What’s New

It has been a bit since I’ve posted here. I’ve been trying to update things more in the forums. Speaking of forums, I’ve expanded the categories / forums that are available in preparation for the upcoming Lemur 5 release.

As for the pending release…all I can say is, we are closer. There have been a few obstacles, setbacks, and more. During my work on getting the boot sequence ironed out, several issues came up. The biggest of which is Plymouth. It works great with my old AMD GPU, but refuses to work with my Nvidia card (that I prefer to use due to it’s features and power). I have never had issues with Plymouth on older Lemur releases. I’ve tried every combination of kernels, Debian Nvidia drivers, and drivers straight from Nvidia’s website. My friend Tyler even tried helping me sort it out. Tyler was running Trixie (testing) and had the same Nvidia GPU, more or less. And his worked. So, I attempted to upgrade Lemur to the testing branch. I knew it was a 50/50 chance of the upgrade being successful. It was not. So, I had to do a clean install of Trixie and Lemurize it. Plymouth still refused to work. So, I gave up on Plymouth (though a Lemur theme is set) and decided to leave Lemur on Trixie (testing). Well, all kinds of issues developed, mainly with Conky and the custom Lemur apps. So, here we are back on Debian Bookworm (stable) and all is right with the world (except for Plymouth). This little adventure consumed my whole weekend and got me behind schedule a bit.

The good news is, we are still moving forward. A new Debian (stable) base is built. It has been mostly Lemurized. The custom Lemur apps are nearing completion (or complete enough for an Alpha release). The themes, conky, etc. are configured. Oh, and I compiled code from 2011 for bmpanel2, the panel / taskbar I used to use in Lemur. I like it better than tint2. Unfortunately, the code for the bmpanel2cfg (config) tool did not compile successfully. It’s a Python issue. Not that big a deal as bmpanel2 can be configured via plain text files. I could probably code a replacement and put it into APEman 2.

Finally, some changes to the default apps lineup are being ironed out. Tyler has made some new wallpapers for Lemur and I used AI to create the wallpaper seen in this post.

As before, hang in there, Lemur 5 is coming soon…

New Wallpaper

I decided to spice up the current wallpaper today. So, I fired up Gimp 3.x to see what I could come up with. After spending 20 minutes fighting with said Gimp 3.x due to crashes, filters not working right, brushes all messed up, etc. I gave up and went back to my trusty Gimp 2.x and created what you see here, in about 10 minutes. I have since uninstalled Gimp 3.x.

I wanted something liquidly, since we’re talking about Liquid Lemur. I know, I need to put the “Lemur” back in the mix, but I do like Tyler’s 3 L logo here.

Lemur 5 Base

Here is a screenshot of the Lemur 5 base. This is full Window Maker (not the usual Lemur Hybrid). It is by no means polished and fine tuned. I will get to adding the custom graphics, themes, icons, etc. soon. My main focus is the custom Lemur scripts and apps, that I will have to code from scratch. This will take some time to complete.

Why won’t Lemur die?

Some of you might wonder why I’m back at Lemur development again and why won’t I just let Lemur die. Well, the answer is not that simple and is really two-fold.

First, if you’ve read the About page or you’re already familiar with Lemur and myself you will know my first answer. Lemur is and always has been an attachment to my younger brother. He was excited to see my work on Linux distros and Linux in general. Unfortunately, he never got to see Liquid Lemur. Lemur continues in honor of him. It also inspired the names for my other projects / side gigs; Liquid Lemur Designs (gifts, crafts, graphic design), Liquid Lemur Studios (audio, video, software, publishing), Liquid Lemur Tales (upcoming tech blog), SkyLemur (aerial imagery, drones).

The second part of my answer is that my goals, ideas, etc. of what I want Liquid Lemur to be have not been achieved yet. So, I plan to keep going until they are.

There have been times when I’ve questioned my sanity when it comes to Lemur. I’ve pulled the plug on it before (more than once) and I’m always drawn back to it. And as strange as it may sound, working on Lemur relieves my stress and brings me peace.

The logo attached to this post was designed by Tyler Melton. He has done a lot of graphic work for Lemur over the years and this logo looks awesome. It represents the 3 L’s of Liquid Lemur Linux. It is the official logo of Liquid Lemur Linux.

The Return of Lemur – The Sequel

I’m not sure where to begin with this post. Lemur has been on a roller coaster ride for awhile now. And it took me with it! So, here we are again…

I’ve tried many times to bring Lemur back, but each time either I had trouble with the build or too much going on in my world. From COVID, to work, to my own health issues, and my mom passing away. It was a struggle just to survive, much less work on Lemur. However, things have finally settled down here. So, I’m eager to bring Lemur back.

I have a new PC coming this week that will be my main development machine. I’ve already prepared the build scripts for building Lemur from the latest Debian release. I solved the issues with Window Maker and the dock apps. Using my laptop, I am rewriting the custom Lemur apps from scratch while I wait on the new PC. I’m also working on a couple of new apps for Lemur. I have some ideas for new graphics, sounds, icons, etc. Maybe I can talk Tyler into dusting off his creative graphic skills?

So, if you’re new to Lemur…Welcome! If you’ve been here before, Welcome back!

The Return of Lemur

I’ve been away from all things Liquid Lemur for awhile now. I started rebuilding Lemur from the ground up a couple years ago. I managed to get a prototype running on Debian 11. However, when I moved to Debian 11 (the last Lemur, 4.1 was on Debian 10) a lot of things broke. Several of the third party apps I used within Window Maker no longer worked. Several of the Window Maker dockapps stopped working as well. In order to keep using Window Maker, Lemur would have to remain in its hybrid state. This resulted in me pausing development until I could come up with a solution.

This brings us to 2023. I’ve started developing Lemur again. I’m not sure if I’m to remain on Window Maker, even in its hybrid state. So, I’ve toyed with the idea of switching Lemur to a new DE. The image in this post shows one such idea. Liquid Lemur Openbox. I have thought about switching back to Xfce (Lemur’s original DE). But I just can’t seem to let go of Window Maker for some reason.

In the coming weeks I will be building the Debian base that will host the next Lemur. During that time, I will decide on Lemur’s DE.

Welcome back!

Lemur 5 Reborn!

Liquid Lemur is about to be reborn with Lemur 5. Yesterday I finally figured out the issues with running a default Window Maker layout and the dockapps. As seen in the above screenshot from my laptop, it’s working fine.

Due to this recent discovery, I am changing Lemur back to a default Window Maker layout. This will give users a more “pure” Window Maker experience. I will leave the hybrid bits installed though, for those that like the hybrid layout.

So, what was the issue you might ask… It was just a simple “*” in a script. Yes, it was that simple… This “*” worked just fine in older versions of Lemur (Debian and Window Maker). The “*” in this script makes Window Maker cleaner on the desktop, so I’m hoping to find a workaround.

So, now we have a default Window Maker layout, UEFI compliant, and USB thumbdrive booting. All is right with the world! It will take some time to get Lemur 5 built and fine tuned, but it will be worth the wait!

Lemur 5 Coming Soon!

Development is underway on the next release of Liquid Lemur Linux, Lemur 5. The release will bring some major changes to the Lemur OS and fix a lot of issues.

The Debian base that Lemur uses will still be Debian 10 as in Lemur 4, but it will be rebuilt from scratch this time. The WM/DE will still be Window Maker, but in its hybrid form (as it is in Lemur 4) as shown in the screen shot above this article. The Morpher tool will be discontinued, as plans going forward call for Lemur to stay in its current hybrid state.

There will be changes to the custom Lemur apps, as noted below:

Apps to be discontinued: Lemur Dock, Lemur iDesk, Lemur Panel, and Lemur Installer (replaced by Debian Installer/Calamares). Apps to be updated: Lemur Quit, Lemur Apps Menu Updater, Device Manager, Plymouth Manager, and Lemur Updater (mint-update). Apps getting a complete redesign: Lemur Control Center (replaced APEman), Lemur Autostart, Lemur Favorites, Lemur Welcome, and Lemur Conky.

Lemur 5 will finally bring UEFI compatibility and support for booting from USB thumb drives to the table. Both of these have been thorns in Lemur’s side for awhile now. I’m glad to have these resolved now.

Lemur 5 will also see changes in default apps lineup. I will be trimming the fat, so to speak. Additionally, Lemur 5 will be less dependent on Xfce bits. There will be new themes / artwork, as seen in the screenshot. A quick-start guide will be ready for Lemur 5 as well. This guide will help you with the basics of operating Lemur. A more in depth guide will follow sometime later. And last but not least…Lemur 5 will ship with the 5.x kernel.

A lot of work on Lemur 5 has already been completed. However, there is still much work to be done before a release. Stay tuned…