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[Locked] Fedora Spin for CD?
charlieg English 7 charlieg [Read]
12 August 2013 à 23:13

charlieg, Wednesday 31 July 2013 à 13:35


Subscription date : 31 July 2013
Messages : 11
I know somebody posted a 'Cairo OS' thread, but I'm looking at Fedora as a base.

I'll be honest, with CD/compiz/emerald set up on top of XFCE, it's probably the happiest I've been on a linux distro for years. It's really good. In fact, it's so good, I can't believe that it's not more widely known/used. I've searched for a distro using CD out of the box and can't find one.

So I'm investigating creating a Fedora Spin that can run it this way out of the box, so I don't have to spend hours configuring any new installs and I can introduce this fabulous concept to other people.

Considerations:
- lightdm over gdm
- best base for CD/Compiz/Emerald? Currently using XFCE
- replacement for xscreensaver - i3lock, gnome-screensaver, light locker
- better menu? GnoMenu, MintMenu not working for me (not tried Cardapio)

Minor issues
- XPM icons don't get scaled in cairo-dock menus (so large XPMs appear full size) (affects XFCE too) (icon is scaled correctly in the dock)
- Notification Area Old doesn't seem to get restarted with cairo-dock, have to show it again manually

matttbe, Wednesday 31 July 2013 à 15:10


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Thank you!
This is a good idea

So I'm investigating creating a Fedora Spin that can run it this way out of the box, so I don't have to spend hours configuring any new installs and I can introduce this fabulous concept to other people.
This is a good idea. But before creating a Fedora Spin, it can maybe be interesting to create a package with a few dependences (Cairo-Dock, XFCE, etc.) in order to install some packages and some configuration files, etc.
I think it's easier for other people to test it because it's not needed to reinstall a distribution (and it's easier to share it to someone else via Internet). But if you only want an ISO to quickly install a new distribution, yes, it will be faster and easier to only install the OS

Considerations:
- lightdm over gdm
LightDM is maybe... lighter but there is maybe less themes. GDM is also designed for GNOME.

- best base for CD/Compiz/Emerald? Currently using XFCE
Which distribution? Cairo-Dock should work with all distributions (GNU/Linux & BSD). It's maybe a bit better with Ubuntu because most applications support the "new" systray (Notification Area, the new one) and the dock also support all 'Indicators' (it's possible to re-use indicators made for Unity but it's not possible or it's too hard to re-use indicators made for Gnome-Shell => e.g. it's interesting to display Network-Manager applet).
Note that this morning I sent a mail to Fedora packages maintainer in order to add the support of the new Notification Area applet because some new dependences have been added in Fedora repos (and also to check if these packages can be re-added in Official Fedora repos)

replacement for xscreensaver - i3lock, gnome-screensaver
Gnome-screensaver needs maybe a few GNOME dependences. Why not this new screensaver: 'light-locker'? http://www.webupd8.org/2013/07/light-locker-new-session-locker-for.html

better menu? GnoMenu, MintMenu not working for me
The application menu has been improved in the development version (with a search bar).
About GnoMenu and MintMenu, which version did you install? Can you launch the dock from a terminal and check the errors messages? I see that the installation of MintMenu is not so easy: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MintMenu

XPM icons don't get scaled in cairo-dock menus (so large XPMs appear full size) (affects XFCE too) (icon is scaled correctly in the dock)
Strange! With which menus (right click menu? Applications Menu)? And with which applications?

Notification Area Old doesn't seem to get restarted with cairo-dock, have to show it again manaully
Yes, it's just too bad that Gnome devs don't want to switch to the "new" systray (maybe because it was proposed by KDE and Ubuntu devs?) But now, their systray is only designed for Gnome-Shell...
Which version of the dock are you using?

Note: Ubuntu packages supports 'Cairo-Dock Session'. You can start it from a DM and it will launch Gnome-Session with Cairo-Dock and Compiz. (but yes, it will use Gnome and not XFCE)

it's so good, I can't believe that it's not more widely known/used
Maybe because we don't have enough resources (devs and money?) We are a very small team and we also need help to promote this project

fabounet, Wednesday 31 July 2013 à 16:00


Subscription date : 30 November 2007
Messages : 17118
yes, XFCE + CD/compiz/emerald is my desktop of choice on my netbook, and it runs smoothly despite the weak hardware
and yes again, it lacks of visibility compared to Gnome/KDE desktops

Considerations:
- lightdm over gdm
- best base for CD/Compiz/Emerald? Currently using XFCE
- replacement for xscreensaver - i3lock, gnome-screensaver
- better menu? GnoMenu, MintMenu not working for me


ldm seems to respect more freedesktop
+1, xfce is light, modular and yet complete
gnome-screensaver is good, I think xscreensaver is good too
Gnomenu and Cardapio applets should work, I think mintmenu is now only for Mate (Mint uses a new menu integrated in the WM)

Minor issues
- XPM icons don't get scaled in cairo-dock menus (so large XPMs appear full size) (affects XFCE too) (icon is scaled correctly in the dock)
- Notification Area Old doesn't seem to get restarted with cairo-dock, have to show it again manaully


XPM icons are evil (but I confirm the bug )
didn't notice, that's one of the strong point of Ubuntu (they have patched many applications to use the new notification area)

charlieg, Wednesday 31 July 2013 à 16:48


Subscription date : 31 July 2013
Messages : 11
matttbe :
This is a good idea. But before creating a Fedora Spin, it can maybe be interesting to create a package with a few dependences (Cairo-Dock, XFCE, etc.) in order to install some packages and some configuration files, etc.

Yes, the package group approach probably is the way into it (with the package group driving the spin).

matttbe :
- best base for CD/Compiz/Emerald? Currently using XFCE

Which distribution?

Fedora 19

matttbe :
Great, thanks for the link! (Obviously I'm fishing for input for this exact reason - I don't know everything out there!)

matttbe :
The application menu has been improved in the development version (with a search bar).

Cool, I should probably check it out albeit for the time being I'm looking more to understand how to put the package group / spin together. Ideally I don't want to be maintaining development versions but rather letting Fedora handle that.

matttbe :
About GnoMenu and MintMenu, which version did you install? Can you launch the dock from a terminal and check the errors messages? I see that the installation of MintMenu is not so easy: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/MintMenu

For MintMenu it was the stock Fedora version. For GnoMenu it was 2.9.1 (latest launchpad version). For both, the errors seem to be Fedora related (or perhaps even specific to my install) hence I didn't really report them here. When I have more time I'll chase these on the right Fedora channels.

matttbe :
XPMs appear full size

Strange! With which menus (right click menu? Applications Menu)? And with which applications?

Right click menu specifically. (Not confirming the application menu; the workaround was for me to modify the .desktop of the app to use the specific Farenze icon. The application was locally installed Eclipse and the .xpm that comes with a standard Eclipse download.

matttbe :
[Gnome gripes]

It's not that Gnome 3 is bad, but it is barely usable for me on a moderately powered laptop. After a few hours the session gets slow, bogged down. Animations that are snappy just after boot become choppier until they are barely recognizable as an animation. They seem to have abandoned anybody without a solid GPU and memory to burn.

Personally I just prefer the dock experience and Compiz/Emerald looks nicer and performs far better. XFCE seems to fill the desktop gaps underneath it.

PS. I wish this forum had a 'preview' option. I never get these posts right first time!

matttbe, Wednesday 31 July 2013 à 17:50


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
The application menu has been improved in the development version (with a search bar).

Cool, I should probably check it out albeit for the time being I'm looking more to understand how to put the package group / spin together. Ideally I don't want to be maintaining development versions but rather letting Fedora handle that.
But it'll be available in the next stable version, so don't worry about packaging the development version

It's not that Gnome 3 is bad, but it is barely usable for me on a moderately powered laptop. After a few hours the session gets slow, bogged down. Animations that are snappy just after boot become choppier until they are barely recognizable as an animation. They seem to have abandoned anybody without a solid GPU and memory to burn.
But it's GNOME 3 without Gnome-Shell and with Compiz as the DE

Right click menu specifically. (Not confirming the application menu; the workaround was for me to modify the .desktop of the app to use the specific Farenze icon. The application was locally installed Eclipse and the .xpm that comes with a standard Eclipse download.
Oh, Eclipse
but if Fabounet has confirmed this issue, maybe he will fix it soon

PS. I wish this forum had a 'preview' option. I never get these posts right first time!
No, it's a "custom" website (but you can edit post )

charlieg, Thursday 01 August 2013 à 10:41


Subscription date : 31 July 2013
Messages : 11
matttbe :
But it'll be available in the next stable version, so don't worry about packaging the development version ;)

Yeah, that's kinda what I meant.

matttbe :
But it's GNOME 3 without Gnome-Shell and with Compiz as the DE ;)

Don't quite get that. I'm using XFCE as the base at the moment (open to alternatives though). Not tried LXDE yet.

matttbe :
No, it's a "custom" website (but you can edit post )

It's a very well done custom website.

One request: when you post, it says 'Congratulation' - it should be 'Congratulations'.

matttbe, Thursday 01 August 2013 à 11:44


Subscription date : 24 January 2009
Messages : 12573
Don't quite get that. I'm using XFCE as the base at the moment (open to alternatives though). Not tried LXDE yet.
I just wanted to say that this 'Cairo-Dock session' is not so "heavy"
But it's true that XFCE is lighter but not so light than LXDE.
If you want to install a very light environment with Cairo-Dock, you can have a look there: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Lubuntu%20alternative%20sessions (LXDE + Cairo-Dock + Compton)

No, it's a "custom" website (but you can edit post )
and the main dev no longer develops it and unfortunately, there are other priorities

One request: when you post, it says 'Congratulation' - it should be 'Congratulations'.
Thank you! It's fixed!

charlieg, Monday 12 August 2013 à 23:13


Subscription date : 31 July 2013
Messages : 11
I'm going to try running with gnome-session to see if it is a smoother ride.

Cairo-Dock cafe | Café Cairo-Dock

Subjects Author Language Messages Last message
[Locked] Fedora Spin for CD?
charlieg English 7 charlieg [Read]
12 August 2013 à 23:13


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