Debian 8 Jessie Linux and Enlightenment E17 on an Old Desktop

My search continues for possible Linux operating systems for an old desktop. I have successfully installed Puppy Linux Tahrpup 6.0.5 and it runs very well. I wondered if a fresh Debian 8 Jessie server install coupled with a lightweight desktop such as Enlightenment E17 would work. I was pleasantly surprised. It does.

My old desktop is circa 2003, so about 14 years old. I say circa because it originally came with Windows ME, of year 2000 vintage. The desktop is a Pentium 3 800 mhz, 500mb ram and some disk, partitioned for multiple Linux test distributions. It can boot up from a CD but not a USB. I want these Linux installs to be as small as possible, preferably below the 2G disk mark. I allocated 4G for the root partition.

Debian 8 Jessie Install
I’m new to Debian but not to Ubuntu. I chose Debian 8 Jessie because it is stable and was coupled with Enlightenment by many people, who praised its stability and efficiency for old computers. The Debian install was done using their netinstall. This install starts on the CD but uses a live internet connection to suck down the rest. All Debian installs start with the same base installation.

After using nothing but E19 for the last few months as my primary desktop and then coming back to E17 in the last couple of days, I have to say I am wondering myself what we really gained by making the move.

With E17 we have a faster desktop, a better selection of modules in terms of things like engage / comp-scale, and we have extra things E19 is missing like a functional xembed systray and advanced themeing features.

source: bohdi linux dev

I could have tried Debian 9 Stretch, their newest version, but it was not sufficiently tested on the Enlightenment Experimental desktop. E17 was proven to work. So be it.

Enlightenment Desktop
Enlightenment has been around for a long time. It started as a windows manager in 1997. E17 was released in 2012.

The first version of Enlightenment was released by Rasterman (Carsten Haitzler) in 1997.[5]

Version 0.17, also referred to as E17, was in development for 12 years starting in December 2000[6] until 21 December 2012 when it was officially released as stable.[7] During the development period it was also referred to as DR17 (Development Release 17).

source: Wikipedia

Enlightenment is supposed to be a light weight desktop and thus a good candidate for old computers. I had to try it. Even LXDE was a bit too slow on my old PC. The current version of Enlightenment is E21. There are packages out there for E17, E19 and others, which makes it easier to put things together.

I initially started with the instructions for Enlightenment Experimental. Following their instructions I was left with a laundry list of unmet dependencies and an unhappy Debian OS. I quickly abandoned this route.

Instead I went with an officially blessed Debian E17 Package. It installed like a dream, without the errors I was receiving from Experimental.

Other Packages Required
With Debian 8 Jessie server and E17 installed, I still could not run. I did recall the instructions from Enlightenment Experimental:

Run-time requirements
A minimum run-time environment requires:
apt install dbus-x11 xinit xorg

Packages to add:
-sudo
-e17
-xinit
-xorg

In terminal I did an “startx” and Enlightenment came to life. Total space to get this distribution functional was 1.22G disk.

Adding a Web Browser
Being lightweight, Enlightenment does not come with much. I needed a browser. Initially I tried Midori but it had no official Jessie package. I tried to download it from the Midori site and install it but the install did some repeating errors in Terminal so i had to abort it.

I also tried Arora but found it hesitating and occasionally freezing up. Out it went.

I did try Opera, which did not install well and was larger than Firefox. Maybe I did something wrong?

Firefox-esr was familiar and it worked. It has its own Jessie package and was simple to install. After adding Firefox-esr I was using 1.58G of disk space.

Debian Jessie, Enlightenment Performance
Remember that this is a desktop that is over 14 years old, so performance expectations are low. Everything included does run. I can only open two tabs in Firefox, otherwise the PC does become sluggish.

Security
As with my other OS tests, I try to hack into the system using Nmap, Metasploit and Armitage. Debian/Enlightenment only has a single port, tcp on 111, open and does not reveal its OS or version. There were few possible vulnerabilities highlighted in Armitage, all related to Samba, but no exploit worked.

E17 Themes
There are not a lot of themes for Enlightenment, but they do look nice. I’ll be looking for more. They are difficult to find. Some themes are not recognized by the theme importer. Themes are specific to E16, E17, E19, etc, so try the right one. Use the theme import button at the top of the theme window.

• Enlightenment themes
• Morning Sunshine – OpenGEU default Theme
• Bohdi
• Dali 1
• Dali 2
• Relight: Changes the highlight colour but not the dark background
• Snowblind is just a grey background, not the actual theme
• BlingBling

Chinese Display and Input

I did add FCITX-Sunpinyin Chinese input, which put the total at 1.9G disk.

Questions about Enlightenment
The base theme has a thermometer on the bottom toolbar, with no mention of its function. I think it is the CPU temperature but am unsure. The other issue is that there is an American flag on the bottom toolbar, denoting that I am using an American keyboard layout. While this is true, as a Canadian I would rather not have an American flag displayed on my desktop.

One odd UI issue is that from the background you need to click the left mouse button to bring up the application menu. On most other systems you click the right mouse button. In E17 when you are within an application and want options you use your right mouse button, as with other systems. This inconsistency is a bit odd. I also did notice this when I tried out Bohdi Linux, which is based on Debian and E17.

Overall I am happy with Debian 8 Jessie and Enlightenment E17. Together they make my old desktop sing again. I will try to install different themes and tools. Overall the more I use it I am really liking E17.