Elive Talk

[weekend warrior]

For anyone interested in the Enlightenment (http://www.enlightenment.org/) window manager/DE, here's the 2nd release of Elive, a LiveCD based on Morphix (Knoppix/Debian) with Enlightenment DR17. I tried the first Elive months ago and it was ok, a few things were broken, probably more due to where DR17 was at the time. Maybe this one will be better. I'm on the torrent right now, getting average d/l speed.

Here you go
http://www.elive.xasein.com/downloads/elive-0.3.iso.torrent

[sapo]

it was already posted yesterday

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=61155

[weekend warrior]

http://freeweb.siol.net/zubi/smilies/oops.gif So it was, thanks sapo - close please.

[jvictor]

Hi,

Has anyone tried elive ? Its enlightenment + Debian. The UI looks pretty cool, as good or even better than Mac ; and with all that gfx and eye-candy its lightning fast !

Another v good thing they have done is that Multimedia works "OUT_OF_THE_BOX". DVDs MP3s ..u name it it works fine without any fidlling.

It also comes with pre configured pkgs that are used normally like gnomebaker etc. I must say this is one distro to be watched for in the future ! =D>

[nalmeth]

oops

[nalmeth]

I've tried the previous version, and the version before that.

I liked the look the did with the first version I tried, the control center was awesome + futuristic. What I love about enlightenment.

Newer version had it changed, but things were more stable.

All in all it's a fun liveCD, you should try it.

I just downloaded new version, but haven't burnt it yet.

[Johnsie]

Thanks. .. I might add that to my collection of live cd'. It's always nice to hear people recommending good ones :-)

[jc87]

I already tested it about one/two months ago.

Is a nice live-cd , brings both enlightment 16 and 17 , drivers both free as proprietary , a nice pack of apps , and even some goodies like a IBM movie about Linux.

But is just not Ubuntu , and fails in several areas of hardware detection!

In conclusion , great for play with enlightment , sucks for use.

[RAV TUX]

edit ;)

[jvictor]

Hi Yozef,
Sad to hear that , but for me it was breeze of an install. It went perfectly fine and am running it now. Yea it may not be as streamlined as Ubuntu and I do agree there are some rough edges, but in general it looks gr8 , just bcoz things work out of the box. Specially multimedia, u neednt hunt for drivers and get gr8 display resolutions on your gfx cards.

Another thing I found is that its not plagues by the DHCP problem Ubuntu has.

Im just weighing it out and can comment on the flips only after a week or so.

So far so good , at least 4 me.

[_simon_]

I haven't tried after reading this I prefer not to:


I would suggest skipping Elive for now!

I don't know about anyone else but before I try a new distro I copy my whole home directory to DVD!

[RAV TUX]

I don't know about anyone else but before I try a new distro I copy my whole home directory to DVD!

tell it to the guy who made the post: Simon Gray

at the link above.

@ monkeyblog.org (http://monkeyblog.org/)


Hi Yozef,
Sad to hear that , but for me it was breeze of an install.


Don't be sad for me, be sad for the guy it happened to:

Simon Gray.

(see above)

[nalmeth]

This one person's experience stopped you from even trying the liveCD?
You don't have to install..

[RAV TUX]

This one person's experience stopped you from even trying the liveCD?
You don't have to install..

good point; perhaps I will give it a spin, but later.

[rai4shu2]

Sounds like the installer needs a little work. :p

How many times do people need to be told: backup backup backup your data?

[Wallakoala]

What happened to Simon Gray is not something only with that specific distro. I have heard about (and seen) things like this happen all the time.

Windows did this to me (not kidding).

My friend was trying to install xubuntu onto an external drive (don't ask me why), and it did it to him. It wiped his ubuntu installation on his main hard drive and then wiped the partition on the external drive which had his backup.
Ironically, the only thing left was windows.

So even windows and ubuntu can do this to you. It is a very sad thing when it does happen, so I would say that whenever you are installing a distro/os onto another drive, unplug all other drives. But if you are just installing to another partition, then, good luck. I might just be saying this because I have experienced this more than most people, but as they say: "Better safe then sorry"

[jason.b.c]

My friend was trying to install xubuntu onto an external drive (don't ask me why),

WHY..??

:-D

[bodhi.zazen]

The new ELive (Beta) is an improvement from previous versions. Hardware detection has improved.

I have ELive installed on a HD and have been running for almost what 6 weeks.

First it is a Beta and more then most there are some quirks. Now that hardware detection has improved most of these are minor.

The interface (Enlightenment) is faster and less resource intensive then KDE, Gnome, or XFCE and there is a noticeable improvement in performance with both time from log in to desktop as well as with applications.

The base system is Debian testing which is nice as there are large repositories available post install and administration/configuration is very similar to Ubuntu.

All in all ELive is very promising. If the live CD works a HD install should also work well.

Remember it is a Beta so expect some bugs. I find the bugs were no worse then draper Beta and after updating to Ubuntu 6.06 LTS lost my Ubuntu system so Elive does not seem all that bad. If bugs are not acceptable, wait until the final release becomes available.

Last, as has been mentioned, back up your data. My advice is to create a data partition. The only things I keep in my home directory are configuration files (.bashrc, .fluxbox, etc). If I lost the OS I do not lose data and can back up the data partiton to CD.

Another option is to run a /home partition. The problem I have with this is I run multiple OS and the configuration files are not always compatible, even .kde files can vary between distros. Thus it is easier to give each distro it's own /home for configuration files and keep data (pictures, MP3, etc) in the data partition.

[Jucato]

I was able to use Elive and install it on my system without encountering and problems.

I liked E17. Too bad the CD only installs E16. I love the Control Panel.

It's a good "eye-candy" distro/WM, but for me it just stops there. Also, I find Xubuntu faster than E17.

[bodhi.zazen]

Fenyx:

Elive installs both E16 and E17. E16 is the "stable" version and is thus the system default.

To use E17 change to E17 at the log-in screen

At the log in screen- There is a small icon on the lower left labled Ex where x is either 16 or 17. click on it and change to E17 -> log in -> welcome to E17.

On my hardware E17 is much faster then XFCE, may be there is something wrong with my XFCE setup.

[Jucato]

Fenyx:

Elive installs both E16 and E17. E16 is the "stable" version and is thus the system default.

To use E17 change to E17 at the log-in screen

At the log in screen- There is a small icon on the lower left labled Ex where x is either 16 or 17. click on it and change to E17 -> log in -> welcome to E17.

On my hardware E17 is much faster then XFCE, may be there is something wrong with my XFCE setup.

I see, probably it's a more recent version of Elive? The last one I used didn't have the option to install E17, even if you log in to E17. Thanks for the info. I might try it once I get around to downloading the ISO (again...) :D

[bodhi.zazen]

There is a new Beta version released about 6 weeks ago.

The last 2 versions of ELive have installed E17 by default. My experience has been Enlightenment, as a WM, is unique and it takes some adjustment.

I was confused (disappointed) with the same issue at first, as have several reviewers of ELive, but E17 is in fact present, it is just now obvious.

[angkor]

I haven't tried after reading this I prefer not to:


I would suggest skipping Elive for now!

I'd suggest Simon Gray should start making backups once in a while....;)

Elive is fun!

[Sye d'Burns]

I've tried the elive CD and I must say... it's awesome! It really, really, really is.

I haven't worked up the nerve to install it outside of a vm because of simon's trouble but man, it rocks!

[bodhi.zazen]

Welcome to ELive !!

Enjoy.

If you update you need to do so from a command line

aptitude update
aptitude -o APT::Force-LoopBreak=true dist-upgrade

It may break X, but it has worked on my system.

[Wallakoala]

WHY..??

:-D

If I knew, I would tell you.

[newman]

I downloaded the live cd last night and gave it a spin just to see for myself what all the fuss was about. All in all I'm not too crazy about it. It has a kind of "cool" factor, but that's about it. Looks more like a toy than a professional OS. I like the simple gnome layout of ubuntu - it's much easier to navigate. I guess that's the beauty of Linux - choices! :cool:

[bodhi.zazen]

newman:

FYI the underlying OS is Debian, which is at least as professional as Ubuntu. Debian supports a wider range of hardware then Ubuntu and has been around for much longer (Ubuntu is in fact derived from Debian). ELive has had problems with hardware detection.

Enlightenment is a window manager (WM), not an operating system (OS).

Enlightenment is readily available in Ubuntu (or in fact any version of Linux):

Apt-get/aptitude/synatpic install Enlightenment.

I believe you will get E16 (E17 is on ELive and is Beta testing for E17, a WM not a Beta test for any OS). E16 comes with a wider range of themes then ELive and many of them are professional enough.

Enlightenment will run "on-top" or along side with KDE or Gnome if you prefer your usual WM.

As a window manager ELive (E17) is still in Beta testing and no claims regarding "professional" have been made. Specifically, if you beta test DO NOT expect to run a "professional" OS/window manager. Expect to see some bugs. Please compair apples-to-apples, Beta to Beta, etc.

In addition you need to define "professional". On a professional server, for example, do not expect to see Gnome, let alone X or any type of a GUI. In addition many "professional" Unix/Linux OS have many security features that are not available in Ubuntu. Take a look at Red Hat, SUSE (not Open SUSE), Solaris (not Open Solaris), or a non-BSD unix and you will see what I mean.

The theme, or look and feel, of any WM, including Enlightenment, is a matter of choice and can easily be changed. Once (if) Enlightenment finishes with Beta testing expect a number of themes, both entertaining and professional (Enlightenment has not been known for rapid development). As above, E16, if installed onto Ubuntu, comes with a wider range of themes.

With all this said, it takes a while for Enlightenment to grow on you, esp if you come from a windows/KDE/Gnome viewpoint. Read the documentation (you will get an intro to the WM the first time you run it from a HD install, Elive or Ubuntu or any LInux install). Try it for a week and re-evaluate. If you install to a HD you should be impressed with speed as it is faster and less resource intensive then KDE or Gnome (at least on my system which is not the latest/greatest/or fastest).

Most people interested in Enlightenment are interested in the raw speed. Enlightenment thus has a lot of "eye candy" (as does KDE), but is not a resource intensive.

FYI there are additional styles/themes available in Enlightenment. If you want to see a very fast distro using Enlightenment try AUSTRUMI:

http://cyti.latgola.lv/ruuni/index_en.html

This is a light and very fast distro. Very cool. Uses Enlightenment with a different theme. Runs in RAM -> very fast "Live".

Since Enlightenment is a Beta, however, it is not easy to download and install various themes as of yet.

[RAV TUX]

edit ;)

[RAV TUX]

Dreamlinux also has video tutorials:

VÍDEO TUTORIALS ( XVID )

http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/imagens/opcoesdeboot.jpg (http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/downloads/diversos/xfcevideos/grub1.avi) Boot screen how-to
http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/imagens/escolhendonvidia.jpg (http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/downloads/diversos/xfcevideos/grub2.avi) Choosing Nvidia Driver on boot
http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/imagens/conhecendo.jpg (http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/downloads/diversos/xfcevideos/interface_demo.avi) XFCE desktop resources
http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/imagens/gerenciando.jpg (http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/downloads/diversos/xfcevideos/gerenciador_demo.avi) Make directories,erasing, etc
http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/english/imagens/usandoaplic.jpg (http://www.dreamlinux.com.br/downloads/diversos/xfcevideos/programas_demo.avi) Using applications

[bodhi.zazen]

Yozef:

I downloaded Dream Linux, Studio Edition.

By default it boots to XFCE as a Window manager with ROX for Desktop icons.

Enlightenment (E17) is available in the Apt-sources, but i did not download. How is E17 on Dream? How does it compare to ELive?.

I would think Dream and ELive have have the same risk as far as booting.

ROX is also very nice. The cool thing about ROX is it works with multiple windows managers.

Currently I am running Zenwalk with Fluxbox and ROX as my desktop/windows manager. Very fast. Very cool.

Time from log-in to desktop: KDE/Gnome- 20-30 seconds. Fluxbox with ROX desktop 1 second.

Zenwalk is a medium weight distro based on Slackware. Not a full featured as Ubuntu, but easier in some ways as I can install software onto a lighter base.

[pulver]

yozef.. uhm wtf.. if dreamlinux had enlightenment17 working out of the box then you could start comparing, who cares if it's in the repos or not. there are a lot of live cd distros out there why not spam them all in this thread - blah blah I haven't tried elive yet but I recommend you try distro B because it's simply the most awesome linux distro I have seen yet blah blah blah. Btw, I guess you can install xfce and whatnot in elive without! installing to harddrive (haven't tried b/q don't want xfce) or remaster a new cd - are you saying that you could do this the other way around in your dreamy distro with e17??? (btw. easy remastering is nice but other livecd distros have had tools for that for ages). your post is crap, basically. ;)

[bodhi.zazen]

pulver:

First, Who appointed you the moderator of this thread?

Second, Do you have any comments relevant to ELive or Enlightenment you would like to add...... Your comments seem a little off the subject.

[pulver]

First, Who appointed you the moderator of this thread?


First, I'm just trolling as everybody else here. Are you saying there are moderators on these boards? :p

Second, Do you have any comments relevant to ELive or Enlightenment you would like to add...... Your comments seem a little off the subject.

Second, everything here is off topic, but my question was valid. Elive can do program installs in livecd mode. nuf said.

[UJM]

I've been looking to try enlightenment, it's available as a package download on my current distro "Puppy Linux" ... tried it but couldn't get it started, still experimental, also downloaded the AUSTRUMI live cd which comes with enlightenment as the default WM, 2 things about that, first it failed to auto -detect my ethernet card, but what's worse is that the Language used is Latvian which made configuring anything impossible. So now I will give the ELive distro a try ... I shall return here soon!

[UJM]

Well I've played around with the latest "Elive-unstable-cvs20060526.iso" and will say that it's quite simply the most beautiful looking linux distro I've come across. This unstable version looks better than the stable version "Elive_0.4.2.iso", there's no contest! Using E16 or E17 with the default theme the desktop looks drop dead gorgeous, there's also the option of a darker night theme, whatever you choose, in terms of looks you will not be disappointed, and the Elive control panel not only looks good but makes configuration a breeze. That's the good news, the bad news is that my ethernet card was not discovered by the Live CD, so no internet. Now probably with a little more time I could have got it going but initially, both DHCP, and entering static I.P details manually failed to get an internet connection. One other thing that's really disturbing is this.... I set-up a 5gig linux partition and a 500MB swap with the intention of a hard disk install, using the Elive installation wizard you first choose the root partition and the file type, no problem I choose the 5gig partition /dev/hda2 but then your prompted for a boot partition and the only option available is /dev/hda1 which is my Windows partition, now this is normally where you install either GRUB or LILO for a dual boot system, but the next screen you see is "This Partition Will Be Erased" ....NO THANKS. I can see how that guy mentioned in an earlier post wiped out years of work with a single mouse click. The Elive-unstable-cvs20060526 hd installer needs a re-think.

[bodhi.zazen]

UJM:

First the AUSTRUMI live CD. First, you can change the language to English from the pull down menu with a single click. Second, I had the same problem with the Internet connection at boot. Again, there is an option in the menu to configure your connection. Worked without any problem. The nice thing about AUSTRUMI is the small size and speed.

Second, ELive. I was able to install to my HD without any problem. There must have been an option to continue without a boot partition (because I do not use one and I did not wipe out any of my partitions). It sounds as if you have three partitions (Windows, Linux, and Swap) so the option of /dev/hda as a boot partition is "standard" behavior for most instillation CD's and again would not be unique to ELive.

I would caution you that in general your issues regarding instillation of ELive and wiping partitions is true with most install disks and not unique in any way to ELive. BE CAREFUL or buy a second HD (they are not that expensive).

Morale of the story: BACK UP YOUR DATA.

I have been using ELive for ? 6 weeks and have been happy with it.

[3rdalbum]

I use Enlightenment E16 on my old computer, and it looks good even though it's a bit Mid-90s. Right now I'm using the Star Trek theme for it - geez that's a good one!

I've seen screenshots of E17 and they really look good. I want to download Elive. It's not uncommon for Live CDs to have bad installers - many have installation scripts that the author actually doesn't recommend using.

[UJM]

1. I did not see the english option when I tried AUSTRUMI, that's my own stupidity, I may give AUSTRUMI another try ... thanks.

2. Regarding elive hd install this is my set-up.

/dev/hda1 = WINXP
/dev/hda2 = linux partition 5gig
/dev/hda5 = linux swap 500MB

and this is what takes place on a hd install

wizard: use Gparted,
> no

wizard: select partition for root
> /dev/hda2

wizard: select file system, recommended xfs
> ok

wizard: you need partion of type "boot"
(at this point there is no other option only /dev/hda1)
> ok

wizard: all data on /dev/hda1 will be erased .... continue?

>hell no! at this stage I closed the wizard window, but if you click "cancel" instead of closing the wizard it will continue with ....

wizard: would you like to set-up a home directory
> no

wizard: elive will now be installed to /dev/hda2 ...continue?
> yes

wizard: do you want to install GRUB bootloader to MBR (recommended)
> yes

wizard elive installation complete!

Now when you re-boot and grub loads up you will find that your Windows partition is not listed and can't be booted. I had Acronis installed so it was easy to recover the MBR, my advise is proceed with caution if your gonna install the unstable version.

[bodhi.zazen]

UJM:

I am not trying to harp on you, but again your issues are not in any way unique to ELive or the fact it is Beta software. I only mention this to you so you do not run into problems with other distro's.

I am actually posting from ELive now and can attest it is stable and works well.

I think the problem you are having may be with your use of XFS (rather then ELive).

I am no expert in GRUB, but apparently GRUB can not (or has difficulty with) booting a XFS partition directly. It will boot the partition if you use a /boot partition, the boot partition is typically Ext2 (journaled FS are larger and the boot partition does not need to be journeled). Thus you will need an additional /boot partition to use XFS with ANY DISTRO. (I do not use XFS and have already told you more then I know).

You will have the same problem with ANY distro with your current partition table. It you want to use XFS add a 500 MB partition to serve as boot (ie hda5 = 4.5 GB, hda6 = 500 MB).

I, and others, have had trouble with GParted and thus I would use cfdisk to prepare your partitions prior to booting/installing. Gparted may (will almost certainly) re-number your partitions and you will then have to use cfdisk to fix the problem, so it is easier to start with cfdisk (you will not be able to fix the problem if you do not know your partition table).

You may, of course, install ELive (or any other distro) using Ext2, Ext3, or Reiser FS (with your current partitions) and you should have no problems.

To dual boot you need to install GRUB to your MBR and configure GRUB (or use a boot CD or Floppy).

Open /boot/grub/menu.1st with any editor (I use vi personally, but you may want to use nano)

Add the following lines to boot windows:

title Windows XP
rootnoverify (hd0,0)
chainloader +1
makeactive

Here is a reference RE: GRUB

http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-mini/Multiboot-with-GRUB.html

I suggest you make a GRUB floppy from which you can easily boot Windows, Linux, BSD.

Although ELive is a Beta, it is not unstable.

The biggest problem with ELive has been hardware detection. On some systems the live CD will not boot, and thus can not be installed.

The other reason it is Beta is because of E17 (Enlightenment version 17), which is a window manager (NOT AN OS) and is in Beta testing. ELive also installs E16 (Enlightenment version 16) which is stable. Other then the window manager ELive, as an OS, is Debian Etch (testing). Thus ELive serves as an easy Debian testing (Etch) install (much easier then the Debian install CD by the way).

Other then hardware detection problems, I am not aware of stability problems with ELive.

You can install E16 onto Ubuntu, or almost any distro, from the repositories but it (Enlightenment) not come with very nice default configurations (eye candy). You can, of course, download and install alternate themes, but I think this is a pain in the a@@ and it is easier to start with ELive.

Lastly, what is the advantage of ELive or Enlightenment you ask? In a nut shell, speed. KDE, GNOME, and to some extent XFCE are resource intensive programs. There are several alternates such as ROX, Fluxbox, IceWM, and others. Enlightenment has a lot of eye candy and runs fast (less resource intense).


If you want to see alternate WM in action try Puppy Linux, DSL, or AUSTRUMI.

Last, If you are interested in a fast, bare bones system try Zenwalk. A Live CD was just released so you may try. Default WM= XFCE. I do not think you can install from the Live CD. After installation you can easily install Fluxbox or KDE.

http://www.zenwalk.org/

http://www.zenwalk.org/modules/news/article.php?storyid=9

I personally have been using Zenwalk as my primary OS for 1 month now. I does lack a few creature comforts, but it is fast and does all the basics. It was easy to configure nVidia dual monitors for example.

Enjoy

[UJM]

no you're not harping ... I only see good advice & information in your posts so many thanks for that. The eLive hd install wizard makes a specific file system recommendation for the root partion, there are all the usual choices available but they do tip xfs, so I'm wondering why the devs would recommend xfs and then pack it with GRUB if the two don't play nice together. All my partitions were made with Acronis Disk Director prior to the hd install, I've never used Gparted. I've bookmarked your link for configuring grub, thanks. Yes, the eLive site specifically warns users that this version is still in development and may contain bugs, that has never put me off trying out new stuff, my system is well backed up. I was a Ubuntu user when that distro was first introduced a few years back as you can see, I joined this forum back in 2004, at that time Ubuntu was slowly climbing up the ranks on Distrowatch ... now it's one of the most popular distros around, I 've already tried the Ubuntu E17 combination as detailed in this thread ... http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=97199&highlight=E17
it works OK, but I prefer the look in eLive. Personally I have given up using any of the full blown distros, now I'm only using small fast distros, and as I said earlier, my all time fav distro at present is Puppy Linux ... it's hellishly ugly compared to eLive, but it's superfast, runs totally in RAM, once loaded you can remove the live CD and use the drive for whatever, when you finish a Puppy session the live CD lets you save all your settings back onto the CD which is pretty unique for any distro, there are various Puppy ISO's available, including a barebones option that lets you specify your own custom packs. All versions install to hd with no problems, Puppy Linux with Firefox or Opera weigh in at a mere 68MB.

so many distros ... so little time!

;)

[bodhi.zazen]

UJM:

I am also interested in small fast distros. I have looked at puppy, but as I reecall I could not install applications (like say Fluxbox or nVidia drovers) from source.

There is a version of Puppu that runs XFCE:

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/SimplePup.

I ran SimplePup for a while, ut it seemed dot pup or bust.

Is there a version of Puppy you advise?

DSL was interesting, but again small and limited applications.

Have you tried dyne:bolic ? Interesting distro as well.

[UJM]

I'm using the puppy-2.00-opera.iso because I like the opera browser, the newest puppy is the 2.01-seamonkey.iso which uses the mozilla browser, or you can install the latest firefox browser. There's a choice of nvidia drivers for either new or old graphics cards, a choice between xvesa or xorg servers, a choice of 3 windows managers default is FVWM-95 you also have IceWM & JWM. Fluxbox is available as a dotpup package, it installs easily, also E16 is available but it does not look as nice as eLive's version, puppy linux is the fastest distro I've tried, everything opens instantly, there's very little lag.

http://www.puppyos.com/

http://puppylinux.org/wikka/PuppyLinuxMainPage

[RAV TUX]

I have decided to start a series of threads specifically for technical help for other Distros...the Distro is listed in the thread title. This is primarily for Ubuntu users who test or use other distros and feel most comfortable seeking help in our own community. In no way does this superceed the help you should also be getting from the perspective Distro., in fact I encourage you to be as active in their forums as you are here and post ideas, knowledge and solutions here to provide a reference point to share, reference links are encouraged.

***Elive Tech Talk***

organizing a bit these threads are merged:

http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=61312
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=231274
http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=201629

[baldy1324]

if your so interested in enlightenment just use debian not ubuntu and add elive's repositories or edevelop's repositories which are for debian sid.
thats what i use

[bodhi.zazen]

Err... Elive is the same thing and an easier install.

[DJiNN]

Err... Elive is the same thing and an easier install.

Hmmm, i've just downloaded the latest beta (Just because it looked interesting & it's been about a year since i tried the last one) but it just won't boot at all..... just sits there & hangs. I've tried a few different settings but to no avail. No worries, just wondered if anyone else had similar problems. :) If it's as good as the last release i tried, then it's sure to be excellent! (Of course, i'm patiently waiting for "Fluxbuntu".... that's going to take precedence over most everything else at the moment) :)

[bodhi.zazen]

Hmmm, i've just downloaded the latest beta (Just because it looked interesting & it's been about a year since i tried the last one) but it just won't boot at all..... just sits there & hangs. I've tried a few different settings but to no avail. No worries, just wondered if anyone else had similar problems. :) If it's as good as the last release i tried, then it's sure to be excellent! (Of course, i'm patiently waiting for "Fluxbuntu".... that's going to take precedence over most everything else at the moment) :)
Hardware detection is where ELive is most lacking. I would "give up" on Elive for now.

If you would like, install Debian testing -> Enlightenment as above.

Enlightenment is available on almost any distro, Zenwalk would be hard. You can install Enlightenment in Ubuntu.

E17 in Ubuntu (http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=20216)

[DJiNN]

Hardware detection is where ELive is most lacking. I would "give up" on Elive for now.

Indeed, i shall..... after i finally got it running, it was worth a look, but that's where i leave it..... i have plenty of other things to keep me busy at the moment. ;)

If you would like, install Debian testing -> Enlightenment as above.

Enlightenment is available on almost any distro, Zenwalk would be hard. You can install Enlightenment in Ubuntu.

I did install the enlightenment package that was put together fro Zen, but it did cause problems, and wouldn't boot into enlightenment at all, so i removed it fairly sharpish..... I think i'll leave that alone for now as well, and just deal with what i've got..... and wait for Fluxbuntu of course. :)

[nalmeth]

::Rehashing older thread::

Their most recent beta release is EXCELLENT

I have one liveCD that I use regularily when I'm at work (IT guy wouldn't appreciate if I went any further), and that CD has been Elive the last week.

SLICK SLICK SLICK

I love being asked what kind of system theme I want, and both E16 and E17 are well laid out.

[Minyaliel]

I'm in love. This distro is just too pretty. And it is fast, does what it's told, is not bloated, but rather is very original in its DE approach and it seems to do everything you might ever want to do completely out of the box. Wow. I'm stunned. Now, if I could just figure out exactly how to install it to my HD...

Anyone else tried it? Your opinions, please! =)

[GStubbs43]

I haven't tried it yet, but does it come with enlightment 16 or 17?

[Minyaliel]

Both; E17 is truly amazing. 16 is the default, though, for some strange reason.

[GStubbs43]

Probably because (I think) Elive Revolution is Debian Stable, and E17 is only in alpha/beta. I'll probably try a live cd sometime soon, it looks nice.

[Onyros]

I am impressed with Elive Revolution. I've only "played" around with it for a couple of hours, but everything seems very well integrated, and it's too snappy for a Live CD.

The Elive Panel throws me off a bit but, other than that, I think they've done a great job on Revolution. I just believe their marketing strategy is a big shot in the foot, and the fact most people don't have easy access/mirrors of their iso is what's keeping it behind in terms of popularity. Otherwise, it has all the tools to succeed.

[Psquared]

Its way down the list on distrowatch for this reason. They want $ or you get a slow server and hours to download - with errors. (they tell you that upfront on the website)

If $5 or $10 will get a solid download I'm prepared to pay that. More than that and I'll just do it myself from cvs.

[arox]

There's always Linux Tracker

[RAV TUX]

I'm in love. This distro is just too pretty. And it is fast, does what it's told, is not bloated, but rather is very original in its DE approach and it seems to do everything you might ever want to do completely out of the box. Wow. I'm stunned. Now, if I could just figure out exactly how to install it to my HD...

Anyone else tried it? Your opinions, please! =)

I tried an older version of Elive, which I was disappointed in but I do like that Elive is based on Morphix>Knoppix>Debian

I'll have to give it a spin, again.

[Psquared]

Anyone have any experience dual booting Elive and XP? I have two partitions on my harddrive. Hda1 is XP and Hda3 is Mandriva - which I dislike. I'd like to load Elive on Hda3 to replace Mandriva, but Elive does not use Grub. It uses "Entrance" so I am wondering if it has the same capability to pickup my existing XP install. Also, will the Elive installer reformat Hda3. Mandriva uses reiserfs. I have Partition magic but if I use that to erase the existing Linux install then I go through all the MBR problems which I would like to avoid. Can I just skip right through that and use the Elive installer and dual boot XP using "Entrance?"

[arox]

Entrance is a login manager, not bootloader

[Psquared]

Entrance is a login manager, not bootloader

Got it. It installs good old GRUB so it picked up my XP install. Partitioning is tricky.

[Minyaliel]

Yeah, I know... I had to try four times until I got the partitioning right :P It's worth it, though =)

[Psquared]

I had to do the same ... but I agree it was worth the time to get it right.

Now .......... if I can only figure out how to get my wireless working? No ipw2200 support out of the box. ieee80211 is installed, but can't get ipw to compile. Headers are installed.

I'm wondering if NDISWrapper might work better and easier?

Are you using wireless or ethernet??

[Minyaliel]

Ethernet, at the moment, I've got the same problem as you :P Plus it won't recognize my digicam, a Konica Minolta, which's been recognized by any other distro I've tried. *sigh* If you find any solution to the wifi problem, please share =)

[Psquared]

I will. I think I know the problem, but not sure how to solve it. I have to think it through carefully. (wifi) I also don't have sound in Elive.

Do you have sound?

[ahaslam]

This is a very good looking distro, but the control panel doesn't blend in well. It's also boots & runs very quickly on the CD.

I found a good torrent on mininova (http://www.mininova.org/tor/433005) that gave good (250KB/s) D/L's

I'll probably run a tripple boot with elive, DreamLinux & Ubuntu.

Tony.

[MetalMusicAddict]

Yea. Go with the torrent. Right now im getting 570kB/s. ;) 18mins to go.

[Psquared]

How about somebody post a How To for sound and wireless.

IPW2200BG using latest driver/fm will not compile. Realtec soundcard on my Toshiba laptop is recognized but no sound. I keep getting an error with I open AlsaMixer saying something about "modem sound" and another error I can't remember. Need to reconfigure sound from the start, but I don't know how.

[Minyaliel]

Do you have sound?

Yes, I do. (Very nice sound effects here, by the way...) It's strange that it doesn't work for you... Perhaps you should just try to reinstall, if you've got a set up with a separate "home" partition it will leave your data unchanged and (probably) just fix itself... hopefully :-|

[fuscia]

This distro is just too pretty.

what? no screenshots?:rolleyes:

[Minyaliel]

LOL... I wish I could make a screenmovie to show off the nifty animations! *grin* Well, I'll see what I can do. Note that I'm not currently using the default theme, which is much lighter than the one I'm using.

[Psquared]

Yes, I do. (Very nice sound effects here, by the way...) It's strange that it doesn't work for you... Perhaps you should just try to reinstall, if you've got a set up with a separate "home" partition it will leave your data unchanged and (probably) just fix itself... hopefully :-|

I found out how to reconfigure the sound card, but still can't get it to work. I am using AlsaMixer with the Alsa output plugin. It shows the tab for my builtin soundcard on my Toshiba laptop, but it also shows another tab for another soundcard. That is the one creating problems with incorrect entries. I can't figure out how to disable it. I have no system sounds or sounds from CDs I put in the CD player.

I am thinking of compiling GTKWifi from a deb I found to see that helps kickstart wifi. Either that or I am going to add the testing sources to my sources.list and install the latest "testing" upgrades. That might break my system, but without wireless and sound its already broken. ](*,) ](*,)

[amorris.math]

My favorite linux information source is www.distrowatch.com, and today I just looked at Elive (preview on the site). Elive looks awesome (and is debian based).

http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Main/News/

Does anyone know of any other interesting, new, and nice looking debian based distributions in the works or out yet?

[RAV TUX]

Yes Aquamorph and much like Elive based on Morphix>KNOPPIX>Debian

*moving this thread to Debian talk with a redirect*

[slimdog360]

You can install enlightnment, the desktop environment which elive uses, in ubuntu from here.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=228018

its a bit buggy and doesnt have all the features which one would like, but it looks good and still works alright.

If you install it use aptitude rather then apt-get so if you decide you dont like it, its easy to get rid of.

[joplass]

Elive is to me the best distro out there. Exceptionally clean and does everything I want it to do of course I am no gamer. I dual boot Elive and Edgy but right now I mostly use Elive.

[Minyaliel]

Agreed; Elive is my primary (and, currently, only) distro, and I'm love it. Of course, there are some small inconveniences, like, if you want to turn down the sound you've got to launch alsa mixer, but this should be easy to fix in another release.

[Psquared]

Sound fix found, but I can't get my wireless ipw2200 to work. It worked before i installed upgrades and now it doesn't.

Anybody got any ideas?

[joplass]

I have Elive Revolution using 10G and Edgy 30G on my notebook but I mostly use Elive. Great distro, really fast and stable. I use it with a Linksys WPC54G and Ndiswrapper. The setback is most programs you install you will probably have to bring them up using the terminal but that does not bother me at all.

[ericesque]

I remember seeing this for the first time about a year ago-- that's when I started paying attention to linux.

To me, elive has always seemed--or perhaps looked-- like it was trying too hard to be cool. With all the gold, sharp angles, and the Quake style 'tech metal' look.

Maybe it works really well. I prefer a distro that says I work, use me. Not I'm flashy and your friends will think you're cool, use me.

[TheRingmaster]

Who else thinks that Elive is a beautiful distro? The only thing that comes close in terms of looks would be Dreamlinux. What are your thoughts?

[RAV TUX]

moving to Debian (and derivatives) forum...since Elive is based on Morphix.

http://www.morphix.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=blogsection&id=5&Itemid=66

[The Tronyx]

I have to agree with a lot of other people on this thread, I too love my Elive.

I am still fairly new to Linux but with a lot of asistance I have begun to become more familiar with just what it is I am looking for and from that, better judge distros upon my personal preferences.

Elive (so far) provides great looks, fantastic GUI options for configuration, and stability. I have blown up more than my share of distros since I started exploring Linux but out of them all Elive has given me the least amount of problems and confusion. The hardware detection is also pretty good.

As far as installing from the live CD you can find the install button on the bottom right of your iBar that is usually set for file management. Give it a shot. :D

This is a mini-screenshot of my desktop. I prefer to keep it simple because I'm pretty color blind. :D

http://ubuntuforums.org/gallery/data/500/medium/2007-01-26-024229_1280x960_scrot.png

[Minyaliel]

I love Elive, it is a beautiful distro. Yet, I was forced to stop using it because there was no support available. As the small problems became many small problems and quite a few big ones, I knew this couldn't go on, and I returned to Ubuntu. If you appreciate support and getting answers to your "desperately in need for help" threads, don't use Elive. Until this situation has gotten better, I will not be returning, even though it makes me bleed inside.

[mips]

If you appreciate support and getting answers to your "desperately in need for help" threads, don't use Elive. Until this situation has gotten better, I will not be returning, even though it makes me bleed inside.

Can you see the problem in that ? Catch 22 situation.

[Minyaliel]

I know, but well, if you've really tried everything, searched every nook of the internet, go back to the forums after two weeks and see there is not a single response to your original plea for help... and this is the general overall situation, well, your choice, either struggle, ignore the problem (if possible) or move on...

[The Tronyx]

I know, but well, if you've really tried everything, searched every nook of the internet, go back to the forums after two weeks and see there is not a single response to your original plea for help... and this is the general overall situation, well, your choice, either struggle, ignore the problem (if possible) or move on...

I will admit it can be hard to find help for Elive. When were you trying out Elive? My experiences haven't been that bad, perhaps things changed a bit. I can say that the IRC channel tends to be very helpful, assuming people aren't afk (which happens often as it is a relatively smaller distro)

The newest release also fixed quite a few problems. The newest release is .06 Elive Revolution 2 and can be found at distrowatch.com though you will want to download from the alternative host link as the Elive site is down until the person who maintains it comes back from vacation(early Feb from what I hear)

[Minyaliel]

I've used it exclusively since um, August, I think, and only quit using it some three or four days ago. So it's quite recent. I must admit I never visited the irc channel; I don't really get irc, things are usually flying past so quickly that I only get confused. :P

[mips]

I know, but well, if you've really tried everything, searched every nook of the internet, go back to the forums after two weeks and see there is not a single response to your original plea for help... and this is the general overall situation, well, your choice, either struggle, ignore the problem (if possible) or move on...

Here is an idea for you. Why don't you do a minimal Ubuntu Server install + X11 + e17. Alternatively install fluxbuntu and add e17 if the previous option sounds a bit daunting. Fluxbuntu is designed to be lite so you could probably just ad your own window manager like e17.

You have elive so you should be able to copy it's customised looks/settings across to ubuntu.

There are a few e17 support threads here and if the issue is not specific to e17 then you are just as well off as all the other ubuntu users here wrt support.

[Minyaliel]

Thanks for the suggestions - well, I've installed the Elbuntu packages now, so I'm pkay with how things are at the moment. It needs a bit of tweaking, but I think it's going to work out in due time.

[rai4shu2]

I just tried out the latest unstable. Seems pretty nifty, and I didn't notice any horrible problems. :)

[Chouca]

I find Elive 0.6 both smart and fast - only one BIG wish to fulfill...

How can I get Suspend (to Ram) in the menu...???:-?

There is a great working Suspend in E17 but not in Elive.

My laptop suspends if I run /etc/acpi/sleep.sh from a root terminal but I want it in the menu or as a Key shortcut (Win+S).

I am no Linux-guru, I guess there is a simple way to do it?


Martin

[fuscia]

just used the development version last night. my wireless was already working when i logged in and it was fun to try out some of the e-apps i hadn't seen before (especially that file manager. i think it's called 'e-something'). it was nice to have the correct resolution for my wide-screen, as well.

[Kateikyoushi]

I tracked it down after your post, the name is evidence and it is the most interesting file manager in ages...

[fuscia]

I tracked it down after your post, the name is evidence and it is the most interesting file manager in ages...

that's it! it is pretty cool, but i think i got a message saying it was no longer being developed and something about memory leakage.

[Kateikyoushi]

You are right, I checked sourceforge and indeed latest cvs mailist post was last may, that's a pity.

[livesys]

Elive 0.6.8 development released 2007-05-02

http://elivecd.org/gb/Main/News/_articles/60.html

[livesys]

Elive 0.6.9 development released

http://elivecd.org/gb/Main/News/_articles/61.html

[RAV TUX]

Elive 0.6.9 development released

http://elivecd.org/gb/Main/News/_articles/61.htmlNice! downloading now, just checked the latest I have is Elive 0.6.7.....Thanks for the 411 and the link. ;)

[ThinkBuntu]

Well, Elive Gem 1.0 (first stable) has been released. I'll give it a try.

[rsambuca]

Hmmm... Couldn't get this one to boot at all. This is the first distro in a long time that I haven't even get to boot up on my rig.

[izizzle]

is e17 faster than xfce in terms of memory and cpu usage?

[bodhi.zazen]

is e17 faster than xfce in terms of memory and cpu usage?

Enlightenment seems quite fast and efficient.

Elive, as a distro, is a medium weight in terms of size/features, but it is Debian so you can add if you like. Enlightenment is nicely configured on ELive.

[dakuran]

I just installed Elive today and I'm really liking it, theres just one problem (seeing as I'm still a bit noobish:)) but I have no idea how 2 install updates thru terminal.. in feisty i've always just ran sudo apt-get update but apparently i have 2 install sudo, because the only guide that i have 2 install my wireless card (broadcom) uses ndiswrapper and all the commands use sudo... has any1 tried installing sudo?

[bodhi.zazen]

I thought Elive came with sudo.

Well, if not, on distros without sudo you become root by entering

su - in the terminal. Enter the root password (you should have set one during install).

If you like you can then install sudo, you will have to configure it somewhat, which is not too hard. See man sudo and man sudoers .

Check to see if it is installed but not configured.

[izizzle]

In ubuntu I could install vlc through synptic. But in elive I can't! I thought it was debian based. Are there extra repositories i have to enable? Please help me!!

[dakuran]

I thought Elive came with sudo.

Well, if not, on distros without sudo you become root by entering

su - in the terminal. Enter the root password (you should have set one during install).

If you like you can then install sudo, you will have to configure it somewhat, which is not too hard. See man sudo and man sudoers .

Check to see if it is installed but not configured.

Thank you!

But what is man sudo and man sudoers? (sori i r n00bies :) )

and how do I check if its installed? like is there a terminal command i can type?

Thanks in Advance!

[bodhi.zazen]

Thank you!

But what is man sudo and man sudoers? (sori i r n00bies :) )

and how do I check if its installed? like is there a terminal command i can type?

Thanks in Advance!

NP

http://www.gratisoft.us/sudo/man/sudoers.html

In that link, skip down almost to the bottom where they give examples.

do a google search

man <command>

Or in a terminal type

man <command>

type q to exit the man page.

[dakuran]

Thank you! I was able to get in2 root with su - (like you said) and ran my updates/upgrades so now I think I'm rdy to use ndiswrapper. the only problem is i forgot my flashdrive @ home, and that link was pretty tuff to find, but after that my wireless should be up and running (hopefully) I'll keep you guys posted..

jus out of curiosity is E17 a D.E. like KDE/Gnome/Flux?

[izizzle]

In ubuntu I could install vlc through synptic. But in elive I can't! I thought it was debian based. Are there extra repositories i have to enable? Please help me!!

[dakuran]

well, I guess my wireless guide didn't work too well, can anyone point me in the right direction? :):):)

I have a Dell B130 Inspiron and my wireless card uses a broadcom chipset

it works just fine in ubuntu, its just elive's forum seems pretty dead :(

[kelvin spratt]

Strange people can't seem to find things i use elive and vlc is very much in the repositories and works flawlessly but its not really needed as Mplayer is exceptional in Elive, in Elive you sometime need to get you hands dirty if you want to install non installed items,

[izizzle]

Where is it in the repos? I cant see it! try reloading and see if it is there. If you already installed it.....HOW?

[kelvin spratt]

http://www.videolan.org/vlc/download-debian.html if you read this page it tells you it is in Etch. i enabled UK -US and the multimedia repros in synaptic that is it, enable all the plugins as well. the windows version also works well, the de csss should be enabled by default i hope this helps you if not post again and ill get back to you.

[izizzle]

whoops, I was using the rl2 version. just upgraded to Gem and installed vlc. However, I can only run it through the terminal; it does not show up on: right click>video. How do I run it???? HELP!!!

[izizzle]

Never mind I got that fixed. But i am ow yet facing another problem. VLC can not play my videos in full screen. the whole screen is just black. HELP!!

[kelvin spratt]

I just tried that and i get the same there is a problem with the aspect ratio if i load a 4.3 movie no problem it will fill the screen, but try to stretch a 16.9 and i get a black screen i have no problems with mplayer had to change sound to alsa due to time lag in fact Mplayer realy works on gem. i will try on Feisty and see if vlc is the same as its not my default player just for certain files,

[kelvin spratt]

Update iv'e tried VLC in Elive Feisty And XP with these results all to default to full screen settings video click triangle enable fullscreen, save then all files open up in full screen make sure you have all the plugins installed this is very important, on my computer VLC works the same in all 3 Distros it will not stretch to full frame, only default 4.3 fills the screen 16.9 black bars top and bottom, on my setup i personally prefer Katheine to all others for video and audio as it recognises both my writer and dvd rom for both audio and video thus saveing wear and tear on my writer, but certain files can only be played in vlc.

[izizzle]

thanks kelvin, that fixes the full screen issue. Can u direct me to an elive openoffice bonus disk torrent? I really want this. You have to pay to download it from their site. http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Download/Bonus_Disks/Office/

[rsambuca]

thanks kelvin, that fixes the full screen issue. Can u direct me to an elive openoffice bonus disk torrent? I really want this. You have to pay to download it from their site. http://www.elivecd.org/gb/Download/Bonus_Disks/Office/

If you "really want this" then perhaps it is worth a few dollars, isn't it?

[izizzle]

Allow me to rephrase my statement. "I really want it, for free"

[bodhi.zazen]

Allow me to rephrase my statement. "I really want it, for free"

Just a comment about Linux being "free". Yes it is true, but are you willing to contribute to the cause?

By that I only mean to point out that many of the applications in the open source community are written and maintained by developers.

If you like this service consider donating 25-50 $ yearly to your favorite developer, application, ubuntu, whatever. This will keep the Linux community going and is certainly a small investment in return for the service. Think of like contributing to NPR or PBS.

...The beer may be free, but tip the bartender 8)

If you like Elive you should consider contributing

[izizzle]

How the heck am I supposed to pay for it? I'm only 13, I don't even have a credit card!

[kelvin spratt]

is it not in synaptic as the current debian release, the Elive version is the latest version and is quite large 499mb. but i think if you remove the dummy version in the elive section of synaptic you will be able to install the standard version, its worth a try but i'm sure you can.

[izizzle]

I dont know about that. But, the elive bonus disk version is specifically made to suit elive. The one in synaptic is the boring old version made for DE's like kde and gnome. I want this bonus disk so badly! Are there ANY torrents for it??

[kvonb]

How the heck am I supposed to pay for it? I'm only 13, I don't even have a credit card!

I'm quite sure you get an allowance and spend it on other rubbish like CDs/junk food etc', and the phrase that Americans love to blurt out is: "Get a job!".

It seems to me that you have Internet, that will cost at least $40/month, plus if it's DSL you are also paying in excess of $30/month for the phone that it attaches to. Do you also have cable TV? I'm guessing the answer is a firm YES. That's another $50/month. Do your parents buy you clothes? Maybe forgo this months trendy pair of ultra-expensive sneakers and use a small portion of that on donating $5us to pay for the Elive CD!

And I know that in the US you can buy "gift card" type credit cards which work exactly the same as a real credit card. I'm sure you can get a $20 one. Try Sears or something similar.

If you really are THAT poor (and I know a lot of Americans are, and I sympathise with them!), there is a link on the Elive page where you can ask the chap that did all the hard programming work for a free copy.

There really is NO need to steal something that costs so little, just think how you would feel if I stole something that you had worked hard on for over a year!

You have already stolen a copy of Elive, and had the cheek to ask for more stolen goods on the IRC channel where the guy who wrote Elive sits!!!!

We're not talking about stealing a loaf of bread because you are hungry, we're talking about a completely unnecessary luxury item, purely for the sake of looks!

It is NOT your right to take stuff without paying for it!

[izizzle]

Wow. I didn't know australians were so sassy. Shouldnt you still be weeping about steve irwin. After all, he is the only reason your country is so 'well known'.

BTW, what makes you think I said this on the guy's irc channel?

[rsambuca]

Let's clean this up please people. :sad:

[izizzle]

I have a little problem with vlc player on elive. I cannot seen to exit full screen mode. I just get a black screen and have to restart e17. Does anyone know how to fix this problem? It works in every mode except full screen. PLEASE HELP!! VLC IS MY FAVORITE PLAYER, I REALLY DONT WANNA LOSE IT.

[kelvin spratt]

its a bug in E17 and most people tolerate it one day it will get fixed their are other players just as good.

[K.Mandla]

Wow. I didn't know australians were so sassy. Shouldnt you still be weeping about steve irwin. After all, he is the only reason your country is so 'well known'.
You have already stolen a copy of Elive, and had the cheek to ask for more stolen goods on the IRC channel where the guy who wrote Elive sits!!!! ... It is NOT your right to take stuff without paying for it!
Please keep the thread on-topic and civil. Both of you know better than to bicker like this.

Breathe deeply and relax.

[RAV TUX]

Hi Yozef,
Sad to hear that , but for me it was breeze of an install. It went perfectly fine and am running it now. Yea it may not be as streamlined as Ubuntu and I do agree there are some rough edges, but in general it looks gr8 , just bcoz things work out of the box. Specially multimedia, u neednt hunt for drivers and get gr8 display resolutions on your gfx cards.

Another thing I found is that its not plagues by the DHCP problem Ubuntu has.

Im just weighing it out and can comment on the flips only after a week or so.

So far so good , at least 4 me.

Funny that Elive Gem 1.0 is my primary OS now after my initial hesitation. ;)

I was surprised at how much just works by default in Elive Gem 1.0

[Masterizaak]

When does the next elive version come? I tried elive gem, and I didnt have any sound, and the eye candy seemed seemed boring, no wobbly windows or nothing, maybe I missed something?

[lucia_engel]

Funny that Elive Gem 1.0 is my primary OS now after my initial hesitation. ;)

I was surprised at how much just works by default in Elive Gem 1.0

So I was having trouble with Firefox Flash sound again all of a sudden (played fine after gutsy upgrade) and was tired of searching the forum for solutions that didn't work. I also have had problems printing pdf files in gutsy so my Ubuntu experience hasn't been that pleasant lately, despite having been using it since breezy. It just seems like one step forward, two steps back.

While I was browsing the forum I noticed the Howto guide for installing the e17 cvs, and I was very impressed with this low resource eye-candy capable wm (tried fluxbox, blackbox, fvwm before but too much configuration needed), but sadly after a few hours of use it seg faulted on me. Then I came upon Elive and reading this thread convinced me to try it out.

I understand the reasoning on not including music/video/flash playback on Ubuntu by default but wow, it's a nice change to have everything configured. I will probably find some nuisances after daily use but I'm seriously contemplating switching to it permanently. I don't think there's anything specific Ubuntu provides for me that other distros can't (other than this community). Haven't tried the package managing system however, but I will probably try triple booting this during the weekend.

A few questions:
It didn't ask me anything about my wireless connection at all, how does this work? I have WEP non broadcasted ssid set up... maybe it connected to my neighbors haha.

I could care less about compiz-fusion sfx but I do like the transparent windows (NOT pseudo transparency), which is very useful when I need to check on something behind the terminal while typing a command. Is there a way to have that going on e17 without installing compiz? I'm using xfce currently and it has this ability by default.

[b9anders]

e17 does support true transparency, so yes - you just need to use the right terminal and make sure it has it enabled. I don't know what Elive uses. If it is eterm, the enlightenment terminal, it needs to be hacked before it becomes true transparency. Google should be able to help you with that. I don't know if xfce's terminal can register that true transparency is enabled by enlightenment but if it can, that should work too.

[lucia_engel]

Ok, after a few days of using only my Elive partition here's my experience so far, compared to Ubuntu and Gnome/Xfce in general:

- When I installed it didn't ask me where to mount the swap partition, I was going to have it use the same one as Ubuntu but it didn't ask at all.

- There were a few glitches with the installer itself. Sometimes the window would close and you don't know if it crashed or it's doing something in the background.

- I miss the autocomplete apt-get feature in Ubuntu (ie. type apt-get install E and I'd get a list of packages with title starting with E). Same with telling me which package I'm missing if I typed in a non existing command.

- Icon making (for iBar and Fav Menu) seems strangely unintuitive. From the wiki, it says the process is:
1) Open application
2) Choose Edit/Create Icon from window title bar
3) Choose/change the icon (and when I opened up the browse window there was no way to enter the path /usr/share/... directly, instead I had to click through the folders.
4) Open Entangle
5) Find the icon you just made. There is a huge list of icons to go through, and you can only click the up and down arrows to find the one you just created.
6) Drag the icon to the iBar or Fav Menu box. There's no way to rearrange the order

- Lack of configuration method compared to gnome/xfce (gui based) or fluxbox (text based).
I have to open up the control panel to add/remove modules (clock and temp monitor), can't just right click and add. Same idea with iBar and entangle.
I don't see another way to configure the Menu either except above.

- Windows does not pop up when I get a new message from aMSN contacts, instead it opens in the background and it's not visible unless I do an Alt Tab (even minimizing other windows didn't help)

- No system tray so I can't send amsn and amarok, etc. to tray and manage from there with right click menu.

- Elpanel not very convenient...to access each configuration, I have to navigate through by clicking on the main icon and sub icons and then everytime it'll automatically go back to the main icons again.

So it seems I was too quick to criticize and praise. I'm too used to having a full featured DE, but I don't mind fluxbox at all. At least that has enough documentation on how I can change things with text config files. I hope E17 and ELive will continue to improve, but I'm considering going back to xfce.

If anyone here knows easier way to configure things or fix the issues above feel free to let me know.

[kelvin spratt]

My friend what are you talking about you can put a shelf top and bottom and one each side if you want to you can auto play dvd or cd if you want to as well. Its all there if you open your eyes. E17 is very advanced and the latest version is even better. its kept simple so you can customize to suit your own needs.If its not stable its down to you as Elive is one of the most stable distros on the planet.

[lucia_engel]

Assuming you're talking to me Kelvin...thanks for helping but I'm not sure what you mean by adding "shelf". I also didn't ask about autoplay dvd/cd, which I wouldn't use anyway if it were available. I'm sure e17 is very advanced but I just can't find the necessary documentations for the points I listed. If you're knowledgeable in Elive, then I hope you don't mind addressing the some or all of the problems I encountered.

[az_s_za]

- Windows does not pop up when I get a new message from aMSN contacts, instead it opens in the background and it's not visible unless I do an Alt Tab (even minimizing other windows didn't help)

- No system tray so I can't send amsn and amarok, etc. to tray and manage from there with right click menu.

If you are running Elive Gem 1.0, install the engage module (available from the elive repo). It is an application launcher / window selecter / system tray. It is very mac-like in its look.

I am running the development version of Elive, and it no longer uses the engage module, but has re-jigged the enlightenment shelf to work a lot better, for everything except a system tray.

There is also a stand-alone system tray application. Its pre-installed in the development version (I think it was in Gem as well, but I can't remember). I think it is called "stallone tray", or something like that (I'm not on elive now, so can't check). It should be there amongst your applications menu. However, on the stable version, the engage module is by far the best option... it's great!

[meborc]

just to resurrect an old thread :)

today i installed 1.8.8 as it is the latest development version out there... and to my surprise everything works

* my partitions are recognized
* my broadcom wireless is recognized and b43 linux driver works fine
* my sound is working
* my nvidia card is recognized and drivers installed

system: inspiron 1520

things i don't like -

* there is no volume control icon / tray item... instead i have to use alsamixer
* there are some items listed in the menu that are not actually installed (pidgin, blender etc)
* usb mouse clicks are interpreted as double-clicks... so i have to use my touchpad

in total i am surprised by the quality of the distro... it actually is quite stable :)

any other testers out there?

[meborc]

the mouse dilemma was solved... there are both mouse and toutchpad sections in xorg.conf... just needed to comment one

for solution check the bug in elive bug tracker - http://bugs.elivecd.org/index.php?do=details&task_id=220&string=mouse&project=2&type[0]=&sev[0]=&pri[0]=&due[0]=&reported[0]=&cat[0]=&status[0]=open&percent[0]=&opened=&dev=&closed=&duedatefrom=&duedateto=&changedfrom=&changedto=&openedfrom=&openedto=&closedfrom=&closedto=

[misterhead]

I am in the process of testing out eLive as well. I just recently installed the latest "stable" release, and I have the latest "unstable" as a live cd only. Don't know why but for aome reason it won't let me install it, says there is no installer present and want's me do download it. However there is absolutly no network connectivity, so I can't. The Stable Gem works great though. Couple of wierd things I'm not used to, like having to "activate" my ethernet port after booting the first time after install, and I haven't figured out how to create or modify shelves. It's right there under "configuration" in OzOS and both use e17, so I'm sure it's there, just more difficult to find.
Still dinkin' with it...
Like it.

[Seventh Reign]

eLive needs to change their logo. I keep thinking it says Olive ..

[meborc]

I am in the process of testing out eLive as well. I just recently installed the latest "stable" release, and I have the latest "unstable" as a live cd only. Don't know why but for aome reason it won't let me install it, says there is no installer present and want's me do download it. However there is absolutly no network connectivity, so I can't. The Stable Gem works great though. Couple of wierd things I'm not used to, like having to "activate" my ethernet port after booting the first time after install, and I haven't figured out how to create or modify shelves. It's right there under "configuration" in OzOS and both use e17, so I'm sure it's there, just more difficult to find.
Still dinkin' with it...
Like it.

try newer development version... 1.9.14 is the newest at the moment