Hacking the OLPC XO Laptop - Part 2: Xfce
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
In my
last post, I wrote about some of the customizations that I had
done to my OLPC XO software to make it more usable for me. At the end
of the post,
I mentioned that I was planning to install Xubuntu on a USB stick or
SD card in order to try that out on the XO as well. Actually, if you
don't like the XO's
Sugar UI (or, if you want to use a more "traditional" Linux desktop on the XO), there
is an easier option: just install an alternative Linux
desktop environment on the XO. A good alternative is
Xfce, which is known for being fast/lightweight and probably a
good fit for a small Linux box like the XO:
Actually, installing and
setting up Xfce on the XO is rediculously simple. A full explanation
is
here; however, the "Readers Digest" version is:
- Download and install all the Xfce components:
yum install xfdesktop xfce-utils xfce-mcs-plugins xfce4-session
- Download and install a utility to help you manage your wifi connections:
yum install wifi-radar
- In "/home/olpc/" create a copy of .xsession-example called
.xsession:
cp /home/olpc/.xsession-example /home/olpc/.xsession
Edit the .xsession file to launch Xfce on startup by finding the commented line that reads "#exec xterm" - below that line, add the following code:exec startxfce4
After saving the .xsession file, press CTRL+ALT+BACKSPACE to restart X, starting Xfce. - Once Xfce starts up, run "wifi-radar" (it's on the Xfce menu under
"Networking"). After running it once, a file will be created at
"/etc/wifi-radar/wifi-radar.conf". Open this file in a text editor,
and change the line which reads:
interface = eth1
to read:interface = eth0
After saving the file, run "wifi-radar" again and connect to your wifi network.
