Tips for using Enlightenment DE atop MX Fluxbox edition? [Solved]

[Durhammer]

Good point, @siamhie ! I need to do some more tests. Very strange on paper, fer sure. Pretty sure I just used "Select All" in the terminal's Editor menu, then "Copy" and pasted it into a Featherpad text file, but I'll certainly try it again.

In the end, I might wind up sticking with F-box, if only because the system isn't built around E to be able to better integrate with it. The reboot thing has spooked me. (But FWIW, I do plan to try @AVLinux's AVLinux MX respin with E built in.) I do not care for E's application menu setup, that's fer sure, and defeating F-Box's Alt-arrow issues helps immensely. Probably just need to spend some face time with each DE. Still would love to hear other folks' experiences.

Thanks again for all the help and insight. I certainly need it!

[siamhie]

Pretty sure I just used "Select All" in the terminal's Editor menu, then "Copy" and pasted it into a Featherpad text file, but I'll certainly try it again.

If your using xfce-terminal, the easiest way to save all of it's output is to right click in the terminal window and select 'Save Contents'.
A save dialog box will appear and you will just give the file a name and select the destination.
Everything that the terminal has outputted (including what can't be seen) will be in the file.


For example, here is a screenshot of my ps_mem.py output from the terminal.

quickshot_241003_200813.png

and here is the saved file.

ps_mem.txt

[AVLinux]

@Durhammer

Enlightenment has a few menu options, if you don't like the basic applications menu you can make the basic menu act like LXDE (AV Linux does this by default) and if you want something fancier Enlightenment has a text-searchable Menu called "Run Everything" that can also be used. AV Linux has both Run Everything and the basic menu on the main Panel and the menu also acts like Openbox with right-click making it appear on the Desktop.

[Durhammer]

Maybe the copy and paste from the earlier F-box memory report wasn't complete -- I didn't try manually adding up all the numbers,

Meanwhile, I just ran two new tests. Rebooted each time. Between last post and now, MX updated (I let it) the kernel. I still cannot boot without using systemd, for whatever reason. It just goes into la-la-land between the splash screen and what would be the login panel.

Now it turns out that with the same mix, the two DEs are more or less tied as far as the startup environment and the two terminals and two browser sessions -- 1.2 GB. So both are acceptable. Attaching the latest results, FWIW.

I just need to see which one I'm ultimately more comfortable with. They both have their + points and - points.

If any other F-box or E users are reading this and have suggestions to help sway me either way, please chime in!

Thanks!

[AVLinux]

@Durhammer

In case you're interested I'm working on an AV Linux "Base" ISO which is essentially Enlightenment and the AV Linux convenience scripts and performance tweaks but not the many extra Gb of Audio/Video software and Plugins etc... Probably won't be up for a week or two...

@dolphin_oracle (God bless 'im!) just saved my life tonight and got it past a major hurdle, so it should be easy-peasy to finish off fairly soon..

[Durhammer]

@Durhammer

In case you're interested I'm working on an AV Linux "Base" ISO which is essentially Enlightenment and the AV Linux convenience scripts and performance tweaks but not the many extra Gb of Audio/Video software and Plugins etc... Probably won't be up for a week or two...

@dolphin_oracle (God bless 'im!) just saved my life tonight and got it past a major hurdle, so it should be easy-peasy to finish off fairly soon..

Sounds like a winner! I did download and install your magnum opus, and yep, it hath the proverbial kitchen sink -- 15+ GB after installation. Still, I will study its UI feel and maybe await your Base ISO for a spin. Meanwhile, I'm having a bit of a hard time getting around in my current E-nvironment, as the window focusing and the menu issues are not to my liking as well as F-box.

[Durhammer]

Pretty sure I just used "Select All" in the terminal's Editor menu, then "Copy" and pasted it into a Featherpad text file, but I'll certainly try it again.

If your using xfce-terminal, the easiest way to save all of it's output is to right click in the terminal window and select 'Save Contents'.
A save dialog box will appear and you will just give the file a name and select the destination.
Everything that the terminal has outputted (including what can't be seen) will be in the file.


For example, here is a screenshot of my ps_mem.py output from the terminal.

quickshot_241003_200813.png



and here is the saved file.
ps_mem.txt

Thanks, teach! Had not used that feature before. I tried E's Rox terminal, and so far, it's not to my liking.

As for the results of your ps_mem test, it looks quite similar to my own F-box examples except for browser differences. (I have tried a number of allegedly "light" browsers, and found Chromium to be more suitable, plus it was usually available along with the Fox on most distros I virtually tested. Somehow didn't think to try LibreWolf. Might have to.)

Really appreciate the help!

[Durhammer]

@AVLinux -- even with the loaded package of the full AV Linux spin, I get a pretty good basic memory load report with about 338 MB being used. Crank up Firefox (with one extension -- Bitwarden -- added, realizing this, and other extensions loaded might have affected my previous posts' results), and a couple other tabs, and we're up to 1.2 GB, which turns out to be pretty universal. This IS running under V-box, mind you. Not a fan of the default terminal app. For whatever reason, once I essentially did a "select all" (and copy, maybe), the screen turned translucent and I couldn't figure out how to change it back.

I like the searchable "Run All" menu approach -- for some reason, I couldn't (haven't yet) figure out how to do that in my vanilla E-nvironment. I really appreciate all the work you've done here! E works a lot better here than on top of my F-box install. I'll still play around with that one, maybe I'll find out how to do all these things, but maybe eventually load up your Basic spin.

I'm just trying to get the most out of this limited hardware. Plan to share the li'l computer with my two granddaughters (one preschool, one infant). I have bambam and gcompris installed, among other kiddie edu things. (Bambam is interesting, in that it winds up in the list of DEs in the login switcher. Then again, it *does* take over the whole environment so kids can't cause mayhem. Besides the power off button, the only other way out is to type Q-U-I-T. :-) )

I'D STILL LOVE TO HEAR FROM OTHER ENLIGHTENMENT USERS ABOUT THEIR EXPERIENCES! (But I'm far from done with F-box!)

[Durhammer]

Sorry, me again @AVLinux . What did you have to do to get the window sizing to just "be there"? In F-box, I see a hint of where I can resize a window, below the window edge near the left and right bottom corners. That appears to be the only place to click and drag to resize a window in F-box. In my netbook version of E, I see a blue box at the same two bottom corners (maybe they only appear when you click near there to resize?). However, in your E spin (same 0.25.4, maybe), I don't see any visual feedback, but I seem to be able to just click and drag there and magic happens. Did you have to fiddle with the controls to get this? It's way cool! (Ahhh -- okay, now I *see* the li'l feedback boxes but they're *almost* invisible! So that's what you did, eh?)

[AVLinux]

Hi again! Sorry busy weekend here with gigs (I'm sure you know all about that!)

The Window 'resizing squares' for lack of a better term are color dependent on the theme palette colors. The default light theme in AV Linux has light blue colored squares that probably don't have a lot of contrast with the default Desktop background. As far as Enlightenment's 'terminology' terminal each to their own I guess, I absolutely love it, it will do things like open URLs, play Videos and display Images like no other common terminal, to change it's settings just right-click on it for the options. Sound like you 'drag-selected' on it which will highlight the terminal with color, just click on the terminal screen and the highlight will disappear.

Enlightenment is quite different, but it also has it's own sensible logic in how things are laid out, if you are open to learning it's ways you can really learn to like it, if you expect it to be other DE's you will find it frustrating.

I know it's a long Video heavy on Music Production tips bit I have to reiterate that watching the last AVL release Video, even skipping and clicking through it will answer a lot of your questions...

shot-2024-10-05_11-20-41.jpg

*ADDED: Enlightenment allows you to decide what features you need in 'modules', part of it's efficiency if modules are switched off they don't use resources. A good example is the Bluetooth module, if your machine doesn't have Bluetooth you can simply turn that off. "Run Everything" is a module and may not be enabled in a Repository install. To enable it do Menu-->Settings-->Modules-->Launcher tab-->select and load "Everything Starter" if it is not loaded.. Now if you right-click on the main Panel and scroll up to "Contents" you should be able to add it to the panel. If you want to change it's position on the Panel then right-click again and select "Begin Moving Gadgets" and drag it's highlighted box where you want to see it on the Panel.

I would be surprised in the general forum section if you get much feedback about Enlightenment, I would guess outside of AVL Users who often stay in the Respins forum or communicate on the Linuxmusicians forum I would be quite surprised if there was even a dozen Enlightenment on MX Users here that are MX Forum members. I'm sure there a far more MX Fluxbox folks here since it is a fully supported MX Version and since the developers do such a dedicated and amazing job with it. I'm certainly not competing with anyone but I will promise you you will get a lot more informed support for Fluxbox than Enlightenment here because you have several active senior team members vs. some spare time schlub who's in over his head...