This guide explains the steps you need to install Enlightenment Desktop in Arch Linux.
This guide has two parts. The first part deals with installing the base Arch system. The second part is installing the complete Enlightenment desktop environment on top of Arch Linux.
Table of Contents
What is Enlightenment Desktop
Enlightenment is one of the oldest window manager, compositor for X11 in Linux. It is more than a decade old and one of the first “eye-candy” desktop. It consists of core libraries called EFL (Enlightenment Foundation Libraries) which provides features such as widgets, networking, graphics and more. Enlightenment evolved over the years to be suitable for Mobiles, Wearables, TV UI and of course vanilla desktop environment. It provides a standard menu, icon driven desktop with its own native applications. With the help of a suitable display manager, it can be a full-fledged productive desktop.
Install Enlightenment Desktop in Arch Linux
Part 1: Install Arch Linux
If you have already Arch Linux installed, you can skip this step and directly go to the installation of Enlightenment Desktop section below.
For a quick Arch Linux base installation, follow the automated archinstall guide, which is present in the below link.
if you prefer the older/legacy way of installing Arch, then follow the steps below.
Download Arch Linux
Download Arch Linux .iso from the below link. There are magnet and torrent links available. Once you download, write the ISO to a USB drive. And then boot from the drive.
If you are planning to install it as a virtual machine image via GNOME Boxes, virt-manager – then you do not need to write it to a USB drive.
Boot and Configure Partitions
After you boot from the Arch Linux iso, you have to run a series of commands to install the base system.
First, run the below command to find out the device identifier.
fdisk -l
Then with the device identifier, run the below command to start partitioning your disk. Make sure to change /dev/sda as per your system.
cfdisk /dev/sda
Select label type = dos in the next prompt.
Select the free space and choose option NEW from the bottom. In this example, I will create three partitions as per below.
/dev/sda1 - 1G - for /boot
/dev/sda2 - 5G - for root
/dev/sda3 - 1G - for swap
In the next screen provide partition size for the boot partition (for this example, I gave 1 GB). Select it as the primary partition.
Repeat the same step for the main root partition of size 5GB.
Create a swap partition using the same steps with size 1G (you may change it as per your need). After you create the swap partition, make sure to choose Type at the bottom and mark it as a swap with the option “Linux Swap/Solaris”.
Once done, write the changes to the disk using the Write option at the bottom. Make sure you take a backup before you write as this is a permanent change in your system.
Run the below command to check before you proceed. You can see in this example, three partitions are listed.
fdisk -l
Run the following commands in sequence to format and create an ext4 file system in the newly created partition above. Make sure you change the /dev/sda1 and /dev/sda2 as per your need.
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda1
mkfs.ext4 /dev/sda2
mkswap /dev/sda3
swapon /dev/sda3
After completion, mount the system and create necessary directories.
mount /dev/sda2 /mnt
mkdir /mnt/boot /mnt/var /mnt/home
mount /dev/sda1 /mnt/boot
Again, make sure you change /dev/sda1, /dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3 as per your system.
Install the base system
I hope you are already connected to the internet. If not, try using a USB dongle or wired internet connection, which Arch installer automatically configure and detect. If you do not have a wired connection available, follow this guide to configure a wireless or Wi-Fi network using Arch Linux installer.
Run the below commands in sequence to install the base system in the mounted partition. The download size is approx 400 MB.
pacman -Syy
pacstrap /mnt base base-devel linux linux-firmware nano dhcpcd net-tools grub
Once complete, generate a file system table, without which you can’t boot the system.
genfstab -U /mnt >> /mnt/etc/fstab
Configure the base system
Follow the below commands in sequence to configure the base system. This involves setting up your locale, language, add a login user, and setting up the internet.
arch-chroot /mnt
nano /etc/locale.gen
Uncomment the locale of your choice by removing # at the beginning. For this guide, I have chosen en_US.UTF-8 UTF-8. Press CTRL+O, Enter, and CTRL+X to exit from nano.
Generate the locale using:
locale-gen
Setup the language using the below command.
echo LANG=en_US.UTF-8 > /etc/locale.conf
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8
Setup the local time zone.
ln -s /usr/share/zoneinfo/America/New_York /etc/localtime
Again, you can choose them as per your need. You can list the local timezones via the below commands.
ls /usr/share/zoneinfo ls /usr/share/zoneinfo/America
Set up the hardware clock, create a hostname, and enable the DHCP for the internet using the below commands in sequence. You can change "arindam-pc" to any hostname as per your desire.
hwclock --systohc --utc
echo arindam-pc > /etc/hostname
systemctl enable dhcpcd
The next step is to set up the root user password, create an admin user, and add the user in the sudoers file.
Follow the below commands in sequence. Make sure to change the user name from debugpoint to something else as per your need.
passwd root
useradd -m -g users -G wheel -s /bin/bash debugpoint
passwd debugpoint
Open the sudoers file and add the below lines.
nano /etc/sudoers
Add below lines. As you already created the root user, the entry should be there.
root ALL=(ALL) ALL
debugpoint ALL=(ALL) ALL
Install grub, setup the initial ramdisk environment, unmount the system using the below commands in sequence.
grub-install /dev/sda
grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
mkinitcpio -p linux
exit
Then reboot your system.
umount /mnt/boot
umount /mnt
reboot
You have now successfully installed the Arch Linux base system. It’s time to install the complete Enlightenment desktop.
Part 2: Install Enlightenment Desktop in Arch Linux
After reboot, choose Arch Linux from grub. In the Arch Linux prompt, start running the following commands in sequence. These commands install Xorg server, display manager, Enlightenment desktop components and EFL.
For all the commands use default i.e. press enter when asked.
- Install Xorg. Approx install size is 80 MB.
sudo pacman -S --needed xorg
- Install display manager. I have used lightdm for this guide. You can choose any alternative display manager of your choice.
sudo pacman -S --needed lightdm lightdm-gtk-greeter
- Install desktop
The Enlightenment desktop requires the Enlightenment Foundation Library (EFL) and base enlightenment package. Both are in Arch community repo. You can install them using the below commands.
sudo pacman -S efl
sudo pacman -S enlightenment
Above two are enough for a basic desktop. If you need additional native applications of this desktop, you need to set up AUR and follow the instruction here.
Make sure to install the terminal and some additional apps.
sudo pacman -S --needed terminology sudo pacman -S --needed firefox vlc filezilla leafpad xscreensaver archlinux-wallpaper
Now it’s time to enable the display manager and network manager as service. So that next time you log on, they can run automatically by systemd.
systemctl enable lightdm systemctl enable NetworkManager
Reboot the system using the reboot command.
reboot
If all goes well, you should see a login prompt. Login using the ID and password you created above. Then Enlightenment desktop require some initial setup. Follow the onscreen instructions.
And after setup, you should see the nice Enlightenment Desktop.
I hope this guide helps you create your own Arch Linux environment with Enlightenment desktop from scratch. If you run into trouble, let me know using the comment box below.
