It has been three weeks since I upgraded to Gutsy from the development repositories. Gutsy got released just a little more than a day back. While going through the news from the blogosphere about this event, I wished Ubuntu had released a “non-brown” desktop. I don’t like brown and have seen quite a few others complaining. Brown is unique but to me it smells of being different for the sake of being different.
The good thing about being on Linux as most of us know is the possibilities it offers for customization. A few years back customization would have required a few hours of focussed hacking but I am surprised at how easily I was able to purge the brown look and create a slick black setup. OS X and Vista please step aside, the position of “OS with Best Customizable Eye Candy” is taken.
Let us start with some screenshots. The instructions below will help you duplicate the same if you want.
The shift switcher compiz plugin replicates “CoverFlow”. I love this one.
black!
Dashboard baby!
Theme
The black theme is the same used by Ubuntu studio. Apart from looking great, it might just save a few more watts! 
I used Compiz’s “Negative” effect to make the terminal’s title bar blend in with the body of the window (Super + N) is the shortcut when focus is in the terminal window). To learn more about other Compiz effects go here.
The following instructions will get the Ubuntu Studio theme installed.
sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme ubuntustudio-icon-theme ubuntustudio-wallpapers ubuntustudio-gdm-theme
Dock
To get the dock at the bottom of the screen you have to install awn.
sudo su -c 'echo deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator >> /etc/apt/sources.list' sudo su -c 'echo deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 gutsy avant-window-navigator >> /etc/apt/sources.list' wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/reacocard.asc sudo apt-key add reacocard.asc rm reacocard.asc sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr
A slightly different looking (curved) dock can be installed using instructions here.
Widgets
The final touch is to add widgets to Compiz’s widget layer which will look a lot like OS X’s Dashboard.
sudo su -c 'echo deb http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee/ubuntu feisty screenlets >> /etc/apt/sources.list' wget http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee/ubuntu/hendrikkaju.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add - sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install screenlets mkdir ~/.config/Screenlets mkdir ~/.config/autostart
To configure which widgets come on the screen, do
screenlets-manager
and select the widgets. Right click on the widget to adjust properties.
In the CCSM, enable the “Widget Layer” plugin and edit its options. Under the behavior tab, add screenletsd to the “Widget Windows” box. Your Screenlets should then disappear but toggle on and off with the F9 key.
To run CCSM (Compiz settings manager), do
ccsm
After adding all the eye-candy (Compiz + awn), the overall responsiveness is still good on my Dell 700m (512MB, 1.6Ghz). This means I get to keep all of this running all the time and not just for demoing!
Tags: awn, compiz, gnome, gutsy gibbon, linux, ubuntu
Terry wrote,
Love this tutorial. It was very easy to follow and implement. The only thing that I would mention on this is that if you have Ubuntu 7.10 and you follow all of the steps above, after you have added the “screenletsd” to the Widget Windows in the CCSM (that’s a mouth full) you will need to right click on each widget and specify “widget” under the “Window” option. I really hope that made sense. Again, great tutorial
Link | October 22nd, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Harshdeep wrote,
Hi,
I did all the steps however I Awn manager from Preferences menu won’t run upon clicking it. It does run from the terminal by ’screenlets-manager’
Any light?
Link | October 23rd, 2007 at 5:23 am
Harshdeep wrote,
Following is the output when I run awn-manager from console:-
lali@LALINUX:~$ awn-manager
/usr/share/avant-window-navigator/awn-manager/awnPreferences.py:182: DeprecationWarning: raising a string exception is deprecated
raise “\nKey: “+key+” isn’t set.\nRestarting AWN usually solves this issue\n”
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/usr/bin/awn-manager”, line 199, in
awnmanager = AwnManager()
File “/usr/bin/awn-manager”, line 100, in __init__
self.prefManager = awnPreferences(self.wTree)
File “/usr/share/avant-window-navigator/awn-manager/awnPreferences.py”, line 162, in __init__
self.setup_color(TITLE_TEXT_COLOR, self.wTree.get_widget(”textcolor”))
File “/usr/share/avant-window-navigator/awn-manager/awnPreferences.py”, line 182, in setup_color
raise “\nKey: “+key+” isn’t set.\nRestarting AWN usually solves this issue\n”
Key: /apps/avant-window-navigator/title/text_color isn’t set.
Restarting AWN usually solves this issue
Link | October 23rd, 2007 at 5:28 am
prashanthellina wrote,
Thanks Terry! Hope you are enjoying it.
Link | October 23rd, 2007 at 6:59 am
prashanthellina wrote,
Harshdeep,
try this,
ALT + F2 -> brings up the “Run Application” window.
type in ‘gconf-editor’ to open “Configuration Editor”,
Navigate to “/”, “apps”, “avant-window-manager”, “title” and check if there is an entry for “text_color”, if not create a “New key” of string type with name “text_color” and value “FFFFFFFF”.
I have not tried this, so it may or may not work (but ideally should be safe to try).
A couple of questions…
1) Are you running gutsy? How did you install it (upgrade, fresh install etc)?
2) Do you have Compiz installed?
3) Is Compiz enabled?
I found this thread on Ubuntu Forums where you can look for a solution, if you don’t, do try posting there.
http://ohioloco.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=571071
Do let me know if you get it working. Good luck
Link | October 23rd, 2007 at 7:08 am
Shimmy wrote,
The widget-layer does not seems to affect the screenlets if you add “screenletsd” to the behaviour box, instead i entered “name=Screenlet.py” and it worked.
Link | October 23rd, 2007 at 4:46 pm
Hansemann wrote,
Hi!
This is my first hour with Linux ever, so..
Can’t seem to get the studio theme working; I get this error in terminal when pasting the commands i found here:
And I’m not sure how to get the cover-flow thing going..
Sorry guys, hope someone have time to help me out..
Err http://archive.ubuntustudio.org gutsy/main Packages
404 Not Found
Fetched 3B in 1s (3B/s)
Failed to fetch http://archive.ubuntustudio.org/ubuntustudio/dists/gutsy/main/binary-i386/Packages.gz 404 Not Found
Reading package lists… Done
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
hc@Zepto:~$ sudo apt-get install ubuntustudio-theme ubuntustudio-icon-theme ubuntustudio-wallpapersReading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
ubuntustudio-icon-theme: Depends: tango-icon-theme but it is not installable
ubuntustudio-theme: Depends: gtk2-engines-murrine but it is not installable
E: Broken packages
Link | October 24th, 2007 at 5:12 am
D. Searson wrote,
I really enjoyed this tutorial. It worked like a charm! I have a laptop and just installed Gusty and followed your instructions. I am a fan of the traditional Ubuntu theme and left that part alone. Thank you, thank you , thank you.
Link | October 25th, 2007 at 6:11 am
prashanthellina wrote,
Hansemann, Looks like your repository list is broken. Please send the contents of your /etc/apt/sources.list. Also, did you try upgrading from Fesity to Gutsy before release date? (I’m asking because my repos got broken on a machine because of this).
Link | October 25th, 2007 at 7:38 am
prashanthellina wrote,
D. Searson, I am happy it worked for you. Enjoy!
Link | October 25th, 2007 at 7:39 am
proanti wrote,
good stuff man. after all the unsuccessful attempts with AWN, using your source worked like a champ.
Link | October 27th, 2007 at 2:45 am
Cole Cash wrote,
I’ve successfully implemented compiz and awn. I really like it a great deal. However, my main gripe right now is that I’ve lost my title bar on all of my windows. That also means that I don’t have my close, minimize/maximize buttons. This is rather annoying when I want to close something. I don’t always want to go down to the dock. Do you know what I need to do to rectify this situation?
Link | October 27th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Shanghai wrote,
Okay I have same problem as Harshdeep.
When I try the gconf editor I see that there is no schema (title doesn’t exist).
I installed kubuntu and compiz kde is running.
Link | October 28th, 2007 at 6:53 am
gokiburi wrote,
All the installs worked like a charm with the exception of AWN. I have the same issue as Harshdeep and Shanghai.
I haven’t been able to find a fix anywhere just yet. Any clues?
Link | October 28th, 2007 at 8:59 am
catatoa wrote,
I have the same problem, also. But I install the AWN from Source and it work. I use this tutorial:
http://wiki.awn-project.org/index.php?title=InstallingFromSource
Good luck!
Link | October 28th, 2007 at 2:49 pm
Harshdeep Singh wrote,
Prasanth,
I was able to get AWN working. Actually the way to works is:-
Install AWN by the steps mentioned in the above article.
Then to start it, go to Applications -> Accessories -> AWN manager
And it starts..
To get a Glass dock: http://www.queervisions.com/arch/2007/10/awn_avantwindow.html
Thanks
Harsh
Link | October 31st, 2007 at 7:03 pm
prashanthellina wrote,
Thanks for the info Harshdeep.
Link | October 31st, 2007 at 8:28 pm
SeismicMike wrote,
Couldn’t download the key for the screenlets. It couldn’t resolve the URL.
Link | December 30th, 2007 at 9:07 pm
prashanthellina wrote,
SeismicMike, I just tried the link (http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee/ubuntu/hendrikkaju.gpg) and it is working fine. It might have been a temporary condition.
Link | January 1st, 2008 at 8:15 pm
Rajesh wrote,
Hi,
I was able to install the AWN. However, couldn’t download screenlets. Things went well till the point of update. This is what I got from “sudo apt-get update”
Get:6 http://download.tuxfamily.org gutsy/avant-window-navigator Sources [1020B]
Ign http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee fiesty Release.gpg
Ign http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee fiesty/screenlets Translation-en_IN
Ign http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee fiesty Release
Ign http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee fiesty/screenlets Packages
Err http://hendrik.kaju.pri.ee fiesty/screenlets Packages
404 Not Found
Could anyone tell me the alternate source for the screenlets?
Thanx
Link | January 23rd, 2008 at 11:20 pm
Bong B wrote,
Great Tutorial! I have just installed Gutsy on my DV9700T, and I admit, it’s far better than Vista or XP.
I have been using Ubuntu on my old laptop for a year and a half now and glad that I stumbled upon
this tutorial. Made installing the UbuntuStudio look even easier than before. Great Job!
Link | February 28th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
prashanthellina wrote,
It’s a wonderful theme. Glad you found this article useful.
Link | March 1st, 2008 at 8:36 pm
CruXx wrote,
great tutorial kinda bad that awn site doesn’t work any more . thanks
Link | April 12th, 2008 at 10:21 pm