Common Desktop Environment Thread
by ziprun from LinuxQuestions.org on (#59FPT)
I want more people to know about CDE or Common Desktop Environment so I made a guide how to set it up. It uses motif rather than gtk or qt and has a very unique feeling compared to other desktop environments as it has a very classic look to it. It used to be proprietary, but was open sourced along with motif in 2012. I would say despite a few bumps here and there, it is indeed usable and if more people were using it, it would be even better. The wiki on sourceforge says it was tested for slackware 14.0 64 bit. I installed it in slackware 14.2 64 bit and had no problems. I'm going to list install instructions so if you want to test it out, you can too. The sets A, AP, D, L, N, TCL, X, and XAP should cover almost all required dependencies. If you don't want to install the entire sets, the wiki lists required packages for distros like debian and you can match them with the slackware versions (See link at the bottom for the wiki). Let me know if a set truly isn't required or if another one is required. There is just one or two more programs you need to install before compiling CDE.
1. Additional prerequisites
1. cd /usr/lib64/locale/ (This is for locales required. I haven't tested it for 32 bit slackware, but should work with /usr/lib rather than /usr/lib64)
Now as root run:
ln -s de_DE de_DE.ISO-8859-1
ln -s es_ES es_ES.ISO-8859-1
ln -s fr_FR fr_FR.ISO-8859-1
ln -s it_IT it_IT.ISO-8859-1
2. Install additional dependencies.
If you're using slackware 14.1 and older, you need openmotif (remember to get the version of openmotif that matches your version of slackware. 14.2 does not need openmotif because it comes with motif).
You also need xlt regardless of what version of slackware you have. If you have slackware 14.2, this is the only required additional dependency. Again, remember to install the correct version of xlt to your version of slackware.
3. Make a symlink nawk to gawk. Slackware doesn't come with nawk, but the good news is that a simple symlink rather than installing nawk will suffice.
ln -s /bin/gawk /bin/nawk (run it as root).
4. Startup rpcbind (run as root)
chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.rpc
/etc/rc.d/rc.rpc start
2. Compiling Common Desktop Environment
Now that we have made a few changes to prepare for CDE, it's time to compile it. Grab the latest source from here and if you prefer to have bleeding edge git grab it from Code:git clone https://git.code.sf.net/p/cdesktopenv/code cdesktopenv-codeI generally find the source package to be dependable but more outdated than git. Whichever one you want is your choice. Lets say you have it setup as /root/cde-2.3.2/ (You don't have to compile it in /root, I'm just using this as example sake), in cde-2.3.2 run as root "make World" without the quotation marks and it will begin compiling. Give it about 5 or 10 minutes to compile and it will let you know that it is done compiling when it's finished. Assuming you compiled it in /root/cde-2.3.2 and you're in that directory type as root Code:./admin/IntegTools/dbTools/installCDE -s /root/cde-2.3.2/ and it will put the final touches on the installation. You also should run "mkdir -p /var/spool/calendar" as root as well. Congratulations, assuming nothing went wrong, you have installed Common Desktop Environment.
3. Running Common Desktop Environment
You can log off root now and run as a regular user (You may need to return to root for some of the next steps depending on how you want to launch CDE). You have the choices of using a login manager like lightdm, login using dtlogin, or plain old startx on the console.
1. lightdm and others
As root user run "cp /path/to/cdesktopenv-code/cde/contrib/desktopentry/cde.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/" and you should be able to now use CDE as your session.
2. dtlogin
Kill off lightdm or any other dm if you have it enabled and then type as root "/usr/dt/bin/dtlogin -daemon" and you can now use dtlogin to sign in.
3. startx
As the user you want to use, type "startx /usr/dt/bin/Xsession" and you will be in Common Desktop Environment.
AND THAT'S IT!
Only took about 10 minutes or so and you have a very good desktop environment to use. If you have any questions or problems, just ask away and I'll try to help as the best I can.
Sources:It would be beneficial to post any bugs you discover on the discussion forums or the mailing list on sourceforge. Thanks for reading, enjoy Common Desktop Environment.
Attached Thumbnails
1. Additional prerequisites
1. cd /usr/lib64/locale/ (This is for locales required. I haven't tested it for 32 bit slackware, but should work with /usr/lib rather than /usr/lib64)
Now as root run:
ln -s de_DE de_DE.ISO-8859-1
ln -s es_ES es_ES.ISO-8859-1
ln -s fr_FR fr_FR.ISO-8859-1
ln -s it_IT it_IT.ISO-8859-1
2. Install additional dependencies.
If you're using slackware 14.1 and older, you need openmotif (remember to get the version of openmotif that matches your version of slackware. 14.2 does not need openmotif because it comes with motif).
You also need xlt regardless of what version of slackware you have. If you have slackware 14.2, this is the only required additional dependency. Again, remember to install the correct version of xlt to your version of slackware.
3. Make a symlink nawk to gawk. Slackware doesn't come with nawk, but the good news is that a simple symlink rather than installing nawk will suffice.
ln -s /bin/gawk /bin/nawk (run it as root).
4. Startup rpcbind (run as root)
chmod +x /etc/rc.d/rc.rpc
/etc/rc.d/rc.rpc start
2. Compiling Common Desktop Environment
Now that we have made a few changes to prepare for CDE, it's time to compile it. Grab the latest source from here and if you prefer to have bleeding edge git grab it from Code:git clone https://git.code.sf.net/p/cdesktopenv/code cdesktopenv-codeI generally find the source package to be dependable but more outdated than git. Whichever one you want is your choice. Lets say you have it setup as /root/cde-2.3.2/ (You don't have to compile it in /root, I'm just using this as example sake), in cde-2.3.2 run as root "make World" without the quotation marks and it will begin compiling. Give it about 5 or 10 minutes to compile and it will let you know that it is done compiling when it's finished. Assuming you compiled it in /root/cde-2.3.2 and you're in that directory type as root Code:./admin/IntegTools/dbTools/installCDE -s /root/cde-2.3.2/ and it will put the final touches on the installation. You also should run "mkdir -p /var/spool/calendar" as root as well. Congratulations, assuming nothing went wrong, you have installed Common Desktop Environment.
3. Running Common Desktop Environment
You can log off root now and run as a regular user (You may need to return to root for some of the next steps depending on how you want to launch CDE). You have the choices of using a login manager like lightdm, login using dtlogin, or plain old startx on the console.
1. lightdm and others
As root user run "cp /path/to/cdesktopenv-code/cde/contrib/desktopentry/cde.desktop /usr/share/xsessions/" and you should be able to now use CDE as your session.
2. dtlogin
Kill off lightdm or any other dm if you have it enabled and then type as root "/usr/dt/bin/dtlogin -daemon" and you can now use dtlogin to sign in.
3. startx
As the user you want to use, type "startx /usr/dt/bin/Xsession" and you will be in Common Desktop Environment.
AND THAT'S IT!
Only took about 10 minutes or so and you have a very good desktop environment to use. If you have any questions or problems, just ask away and I'll try to help as the best I can.
Sources:It would be beneficial to post any bugs you discover on the discussion forums or the mailing list on sourceforge. Thanks for reading, enjoy Common Desktop Environment.
Attached Thumbnails