Anything as "complete" as GNOME?

[arinlares]

So, I'm using Ubuntu 9.04 on an eee 1000ha, and have been searching for a light-weight desktop with all of the nifty features of GNOME, among them, automatic network setup on login, power monitoring, and media-keyboard support (the eee has a special modifier key for this, and allows volume up and down). I've played with a few DEs, specifically XFCE, Fluxbox and LXDE, the latter two for a couple minutes after being unable to find out online about how to configure wireless properly, and I'm not a big fan of how Fluxbox looks. I stopped using XFCE because there was an extra 20MB of RAM being used in the XFCE session that wasn't used in the GNOME session, and there was no volume control.

For the most part, I'm looking for DEs or Window Managers in the Ubuntu repositories, or with an available DEB package, as I'm not comfortable with the idea of compiling the main part of the system I'll be using. Any recommendations?

[reed9]

Outside of KDE, there is no other "complete" desktop environment. Window managers are just that, they manage the windows. You can get most the functionality of GNOME using other programs though.

I use openbox with the xfce power manager, and gigolo for remote filesystem support. Media keys have to be mapped by hand, but it isn't hard. I use Ubuntu's new notification system with a script I found online to an on-screen volume display. You can see it here in the upper right hand corner.



The volume script

#!/bin/sh

usage="usage: $0 -c {up|down|mute} [-i increment] [-m mixer]"
command=
increment=5%
mixer=Master

while getopts i:m:h o
do case "$o" in
    i) increment=$OPTARG;;
    m) mixer=$OPTARG;;
    h) echo "$usage"; exit 0;;
    ?) echo "$usage"; exit 0;;
esac
done

shift $(($OPTIND - 1))
command=$1

if [ "$command" = "" ]; then
    echo "usage: $0 {up|down|mute} [increment]"
    exit 0;
fi

display_volume=0

if [ "$command" = "up" ]; then
    display_volume=$(amixer set $mixer $increment+ unmute | grep -m 1 "%]" | cut -d "[" -f2|cut -d "%" -f1)
fi

if [ "$command" = "down" ]; then
    display_volume=$(amixer set $mixer $increment- unmute | grep -m 1 "%]" | cut -d "[" -f2|cut -d "%" -f1)
fi

icon_name=""

if [ "$command" = "mute" ]; then
    if amixer get Master | grep "\[on\]"; then
        display_volume=0
        icon_name="notification-audio-volume-muted"
        amixer set $mixer mute
    else
        display_volume=$(amixer set $mixer unmute | grep -m 1 "%]" | cut -d "[" -f2|cut -d "%" -f1)
    fi
fi

if [ "$icon_name" = "" ]; then
    if [ "$display_volume" = "0" ]; then
        icon_name="notification-audio-volume-off"
    else
        if [ "$display_volume" -lt "33" ]; then
            icon_name="notification-audio-volume-low"
        else
            if [ "$display_volume" -lt "67" ]; then
                icon_name="notification-audio-volume-medium"
            else
                icon_name="notification-audio-volume-high"
            fi
        fi
    fi
fi
notify-send " " -i $icon_name -h int:value:$display_volume -h string:synchronous:volume

I have it saved in /usr/local/bin as vol.sh and then the openbox keybindings are

<!-- Multimedia Hotkeys -->
    <keybind key="XF86AudioMute">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>/usr/local/bin/vol.sh mute</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>

    <keybind key="XF86AudioRaiseVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>/usr/local/bin/vol.sh up</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>

    <keybind key="XF86AudioLowerVolume">
      <action name="Execute">
        <command>/usr/local/bin/vol.sh down</command>
      </action>
    </keybind>
  </keyboard>

[reed9]

Come to think of it, you might be interested in Crunchbang Linux, if you like Ubuntu but want a lighter desktop.

[arinlares]

Ah, man... I'm away from home for a month or so. I wish I had brought my install USB. I could check that out. I noticed Crunchbang uses Openbox. Might I be able to fill in some stuff (volume, networking) with GNOME services?

And, I thought GNOME was a desktop environment? Or are some of the things simply Ubuntu-specific?

[daark.child]

GNOME is indeeed a desktop environment, just like KDE and to some extent XFCE. Most distros customise the DE's, so GNOME in Ubuntu is not exactly the same as GNOME in Fedora.