Re: Debian is ugly -- package for beautification?
On Sat, 14 May 2005 09:55:06 -0400
Bob Freemer <bob.freemer@medomics.com> wrote:
> Quick one as I couldn't find elsewhere. Libranet, ubuntu, knoppix,
> etc. all have very nice login prompts, default color for "ls,"
> high-resolution console bootup, etc. I agree these should not be part
> of a default install, but is there a simple meta-package or something
> that could customize the system scripts to make things a bit
> "prettier?"
"apt-get install gdm" if you don't have it already. Then click on
Actions -> Customize Login manager. Tell it to use the Graphical Greeter
and click the appropriate tab to edit the Graphical Greeter.
(Alternatively, kdm is pretty fancy as well, but I'm not as familiar
with customizing it.)
Then edit ~/.bashrc and look at the section marked "# enable color
support of ls...".
I can think of several things that might be a "high-resolution console
bootup. If your definition of a "high-resolution console bootup" is
simply a smaller font size and the Tux or Debian logo at the top of the
screen, you need to look into framebuffer support. This might be as
simple as a boot option to the kernel, or as hard as compiling your own
kernel - but Google can tell you for sure. If you want a fancy
bootsplash screen that shows the progress during boot time, you need to
Google and be prepared to get your hands dirty - those packages and
kernel patches haven't made it into Debian yet. If you simply want a
nice image background when you're selecting which kernel to boot, Google
for "lilo boot bitmap" - this one's pretty easy.
Sorry, I don't know of a meta-package that would do all of that, but it
might be a good idea. Did you say you wanted to become a Debian
Developer? :-) But then again, I've found it's really pretty easy to get
my system as pretty as I want it (and then some - KDE is full of bloat
and slows down my 2Ghz computer w/1GB of ram too much).
HTH,
Jacob
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