gui config tools for arch for new users

pythonscript · 2009-09-14 20:28:17

As a side project, I'm looking to create a custom live CD of arch, designed for the newbie end user. I've been reading on larch, and it seems pretty straightforward, but I'm looking for suggestions of apps to install. I'm hoping to create something with about the hardware detection and automatic configuration abilities of ubuntu. My friends/family that I'd like to send this out to are just tech savvy enough to be bothered by the staggered releases of ubuntu, and I think this would be an intriguing way to learn. Any ideas? Maybe some gui frontends for pacman, wireless config, usb, etc would be good. I'm thinking about using lxde for this too so it'll run nicely on some of our older computers. Thanks for the help!

.:B:. · 2009-09-14 20:29:31

Looked into Chakra?

pythonscript · 2009-09-14 20:33:13

KDE is so bloated though... I was hoping for something with a more lightweight desktop environment, or will Chakra let me transition while keeping the configuration utilities? If all the apps for automatic configuration are KDE based, I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. Thanks!

Andrwe · 2009-09-14 22:07:20

Here is some gui-stuff you can look for:

network/wireless: wicd (using myself)
pacman-gui: gtkpacman (just tried it for short and seems to be good for gui users)
bluetooth: blueman (using myself)
filemanager: pcmanfm or thunar
imageview: feh or gpicview
keybind manager: obkey
cd/dvd burn: graveman
archiver: Xarchiver (maybe with thunar-archive-plugin)

all LXDE-software like lxappearance, lxtask, lxlauncher and so on.

pseudonomous · 2009-09-16 02:42:57

You might want to check out these config / install tools from the chakra project. Even if you don't want to install the fulll blown KDE environment, they might be useful for your project. (At least shaman is dependant only on qt4, pacman, and polkit)

I contend, however, that the "bloat" of kde is relative; KDE runs quite well on my netbook and a 6 year old P4 system I've got. It may not be the greatest choice for a PII w/ 256M of ram but, then agian, when you get to that class of hardware, you're not gonna have a great "newbie" user experiance anyway becuase it'll be sluggish with any choice of opera/firefox/epiphany/arora, OpenOffice, Amarok/Banshee (though Sonata+mpd or Xfmedia might actually work OK) and most of the "mainstay" GUI applications. But I"m a KDE fanboy, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt.

Anyway, you might also want to look at distros like DSL, slitaz, puppy, or Zenwalk, all of which aim at being very lightweight, while Zenwalk at least endevaours to still be user-friendly. (I have no experiance w/ the others to really judge) They might give you some ideas of how to setup your project.

scio · 2009-09-16 17:19:52

pythonscript wrote:

KDE is so bloated though... I was hoping for something with a more lightweight desktop environment, or will Chakra let me transition while keeping the configuration utilities? If all the apps for automatic configuration are KDE based, I'm not sure that's what I'm looking for. Thanks!

Full disclosure: I really like chakra.

If you don't want to keep chakra, but want to start working on this, you can modify the post install scripts to remove KDE and install whatever you want. Remember, chakra is still arch linux, so pacman is always there.

But still, I would lean towards chakra, it treats my Eee just fine.

Arch Linux

#1 2009-09-14 20:28:17

gui config tools for arch for new users

#2 2009-09-14 20:29:31

Re: gui config tools for arch for new users

#3 2009-09-14 20:33:13

Re: gui config tools for arch for new users

#4 2009-09-14 22:07:20

Re: gui config tools for arch for new users

#5 2009-09-16 02:42:57

Re: gui config tools for arch for new users

#6 2009-09-16 17:19:52

Re: gui config tools for arch for new users

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