HOWTO: Put a shell on your desktop (requires Compiz*)

[phaedOne]

I will show how to create a transparent shell using only gnome-terminal and Compiz-fusion. Check out the attached screenshots.

Part 1:

Create a new profile in gnome-terminal (Edit->Profiles->New), name it "trans". Set the following characteristics:

Cursor blinks: off
Show menubar: off
Initial title: trans
Dynamically-set title: Isn't displayed
Color scheme: Black on white
Transparent Background: on
Set the transparency down to "None"
Scrollbar: disabled

The important part here is that now the gnome-terminal is gonna have the title trans. We can now target the gnome-terminal windows that are using trans profile from inside CompizConfig by using title=^trans$

• The ^ at the begining means for the title to match it must start with the word trans, The $ at the end means the title must end after trans. This prevents it from matching other phrases that include "trans" for example "The transformers" (See:Regular Expressions). You can match windows by other things than their title (See: [How To] Use opacity values and Window Rules).

Part 2:

Have an instance of gnome-terminal open with the trans profile so you can see whats happening to it as you follow the rest of the howto. Open CompizConfig (System->Preferences->CompizConfig).

Make sure you have the regEx plugin enabled.

Go to the Window Decoration plugin and add !title=^trans$ to the Decoration windows field. This will skip adding window borders to our trans terminals.

Go to the Window Rules plugin. Add title=^trans$ to the following fields (This will turn the terminals into a widget-like windows, Sticky will put them on all sides of the cube):

• Skip taskbar, Skip pager, Below, Sticky, Non resizable windows, Non minimizable windows, Non maximizable windows, Non closable windows

In the Fixed Size Windows section click add. Use title=^trans$ for the the Sized Window field and put the height and width you want for your shells.

Go to the Place Windows plugin, go to the Windows with fixed positions tab, in Windows with fixed positions click add. Put title=^trans$ in Positioned Windows field and put x and y coordinates of the default position you want for your shell (top-left corner is 0,0). After they have loaded you can move them by Alt-Dragging them.

To run the transparent gnome-terminal use:

gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=trans

Edit:
The guide will put the same shell repeated on all sides of the cube. You could put a different shell on each side of the cube. To do this create a profile following the fist part of the instructions above but change the title to trans1. Now make three new profiles using this first profile as its base. Change the titles of these profiles to: trans2, trans3, trans4. Now follow the second part of the instructions above using title=^trans[1-4]$ instead of title=^trans$ to match the windows. Now you want to set each one to appear on a fixed side of the cube. Go to the Place Windows plugin, go to the Windows with fixed positions tab, in Windows with fixed viewports. Here add each of your four windows ( title=^trans1$, title=^trans2$, ...) along with the viewport you want them to be in.


dock: avant-window-navigator
widgets: conky / theme

[ESPOiG]

very good ill try that soon

1 question what is the dock program?

[psyopper]

Good one!! I had been working on doing this with Devilspie a few month back but got frustrated with the window sizing and placement scheme. This is much easier - size the window, place it then lock it down and clean it up with Window Rules and Window Decoration in Compiz-Fusion.

Mush less overhead to do the same thing considering I'll be running CF anyway.

Thanks a bunch!!

[walkerk]

Very nice. I just removed devilspie..

[Dark Star]

Awesome guide .. Will give it a try soon Thanks bro

[chm0d]

I just did this and it worked great, but now I have no borders around any of my windows. Did I do something wrong? Obviously i did LOL....tell what I did. Also when we were told to put title=trans in certain spots and plugins do I use the quotes as well? I also seen one with an exclamation mark just want to make sure that is correct as well. BTW I love your conky theme great job on that.

fsckr

[walkerk]

Originally Posted by chm0d I just did this and it worked great, but now I have no borders around any of my windows. Did I do something wrong? Obviously i did LOL....tell what I did. Also when we were told to put title=trans in certain spots and plugins do I use the quotes as well? I also seen one with an exclamation mark just want to make sure that is correct as well. BTW I love your conky theme great job on that. fsckr

dont use quotes.. and the exclamation point means exclude basically.. so !title=trans would decorate all windows except those with trans in the title which you would use for window decorations plugin. the rest should be title=trans..

[Meyithi]

chm0d for "Window Decoration", if you have "any" in there, remove it and just add !title=trans

Otherwise if you have more custom rules in there I think the seperator is "|"

[chm0d]

Originally Posted by Meyithi chm0d for "Window Decoration", if you have "any" in there, remove it and just add !title=trans Otherwise if you have more custom rules in there I think the seperator is "|"

This did not work for me. I have !tile=trans in that field. If i put that in there without quotes nothing happens. If I put that in there with quotes every window is missing a border. So there is definitely something wrong. I have compiz-fusion 0.5.2. I have recieved some help on the compiz-fusion irc channel and the person there had the same problem that I did.

fsckr

*solved. instead of !title=trans I had to xprop | grep WM_CLASS in terminal to fine the class which for me was Gnome-terminal so I had to put !class=Gnome-terminal in that field instead of !title=trans. Hope this helps everyone else having this problem. Also thanx to amphi on #compiz-fusion on irc!

fsckr

[Lord Illidan]

Nice..but I have a couple of probs.

First, how can I disable show desktop plugin from moving it?

Secondly, try typing trans in a google search in firefox. The title changes to include trans, and ... havoc ensues.