Version 0.3 of Aurora DE is
released. Go and check it out!
Hi y'all

I'm developing kind of a new DE, and a good looking one, too. I'll have all the details in my head, and it's all good except the layout of the UI.
As you all can see in the screenshots (and yes, it is 100% functional, or 99% at least) I'm for now using a Windows XP-cloned UI, which I myself don't like. But I've failed in engineering a new one, and so I need your help.
Anyone who has an idea on how a good UI shall look (themeable, not XP, GNOME or KDE), tell me. Send in drawings or other stuff to my email: tommy.brander@gmail.com and I'll shall review everything that comes in.
I'm in need of your help.
Best Regards, Tommy
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To install:
Make sure you have gtkmm and wncklib installed, then install aurora-library and thereafter aurora-panel and/or imageviewer
Ratings & Comments
71 Comments
I was so happy to try this out and aparrently the file is missing.
I use FC4 and I have successfully complied aurora panel 0.3. However, as I tried to execute it, a following error occured: aurora-panel: error while loading shared libraries: libalib.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory Do you know what is the problem, and how do I solve it? I would be very graveful if you could help me~
Well, first the obvious: have you compiled and installed the aurora-library? That should make the trick =) Else, what is the path?
hey, I installed bot the packages using the instuction sin the readme and it seems to have worked. However when i run aurora-panel in terminal it reads: Testing files: MenuBuilder Error: System menu does not exist. Disabling. done Loading files: done Building menues: done Building item list: done Killed aurora-panel apears in my system monitor but it does nothing at takes up all my resourses. Thanks a lot
Okey, thanks for the bug report. This is because the applications.menu file is not detrected på aurora-panel. it's probably in /etc/xdg/menus. Symlink it to /usr/etc/xdg/menus and it will solve this problem.
Thanks! (aurora-panel:7618): Gtk-WARNING **: Can't set a parent on widget which has a parent Testing files: MenuBuilder Error: User menu does not exist. Disabling. done Loading files: done Building menues: done Building item list: done
Thanks! but now i get this problem: (aurora-panel:7618): Gtk-WARNING **: Can't set a parent on widget which has a parent Testing files: MenuBuilder Error: User menu does not exist. Disabling. done Loading files: done Building menues: done Building item list: done
Is this a problem? Does it affect aurora-panel in any way? That disabling test means that it couldn't find the user menu at (homedir)/.config/menus/applications.menu. Thats all. It should be runnable even without that.
hi again...well i am happy the project didn't die..thanks for continuing it.. here are the new bugs...hehe (again could't compile the library) ................./include/glib-2.0 -I/usr/lib/glib-2.0/include -Wall -g -g -O2 -MT xmlparser.lo -MD -MP -MF .deps/xmlparser.Tpo -c xmlparser.cc -fPIC -DPIC -o .libs/xmlparser.oxmlparser.cc: In member function `bool Alib::XMLParser::set_document(Glib::ustring)': xmlparser.cc:30: error: `filename_display_basename' undeclared in namespace ` Glib' xmlparser.cc:42: error: `filename_display_basename' undeclared in namespace ` Glib' make[2]: *** [xmlparser.lo] Error 1 make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library/src' make[1]: *** [all-recursive] Error 1 make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library' make: *** [all] Error 2
This is a really odd problem. Either, you don't have glibmm (and that's really odd, since it should have shown up earlier) or you don't have the right version of glibmm. Make sure you have the latest (stable) version... If the problem it still not solved, give me your versions of glib and glibmm and I shall look into it.
hi demom...thanks for replying.. well, i had glibmm-2.4.7-r1, but updated now to last estable 2.6.1 as you said. Now my error is very strange...take a look.. creating libalib.la (cd .libs && rm -f libalib.la && ln -s ../libalib.la libalib.la) make[2]: warning: Clock skew detected. Your build may be incomplete. make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library/src' make[2]: Entering directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library' make[2]: Warning: File `COPYING' has modification time 8.4e+06 s in the future make[2]: Nothing to be done for `all-am'. make[2]: warning: Clock skew detected. Your build may be incomplete. make[2]: Leaving directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library' make[1]: Leaving directory `/home/luis/Desktop/aurora-library' my time/date are set correctly right now...and i didn't have any "Clock skew detected" issue while compiling my last kernel... cheers :-)
Hi again. Okey, I searched the net after this, and what I found out was that it's the sources that has it's creation dates set in the future. 'Touch' every file, and you should be in the clear.
/usr/lib/libatkmm-1.6.so /usr/lib/libatk-1.0.so /usr/lib/libpangomm-1.4.so /usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so /usr/lib/libpango-1.0.so /usr/lib/libsigc-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgobject-2.0.so /usr/lib/libgmodule-2.0.so -ldl /usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so -Wl,--rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib -Wl,--rpath -Wl,/usr/local/lib /usr/bin/ld: cannot find -lSM collect2: ld returned 1 exit status make[2]: *** [aurora-panel] Error 1 anyone got any ideas?
dont listen to the haters. its great. some people just have one way mentallity (i use linux so windows blows). keep up the good work. i LOVE the start panel. way better then gnome and kdes garbage menus.
thanks for that input =)
hi... just to ask.. has this project died??? it would be a shame :-( cheers
It has not died, not at all. This is my pet project, but I also have alot of other stuff to do. Updates will be irregular (for now) but I tries to answer all messages and emails I get.
Maybe it should look like this: http://www.symphonyos.com/desktop.html ?
Brave! definively diferent...
What is this Windows XP gimmick shit? So much for new and good looking.
Sooo, you don't want a product geared at making Linux more "familiar" interface-wise to Windows users that don't understand 95% of what a computer does? Besides, some people do like it. That's not a sin.
Absolutely not! As the author of Linux on Desktop (do a search on google for it) even tough I wrote a 40+ page guide on using Linux for everyday, with my experience of using it for over 5 years, I have to say it is simply not ready for the desktop. Linux's problem does not lie in the user interface, but lack of proper drivers for hardware and peripherals. As an example, Linux scanner support is still a joke. The Soundblaster cards from 98 still don't have any sort of high quality drivers. (I'm talking about latest Dekstop distros such as Fedora, Ubuntu, Mandriva) Now, even if these problems are solved, Linux IS different from Windows, and the same goes for OSX. You don't see Apple trying to imitate Windows (except for the notorious panel) Those who don't know anything about computers, don't know how to use it period, be it Windows, Linux or OSX. Those who are familiar enough and willing to install Linux should be ready for a change. Giving them a UI that behaves like Windows, but is not quite like it only produces confusion. The current popular GUIs, KDE and Gnome are fairly powerful. By trying to create yet another gui you are simply wasting your efforts which would be better spent on improving the existing. By the way, the unpopular Windows GUI on Linux has already been done to death, just check out XPDE. Finally, this is simply the wrong place to post your new GUI. This site is for Gnome themes and related, not a new one. Don't get me wrong, I applaud your programming capabilities, but my opinion is that they are being wasted.
Guess the comment wasn't from the author...change all 'you/your' to 'he/his' :)
Hmm... What you write is interesting, but in many cases are you wrong. Why? (Late answer) Starters: It's helluva easier to start writing something on your own that to jupt into a project that's already has alot of developers. I think. Second: It's not supposed to be a Windows-clone. I created Aurora because of something neither KDE nor GNOME could give me - a beutiful and intuitive desktop. They're just ugly as hell, at least in their default setups. I think. Third: What you are describing with the missing Linux drivers is a bad circle - you say that we don't have to spend time creating an easy to use DE because there is no drivers. Well, why is there so few drivers? Because the companies making the hardware don't think it's worth the trouble porting them to another platform. Why? Because Linux is'nt adjusted to the masses, those who don't know how to use it. How come? There is no userfirendly desktop on Linux. Follow me? Forth: You say that you have spend five years working on GNU/Linux, writing user manuals and such... stuff. But somehow you missed the meaning with Open Source - which is not to have ome or two big players but a helluva lot of small players. Fifth: When I created Aurora it was a design job. I posted it here to get responses from graphics nerds =). And last: Constructive critic is the bomb, dude. Negative critics is just lame. Shut up or shut down.
Many thanks for the sources!!!! But i haven't been able to compile the libraries. The first issue is that ./configure didn't "configure" (hehe..what an irony) the glibmm libs path. It complained that those didn't existed ("No such file or directory" :) ), when actually i have these files installed in /usr/include/glibmm-2.4/glibmm. I managed to solve that coping all the "missing" libraries to the aurora-library path. Now the problem is the following... "/usr/lib/gcc-lib/i686-pc-linux-gnu/3.3.4/../../../../i686-pc-linux-gnu/bin/ld: cannot find -lglibmm" If it helps, my system is Gentoo 2004.3 with 2005.0 profile and kernel 2.6.11.10 Cheers... I hope this project still go on!!