Installation is quite simple if you're using gentoo... We want e17.. it's stable it's good it's being developed right now... and e17 is what I am talking about here.

So first you have to unmask a few packages. Edit your package.keywords in your /etc/portage directory and add the following:
x11-base/xorg-x11 ~x86 # You should use a new xorg
x11-misc/xcompmgr ~x86 # and definitely the xcompmgr
x11-wm/e -*
x11-wm/enlightenment -*
x11-plugins/e_modules -*
x11-misc/engage -*
x11-libs/ewl -*
x11-libs/evas -*
media-libs/imlib2 -*
media-libs/imlib2_loaders -*
dev-libs/eet -*
dev-db/edb -*
x11-libs/ecore -*
media-libs/etox -*
media-libs/edje -*
dev-libs/embryo -*
x11-libs/esmart -*
media-libs/epsilon -*
media-libs/epeg -*
app-misc/examine -*
net-news/erss -*
x11-misc/entrance -*
app-misc/evidence -*
media-libs/emotion -*
media-gfx/elicit -*
media-gfx/entice -*
dev-util/e_utils -*
dev-libs/engrave -*
media-video/eclair -*

Now all you gotta do is emerge everything. For those of you who already played around with e16 - unmerge it. get rid of everything before going to e17 (especially unmerge enlightenment - it's called e in e17).
Since you might want to recompile everything with current cvs status, you could add the following lines in a small script.
emerge -va eet edb evas ecore embryo imlib2 edje e epeg epsilon esmart emotion eclair ewl engrave e_utils e_modules etox entice evidence examine imlib2_loaders entrance erss engage



I use entrance for the x-start, and enlightenment-17. To do that you have to modify two things:
1.) in your /etc/rc.conf put DISPLAYMANAGER="entrance"
2.) update your entrance database by doing: # edb_gtk_ed /etc/entrance_config.db make sure that /entrance/session/1/session points to /etc/X11/Sessions/enlightenment and that this script calls /usr/bin/enlightenment-0.17

You can get themes and background files for e17 from various site (google for it). They both have to be in compiled form - as edj files. Just put the downloaded themes (the .edj files) in ~/.e/e/themes and the background images in ~/.e/e/backgrounds and restart enlightenment. Now you can use the themes and backgrounds

One thing about icons: they are binary files in e17... so you need  e_util_eapp_edit to create/edit those files.
To get a good set of icons check out http://www.get-e.org and download f.e. the gant iconset.
Now you extract all files into ~/.e/e/applications/all (or symlink them). Now you can use the menu-tool to create the menus around.
If you find an application that wont run (f.e. X-Chat or Eclipse) edit the eapp file using e_util_eapp_edit xchat.eap then you can setup the correct executable name (the path is being used, so you do not have to insert the absolute path). And the correct Window class name. To get this name, start the application the open a console and run
# xprop WM_CLASS | cut -d , -f 2
Then when you click on a window, the correct window class name is being displayed in the terminal.

You can also change the icon (any png is fine)

Now all you gotta do is to exit your current wm-session and maybe press ctrl-alt-backspace (restart X) end you can log in using entrance. Make sure to change the default window manager AFTER put in your username (otherwise entrance will start your default wm). Thats it... click and have fun....
Now you should have all modules in the Modules-list (left-click on desktop). You can now enable them and play with the options. Some are pure eye candy (like dropshadow/flame/snow) but most are pretty usefull.

Here is a list of other options I set to make my life easier: (all settings are automatically saved by enlightenment)

I like to change a few behaviors of enlightenment. First of all I dont want the "full-screen" resize to actually cover everything (I like to have the starterbar or engage visible), and secondly I use auto-raise quite a lot so here are the commands to enable both: # auto-raise
enlightenment_remote -use-auto-raise-set 1

# maximize smart - dont cover modules
enlightenment_remote -maximize-policy-set SMART