Arch Linux

scrawler

Member

Registered: 2005-06-07

Posts: 318

so how is e17 *to use* these days?

howdy.

I'm on a mini-rampage against bloat lately, and it seems like e17 would do nicely as a light weight wm.  The last time I tried it, though, it seemed awkward in some ways.  Does anybody use it exclusively?  How's it working out for you?

kant1

Member

Registered: 2006-11-28

Posts: 57

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I use e17 exclusively at work and at home.

At home I haven't updated in a while (since .032) because my wife would kill me if she didn't have "engage" at the bottom of the screen.  (Engage isn't currently working in development e... it will be fixed at some point in the future though)

At work I update enlightenment whenever there is a repository update.

What I do is copy my .e folder before I update -- just in case.  The other thing I would suggest is to write a script "e_setup" that runs all your customizations.  That way you can always pacman -S to the latest "e", delete your ".e" folder, and run your "e_setup" script to get back to what you want.  This will help you have an easy transition during milestone upgrades.

As an example, here are the first few lines of my "e_setup":

enlightenment_remote -module-unload start
enlightenment_remote -module-unload ibar
enlightenment_remote -module-unload ibox
enlightenment_remote -module-unload battery
enlightenment_remote -module-unload cpufreq
enlightenment_remote -module-unload temperature
enlightenment_remote -module-unload pager
enlightenment_remote -module-unload randr
enlightenment_remote -module-load engage
enlightenment_remote -desks-set 2 1
enlightenment_remote -binding-mouse-add ZONE 1 NONE 0 menu_show favorites
enlightenment_remote -binding-mouse-add ZONE 3 NONE 0 menu_show main
enlightenment_remote -binding-mouse-del ZONE 1 NONE 0 menu_show main
enlightenment_remote -binding-mouse-del ZONE 3 NONE 0 menu_show favorites
enlightenment_remote -focus-policy-set CLICK
enlightenment_remote -focus-setting-set NEW_WINDOW
...

Hopefully this all makes sense.  I setup modules I want and don't want, I set up which mouse buttons do what, I set up click settings, and so forth.  There are way more commands I have for all my key bindings and such, but this should give you a good start.

Hope that helps!

Misfit138

Misfit Emeritus

From: USA

Registered: 2006-11-27

Posts: 4,189

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

Haven't used enlightenment, but KDEmod is fantastic. Very, very fast, light, and beautiful default theme.

---

Amiga 1000 restomod
IBM PCjr restomod
C=64 restodmod
Sauengard

heleos

Member

From: Maine, USA

Registered: 2007-04-24

Posts: 678

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I've been going back and forth between KDEmod and XFCE, right now I'm using XFCE.

I tried e17 a while ago, and it looked really nice, but because it's still in pre-alpha, I haven't made it my default yet

bneate

Member

Registered: 2005-08-21

Posts: 36

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I've been using e17 for my default desktop both at work and home now for over a year now.  I find it very stable and havn't had any problems with it at all.  Highly recommend it for a fast lightweight wm with a bunch of eyecandy.

raul_nds

Member

From: Lisbon, Portugal

Registered: 2007-06-28

Posts: 258

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

Used it for a while on an old laptop I had and had no problems with it

pecan

Member

Registered: 2007-04-06

Posts: 93

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I used E`16 and E17 for quite some time, only just swapped to beryl. E17 had some serious problems with kde apps, kaffeine and konqeuror for example would crash and then would refuse to load again. And after about 3 months of using E17 it began having trouble with saving to one of its config files, which ended up crashing the system repeatedly. E17 Is still the nicest cleanest WM, it just needs to iron some bugs out imo.

jethomas

Member

Registered: 2007-06-18

Posts: 2

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

E17 is easily configurable, though you may have to enable some modules to get nice GUIs for the options.  The filemanager has recently undergone improvements, and new options for rendering engine, profiles, etc. have been added.  By the way, itask-ng (http://code.google.com/p/itask-module/) is a replacement for engage, and works with current cvs.

ramjet

Member

Registered: 2005-02-16

Posts: 37

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I got tired of waiting for kde4 and installed e17 from the repo's ( think it was from community)
much more mature than last time i used it, very pretty and yet still fast, i still do much stuff from xterm(coz its what i do) but as a WM , e17's ntoa bad choice.

btw, does anyone know of an up to date private (TU) repo ?

Acid7711

Member

From: Chicago, IL

Registered: 2006-08-18

Posts: 300

Website

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I've used it off an on.  However, I guess I'm one of the few to have problems with it. It wasn't major problems, more like slight crashes or drops.  It's just not to the point that KDE with me.  I LOVE e17, don't get me wrong. I can't wait till it's ready and finished, but it's just not quite 'there' yet for me.

reverie

Member

From: Denmark

Registered: 2006-03-02

Posts: 59

Website

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

btw, does anyone know of an up to date private (TU) repo ?

I think mine is the only one, I also maintain m0l0ks -cvs pkgbuilds in aur, if you wanna build it yourself, not a TU though, thought about applying just so I could wipe the stuff in community (snapshots are incomplete and usually way old, and nobody seems to know who's maintaining download.enlightenment.org). But I'm dying in work these days. Anyways, I keep track of cvs and update the various packages when there's reason, at least for i686; x86_64 and ppc is only updated once a month or so. Haven't had a chance to do much more, pity, evas and edje looks like a lot of fun, I'm looking forward to having more time to play with it (and write stuff)...

There was a thread about it somewhere, but can't seem to find it right now, so here it is again:

[takhis]
Server = ftp://takhis.net/arch/i686

[takhis]
Server = ftp://takhis.net/arch/x86_64

[takhis]
Server = ftp://takhis.net/arch/ppc

Add that before community in pacman.conf and just do `pacman -Sy e-cvs e_modules-cvs entrance-cvs` and hit 'y' a few times. Enlightenment is a bit of a moving target, so when switching between versions, sometimes the easiest way to fix "bugs" is to do `rm -rf ~/.e`, if you know what I mean.

Note that the file-manager actually works now (you can configure it in the modules dialog), unfortunately most people here package broken .desktop files (remember to add a bloody %F to Exec= so "Open with..." works!), so you'll have to edit the files in /usr/share/applications/ yourself (or copy them to ~/.local/share/applications first).

This is turning into a nice little DE ;)

Also, there's #e on FreeNode, I'm not online much these days, but plenty of other friendly faces, and do remember to check out http://www.get-e.org! Have fun.

sda00

Member

Registered: 2007-07-25

Posts: 17

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

well, it looks like I'm not the only person who uses Enlightenment all the way around...

quite long time ago made a script for a kind of "automatic" installation:
http://rootshell.be/~sda00/install.sh

the "preliminary system check" section is a little bit outdated now, but "build" section works pretty well. the main difference between my script and "canonical" easy_e17 - is that I wiped out DirectFB support and forced OpenGL instead...

though here's an Arch forum (and I'm using Arch, really), but also I create a kind of E17-cvs-core-metapackage (the contents are approved more or less by E-dev guys):
http://download.opensuse.org/repositori … tapackage/

and there's a neat tiny script hidden inside src.rpm (in enlightenment-cvs-core.spec file) to allow people get rpm-packed current cvs of E17 just by rebuilding this spec file.

must admit that 016.999.41 version is quite stable one (comparing to 037) but even now I keep a backup of successful build until the next one...

almost forgot - here's my E17 theme dedicated to Stevie Ray Vaughan:
http://sda00.blogspot.com/2007/09/e17_28.html

(may be you won't like it as I do, but it contain some edje tricks, not found (or not used) by other "themers" - situation will definitely change soon, because some guys sad they make something similar)

Last edited by sda00 (2007-10-15 06:43:53)

fancris3

Member

Registered: 2007-03-18

Posts: 67

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I use PKGBUILD's fom AUR and reverie site (ftp://takhis.net/arch/builds/) and this script (i put function for extensions)

#!/bin/bash

startdir=$(pwd)

function _makepkg ()
{
        cd $pkgbuild
        versionpkg -mf
        makepkg -Ssf
}

function _pacman ()
{
        source "./PKGBUILD"
        sudo pacman -Uf ${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${pkgrel}-${CARCH}.pkg.tar.gz
}


        source "/etc/makepkg.conf"
        cat order.todo | while pkgbuild=`line`
  do
        cd $startdir
        echo $pkgbuild
        echo "------------------------------------------------------"
        _makepkg
        _pacman
  done

and order.todo its like

imlib2-cvs
edb-cvs
eet-cvs
evas-cvs
ecore-cvs
efreet-cvs
epeg-cvs
embryo-cvs
edje-cvs
epsilon-cvs
esmart-cvs
....

and

tam1138

Member

Registered: 2007-09-10

Posts: 238

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

I have been using e17 compiled directly from CVS for a couple years now.  I find it quite stable, completely functional for my needs, and (perhaps most importantly) sufficiently spartan for my tastes.  I don't want a taskbar or an iconbox or a fucking start menu, thank you very much.  Alt-Esc is my friend, and is way faster than using that silly mouse-thingy to navigate a complex menu.

stylopath

Member

Registered: 2007-07-26

Posts: 112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

for non e17-users: What is alt+esc ?

tam1138

Member

Registered: 2007-09-10

Posts: 238

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

It opens up a prompt wherein any command typed will be executed with no output.  I also have Alt-s mapped to pop up a terminal.  That's really all I need.

stylopath

Member

Registered: 2007-07-26

Posts: 112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

thx4the info!
I'll try these as soon as i get home

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

In the way back machine, long before I discovered Arch, I found Enlightenment E17 in the Cooker repository of Mandriva. I installed it, ran it, fell in love with it... It broke, and broke again, and again. This would start what would prove to be a long wait before it became a suitable environment for me to call home.

As of the 20071109 release of Reverie's 64 bit builds (takhis), I've found that Enlightenment has matured into a wonderful window manager. It's really become the "desktop shell" that some at the Enlightenment camp are trying to distance themselves from... in name. There are still bugs here and there, but they're few and very hard to track. For the most part everything is running beautifully.

The one thing that had to happen in order for me to make the transition was to lose all things KDE. KDE is an awesome and powerful desktop environment, so waining off of it wasn't going to work. It would be all or nothing. Plain and simple. I made a choice at that time that QT3 would have to go with it. QT4 would remain on the box for stand alone apps like LyX, SpeedCrunch, QStarDict, as well as Opera when they finally release the 64 bit browser with the newer toolkit.

On the upside of things, the apps that are provided are really sweet. Exhibit has proven to be able to handle large directories of images with no problems. I have roughly 100,000 images on this machine right now (shut up pervs! It's artwork suitable for anyone), and Exhibit has excelled here. Emphasis easily replaced Amarok for my needs. While not part of Enlightenment, Xterm has been far more than adequate. Of course Mplayer is simply a workhorse.

The downside of things? There are some missing apps. EFM (Enlightenment File Manger) just got a boost of enthusiasm for one of their devs. This will hopefully replace Thunar within a few weeks. EPDF works... sort of... a bit. Evince is fine for the moment. Scite is nice, and it seems like porting it over wouldn't be hard for someone that knows what they're doing. Maybe I'll start coding again just to do that. Nothing like a giant headache to get back into the fold, right? And Opera... why don't you work right yet? I'm tired of Google's browser being the only one that does everything.

The point of bumping this thread is to let people know, what some have already stated here, that Enlightenment is ready for day-to-day use. And it's development just became hyper-accelerated by a phone company that wants a fancy GUI. Groovy.

Thanks reverie. You're work is appreciated.

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

And it's development just became hyper-accelerated by a phone company that wants a fancy GUI.

Do you have a link with details about this? Thanks.

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

Isn't gOS  using Enlightenment? That might add some dev power.

---

Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

PJ

Member

From: Sweden

Registered: 2005-10-11

Posts: 602

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

And it's development just became hyper-accelerated by a phone company that wants a fancy GUI.

Do you have a link with details about this? Thanks.

http://marc.info/?l=enlightenment-devel … 331033&w=2

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

This is an interesting read too. It's more along the lines of developers planning, but it gives some hints on the motivation of the project:

http://www.mail-archive.com/enlightenme … 15166.html

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

And it's development just became hyper-accelerated by a phone company that wants a fancy GUI.

Do you have a link with details about this? Thanks.

http://marc.info/?l=enlightenment-devel … 331033&w=2

Thanks for the link. Very interesting developments.

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Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous

skottish

Forum Fellow

From: Here

Registered: 2006-06-16

Posts: 7,942

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

Isn't gOS  using Enlightenment? That might add some dev power.

Wow. I had no idea that Elbuntu had come this far. Man, if Google ends up controlling E17 too...

dhave

Arch Linux f@h Team Member

From: Outside the matrix.

Registered: 2005-05-15

Posts: 1,112

Re: so how is e17 *to use* these days?

Isn't gOS  using Enlightenment? That might add some dev power.

Wow. I had no idea that Elbuntu had come this far. Man, if Google ends up controlling E17 too...

Google has a big appetite, true. In fact, I'm participating in a pretty neat new pilot program through Google Labs. I've signed over my next kid, who's now in utero. He or she will be transferred to Google Labs shortly after birth. I have a general idea what they're planning, but I've signed an NDA and can't say. In return, though, I get like 100 gigs of free online storage space -- forever!

(Truth be known, the gOS people claim no connection with Google, though Google does have a mighty big presence on their OS.)

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Donate to Arch!

Tired? There's a nap for that. --anonymous