[ALPHA 2 - DEC 22] Arch Linux ARM + Gnome 3

[luk4s]

Since I already have CM7 on my touchpad /boot is full.

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Filesystem                Size      Used Available Use% Mounted on
/dev/root                31.0M     30.3M    656.0K  98% /boot

Is there a way to expand /boot to make space for the ArchARM uImage?
It's quite strange that there seems to be no /dev/root.
EDIT: It seems like it's /dev/mmcblk0p13

[amenditman]

I got LXDE up and running. Very easy, and small enough to add beside GNOME.

After booting to Arch, connect to network with wifi/wicd and run

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pacman -Syu

.

Then run the following

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pacman -S libfm lxappearance lxde-common lxde-icon-theme lxdm lxlauncher lxmenu-data lxpanel lxrandr lxsession lxtask lxterminal menu-cache openbox pcmanfm

You cannot use

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pacman -S lxde

It errors with package incompatibility because it contains both lxsession and lxsession-lite.
Then run

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pacman -S pyxdg

which might be unnecessary.
Then you need to move three files

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mv /etc/xdg/openbox/menu/xml ~/.config/openbox
mv /etc/xdg/openbox/rc.xml ~/.config/openbox
mv /etc/xdg/openbox/autostart ~/.config/openbox

Then you need to add the daemon to /etc/rc.conf

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nano /etc/rc.conf

Scroll to the bottom of the file, add lxdm at the end of the daemons line (inside the parenthesis).
Then comment out the Gnome autostart in /etc/inittab

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nano /etc/inittab

Scroll down to find the lines under # Example lines for starting a login manager and add a '#' in front of

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x:5:respawn:/usr/bin/slim >/dev/null 2?&1

Reboot and log in to either of the installed Desktop Environments (LXDE and GNOME) with the Desktop chooser in bottom bar. Only choose LXDE or Gnome, the other choices are not really available even though they are in the drop-down.

The keyboard under Accessories works correctly. LXDE seems to be much more stable and responsive than Gnome.
I still want Plasma Active, but this will do for now.

[crimsonredmk]

jcsullins is working on Bluetooth right now - he has access to CyaogenMod source and until it's released to the public we can't move forward. Same with ALSA.

I was thinking about trying out DirectFB or something along those lines, since that's how webOS uses hardware acceleration, with EGL too. But kmihelich was working on the X drivers, so I don't quite know where this all stands.

[amenditman]

Got both LXDE and KDE Plasma Mobile installed and working.

Installed size and features
Gnome don't know size - kind of the middle of the bunch
LXDE 24.32 MB - small, fast, weak on interface features
KDE 666.05 MB - big, slow response to input, lots of things need work
E17 45.43 MB - best of the bunch by far
Using the LXDM login to switch between them at boot, see post above. You must have the external keyboard to use this, otherwise you need to set it up to login automatically without asking for a username or password.

EDIT - Figured out how the system boots to the desktop without asking for a username or password. Yay!

[kmihelich]

Plasma Active won't really be a viable option until we figure out accelerated display.. too much graphical stuff. It's also going through rapid development so I'd rather wait for things to smooth out a bit more. Also need to see if I can trim down the massive install size, though the official testing ISOs weigh in around the same so I don't have a whole lot of hope for that.

Plasma Active also should be built against newer versions of KDE stuff than we have, at this stage preferably git versions.. another reason for waiting for development on it to smooth out and get more in line with release versions. Rebuilding and maintain git versions of everything needed is something I just don't have the time for right now.

[amenditman]

Plasma Active won't really be a viable option until we figure out accelerated display.. too much graphical stuff. It's also going through rapid development so I'd rather wait for things to smooth out a bit more. Also need to see if I can trim down the massive install size, though the official testing ISOs weigh in around the same so I don't have a whole lot of hope for that.

Plasma Active also should be built against newer versions of KDE stuff than we have, at this stage preferably git versions.. another reason for waiting for development on it to smooth out and get more in line with release versions. Rebuilding and maintain git versions of everything needed is something I just don't have the time for right now.

It definitely has a way to go, but it is not really old. Most of the KDE backend it installed was 4.7.
Let's wait and see where it goes. I have a 32GB TP and no CM on it, so I have the space to spare. I am going to leave it installed and watch the updates as they flow out.

Next experiment will be to install and figure out E17.

[amenditman]

OK, I deleted all KDE stuff and LXDE stuff to get a better feel for E17. I left LXDM as login manager and installed the e17 stuff following the ArchWiki Enlightenment page. Installed the base and extras. It is 45.43 MB and has all the features and configuration you could ever want. Touchscreen has better functionality than any of the others (Gnome, KDE, LXDE).

It's a little annoying that it has all the Gnome stuff on the desktop and in the menus. I would really like to try to set this up from a raw command line only Arch install.

[kmihelich]

I personally use e17 on mine. I have the KDE stuff installed on the side but I never got it working well enough. Illume has some rough spots and things that could probably be better, but out of everything I've used so far I still like it the most.

[amenditman]

How did you set up the loader so that you don't need the keyboard to login? Is it possible to have it load all the way to the desktop without having to log in? I have tried a bunch of options from different pages in the ArchWiki, but been unable to get the right combination.

It's a pain to fix when it fails to load at all.

Any help on that would be appreciated.

EDIT
It obviously is not using ~/.xinitrc because changes to that file to start enlightenment not gnome have no effect. Even commenting out all the x:5:respawn... lines makes no difference.

EDIT
Only one change to the /home/linux/.xinitrc file and it boots. Following these instructions, http://trac.enlightenment.org/e/wiki/St ... mmand_line, found the file at /usr/bin and entered

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/usr/bin/enlightenment_start

in the .xinitrc file and commented out the gnome-session line.

EDIT
It appears that the OS has a way of falling back to Gnome as the default if the entry in ~/.xinitrc fails or is non-existant.

[amenditman]

One thing I've been meaning to mention.

The inductive charger works with this Arch install.

Kudos to the devs for that. I can charge it on the stand while I have the keyboard rig set up.

Thank You!!!