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1. Topaz Installer Vessel
2. Topaz Installer

>First off I want to address the elephant in the room. It is not free to install this program, you can download Elive iso and burn it to a cd, then use it as a live cd for free. To install it on a hard drive though you will need to obtain an installer model. You can obtain a free module rather easily though by contacting.

March 17, 2010

This article was contributed by Koen Vervloesem

After more than two and a half years of development, Elive 2.0 ('Topaz'), a Debian-based live CD with the Enlightenment E17 desktop environment, has been released. This is a major release, bringing Enlightenment lovers up-to-date. Under the hood lies Debian Lenny (5.0.3) with a Linux 2.6.30.9 kernel. Most users won't try Elive only for what it does, but also for what it looks like: it combines minimal hardware requirements with style and eye candy. The distribution works on a 100 MHz CPU with 64 MB of RAM, but a 300 MHz CPU with 128 MB RAM is recommended. Installing it requires 2 GB of disk space.

First a word of warning: Elive is pretty much a one-man show: Samuel'Thanatermesis' F. Baggen is working full-time on the distribution. One ofthe consequences is that users can download the distributionfor free, but they have to pay (Elive calls it a 'donation') to install itto a hard drive. This makes more sense than the previous policy (that askedfor a donation to even download Elive 1.0), but it's not clear for visitorsto the Elive web site: there is no mention on the home page nor thedownload page. Even the installer doesn't tell users the full details untilthey are well into the installation process and get redirected to thepayment web page. Only after they have paid at least $15 using PayPal will they receive a code that they have to enter at www.elivecd.org/installer-module. After that, they are sent the (seemingly closed source) 'installer module' by email.

Although the Elive project has been asking for donations for years and thiscould be called 'common knowledge', it would be much more honest if thedeveloper told users before the install begins that they have to pay— and how much. In the Complaints section of theElive forum, one user questions the businessmodel of Elive, and the developer responds:'The donation is forced for the stable version *only*, and for nowthat's the plans for it...'. In the project's FAQ, he explains thisrather bluntly:

Users that really don't want to pay can download the free (butpurportedly unstable) development versionof Elive, although at the moment there isn't a development version. Ofcourse, they can also install plain Debian, then add the Elive repositoryto their /etc/apt/sources.list and install the Enlightenmentpackages, but this will likely result in an unstable desktop. Users canalso request an invitation code,which is free for those who write an article about Elive or need it in aneducational environment.

An idiosyncratic installer

The distribution also comes with its own user-friendly, but somewhatchaotic, installer that has advanced features such as upgrade and migratemodes. The latter allows users to migrate any Linux system to an Elivesystem: it copies user accounts including their passwords and files along with various configuration files. In the first step, the user is asked to choose from different customization levels: 'Auto' (mostly automated), 'Easy mode' (asking only a few questions) and 'Complete mode' (fully featured). After this, the installer shows a vague message that the user has to make a 'small payment' to use Elive.

The partitioning step shows a few options: use the full disk, startgparted or cfdisk, show some information about a RAIDsetup or do nothing at all on an already partitioned system. After this,the user is asked to obtain the installer module and enter an identifier onthe web site. After receiving the module and clicking on OK in theinstaller window, the module asks the user to enter a security code to besure the user knows that the installer will erase the disk. Then theinstallation begins and, though interrupted by a couple of questions, showsa progress bar while installing all packages on the hard disk.

Although itdoes the job without problems, the installer has an idiosyncratic userinterface with lots of windows popping up, and it's not always clear whatit is doing. The installation itself doesn't take long, but after the firstboot (which shows a nice looking splash screen and an animated login screen), Elive begins a lengthy and seemingly inefficient post-install process, where your author saw hald stopping and starting twice and the initramfs being generated eight times. There's still work to do here.

A user-friendly Debian

Elive is more than just Debian with an E17 interface. It adds a lot oftweaks to make a more user-friendly version of its mother distribution. Forexample, the context menu in the file manager Thunar shows commands toconvert music files to Ogg or MP3, as well as commands to convert imagefiles to another resolution. It also offers a lot of functionality out ofthe box. For example, Firefox is configured with the Flash 10.0 plug-in forYouTube videos and MPlayer browser plug-ins for DivX, QuickTime, RealPlayer9, and Windows Media Player. Skype is also installed by default. USB sticksare automatically detected and mounted, with an icon placed on the desktop,and DVDs are automatically played. Even the kernel has some extrauser-friendly features, such as TuxOnIce for hibernation.

There are different kernels available, and their source can be found in the Elive repository. The source of the Elive-specific applications and modules can be found on the Elive development web site. On a related note, it's not clear to your author how much Elive contributes back upstream to Enlightenment, but Baggen is active on the Enlightenment bug tracker and he is contributing patches.

The distribution has an aptly named nursemode, which offers recovery and repair features. For example,users can recover the default Elive configuration if they have messed uptheir settings. It is also able to check whether the system contains allthe packages that are installed by default in Elive: if a user hasaccidentally deleted some crucial packages, some features could bemissing. Other things that the nurse mode can do includes installing neweror special kernels, freeing space on the disk, and hardware tests. Alsointeresting is that it offers to help solve graphical problems by reconfiguring the Xorg configuration or reinstalling graphics drivers.

In order to prevent incompatibility problems with the tweaked Elive desktop when upgrading the Debian base, the distribution doesn't use the official Debian mirrors in /etc/apt/sources.list. From time to time, the project creates a snapshot of the entire Debian repository and mirrors it. This official Elive mirror is used in /etc/apt/sources.list for Debian software, in addition to another repository for Elive-specific software. According to Baggen, the snapshot is updated when a package needs an update for security reasons.

Beauty is in the details

Elive is dressed up with some impressive eye candy that is difficult to find in other distributions. For example, when the login screen appears, the box with the user name and password falls from the top of the screen. The box with the time and date and the shutdown icon each do a walk around the screen before they find their place, while the box where the user chooses the desktop also falls from the top of the screen and then stops at the top left. After this, a lot of words describing Elive appear on the screen. Even if this sounds somewhat over the top, it doesn't get in the way of the user: the login box works right from the start, so the user doesn't have to sit through the entire animation.

The Enlightenment desktop itself is also beautiful. At the top right, there's a pager that leads the user to different virtual desktops, while the bottom right is a notification area with icons for the network, battery, CPU temperature, and so on. At the middle bottom, there's a panel with quick launchers for some applications. Hovering over the launchers makes them grow in size. Minimizing an application's window brings its high-resolution icon to the top left on the desktop.

Enlightenment is known for its artful themes, and Elive 2.0 comes with four themes installed. The default 'elive' theme comes with a non-intrusive light blue wallpaper that has some subtle twinkling white stars. Another theme, 'Lucax3', has more personality: it has a dark blue wallpaper with energetically twinkling stars and black menus with purple arrows. When changing the Enlightenment theme, the user also gets invited to choose a Gtk+ 2.0 theme that matches. By the way, most users will only discover many subtle details in the style only after working with Elive for an extended time. For example, your author saw a scrolling window title in a title bar, but he has only seen happening it twice while writing this review.

Enlightenment is also fully customizable. Click on the wallpaper to openthe menu, choose Settings and then Settings Panel to open the extensiveEnlightenment settings. Here the user can change the look, the behavior ofthe windows, input settings, and so on. An interesting feature is thatalmost all settings windows have a 'Basic' and an 'Advanced version'. Inthe default Basic mode, clicking on the Advanced button shows the user moreoptions, and then clicking on the Basic button shows again the basicsettings. In 'Extensions - Modules', the user can pick various desktopmodules, such as weather forecasts, a battery or CPU frequency monitor, butalso more frivolous things like snow, fire, or rain on the desktop — or even walking penguins. However, be aware that some of these modules can be unstable.

Beautiful but disappointing

Elive 2.0 proves again that users can have a nice looking desktopwithout eating up all their computer's resources. That's mostly thanks toEnlightenment, which is refreshingly different from other desktopenvironments. The minimal hardware requirements make Elive a contender onnetbooks. It's a pity that the commercial purpose of the distribution iscovered up. Saying nothing about a requirement to pay on the home page ordownload page and then requiring it only in the middle of the install isdeceptive. On the technical side, the installer and post-install processcould use some work too. So all in all, while Elive 2.0 is a really niceshowcase of an Enlightenment desktop, it's hard to see it becoming a wildlypopular distribution.

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Download and install T3 Framework 2 Plugin (aka T3 System plugin) and enable it.

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Installing and Configuring Included Extensions:

Now install exntensions on your Joomla 2.5 system.

Included Extensions in JA Mesolite II

• JA SlideShow module
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• JA Menu Parameters plugin
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IMPORTANT: We provide the screenshot of the settings used on our demo website. Make sure you configure your modules / plugins in the same manner to achieve demo site alike style / functions.

1. JA SlideShow Module

Code

Front-end appearance

2. JA Vm Product Slide module

On the Demo site, this module is named: What's New Here

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Front-end appearance

3. JA News module

4. JA Menu Parameters plugin

Front-end appearance

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6. Virtuemart Currencies Module

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Front-end appearance

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Front-end appearance

8. Virtuemart Featureprod Module

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Front-end appearance

9. Product Categories Module

On the demo site, this module is named:Products Categories

Code

Topaz Installer Vessel

Front-end appearance

1. Today Blogs

Code:

HTML Code

Front-end appearance

2. Support Center

Code

Front-end appearance

3. We Accept

Front-end appearance

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JA Mesolite II comes with multiple typography styles for headings, content, tables, buttons, quotes, lists and so on...

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And here is HTML code: Typography_Page_HTML_Code.txt

You can use the above HTML code for making similar page in your site and refer to the codes for using Typography.

IMPORTANT : These typography styles are specific to JA Mesolite II template and if you use them in your content and later decide to change the template, the styles will be broken, as these styles depend upon the template based css files (typo.css). We recommend using minimum typography, if you plan to change your template in the future.

JA Mesolite II Demo site uses Mega Menu. Follow the guide below to create dropdown menu as on Demo site

Front-end Appearance

Back-end Settings

Main Menu Items (parent & child)

• Item 1 - Explore - Menu Back-end Settings
• Item 2 - Layouts - Menu Back-end Settings
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Article Configuration

We use some special tags to set image border and caption in our articles, for example:

If you want to have a image border like the articles shown on our Demo site, please add the following code into your article:

HTML Code

Topaz Installer

HTML Code:

Recommended

If you are new or confused, we recommend installing Quickstart on your localhost and use it as reference for configuration. This is the best way to work with any template.

Links to all the resources are provided as above, you should read them carefully to take the maximum advantage of our products.