Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

Zerimas · 2010-04-16 07:25:49

I got a new netbook (an Asus 1001p) which I am taking with me while I go travelling throughout Europe this spring. There is one problem, I absolutely hate the netbook interfaces for both KDE and GNOME. I also find them sluggish. Consequently, I am thinking about switching to some sort of WM based setup, possibly a tiling one as my experience with KDE4 on my main computer has shown me that I prefer to do most of my window management via the keyboard. But before I begin working on my setup for my new netbook I need some advice.

Firstly, what do you non-DE people use for power management? I really like all the options that power management system for KDE provides (i.e. specific power profiles and such). Is there a program not associated with a DE that I can use to accomplish this?

Secondly, what tiling window manager is easiest to setup and use? I am considering going for wmii, as I like that it can be switched between tiling, floating, and dynamic tiling. It also doesn't require the use of LUA to configure it like awesome does, which is good because I am not a programmer (I've always struggled a little bit with computer science). Also, I only have about a week to get the setup up and running, as I refuse to spend my vacation reading documentation.

Thirdly, should I just abandon the idea of using a tiling WM and go for fluxbox, or use a lightweight DE like xfce?

How do you advise I proceed?

Thanks!

ozzolo · 2010-04-16 08:42:46

eeepc 1000H.
Openbox + tint2 + laptop mode tools, pm-utils, cpufreq-utils, acpi-eeepc-generic + a little pipe menu script for cpufreq/acpi-eeepc-generic control.

skanky · 2010-04-16 08:48:55

I use an eeePC 901, so there may be some differences:

1) Look at laptop-mode-tools, acpi-eeepc-generic, pm-utils and cpu-freq.

2) scrotwm is pretty simple, and is the easiest I've used (may not be the easiest overall, I've not been exhaustive).

3) You could install both - most DMs allow you to select your WM at logon time (or you could pass it as a parameter to startx). Whichever you find yourself using the most, is the one to stick with (though it's useful to have two WMs installed in case you mess one up and don't have time to fix it straight away). But really only you can answer this one.

(EDIT added pm-utils).

Last edited by skanky (2010-04-16 08:49:57)

caligo · 2010-04-16 11:40:15

My current netbook setup (lenovo s10e) consists of LXDE with Awesome as WM, and Gnome Power Manager (which has quite few dependencies, and runs just fine without the Gnome DE). I am not a programmer--the closest I've ever got to coding is doing some statistics in R--but so far I've found the lua config files of Awesome to be fairly easy to manipulate.

I guess the same results could easily be achieved without LXDE, but a lighweight DE makes things easier. I started out using a standalone AwesomeWM setup, and basically installed LXDE out of frustration when I couldn't get PCManFM to automount my USB drive... If you don't want to spend a lot of time setting up such basic things as automount, I would go with a lightweight DE such as LXDE or XFCE and just play around with different WMs.

lifeafter2am · 2010-04-16 13:15:24

Everything that everyone else said, but I use XMonad. Try a few different tiling WM's and see what works for you.

eeePC 1005HA

Ronin-Sage · 2010-04-16 18:12:21

Enlightenment's battery module is pretty useful for mobile power management. It's not immediately keyboard-friendly, but it does have a boatload of customization options, including a pretty extensive key bindings dialog.

Zerimas · 2010-04-17 22:37:51

I currently have XFCE installed (and will probably soon install wmii) and I am tinkering with laptop-mode-tools for power management. However, I am having problems with suspend and hibernate. When I attempt to do so via the XFCD menu, it tells that I cannot because HAL is unavailable--but the HAL daemon is quite clearly running. How do fix this?

cesura · 2010-04-18 00:52:08

I'm using awesome3 and it has been great. If you want to start out slow, maybe try openbox or fluxbox

gtfernandezm · 2010-04-18 02:36:02

I am using Musca as my WM on an Eee PC 1005hab, it is very simple, no more options that neccesary, and nothing done automatically for you. I have customized my keybindings for it and my main browser (uzbl) to make all my window management actions sensible in their layout.

I haven't felt the need to use any power management apps yet, I just us sudo pm-suspend when i want to suspend, but my netbook stays plugged in next to my bed all night, and rarely sits around long enough to need anything like auto-suspend or anything. I haven't really installed any applications that do things for me automatically, I don't even start many daemons at start-up, I connect my wifi manually everytime. I am liking the DIY approach.

I would reccomend Musca only if you want to manage every window action. It is much easier for me to understand than a dynamic tiling system, but also takes a bit more effort.

Arch Linux

#1 2010-04-16 07:25:49

Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#2 2010-04-16 08:42:46

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#3 2010-04-16 08:48:55

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#4 2010-04-16 11:40:15

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#5 2010-04-16 13:15:24

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#6 2010-04-16 18:12:21

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#7 2010-04-17 22:37:51

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#8 2010-04-18 00:52:08

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

#9 2010-04-18 02:36:02

Re: Considering navigating away from DEs. Advice needed.

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