HOWTO: E17 using the repository provbied by Elive

[SFN]

OK. This HOWTO does some things that some people consider dangerous to your Ubuntu installation. The only reason to do this is if you are one of the "e17 Crackheads"(TM). I can tell you that I have done everything shown here on both a fresh install and an existing one and it works. That doesn't mean it will work for you. It probably will but it may not. If you don't have any intention of dealing with your install getting farked, you shouldn't do this.

I would.

But I wouldn't recommend that you do.

But I would.


In theory, this HOWTO is complete but in reality, it's a work in progress.

First, I wish to thank Smoon for all the work that he did on the Ubuntu repository for e17. With his departure, many have been looking for other ways to get e17 installed and working. This is an attempt to document a setup that works as easily as using Smoon's repo. Because the process is so similar, I used the Smoon HOWTO written by Tab to avoid extra typing. Only a few items have changed but I thought a separate thread would be helpful.

A new version of Elive was released on August 30, 2005. While checking it out, I noticed that they had also added a repo that "works also for debian or ubuntu". So I tried it out. It works like a charm, with a few tweaks.

There are apt sources for x86, AMD64 and PPC. This HOWTO only deals with x86 but should work for all three. Here's the scoop.

First, you are going to need some debs direct from Debian (this is the part that I would do but I wouldn't recommend that you do but I would do anyway).

Get:

libc6 from here
libc6-dev from here
libc6-i686 from here
locales from here
libvorbis0a from here
libextractor1 from here

(Note: for all of the links above, scroll down to where it says "Download". There you will find versions for multiple architectures. Remember though, that this theoretically only works for x86, AMD64 and PPC. Maybe not even AMD64 and PPC.)

Then do

sudo dpkg -i /location/of/libc6_2.3.2.ds1-22_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i /location/of/libc6-dev_2.3.2.ds1-22_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i /location/of/libc6-i686_2.3.2.ds1-22_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i /location/of/locales_2.3.2.ds1-22_all.deb
sudo dpkg -i /location/of/libvorbis0a_1.1.0-1_i386.deb
sudo dpkg -i /location/of/libextractor1_0.4.2-2_i386.deb

Once you are done, you may want to reboot. (I know, I know, it's not necessary to reboot. You can just restart certain services. Alright, Uncle! I'll fess up - I have no idea which services I should restart. Do you? I don't even know if there is a point to restarting at this point. Do you? If you do, restart the services. If not, take two minutes out of your life and reboot.)

Now, add the Elive repository to your apt sources.list. Do:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

At the bottom of the list, add:

## e17 repository from Elive deb http://www.vobcopy.org/mirror/elive/ elive main efl elive

Next, create and open the apt preferences file:

sudo gedit /etc/apt/preferences

and add the following to it:

Package: enlightenment Pin: version 0.16.999.* Pin-Priority: 999 Package: enlightenment-data Pin: version 0.16.999.* Pin-Priority: 999

Update apt:

sudo apt-get update

and install e17

sudo apt-get install e17

Once that's done, you have e17 installed. Log out, log into E, and enjoy!

Optionally, you can also install extra programs and modules. To install all of them, do:

sudo apt-get install engage eclair elicit entice examine e-modules e-utils evidence

Here are the modules listed above:

e-modules - These add functionality and eye-candy to the Enlightenment desktop outside of those included in E.
engage - An OSX-style dock.
eclair - Media player.
elicit - Magnifier/color dropper.
entice - Image viewer.
examine - Configuration utility.
e-utils - Enlightenment utilities.
evidence - The Enlightenment fIle manager
eterm - The Enlightenment terminal

I've taken entrance (the Enlightenment login manager) out of this HOWTO for the time being. It would appear that entrace 1) causes gdm to be removed and 2) doesn't work. So you get no login manager. Not the end of the world but annoying.

The other piece that this does not provide that Smoon's repo did is the image viewer eclips. I'll see what I can find for getting that done easily.

To use engage, you need to enable it. Do:

enlightenment_remote -module-load engage

Then, click on the desktop, mouse over Configuration, mouse over Applications and mouse over Modules, then mouse over Engage. Then click Enabled.

You can edit the items on the engage bar two different ways. The first way I will detail in the following paragraph uses a program called entangle. entangle is still very buggy. You will see a number of complaints about it if you read this whole thread. You may want to use the second method I mention here. But first, entangle.

Click on the desktop, mouse over Configuration, mouse over Applications and click Menu Editor. In the new screen that opens up, click the button that says Engage. Drag programs from the bar on the left into the blank area under the buttons. When you have the programs you want, click the button marked Save, then click the button marked Quit. You might have to click Quit twice. That seems to happen on and off.

The second way to do this is to build an .eap file (basically a shortcut with an icon attached) for the the program you want to add to engage. From the e17 User Guide:

Once you've opened an application you want to make an icon for, click the top left corner (but not the border!) [Note from SFN: Basically, this is the icon in the top left-hand corner ofg the broder - or where there would be one if one does nto exist] with the left mouse button and select "Create Icon". This menu can also be reached by right clicking the application name section of the window decorations. This starts e_util_eapp_edit, so you'll have to have e_utils and all its dependencies installed in order for it to work. Add all the information you need, but ignore the "Window name" section. That needs to be left empty. Then select an icon file. It can be of any size - it will be resized with Imlib2. The bigger the file, the more memory it uses. Note that you don't have to have the full path for the executable - just the name of the program is ok too, assuming the program is in your path. The EFL GUI for selecting icons is a bit unstable currently and is under heavy development. It should work though, but it may sometimes ignore input for example. After the icon is made the original icon picture isn't needed anymore for the icon to work. It will be included in the created EAP file and is automatically moved to ~/.e/e/applications/all

Now you just need to edit the .order file for engage:

sudo nano ~/.e/e/applications/engage/.order

In the file that opens up, just add the name of the .eap file. Let's say you created one that runs "gksudo synaptic" and you called it "Synaptic.eap". You just need to add that .eap file on its own line. So the resulting file should look something like:

eterm.eap
xmms.eap
mozilla-firefox.eap
Synaptic.eap

Save and close that file and you're all done.

If you want to adjust the engage bar (like maybe center it on the bottom of the screen) right-click on it and choose Edit Mode at the bottom of the popup menu. You can then right-click on it again and you will have a whole bunch of options available to you. When you have it the way you want, right-click it again and choose End Edit Mode.

To change the command that engage executes when you click on a particular icon, right-click on the icon, Icon Options/Edit Icon.

Note: It has been reported that you may have to do

sudo apt-get install engage-module

or perhaps even

sudo apt-get install engage-module engage-manager

to get engage to work properly. Do so if you find that it';s not doing what it should.

A quick perusal of the repo at http://www.vobcopy.org/mirror/elive/pool/elive/e/ revelaed some nifty treasures. These can be had via Synaptic by searching on the package name elive.

The coolest of these is e17genmenu. It adds in all of your menus from either Gnome or KDE. After installing it, do:

e17genmenu -g

for Gnome or

e17genmenu -k

for KDE

If you click on the desktop, you will see a menu item named Modules. Mouse over it and a menu will open with a number of modules, some of which are already on your desktop. There are other modules that don't show up on that menu. They are:

flame - shows glowing flames at the bottom of your desktop
snow - shows Christmas trees and falling snow on your desktop
notes - a desktop sticky notes module - (DOES NOT CURRENTLY WORK)
monitor - A system monitor - tracks CPU, network and memory usage
weather - display the weather on your desktop *(buggy - see note bleow)

To load these modules, do:

enlightenment_remote -module-load module

Obviously, replace module with the actual name of the module.

**********
Currently, the weather module causes e17 to freeze up whenever I try to change the geographical location. Not living in or anywhere near Kirkenes Lufthavn, this is a bit of a problem for me. The problem appears to stem from the length of the menus that contain the continents, countries, states and cities.

I got it to work but the solution is just plain dumb. I edited /usr/lib/e_modules/weather/dir.xml so that only places I knew I was interested in (the town where I live, the town where I grew up, the location of my next vacation) were listed. Dumb but it works. YMMV
**********

If click the desktop again and go to Modules, you will see your newly loaded modules there. You can enable them by mousing over them and choosing Enable from the resulting menu.

For Enlightenment themes, backgrounds, modules and more visit Get-e.org and the Edevelop Forum .

I hope this helps everyone wanting to use e17.

The Elive people have done some great work here. For those that only grabbed the repo, Elive is a live-cd designed to show off Enlightenment. It has both e16 and e17.

They definitely deserve some kudos for their work.

The site is http://www.elivecd.org/

This may be full of typos. And I'm OK with that.