customize-lubuntu.md

Lubuntu Live ISO session with helloDesktop key components

This is purely for experimentation and development. It gives you a partial helloDesktop experience on Linux including a work-in-progress from-scratch rewrite of the Filer. For the full experience, use helloSystem.

Instructions

• Run Lubuntu 22.04 Live ISO (on real hardware or in a virtual machine), don't install
• From the Live session, run the script below
• It will customize the running Live session

Noteworthy

• Filer is completely rewritten from scratch. Functionality may be limited (e.g., there is currently no way to copy files yet)
• There is a global menu
• You switch windows with the icon in the upper right-hand corner
• This is a pretty minimal installation. look and feel is still partly Lubuntu and not helloSystem (e.g., KWin decorations, Qt platform plugin and theme are not from helloSystem)
• launch and open are being used instead of XDG for launching applications, opening documents (and protocols)
• You can see and interact with the launch "database" at ~/.local/share/launch

customize-lubuntu.sh

#!/bin/sh

# Exit on errors
set -e

# Be verbose
set -x

# Verify that /cdrom/.disk/info starts with "Lubuntu 22.04"
if ! head -n 1 /cdrom/.disk/info | grep -q "^Lubuntu 22.04" ; then
    echo "This script is only meant to be run on Lubuntu 22.04"
    exit 1
fi

# Check that we are running on X11
if [ "$XDG_SESSION_TYPE" != "x11" ]; then
    echo "This script is only meant to be run on X11"
    exit 1
fi

# If /System exists, the script already ran and we can exit
if [ -d /System ]; then
    echo "Already installed, start ~/startFiler.sh to start the desktop customizations"
    exit 0
fi

# Install prerequisites
# Unfortunately the LxQt theme doesn't seem to support global menus, so we need to install
# the plasma-integration package and set QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=kde
# unless we also install the QtPlugin from helloSystem
sudo apt-get -y update
sudo apt-get -y install baloo-kf5 libqalculate22 plasma-integration libqt5multimedia5 # elementary-xfce-icon-theme
# elementary-xfce-icon-theme is optional but for good looks

# Download and install components
cd ~/Downloads
wget -c https://github.com/helloSystem/Menu/releases/download/continuous/Menu_Ubuntu.zip
wget -c https://github.com/helloSystem/launch/releases/download/continuous/launch_Ubuntu.zip
wget -c https://github.com/probonopd/Filer/releases/download/continuous/Filer_Ubuntu.zip

# Unpack
# Menu_Ubuntu.zip to /System
sudo mkdir -p /System
sudo unzip -o Menu_Ubuntu.zip -d /System
sudo unzip -o Filer_Ubuntu.zip -d /System
sudo unzip -o launch_Ubuntu.zip -d /
cd -

# Write a startup script
cat > ~/startFiler.sh << EOF
#!/bin/sh
export SUDO_ASKPASS=""
export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=1
export GTK_MODULES="appmenu-gtk-module"
export QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=kde
launch Menu &
launch Filer &
killall pcmanfm-qt
killall lxqt-panel # optional
EOF
chmod +x ~/startFiler.sh

mkdir -p ~/.config/autostart/
cat > ~/.config/autostart/Filer.desktop <<\EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Exec=launch Filer
Name=Filer
Type=Application
Version=1.0
EOF

cat > ~/.config/autostart/Menu.desktop <<\EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Exec=launch Menu
Name=Menu
Type=Application
Version=1.0
EOF

mkdir -p ~/.config/lxqt/
cat > ~/.config/lxqt/session.conf <<\EOF
[General]
__userfile__=true

[Environment]
BROWSER=launch Falkon
GTK_CSD=0
GTK_OVERLAY_SCROLLING=0
SAL_USE_VCLPLUGIN=qt5
SAL_VCL_QT5_USE_CAIRO=true
TERM=qterminal
UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=1
SUDO_ASKPASS=""
GTK_MODULES="appmenu-gtk-module"
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=kde
EOF

sudo ln -sf /usr/bin/lxqt-leave /System/Menu.app/Shutdown

# Start the desktop
~/startFiler.sh

# Remove .desktop files from desktop
rm ~/Desktop/*.desktop

# Exit the terminal this script was running in
exit