KARMEN: Elektra i686 Release News

[machinebacon]

Elektra is the first of a bunch of 'special' desktop systems here at the grill. Featuring the Karmen window manager, Elektra is not only extremely lightweight (forget Coal, Proof and the like) but also a perfect training system for those who start digging deeper into pure Linux.

What can Elektra not do for you?
- You have no automounting of existing partitions and NTFS drives
- the printing system is not installed
- there are just a handful of GTK apps, namely Mirage, the Installer, the BBQ tools and to some extend the Roaster browser.
- no consolekit, no policykit, so you have to care for permissions yourself
- Ceni is the only network assistant
- all default apps (except of the browser) are terminal apps

So WTF should I try Elektra?
- you will learn how to work with zsh instead of bash
- everything related to luxury services (automounting, policies, installation of packages) has to be carried out by yourself
- Karmen is a very simplistic/simplicistic window manager, there is no asslicking and no shiny effects - enjoy computing like in the 90s
- with every package you install you will see how much cruft and bloat is loaded with it. You will learn to make sensible choices, hopefully!
- you will fall in love with TUIs instead of GUIs

Again, this is something for curious people and not for clickybuntu pussies. Forget Elektra if you want to have all-in-one. She'll blow your brains out ;)
(Nah, not so serious, actually)

Elektra is i686 and always will be. As a little hint: check the .xbindkeysrc file for shortcuts and the .xinitrc for your startup apps.

What is included?
- Karmen window manager
- roaster browser and xlinks2 for purists
- CLI tools from abook to zsh (as default shell)
- disk-manager (GUI for writing partitions into fstab)
- feh and mirage as porn viewer
- some fb* tools for framebuffer mode
- the usual BBQ tools (they usually start with bbq, so use tab-completion to find them)
- the newest 3.10 kernel from the uncles at siduction
- that's all, actually

http://sourceforge.net/projects/linuxbbq/files/Karmen/

[DebianJoe]

Sung to the tune of "ain't no sunshine."

"Ain't no Iso at SourceForge" dun dun dun
"I checked the link but they gone away" dun dun dun
"Ain't no Iso at SourceForge, so I can't into zsh, every time...now I can't play" dun dun dun

[machinebacon]

Yup, needs 9 minutes 30 seconds :)

A few minutes later:
linuxbbq-elektra32.iso 94% 394MB 65.9KB/s 06:18 ETA

[DebianJoe]

<-Alpha tester on top of their game. :P

[machinebacon]

You'll definitely be the first one :)

Ever had Karmen?

[DebianJoe]

No sir, I sure haven't. She looks nice and skinny, though.

[machinebacon]

It's done, dear Sir. Have a bite :)

[DebianJoe]

Bretty good. I made a little fall-back so that I could get around and read man pages with the wm up and try to remember what all was in .xbindkeysrc.

Code: Select all

#!/bin/sh
xrdb -merge ~/.Xresources
xsetroot -cursor_name left_ptr &
xbindkeys &
dzenbar &
karmen &
exec xterm

That at least let me get around without being totally lost inside of Karmen so that I could play with it up and running. I like it. Once I figured out the binds, I managed to get around with her just fine. I strongly recommend this spin because it doesn't have so very much useless crap. *DJ's Seal of Approval*

[machinebacon]

Yep, check the .xbindkeysrc file to see (and change) the desired shortcuts.

Alt - Shift - Enter opens a new terminal, Alt - F1 pops up the CLI menu

[DebianJoe]

^^ Probably good info, as it would have saved me a reboot the frist time around. For whatever reason, I went in with guns blazing and didn't pay attention to the fact that you'd used similar binds to what was in GangBang. I didn't even check. I just "startx" without any regard to knowing what is going to happen. This method hasn't failed me yet. :D

[machinebacon]

Well my dear Sir, read the release notes in post #1 :))

As a little hint: check the .xbindkeysrc file for shortcuts and the .xinitrc for your startup apps.

[bones]

Elektra sounds like a sexy little bitch, I'll give her a spin after I'm done with the previous half-dozen things you've released this week, lol.

[pidsley]

Downloaded. Will install later. What made you pick Karmen as WM? Just so you could call the spin "Elektra"? :)

[DebianJoe]

Well my dear Sir, read the release notes in post #1 :))

No! I don't read release notes! I break things first and ask questions later...but not on forums, as I'm cool with taking responsibility for my own borkage. If I break it, I'll fix it. I read man/info pages, and figure out where I did something stupid. I've learned more from doing it wrong that doing it by the book could ever teach. :))

@Bones, don't let the shiny distractions fool you...this might be the best release from Bacon to date. I'd actually use this with only minor changes.

[machinebacon]

@bones: do it :)
@pidsley: it's your fault! After all, karmen was left out from the gangbang. And yes, Karmen Elektra, you understand it right :))
@debjoe: glad to hear it works for you ;)

[dkeg]

looks to be a pretty sexy release. Let me give it a whirl on my stick

[bones]

@Bones, don't let the shiny distractions fool you...this might be the best release from Bacon to date. I'd actually use this with only minor changes.

I know you're right, DJ, I can feel myself nearing the plunge into this territory. Hey, aren't you supposed to be camping or some shit?

[DebianJoe]

Not yet...I'm getting my stuff together over this weekend and won't be out of pocket until Monday. Take the plunge, you won't regret it. I personally believe that good choices in software come from actually seeing what all they entail during the download.

[dkeg]

Fuck I dd'd onto sda ... Motherfucker

[machinebacon]

this time: testdisk
next time: sudo bbqusb