Introducing UberBang 10.04

Main Screen + Openbox menu

If you've been keeping up with this blog, you'll know that CrunchBang ("#!"), an Openbox distribution that was previously based on Ubuntu, has switched to a Debian base (and has added Xfce to the mix as well). While I agree with many of the developers' reasons for switching bases, I feel like now there's a void in the realm of Ubuntu derivatives using Openbox. No, Lubuntu doesn't count, because it uses LXDE, which is a little more fully featured and a bit different anyway (though it does use Openbox as its WM). No, I needed something a bit more like the lovely #! 9.04.01.

SLiM Login Screen

Enter UberBang. It's a spin that I created of Ubuntu 10.04 LTS "Lucid Lynx" Minimal. This means that creating this distribution was much like creating Oxidized Trinity 6 "Squeeze" from a minimal Debian 6 "Squeeze" installation; post-installation, I needed to fetch all the requisite packages myself (though I will say that here, thankfully, sudo was properly configured out-of-the-box post-installation). For example, in #! 9.04.01, the scrot command line tool is used to take screenshots. As it is a pretty basic command line tool, I expected it to be installed out-of-the-box; I was wrong.
There were a couple things that I tried to do in UberBang 10.04 to make it feel more like the #! 9.04.01 I knew and loved (as opposed to the #! 10 "Statler" that I didn't like quite as much). For one, I installed Pidgin, Skype, PCManFM, and Cheese Webcam Booth, none of which are present in #! 10 "Statler". I also installed programs like VLC, PiTiVi Video Editor, Claws Mail, Liferea Feed Reader, and File Roller. Next, I installed all of the wallpapers and codecs used in 9.04.01. Finally, I tried to port the #! 9.04.01 Openbox themes and icons (as well as the tint2 configuration) over to UberBang 10.04. While this works overall, this also leads me into the (unfortunately rather long) list of issues to watch out for. Follow the jump to read more about this.

Mozilla Firefox (with PCManFM in background)

First and foremost, the #! 9.04.01 theme doesn't look exactly the same on UberBang 10.04. The titlebars and window backgrounds look the same, but the buttons and scrollbars look a lot more blocky, and so do navigation buttons when hovered over or clicked.
The tint2 panel is essentially carried over from #! 9.04.01, but for some reason the system tray refuses to work. The keyboard switcher doesn't work at all anyway (so I removed it), and Volwheel, the system tray volume applet, isn't present in the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories, so there are 2 volume control applications accessible only in the main Openbox menu. Also, though the GNOME network manager applet is present, it doesn't always work right, and it refuses to show up in the tint2 system tray.
I tried configuring Conky, but it absolutely refused, so I've removed Conky as well. I too am a bit sad about having to do this, but it was serving no useful purpose (and for some reason it was hogging a lot more memory than usual).
As this was made with Remastersys, there's no "Install" button in the live session; to start the standard Ubiquity installer, open up a terminal window and type "ubiquity" to start. (I can't confirm this, but maybe "sudo ubiquity" would be better.) Another option is to open PCManFM, click on "Desktop" in the sidebar, and click the button to install.

PCManFM and Abiword

There are just a couple of other changes to note. I was kind of irked by the extraordinary redundancy in applications in #!. Therefore, in UberBang, there's really only one of each application: one CLI text editor (nano), one GUI text editor (Leafpad), one terminal emulator (XTerm as opposed to Terminator), et cetera. Also, I didn't include Gwibber, GIMP, or a link to install OpenOffice.org, as they would have bloated the ISO size, and in any case they can be installed in Synaptic Package Manager at the user's discretion.
#! 9.04.01 had a nice shutdown menu; unfortunately, that capability appears nowhere in the Ubuntu 10.04 repositories, so the "Shut Down" button in the Openbox menu simply sends the "sudo shutdown -h now" command to the terminal.
In the live session, the username is "live" and there is no password. Also, instead of using GDM as in #! 9.04.01, UberBang 10.04 uses the lighter SLiM.
I tried changing the Plymouth splash screen to hide the Ubuntu branding, but unfortunately it didn't work. Oh well.
Finally, I hope UberBang doesn't infringe on the CrunchBang name (and if it does, please let me know and I will change it), nor on the UberStudent (another Ubuntu derivative) name (to which UberBang bears no relation except for the upstream components; again, if it does, please let me know, and I'll change it).
Here is the download link. Also, here is the project page, where I've also uploaded things like the Openbox theme and icon set from #! 9.04.01 for my own use in creating UberBang 10.04. I hope you enjoy using this as much as I did creating it. That said, given all this random issues, as a #! developer would say, "please do not use this as your main stable system, as it may make your system go CRUNCH! BANG!"