Bodhi Linux is still a pretty new distro, and many of us are also new to the Enlightenment environment that it presents so neatly.

So to help you get started, here's how I like to set up a new desktop or laptop, rather than a 'phone or tablet interface (which is also supported by Bodhi).

This applies to Bodhi LInux Version 1.2.1, current at the time of writing.

Unlike most distros, Bodhi offers desktop layout and theme configuration during installation, as well as afterwards. So if you are installing (or booting a Live CD), choose the 'Laptop' layout which gives you a menu bar at the top and a dock at the bottom. It also comes with the most elegant digital clock - imho.

I usually choose the smoky look of the 'A-Smoke24H' theme, it looks good, does not distract too much, and is the right albedo for the light in here. Your mileage may vary, of course! We'll come to more themes later on....

Once the Installation/Live Boot has finished, you can take a look at the desktop and play with the menu (top left button) and dock at the bottom. But wait! The whole desktop is also a menu button. Just click anywhere.... That can be really useful on a 24" screen, I find.

The menu will not have a lot in it after a first installation, and the dock at the bottom will have even less. This is because Bodhi starts with the minimum necessary to get you going. Fear not, there are two elegant package bundles (one slim, one full featured) on the Bodhi website AppCentrehttp://appcenter.bodhilinux.com/ that can be installed with a couple of clicks.

But for now let's play with the configuration of E17 - after taking a peek at 'free' in the terminal, to see how much RAM Bodhi is eating. Our elderly but contented Compaq C300 (Celeron 420, shared Intel graphics) reports that 86MB is being used by the OS, excluding buffers and cache. That is truly satisfying to see on a laptop with low RAM.

The first thing I do on a disk installation is to enable the compositing desktop, which you may think foolish on early Intel graphics and a slow Celeron, but it just works. Don't worry about the RAM, because the 86MB quoted above includes the compositor, and Conky too.

Now, click through Menu -> Settings -> All -> Extensions -> Modules
....and then select the 'Look' tab.

Below you will see one of the options is 'Composite' - select this by clicking on it.

At the bottom a button labeled 'Load' will now be active; click on this to load Composite, and then you can close the window. Composite should now be running.

Now reboot - although I have sometimes played with it on a Live CD for a bit, expect some unusual effects if you do!

I prefer a less flamboyant Composite configuration than the standard one (the windows are a bit too bouncy) so we click through :-
Menu -> Settings -> All -> Look -> Composite

....and select anything but 'Default' - usually we choose the 'Popup' option.

....then close. Windows no longer bounce.

The dock bar at the bottom is called 'Engage', and you can configure it by right-clicking on it and selecting 'Configure Bar'. We usually kill the 'Mouse-Over Animation' item which is a bit in-yer-face, but the grandkids love it <grin>. You can also play with the Icon size and and Zoom levels.

You should now have a pretty slick desktop that looks good without being too flashy!
If you want a larger selection of themes you can get them at the Art Wiki http://art.bodhilinux.com/doku.php?id=bodhi_themes

If you doubt that a slick compositing desktop can run in 86MB of RAM (continuously displayed in 'Conky') on a crusty old Celeron with Intel shared graphics, then I don't blame you. We were just so surprised.
Bodhi also runs amazingly well on our old 367MHz P3 with 256MB RAM - just don't open too many tabs in the Midori browser. Web pages eat RAM.

O.K., you've sold me - I'll go try it. I have a crappy netbook I look after.
Now, let's see about GMA500 support ...

Well done! Life's too short not to try the things you fancy.....

GMA500?
Think that we have that one in something around here.
So many gnarly old computers in this room.

Best of luck, and let us know how it goes. Ben

Hmmm - a little too much emphasis on "bling" over substance for my liking.
How the hell can you issue a system (even just a liveCD) where there is no setting to fix the clock locale ?. Yes, I got it sorted, but I defy your target audience to do so.
Loaded B43 rather than ST3 for the wired lan, but I suppose we can't expect too much from Lucid. It also load poulsbo, but wouldn't accept a resolution change for the native resolution of the widescreen.
Hopefully when you get a 3.1 kernel we can try the gfx driver.

If her ladyship likes it, I may install it permanently.

Yes, you're right about (re)setting the time zone.

There is a Wiki, and I wrote a tiny script for that, but we do need a point-and-click solution in the repo. Do you reckon that a packaged version of the script would do?

I've just done an installation of Bodhi 1.2.1 on a P3 700 (=350MHz) with 256MB RAM - it's behaving pretty well; the biggest 'difficulties' so far have been resizing fonts and browser stuff to fit on a smallish 800x600 display.

I'm used to the 'full fat' package bundle called 'Nikhila' and am trying the lightweight 'Pratibha' bundle for the first time. It feels good so far. Hope you and 'her ladyship' get on well with your system!

Even the 'Engage' dock bar works acceptably on the P3 after size/zoom adjustment to suit 800x600. Conky reports that we are using 52MB of RAM. (I've left the compositor off for the moment). That leaves around 200MB for programs, which is a smidgen more than our neighbour's new Lenovo netbook with 1GB RAM has left after booting Win7. It surprised me, too, but explains why Win7 would go so painfully slowly for him with more than one or two browser windows open.

I would respectfully suggest that there is a little bit more to Bodhi than the bling - for me it's the efficiency too. Love that combination.

All the best, Ben

Yes, that was probably uncalled for - battling too many different issues (not just with Bodhi) all weekend. Consider it retracted.
It was extremely quick - even just running off the USB. The video support is a real show-stopper in this household. The poulsbo support is dead as of the later 2.6 kernels I believe. psb_gfx isn't fully developed yet either in the 3.? mainline.
Problem that.
There is an out-of-tree fix for (standard) Ubuntu that we are currently living with, but I'd happily move off it.

Update: forgot your question - yes, a script for the tzdata should be fine.
Also seems the psb_gfx might be moving out of the staging tree - maybe merged in 3.2 ?.

Sorry.

Some good news Flymo - I compiled a 3.1.1 kernel with the GMA bits (in-tree and staging) selected and (eventually) got the video running at the recommended 1366x768. Flash now runs acceptably in Midori.
I'll post the steps over on the Bodhi forum.

W00t!
Well done, it's a good feeling when a plan comes together that well. Will be keeping an eye out for your report.
I'm still puzzling over the details of the packaging approach (not that it's obscure, but I am fairly cautious) and should have something only partly broken soon.