vera-desktop / vera

A simple, lightweight, GTK3 based desktop environment

vera

vera is a next-generation GTK+3-based Desktop Environment built for Semplice Linux.

Core concepts

Unlike other desktop environments, there is only a core executable and every feature is implemented via plugins.

In detail, the vera core (i.e. this repository) contains:

• A PluginManager, needed to load plugins
• An XSETTINGS manager, based on vera-xsettings
• A DBus interface to shutdown/reboot/suspend/hibernate/logout using logind with native dialogs
• A DBus interface to take screenshoots
• An autostart manager

In addition, the library (libvera), also contained here, features:

• A direct DBus interface for logind
• The plugin interface needed to create VeraPlugins
• Helper classes to talk with the graphical server (currently only X via Xlib is supported)

Settings

vera uses DConf to store settings. Official plugins use the org.semplicelinux.vera.* domain and also 3rd-party plugin makers are encouraged to do so.

The gschema shipped with this package permits to manage some features of the vera core, such as:

• Plugins
• The XSETTINGS manager (yes, you can disable it if you're nostalgic and want to use the good ol' gtkrc)
• Dreams

You can find those settings in /org/semplicelinux/vera.

Also, another gschema is shipped in the domain org.semplicelinux.vera.settings and it contains every setting that will be exported through the XSETTINGS manager.

Building

You need:

• valac (tested against vala 0.24)
• bake
• gcc
• gio-2.0
• gee-0.8
• libpeas-1.0
• gtk+-3.0
• gdk-x11-3.0
• gdk-3.0
• vera-xsettings

To compile vera, just execute

bake

You find the result executable in ./src/vera, but you also need to install and compile the settings schemas.
To do so, you can use the following:

cd schemas
sudo bake install
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas

Installing

Of course, you can install vera globally:

sudo bake install # (from the top source directory)
sudo glib-compile-schemas /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas