mid section), a shaded Xterm window (upper right mid section), and icons that allow you to open the file manager in different directories (upper left).

The main piece you might wonder about is the Shelf. The Shelf is a point of interest because it is highly configurable as well as usable. Let’s take a look at how to configure the Shelf.

Shelf

The shelf that you see in Figure 1 contains a few pieces:

• Start Menu: Far left. This is another means of accessing the menu.
• Pager: Second from left. This is how to warp to other desktops.
• iBox: Third from left. This is often called the Window list in other desktops. It is where applications are minimized to.
• iBar: Forth from left. Add applications launchers to this tool.
• Gadgets: Last three icons. These are various applets that can be added to the Shelf.

Figure 2

You can configure this piece of the desktop by right clicking anywhere on the Shelf, which will bring up a new menu. From the right click menu you will see a submenu called Shelf. Click on that to reveal yet another submenu. Within this new submenu select Shelf Settings, which will open a new window. The Shelf Settings window will start out in Basic mode. Click the Advanced button to expand the contents of this window to show more options.

Figure 2 shows the advanced configuration for the Shelf. Most of this is fairly straight forward. You will, however, notice the Set Contents button. Click on this to reveal yet another window that will allow you to add and remove items to the Shelf.

iBar

You might assume that, from within the Set Contents button of the Shelf Settings window, you can add application launchers and such. You can’t. What you can add is gadgets to the Shelf. Yes the iBar is where you launch applications from but just because you add an iBar to your Shelf doesn’t mean there are any launchers there.

It’s a bit tricky at first. Eventually you get the hang of it.

Figure 3

In order to add an iBar with your desired launchers you have to go to another settings window. This window is found in the Settings Panel. To get to the Settings Panel you go to the root menu, click the Settings submenu, and then click the Settings Panel entry. When this opens you will see the Apps tab (see Figure 3). Click on the Apps tab where you will see an entry for the iBar. Click on that to reveal a new window which will allow you to add and remove applications to the iBar. Once you’ve added/removed your desired applications click OK and the iBar will have exactly what you want in it.

Themes

Adding Themes to E17 is very easy. Download a theme from one of the many E17 theme sites and save it onto your hard drive. Open up the root menu, click on the Settings submenu, and click on the Theme entry. This will open up a new window where you can import themes saved locally. Or you can click the Online button and conveniently select one of the many themes from the online list.

Final thoughts

I bet if you give E17 a chance you will find yourself going back to it more and more until it is your only desktop. I have switched away many times, but I always wind up going back to Enlightenment.

With that in mind…what exactly are we doing? For the most part this all is nothing more than “proof of concept stuff”, all of which was brought to fruition in Compiz. But for those who do not want to use Compiz, or are using a window manager that does not work with Compiz, this little “proof of concept” is the perfect trick for getting a bit more eye candy on your desktop.

What exactly is this?

There are two tools that must be used to gain transparency in a window manager: xcompmgr and transset. Both of these will be found in your Ubuntu (or Debian) repositories. Xcompmgr was explained in the article mentioned above. Transset, however, is a small application that does one thing – sets transparency on a single window. The only draw back is that you have to manually set the transparencies of each window.When a window closes, that has a transparency applied, the next time it opens the transparency will be gone.

Of course, before we get to using transset, we have to install it first. Open up your Add/Remove Software utility. Once this is open do a search for transset. When you find the resulting entry, select it, and apply the changes.

Once transset (and xcompmgr) is installed you are ready to go.

Basic usage

Figure 1

Using transset is simple. Have open the window you want to make transparent and open up a terminal window. Issue the command:

transset

from within the terminal window and you see a crosshair (as shown in Figure 1). Move that cross hair to the window you want to make transparent and click within that window. Instantly the window you clicked in will become transparent.

If you take a look at Figure 2 you will see

Figure 2

the difference when transset is applied. You can now see the background behind the Rhythmbox window.

Now you might be thinking this is nothing more than pseudo-transparency where the window manager is just constantly redrawing the background. That is not the case. With transset you are getting true transparency. The difference is that pseduo-transparency basically redraws the root window (what is covered by the wallpaper) behind the window as it moves. If that window moves over another window the image of the secondary window (the one behind the window being moved) is not seen through the transparency.

Figure 3

As you can see, in Figure 3, the secondary window is shown above the root window. What you are seeing is Rhythmbox, above The Gimp, above the root window. Real transparency.

Make it easy

No one wants to have to open a terminal window and issue a command just to make a window transparent. What you can do, instead, is create a menu entry for this. This way, when you want to make a window transparent, all you have to do is click the menu entry and then click the target window.

Figure 4

To make this menu entry in E17 you have to go to the menu and select Settings Panel from the Settings submenu. Once that is open click on the Apps tab and then select New Application from that. Fille out the necessary information (see Figure 4) and save the entry. Here’s the trick though, a simple menu entry won’t work in E17. You actually have to add the new menu entry to the iBar in order to make this work.

Figure 5

To add this to the iBar go back tot he Settings Panel and click iBar Applications. You will see a new window with two panes (see Figure 5). Scroll down until you find your transset entry. Select your transset entry and click Add. Once you have clicked Add click OK and the new iBar button will appear in your Shelf.

Now all you have to do is click your iBar button for transset and then click the window you want to become transparent.

Final thoughts

It’s not going to make you a more efficient worker. It’s not going to resolve all of your IT issues. But it will make your desktop cooler without hogging up resources like Compiz will. And it might also help you understand, even if a tiny fraction, how the desktop is laid out.

There are many reasons why you should give this distribution a try. One of the reasons is that even when using the Live CD you can get the full benefit of what this distribution is all about. Even using a three year old machine I didn’t feel like I was using a Live CD. It’s that well put together.

How Did They Do It?

It’s been known for a while that Compiz and Enlightenment wouldn’t work together. The developers have been asked over and over to roll Compiz support into Enlightenment. It wasn’t until Elive developer Thanatermesis put in the necessary time to develop a special version of Ecomorph which consists of a special version of Compiz and a special version of E17 that are able to work together. As of now the developers claim this is nothing more than a “hack” and in pre-alpha stages. What I have seen, however, is pretty stable. That doesn’t mean you should be putting this version of Elive on your production machines. This version should be going on a machine that can be wiped clean whenever you choose. But you should definitely put it on something…it’s that cool.

What It Contains

Upon first glance of this distribution you would think you using E17 with maybe a few extra applets on the desktop. That is not the case. The minute you hit Ctrl-Alt with a left mouse click you will see that famous 3D cube brought to the desktop care of Compiz. A little more digging and you will find some rather interesting (and very alpha released) video applications as well as some spiffy configuration tools.

There was one effect with this desktop that really caught me by surprise. When you close a window the window folds into a paper airplane and flys away. Useful? Not really. Impressive? Very.

Graphic Requirements

Obviously this is one of the first questions you will have to ask. On the site they highly recommend an NVidia card. I ran the LiveCD on an NVidia 6800 GT and it was smooth as silk.

Have a Look

There is a great video on Youtube that shows off the Elive Compize release. Take a look here. In this video you will notice Elive Compiz running on an Eee PC. You can use the fantastic UNetBootin tool to install Elive Compiz onto a USB drive and get it working on an Eee PC.

Final Thoughts

If you are looking for a Debian-based distribution that takes the PC desktop to heights you have never experienced, Elive Compize is the Live CD for you. Just remember, while this is in such early stages, to not run this on a production machine.