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Lola at 21:15, 14 October 2011

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==Objective==
This is what we'll achieve today:
http://pics.zenerves.net/index.php?gallery=linux/Screens&image=newslackE16l.jpg

Running a quite-normal e16 window manager, but for the fact that your whole desktop is a Terminal,
with a background, and no clutter at all since to me this is the very purpose of E16: ZEN!

===What you'll need===
I ran this, and still do, on a variety of machines, from openSUSE10.2 to Fedora7-8-9-10 and UBUNTU
8.xx and now Slackware to 12.2, it works.

e16 latest to date is 0.16.8.15; Terminals used have been gnome-terminal, Terminal, and Konsole.

xterm won' t do it; you don't need the Compositor enabled in e16 or a graphic card that supports it
and the drivers to take advantage of it: this hack is really light in ressources, it would work on
most anything (the fact that it gets stacked "Below" get us clear of some non-composite fake
transparency issue). And yet it is compatible with the Compositor and it's nice shadows, half
transparencies and so on.

- Get e16: -

e16 requires imlib2. The both of them are very reasonable in size: 1.8 and 0.9 megs compressed.
You may appreciate epplets and e16keyedit for a full-on e16 experience (that's about 0.8 more megs
to download). Then, it would be sensible to grab e16-docs (1.6m), and if you want more, the
e16-theme (8megs!) brings more visuals to your dose of E.

-depending on your distro, e16 may be there (Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE,...); simply use your favorite
package management system to grab them.

-Otherwise, download from here:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/enlightenment
You will need a 'sane' build environment; start with compiling imlib2, then e16, then epplets, then
e16keyedit. - the whole details on how to compile, how to then kill your Xserver in order to start
e16 would be too long to fit here, but these are easy enough info to find and there is already some
in the 16 readmes and edocs and wiki!

===Let's Do It!===

[E16 is quite different: to get back to this HowTo from e16 you probably need Firefox or something?
well: just Left-Click anywhere on the Desktop, that is where your menus are! Firefox is usually in
the 'usermenu', the top one]

So, either with starte16 from a non-X session, or just by selecting e16 in your Login Manager, you
are now in e16. Welcome!

OK, your first look at it may get you a bit overwhelmed, but then there is the Help Box right in
front of you, no? OK, I know, people don't read manuals, let's get to the point:

1). Get a background picture: left click on the desktop, that's your application menu; simply select
xterm and input either of the following, depending on what's available on your system:
thunar
konqueror
nautilus --no-desktop

Head over to your favourite wallpaper (but please bear in minds that it will get a "terminal
overlay" so get one you can actually read text on!), copy it then to
the /home/<your_username>/.e16/backgrounds/
[Of course, you can do it all from xterm, this is the dumbproof version, your mileage may vary].

Now middle-click anywhere on the desktop, and scroll to Desktop>Backgrounds and select yours. Cool,
you got rid of the (rather dull) basic color and replaced it with something more familiar.

e16 got tons of possible tweaks, and it's not my purpose to describe them all here. Major Settings
are right-click, Maintenance Tasks middle-click and Applications Menus Left-click. Do your
exploration, it's all self-explanatory and it's so light that if something seems broken or not
there yet, just hit 'restart': the full E takes 2.5 seconds to load, and reloads without closing
your existing active applications and windows! Yes, it is quite safe indeed.

2). Now, get this Funky Terminal in place:
Choose, depending on what's available on your system, one of the following (you can look them/launch
them from xterm):
terminal
gnome-terminal
konsole

You can now start the terminal tweaking:
- Right-Click on it, they are all more or less the same: you can select "transparent", the color of
your fonts (depends on your background), its size et al; with Konsole and gnome-terminal you even
have a session management system that you can name, that is useful for later. Don't forget to
adjust 'every console is a login console parameter to suits your needs, and to untick anything like
"display menubar in new windows"
"display border around new windows"
"display toolbar in new windows"
So not to get it wrong when you restart them. Don't bother get rid of it all, you can jsut
Right-Click in the Terminal to get to Preferences & suchlike.

So, if all went well, you now have an empty shell with a prompt in the corner, and the Enlightenment
border frame around, right? I'll tell you something: I don't use PlainScreen! My terminals are
actually only half the screens in size, so not to cover the right part of my wallpaper where I
wouldn't be able to read it.

Let's start with the Window Manager tweaks now:
- Resize the window to suits your needs with the handles in the corners,
- Move it around by holding ALT+Left-Click so to align it where you want.
NOTE: yes, in E16 one window may spread over the next ones.
- ALT+Left-Click on the terminal and start the tweaking:
--SetStacking: Below
--SetBorderStyle: Borderless
--WindowSize: Available Max Height Toggle

Then, ALT+Left-Click > Remember:

--Choose a unique name! if you have a session management system to your terminal app

https://sourceforge.net/projects/enlightenment/
http://www.enlightenment.org
--
Frobnicate, v.:
To manipulate or adjust, to tweak. Derived from FROBNITZ.
Usually abbreviated to FROB. Thus one has the saying "to frob a
frob". See TWEAK and TWIDDLE. Usage: FROB, TWIDDLE, and TWEAK
sometimes connote points along a continuum. FROB connotes aimless
manipulation; TWIDDLE connotes gross manipulation, often a coarse
search for a proper setting; TWEAK connotes fine-tuning. If someone is
turning a knob on an oscilloscope, then if he's carefully adjusting it
he is probably tweaking it; if he is just turning it but looking at the
screen he is probably twiddling it; but if he's just doing it because
turning a knob is fun, he's frobbing it.

==that interrupted I'm afraid==

From: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Linux/13932695724?ref=mf#/photo.php?pid=30182042&op=1&o=all&view=all&subj=13932695724&aid=-1&oid=13932695724&id=1154962303 to be used later:

Tropicalicecube Phnompenh at 10:00, on 05 February
As such, running a Transparent, PlainScreen Terminal with no menus or ScrollBars is easy; running it on top of Enlightenment DR16 gives you the opportunity to run it over a really sleek desk, to have it to start with every session in this exact way, and to stick to a Below stack so to be a real "background" terminal. The box on the right is my virtual desktops navigator (like 9 'screens'); the left handle deploys a systray, the right one pops a little programme launcher. Neat, neat, neat.

Most Linux Distributions ship Enlightenment DR16 - you need e16-0.16.8, not 0.16.999-something which is e17, very different.

More pictures here:
http://pics.zenerves.net/index.php?gallery=linux/Screens
You can request more help here:
enlightenment-users/:@:/lists.sourceforge.net
Website is
http://www.enlightenment.org but it's very e17-oriented

Cheers!

Links:
www.enlightenment.org
www.elive.org

[[Category:Linux]] [[Category:Howtos]]

E16-trsp - Revision history

Admin: 1 revision

Lola at 21:15, 14 October 2011