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About Lilidog:

Lilidog is a lightweight linux distro based on debian. Lilidog uses the Openbox window manager with tint2, thunar, and xfce4-terminal.
Other window managers are also made available through the Lilidog installers. These are awesome, dk, dwm, jwm, and sowm.

Lilidog is based on debian stable, with some of the hard parts done, and some cool stuff along the way.
Everything is easily accessible, with numerous options to customize further.

Available Versions:

There are currently 5 general builds: full, minimal, minimal-i386, Beardog, and xfce4.

• Full - (Approx. 1300 packages), comes with everything necessary to get started without needing initial extra downloads. I would advise most folks to use the full version if looking for an 'out of the box' computing solution with everything you need.

• Minimal - (Approx. 1080 packages), has everything the full version does, minus most of the main packages so people can choose their own. This version is great for people that like to tinker, and want to learn a bit more about linux.

• Lilidog-i386 - Uses the same base packages as the amd64 minimal version, but for older 32 bit hardware. You may find you need to boot with the kernel parameter 'forcepae' if you have difficulties.

• Beardog - (Approx. 920 packages), is the 'bare' version of lilidog, allowing users to choose most of what they want. A general knowledge of linux is recommended.

• xfce4 - A new default xfce4 build with all the goodness of Lilidog. A fine choice for those new to Lilidog.

NOTE - The DOWNLOAD button defaults to the full version! Click on FILES, and then RELEASES to access the others.

Current Releases:

The version number is the date of the release beginning with the year, followed by the month, and then the day. So as an example, release 23.12.21 stands for the 21st of Dec, 2023. One way to see this after a Lilidog installation is to look at the Install Date Conky for the installation and build date. Another way is to open a terminal and:

cat /usr/share/lilidog/GPL/current-build (after 2-10-24)

Lilidog uses the 'stable' version of debian, which is currently Bookworm, and updates to most of the packages can be had with a quick

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

to bring everything up to date.

Every Lilidog release in itself is considered fully stable and usable. New additions to the distro are just the natural forward progression of things to make the distro experience better over time.

Updates to Lilidog occur generally on the Debian Point Release dates. New features, installers for various programs, and bug fixes occur at this time, though these are not required by the user to upgrade or worry about if they are happy with the Lilidog version they are using.

To follow the current development of Lilidog, see my Github Site, and choose the version of Lilidog you want. - These are Lilidog-Bookworm (full edition), Lilidog-Minimal, Lilidog-i386-Minimal, and Beardog. After clicking on the version you want to check, look for the small clock symbol below the green 'Code' button and click on that to see the latest 'commits' (changes) for that particular version.

There have been more than 2500 commits since Lilidog was created! Lilidogs first real release was under debian 'buster' 10-30-2020.

If there is a particular new feature you see here on the forum and would like to have but are unsure of how to get it, just ask, and most can be directly applied to your current system with ease. I've no problem providing direction or files to get it done.

Directions For Installation:

Probably the easiest way to use Lilidog is to put it on a usb stick.

One easy way is to grab the live-usb-maker app: https://github.com/MX-Linux/lum-qt-appimage/releases/tag/19.11.02
Download the AppImage.tar.gz and open a terminal:

tar -xaf live-usb-maker-qt-19.11.02.x86_64.AppImage.tar.gz
Then:
sudo ./live-usb-maker-qt-19.11.02.x86_64.AppImage

Use "image mode" in the live-usb maker when burning the image.

The boot screen for Lilidog gives a choice of using as a Live session, or installing if you like what you see.
Lilidog uses the Debian installer with both text and graphical installs available.

When booting into the live session, another opportunity to install can be had by clicking the green icon in the system tray. This will open the Calamares installer, which works quite well and is preferred by some.

Lilidog opens in the Openbox window manager. Easy enough to install others window managers if desired. They will show up in your login screen as options. The username and password for the live environment is "user", and "live" respectively.

Navigating Lilidog:

After boot, you have the option to install or try out Lilidog live. Once in a session, there are a few items that can shape your experience. Look in the "paw" icon in the tint2 panel for theming options. Look in the "Toggles" section of the menu for some other useful options, and look in the "Install Extras" portion of the menu for extra programs you may want. Look around. There's more to see as well.

Some Of The Basic Features:

• Based on Debian with contrib and non-free sources enabled by default.

• Debian backports sources can be added after installation through the welcome entry screen or from the Lilidog installers.

• These are 'no --recommends' builds. This means only the required dependencies are included during package install. This leaves out any recommended or suggested packages, allowing for complete control over package installation. No unwanted packages will be installed by default. This can be changed after install if desired.

• Tint2 is the panel by default. See the wrench and screwdriver icon in the tint2 panel for some other nifty tint2 options, including toggles for the position (top or bottom), autohide, Tint2 time format (12/24H), and on/off, and theming options.

• Jgmenu is the menu for all versions. Huge amount of customization available. Go to menu -> configuration -> jgmenu.conf for how to change and add items.

• Wallpapers are handled by Feh. Place any image you would like to use as a wallpaper in ~/Pictures/wallpapers.
  Go to Menu -> Configuration -> Wallpaper Chooser to change wallpapers. You can also right-click on any image you choose from the file manager to set as background wallpaper. Other right-click options for images include rotation and copying to ~/Pictures.wallpapers. A random wallpaper toggle is included.

• Icons - Currently, the Obsidian Icon theme is default. Papirus, Gnome, and other icon sets are readily available.

• Grub background changer opens a window to choose your own images. Lilidog ships with six to give you an intitial choice before finding your own to add to the collection.

• There are shortcuts for xfce4-power-manager in the battery icon. Hover over the icons to see what they are.

• Rofi and Dmenu for alternate menu sources. - ALT + F5 pulls the full Dmenu up, while ALT + F3 pulls up a
  customized rofi 'drun' menu.

• Thunar is the default file manager. Custom right-click options are already added as well. These include everything from "Open as Root', to different rotations and sizing of pics, to comparisons of files using Meld. And more.

• Custom Lilidog Openbox and GTK themes, and matching themes for Geany and Xfce4-terminal.

• The fonts are Noto Sans for the windows and JetBrains mono for the xfce4-terminal. The exceptions are urxvt and Conky, where Dejavu is used.

• Xfce4-terminal is default terminal, with urxvt included.

• The Conky Chooser in the toggles section of the menu contains toggles for ten different Conkys and the time format shown. All of the Conkys contain relevant info. These include a Clock, Full Info, Fortunes, Shortcuts, Worldclock, and Tao quotes. Everything conky is located in ~/.config/conky,including the Conky Chooser script.

• Custom colors can be chosen for three of the GTK themes, tint2, and conky. This allows the user to design their own desktop that much easier.

• Picom Composite Manager with transparency enabled. Look in ~/.config/picom.conf in order to change transparency, shadows, and more.

• Gammy screen color and lightness control located in Toggles, and from the keybind "Super + g". This will allow you to change and set the gamma and brightness of your screen for different times of your choice, or simply as a toggle when desired.

• Newsboat RSS reader with a custom configuration already in place and ready for new RSS feeds.

• System notifications enabled with Dunst, with options for sound effects.

• Menu Extras - Install menu with options for Liquorix kernel, Qemu, Virtualbox, Steam, Etcher, and more.

• Swapid script for the frequent dual installer. This grabs your swap uuid and opens the appropriate windows to edit. Try 'swapid' in a terminal after installing another distro to a different partition.

• ld-hotcorners - Each corner of the screen responds to a command.
  Turn it on with the button in the lower left corner or under Toggles in the menu. Change the corners in ~/.config/ld-hotcorners. Currently clockwise from top left: __file manager, toggle Picom, exit menu, and terminal.

Instructions For Various Tasks:

Theme changes:

The easiest way to change themes is with the 'Quick Theme Changer' located in the menu under Configuration.
This changes The GTK theme, Openbox theme, Geany theme, Lightdm, wallpaper, menu, and terminal theme all on the fly.

Other Settings:

• For keyboard language layout see: https://sourceforge.net/p/lilidog/discussion/setup/thread/e9e88533c0/
  
• Most common items to change will have an entry under 'Configuration' in the menu.
• Settings Manager - Change your gtk theme, fonts, and icons on an individual basis. Other important settings are here as well.
• Openbox Conf - The settings here control the window borders and other settings specific to Openbox.
• Jgmenu - Go to menu -> configuration -> jgmenu.conf for menu items. For theme changes, got to Jgmenu Theme Changer in the menu. ("o" or "g")
• Geany - There are themes to match. These are changed through the Geany program under "view" - "change color scheme"
• Conky net speed (when uncommented) - Use: ls /sys/class/net/ in a terminal to determine which wired/wireless network you have,
  and replace "wlp2s0" with yours.
• Printer - Setup entry in the menu under utilities.
• Lightdm - Configuration settings in the menu.
  Also look under the "Toggles" section in the menu for some instant changes to different items as well.

Github: https://github.com/sleekmason/Lilidog

Lilidog

[José Santos]

Would be possible a version with only one WM??

[sleekmason]

Howdy,

Each of the window managers can be removed with 'apt purge'. (sudo apt purge fluxbox) for example.

Then also remove the configuration file matching the Window manager you want to remove in your $HOME directory (~/fluxbox).

If you are needing a version with just one window manager for a group of people, (school or something) I would be happy to do so. Which window manager do you like?

[sleekmason]

Been a while, but saw this and thought to answer again! Changed to just Openbox a month or so ago, with numerous other changes. Would love for you to check Lilidog out again:)

[José Santos]

@sleekmason
Thanks for the quick answer!!
I know that I can remove it. Most of the times is what I do. The thing is that depending on which WM you choose, one file manager can fit or no. I remember having such kind of problems with Antix.
In my Youtube channel there a several subscribers that would rather prefer only one WM.
I was only asking, but you have follow your wishes.

Regards!!

[Random Scumbag]

Hi I am super new to the openbox atmosphere, however I tried a few, and this is by far the nicest one I have came across. Someone mentioned it in a reddit post. I was wondering one of the first things I am trying to do is, is when I right click and the menu pops up, I would like to add the text editor in this case mousepad, to the list of the apps on the top where firefox, thunar terminal and thunderbird are? How would I go about adding this? Thanks again for the WME really looking forward to getting through basic knowledge of this layout.

And also I see that there is 4 virtual desktops on the bottom panel by default. I would like to change that to 6 when I go into open box config and add 2 more desktops they don't show up on the panel,but I can scroll on the wheel with the mouse to get to it. Not sure how to make this show on the panel. I apologize if these are noo b questions... just trying to figure it out.

[sleekmason]

No worries:) Everything in Lilidog is designed to be customizable.
For the menu items, there is no gui editor for jgmenu, but the menu is easily edited!
Look in ~/.config/jgmenu for the README on adjusting the menu.

For the number of desktops; there are only numbers 1-4 of the square icons available,
but in /usr/share/icons/ld-icons/letters-44, you will find the new groovy round icons for creating your own tint2 buttons if you want.
So, you will want to point the existing tint2 buttons 7,8,9,10 to the round icons, and add 2 more buttons to the tint2 config for numbers 5, and 6.

You other option visually is to simply remove buttons 7-10, and just use the scroll through without the buttons. However, pointing the existing buttons to use the new icons, and creating a couple of more should be relatively painless.

If you have trouble, please open a thread here:https://sourceforge.net/p/lilidog/discussion/

[Random Scumbag]

Thanks for your response. Going to look at it later on today. Its done very very well. I am just too familiar with the environment. Its something I am trying to learn when i can spend time on it. I was looking for the forum page to Not to familiar with sourceforge but Thank you so much for the information and the link. Very Much Appreciated

[opensource harvey]

G'day, thanks for this amazing OS.

"Sweet!" is the only word I've got to describe Lilidog.

I've been testing this OS on virtualbox, to get a feel for it.

Would is be possible to save the desktop session?

Would it be possible to have start up apps going when I log in? Like gammy, gufw firewall, a weather app like Meteo, sticky notes and Onboard keyboard?

Please consider releasing a Devuan version .
Peppermint OS offers a Devuan version.

I'm not comparing, both distros are great, I like both!

I love this Distro and would like to have it on my PC for good.

Thanks heaps.

Cheers

[sleekmason]

Thank you for your kind words! Super glad you are enjoying Lilidog.
Transferring settings directly from a VM probably wouldn't be realistic, as there are a lot of different toggles and such that would revert back on installation. However, once setup after install, you should be able to keep all your settings on reboot without much trouble.

Please note that there will be a new release on or about 2-10-2024, and it may be worthwhile to wait a few days from now to have any upgraded or changed items. This release will coincide with the next debian point release, and the Lilidog and Beardog releases will follow immediately afterwards. See here for the full list of changes that will occur:
https://forum.lilidog.org/d/724-upcoming-release-expectations

Please see here for how to save items for autostart use:
https://forum.lilidog.org/d/751-saving-desktop-settings

And here for most other questions about Lilidog and Beardog:
https://forum.lilidog.org/t/system-setup

Consider joining the Lilidog Forum to make asking and answering questions a bit easier. We would love to have you!
https://forum.lilidog.org/

[opensource harvey]

Thanks for the prompt reply.
I'm in the process of learning how to set it up before moving onto Live Install on the PC.
Thanks, I joined the forum.

This probably is the best Debian Distro and I love it!

It reminds me of how LMDE used to be, polished and refined . I loved LMDE even though Cinnamon has always been memory hog. The LMDE 6 upgrade hasn't been smooth transition for me. So glad I found Lilidog.

Regards