LET THERE BE LIGHT
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1. X en i386 RPMS el7 The Xin this listing represents the Fe dora version The yum check update and yum install enlightenment command will install E17 Developer Shadoi has packages for Debian Sid and Ubuntu Breezy Just add an entry to etc apt sources list and then run apt get update and apt get install enlightenmentto install nonumber 47 E17 for Debian deb http www soulmachine net debian unstable F E17 for Breezy deb http www soulmachine net breezy unstable As the older Enlightenment version 16 is also available in the repositories you may need to force the installation of DR 17 0 16 999 xxx WWW LINUX MAGAZINE COM Enlightenment 17 REVIEWS friendliness However the enlighten ment_remote tool still offers more set tings than the graphical front end For example only the command line tool can load modules and change keyboard shortcuts enlightenment_remote h gives users a short explanation of each option The Configuration Panel is divided into Focus Settings Figure 3 Desktop Settings Window Manipulation and Window Display Users can perform a number of simple to advanced configu ration steps to influence the window manager s behavior Binary eap files are also responsible for launching programs These files not only include the program command but also the program icons To create a new eap users first launch the window menu and click on Create Icon Figure 4 This opens th2. ZA MNO Te oe aae aoe 25 ieee Ios ines l ZA We Gia ViGdeo ee lair gt 2 Wee Wi Cleo Ses Mein gt 26 etic V eor Slee lem C7 Me Mews cigs ou 2S SO eal Cla tons CClate LOS Sah Sy Evil So HO Pils Score ou Lbs Wales 2 Siler b S72 ell its evs a Soins ew 34 xll misc el 7genmenu 35 xll misc engage oO DLS Se Since co Oe ise Teonper So Ki pitiginsy eumodiiites oo eee e e AO e terms rent ermine Al xll wm e REVIEWS Enlightenment 17 Figure 5 The Eap Editor associates an icon with a program or command viding a kicker systray functionality and cool looks When you hover the mouse over an icon Engage zooms in on the icon Active programs display a second smaller icon on top of the normal icon You can toggle between the smaller icons using the mouse wheel and just click to go directly to a running program Just like backgrounds themes also use the binary edj format You ll find a big collection of themes on the website at http get e org which hosts the central repository for the E17 community 8 These files give you everything a theme needs the graphics animation func tions and standard backgrounds other window managers and desktop environ ments need whole directories to achieve the same thing Just download the edj files and drop them into the e e themes folder You can then select your favorite theme in the main menu below Themes Figure
3. 6 shows the Winter theme Help as Help Can The Enlighten ment community offers a number of help options The e users mailing list is not re stricted to users and you will often find developers giving each other a helping hand 10 Your reward for joining the mailing list is quick and uncomplicated bug information that will keep you up to speed with bug squash ing There is also a highly informative forum at 11 Enlightenment also has a big following on IRC with an English e channel on freenode org Conclusions If you are looking for a tidy and optically pleasing window manager the E17 De velopment Release is well worth investi gating The release is stable in most parts although losing your configuration files on updating can be a pain Ona more positive note updates are typically af eS PL iri teri Pee Peri Tf Ba Figure 6 The Enlightenment Winter theme 52 ISSUE66 MAY 2006 WWW LINUX MAGAZINE COM Figure 7 Enlightenment 17 s Slate theme accompanied by new features The de velopers may still have a long to do list but they are making rapid progress and it is really exciting to see the Enlighten ment 17 window manager develop E 1 Enlightenment http www enlightenment org 2 Elive CD http www elivecd org 3 CVS script 1 http www rasterman com files get_e sh 4 CVS script 2 http omicron homeip net projects ea
4. Exploring the Enlightenment 17 window manager LET THERE BE LIGHT Figure 1 A neat Enlightenment desktop with the default theme selected icon which flashes at the same time Configuration In contrast to other window managers Enlightenment 17 uses binary configura The members of the Enlightenment team have installation packages and other ex perimental packages for some distribu tions The easiest way for users with Suse Linux to install is to go to the Packman repository Set up the http packman ju bremen de server and the suse Ver sion directory as your installation source for Yast replacing Version with your ver sion of Suse If you have Fedora Core 4 Didier Casse has a program at 6 that sets up the Yum package manager to use the required re pository Users with Fedora Core 2 and 3 will need to add the entry for the reposi tory manually The etc vum conf entry looks like this nonumber Didier name Didier s yum repository 2 for e17 apps lib baseurl http sps nus edu sg2 didierbe fedora X en i386 http dentrassi de el 7 fedora X en i386 RPMS e17 tion files This means a change in config uration habits for many users Besides the enlightenment_remote command line tool E17 now has the graphical Configu ration Panel Figure 2 that has taken E17 a long way towards more user Installation http fedora oceighty net el 2 fedora X en i386 RPMS el7 http drl saaf co uk fedora2
5. e Eap Editor Figure 5 The App name field expects the program name and the Executable field expects the program command line including any parameters Clicking on the large field below Icon opens the Efm file man ager where you can select an icon Despite all this binary wizardry you ll still find a few text based configuration files for example e e applications To install Enlightenment 17 on a sys tem running the Gentoo Linux distribu tion you need a few new entries in your etc portage package keywords file see the Portage Keywords box However a simple emerge will not work You need to install the programs and libraries in the correct order to resolve any possible dependencies and make sure that every thing works smoothly Try the following command for the install nonumber emerge av dev db edb eet 2 imlib2 imlib2_loaders evas 2 ecore epeg epsilon embryo 2 edje esmart emotion etox ewl entice elicit 2 e utils 2 engrave e examine engage entrance xine lib emotion 2 envision elation evidence 2 eterm enotes equate For all distributions you will need an entry for E17 in the display manager and if you run startx you will need an entry in the xinitrc file ISSUE 66 MAY 2006 49 REVIEWS Enlightenment 17 Figure 2 The new graphical configuration tool bar order These files and the other order files are used to change the order of the Bar entries bookmarks and other modu
6. eeds add on modules and the developers do not intend to integrate this feature in the future Eterm s fake transparency can be used with E17 but be warned strange and non reproducible errors can and probably will occur One of E17 s major strengths is its modular design In contrast to the major desktop environ ments it loads just a few essen tial modules as you can see from the menu in Figure 1 However it is well worth the trouble of load ing and enabling some additional modules once again using the enlightenment_ remote com mand line tool nonumber enlightenm2 ent_remote 2 module load modulname enlightenment_remote 2 module enable modulname Figure 4 The Create Icon button lets you create new program icons Engage shown on the far left in Figure 6 is one of the most popular add on modules The Engage module is very reminiscent of the Mac OS X Dock pro Portage Keywords 01 nonumber 02 el7 cvs stuff 03 app misc evidence 04 app misc examine 05 app misc enotes Oo CEN Olle ea gt Oy Ole es ee S 08 dev libs embryo 09 dev libs engrave LS Oren Witt eit Se Patil lent cnvirdce 12 media Gix eel ios Il medio Gi elicit 14 media gfx entice lS media ox IM be tools eo 16 media libs edje media Wins cnoi on 18 media libs epeg 19 media libs epsilon ZURMed tos is Coan 21 media libs imlio2 WWW LINUX MAGAZINE COM
7. les The files have a simple structure with just one eap file per line nonumber eterm edp firefox eap gimp eap bmp eap Backgrounds Modules and More Backgrounds are also stored in binary format as edj files and can be either static or animated By default E17 has four virtual desktops with individually configurable backgrounds Again con figuration is restricted to the enlighten ment_remote tool nonumber enlightenment_remote 2 g Fma Ll ge foo F Clbie team D Pirae beii Fj Sharpe Eiri peee f dia ra aa m gei iem T abran remi g fmin F Dedy ram inken gaf baran Wj riy rmm demons pel Eeim fon pam e hai Bor om y BE TITE eT i akah er a eco lie Peed A oe i R a H amt E Figure 3 The Enlightenment 17 Focus Set tings dialog box 50 ISSUE66 MAY 2006 desktop bg add 0000 2 path to background edj enlightenment_remote 2 desktop og ada O01 02 path to background edj enlightenment_remote 2 desktop bg add 00202 path to background edj enlightenment_remote 2 CESK WOO oo saa Ones a2 path to background edj Binary background files of this type are created by the edje_cc program which builds an EDJ file from a directory with an image and the background edc file The user manual has a working example at 9 Working backgrounds are avail able on the website at Get e org 8 and you just need to drop them into the e e backgrounds directory For genuine transparency E17 n
8. sy_e17 easy_e17 sh 5 CVS script 2 http nooms de misc e 17install sh 6 Modifying Yum http sps nus edu sg didierbe share dc fc4 yum repo 1 3 1 f c4 noarch rom 7 Installation how to for Fedora http sps nus edu sg didierbe 8 E17 news modules themes user guide http get e org 9 User Manual for edje_cc http get e org E17_User_Guide English _pages 3 8 html 10 E17 mailing list https ists sourceforge net lists listinfo enlightenment users 11 E17 forum http edevelop org forum Karsten Jager is a teacher at day school To help others get started with Linux Karsten also teaches Linux at an adult education center and he is the founder of the Linux THE AUTHOR User Group in Xanten LugX
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