# Howto make Enlightenment E26+ look coherent with E16 Retrowave **URL:** \ **Category:** Elive\ **Tags:** enlightenment\ **Created:** [January 16, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/howto-make-enlightenment-e26-look-coherent-with-e16-retrowave/3761 "2024-01-16T17:20:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![triantares](https://forum.elivelinux.org/user_avatar/forum.elivelinux.org/triantares/32/2550_2.png) [@triantares](https://forum.elivelinux.org/u/triantares)\ **Post date:** [January 16, 2024, 5:20pm UTC](https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/howto-make-enlightenment-e26-look-coherent-with-e16-retrowave/3761/1 "2024-01-16T17:20:52Z")
## How to customize current (E26 since 20-1-2024) Enlightenment Desktop - **and why you should run it on Elive.** As many know, Elive uses E16 as the default desktop whilst awaiting a stable iteration of the, curently at E26 Enlightenment Desktop. This is good thinking as E16 is Stable, fast, lightweight and easy to use but there's a downside. _It keeps potential users away from E26 and consequently means less bug hunting or reporting. Slowing down the development even more._ While some major distros like Debian, Red Hat and SuSe have the option to install and use the environment next to their default desktop there's only two distributions that offer Enlightenment by default: Bhodi that uses a forked E17 (reasonably in line with newer E versions) desktop and Elive that comes with E16. - **The world is in need of a dedicated Enlightenment distro** While there are some distros, like [Extontlinux](https://exlight.exton.net/) and mxlinux out there that showcase (amongst others) an Enlightenment pre-installed desktop. None offer much more than the default dark-themed E25, excepting OpenSuse that has done some nice branding on the theme but still requires you to download and install Enlightenment yourself.... as sadly still does Elive too, by the way. 😲 The downside of this DIY method is that the underlying system has some flaws and multiple applications doing the same or even getting in one another's way: Think "connman" and "network-manager" (where one or the other has to be disabled), multiple file managers or (on Elive) multiple settings applications that don't affect Enlightenment. A dedicated Elive-Beta E26 Enlightenment version, leaving out E16 specifics (maybe pulling in some older compatible E17 stuff?) and having a a nicely themed and Elive branded E26 could be beneficial to Elive as well as Enlightenment itself. - **Theming and branding E to co-exist with E16 Retrowave** Awaiting a dedicated Elive-E26+ release we can install the latest Enlightenment from a terminal with a simple: `"apui enlightenment"` command. and a first time run will open to: [![image](https://i.imgur.com/Q6qQqaR.jpg)](https://i.imgur.com/Q6qQqaR.jpg) But I want to create something along the lines of this: [![image](https://i.imgur.com/g4SdAyC.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/g4SdAyC.jpg) As a first I altered the E26 theme, making it darker and going a more magenta/cyan color theme to correspond to the E16 Retrowave theme. I made extensive use of Simon Lees aka [Simotek's scripts](https://github.com/simotek/Enlightenment-Themes) to alter the theme to my wishes. His green ["NeonZ"](https://github.com/simotek/Enlightenment-Themes/releases/tag/20220219.1.26) is quite excellent as is his "[OpenSuse-e](https://github.com/simotek/Enlightenment-Themes/releases/tag/20220219.1.26)" theme. Alas a green setting of Elive would bring us too close to Bodhi or OpenSuse branding which led to the "Elive-E25-Retro" theme as shown above. Downloading and importing the Elive theme(get it [here](https://gitlab.com/Elive/elive-e25-retro-theme/-/raw/main/Elive-E25-Retro.edj)) will not make a real difference and show up something like this: [![image](https://i.imgur.com/hthfNQu.jpg)](https://i.imgur.com/hthfNQu.jpg) Now there's a lot to be changed there and most of it can be done from within E itself. 1. I personally don't like those icons on my desktop. I find them clunky and ugly, so let's remove them by unchecking the appropriate checkbox. 2. The default E icon set isn't a good fit with Retrowave so we'll see about using the "beauty-line" icon set that E16 has available. 3. Next we'll give the iBar down below a make-over by splitting it into 3 different shelves. Each with different content like the pager that gives access to different desktops as well as a separate systray. 4. The shelf containing the pager will contain 4 desktops in a row, as they were when they were part of the iBar shelf. To have more rows you need to go to "settings", "screens","virtual desktops" and use the sliders there until you're happy. - [![image](https://i.imgur.com/gP3eOrY.png)](https://i.imgur.com/gP3eOrY.png) Then resize and style that shelf/pager to your liking. Where I'd advise to make it big enough to discern the contained open apps and set it it "autohide" so that it doesn't take away too much screen real estate. Opened new windows will "dodge" the shelf if it's visible and set at a top level. Setting it at a lower (or lowest) level would make it inaccessible if a window blocks it from view. 1. The clock in the systray shelf is set to use the digital version but there's also an analog version. Where if you're feeling nostalgicly inclined to old-Stable's clock on the desktop .... you can create an extra shelf containing just that and have it hover somewhere on the desktop. The downside is that there'll always be something covering it, requiring a shift to a clean desktop to read the time. 2. If you've got arunning E16 alongside (which you probably have on Elive) you'll have "network-manager" in use, not the "connman" that E expects. I'm sure I left out a few things that aren't as clear to a newcomer as I'd think or expect. Please do tell me if I did and what you think I missed here. ---
**Author:** ![triki1](https://forum.elivelinux.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@triki1](https://forum.elivelinux.org/u/triki1)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 11:44am UTC](https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/howto-make-enlightenment-e26-look-coherent-with-e16-retrowave/3761/2 "2024-09-07T11:44:09Z")
Hello I use Pclinuxos on one PC, OnlyHumain creates very good E.x iso here is the latest E26, for those who want to test. For my part I created a small bash script to install E version git and these addons. Is there a script on Elive to install E26? Can it coexist with E16. Very good reading thank you. E26 pclinuxos > **[OnlyHuman-enlightenment-026.0-20240620.iso](https://nc.phillw.org/index.php/s/PPYdoMJyoCCs67Z)** > > Nextcloud - a safe home for all your data ---
**Author:** ![triantares](https://forum.elivelinux.org/user_avatar/forum.elivelinux.org/triantares/32/2550_2.png) [@triantares](https://forum.elivelinux.org/u/triantares)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 1:53pm UTC](https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/howto-make-enlightenment-e26-look-coherent-with-e16-retrowave/3761/3 "2024-09-07T13:53:54Z")
Actually on Elive the only thing you need to do to install the latest and greatest Enlightenment next to E16 from git (currently 26.0 from GIT at 20240806 ergo 6th Aug. 2024 so a month or 2 newer) is: `apui enlightenment` in a terminal. Elive will ALWAYS have the very latest version available but still considers that Enlightenment version unstable (it is!!), hence E16 as the default choice. ~~Maybe I should've~~ It is explicitly mentioned in the initial HowTo. 🤔 The posted above changes were meant to bring Retrowave and Enlightenment a tad closer in look&feel. ---
**Author:** ![triki1](https://forum.elivelinux.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/t/7ab992/32.png) [@triki1](https://forum.elivelinux.org/u/triki1)\ **Post date:** [September 7, 2024, 3:09pm UTC](https://forum.elivelinux.org/t/howto-make-enlightenment-e26-look-coherent-with-e16-retrowave/3761/4 "2024-09-07T15:09:37Z")
thanks, I'm going to install E26 on elive. I find the retrowave wallpaper very beautiful, and would like to try to animate this background. I'm not a pro, but I manage with enventor. some examples of my wallpapers here. > **[Browse E Animated Backgrounds Latest |...](https://www.enlightenment-themes.org/browse?cat=168&ord=latest)** > > Browse E Animated Backgrounds Latest | https://www.enlightenment-themes.org/browse?cat=168&ord=latest | A community for free and open source software and libre content