HOWTO: functional eye-candy with Avant-Window-Navigator

[reacocard]

NOTICE: This thread has been superseeded by this one: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=762363
Please go there instead, as this thread will no longer be updated.

Info:

What is it?:
AWN is a compositing dock-like taskbar. It is similar to the dock in OSX, but supports features such as custom themes, applets that can do anything from displaying battery life to showing Dilbert, and much more.

Links:
AWN in Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/awn
The developer's blog: http://njpatel.blogspot.com/
Official AWN forums: http://www.planetblur.org/hosted/awnforum/index.php
Official AWN IRC channel: #awn on irc.freenode.net

Screenshots:

AWN (v0.1):

AWN (v0.2):

Notes (please read!):

AWN requires a compositor (like beryl or compiz) to work properly.

The instructions provided here install an unstable, development version of AWN. This means that you get new features and bugfixes much faster, but things may break without warning. There are stable packages of AWN available in hardy universe, gutsy backports, and from getdeb.net. If you require absolute stability, it is recommended you use one of those sources instead.

AWN is still early in development, and contains many bugs. Please help development by reporting any bugs you find on the project's homepage (see above).

terminal commands should be pasted in one line at a time, unless otherwise noted.

Installing:

There are two ways to install AWN: from my apt repository, or from source. If you are using Gutsy (7.10), using the repository is the recommended method of installation. For all other versions of Ubuntu, compiling from source is the recommended method. You should use only one of these two methods to install AWN. If you decide to change which method you use, make sure to completely remove the previous AWN installation before following the guide. (see 'Uninstalling', below, for instructions)

Repository (Gutsy and Hardy only):

DISCLAIMER: I do my best to keep the packages in this repo high-quality. However, 3rd party repositories such as this one are completely unsupported by Ubuntu. Any problems caused by this repo should be reported to me in this thread, not to Ubuntu.

IMPORTANT: I support only Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) and Ubuntu Hardy (8.04). This does not include derivative distros such as Mint. Though you are welcome to try using my packages under derivatives, I can provide no support for doing so.

Before we begin, make sure you have all the needed ubuntu repositories installed, namely universe and ubuntu-updates. This can be done in System -> Administration -> Software Sources by enabling 'recommended updates' under the 'Updates' tab, and also enabling 'Community-maintained Open Source software' under the 'Ubuntu Software' tab.

Now open a terminal (Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal), we'll be pasting a lot of commands. Remember, paste only 1 line at a time unless otherwise directed.

First, add my AWN repo by running the appropriate set of commands:

Gutsy:

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu gutsy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu gutsy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Hardy:

echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
echo 'deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/reacocard-awn/ubuntu hardy main'  |  sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list

Now update your software lists. If you are asked any questions during this, respond with 'y'.

sudo apt-get update

Then install AWN, again, answer 'y' to any questions.

sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr awn-manager-bzr

That's it! You can now start AWN from Applications->Accessories->Avant Window Navigator.
If installation fails, go back to the beginning and make sure you followed all instructions correctly, and then check the FAQ section at the bottom of this guide.

Available packages:

avant-window-navigator-bzr - the latest development version of AWN.
awn-core-applets-bzr - extra applets for AWN (development version)
libawn-bzr - applet library for AWN
libawn-bzr-dev - headers for the AWN applet library. Install this only if you need to compile applets from source.
python-libawn-bzr - python bindings for libawn

All -bzr packages are updated perodically from AWN bzr.

Compiling from source (All versions):

NOTE: Keep the source directory, you'll need it if you ever want to uninstall.

NOTE: Current AWN will not compile on versions of Ubuntu prior to gutsy, since it depends on a newer version of GTK/GDK than is available.

Avant-Window-Navigator (bzr):
First install the dependencies:

sudo apt-get install build-essential autotools-dev libxdamage-dev libxcomposite-dev libgnome2-common libgnome2-dev libgnome-desktop-dev libgnome-vfs-dev libgtk2.0-dev libwnck-dev libgconf2-dev libglib2.0-dev libdbus-glib-1-dev libgnomevfs2-0 libgnome-desktop-2 libgnome2-0 libwnck-common python-gtk2 python-gconf bzr gnome-common python-dev python-gtk2-dev python-cairo-dev python-gconf python-gnome2-dev gnome-icon-theme python-glade2 librsvg2-common python-gnome2-extras

Now, open a terminal in the directory you want to build AWN in (I use ~/Installs/avant/) and do this:

bzr checkout http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~awn-core/awn/trunk avant-window-navigator
cd avant-window-navigator
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

awn-core-applets (bzr):
See here until I get a full guide up: http://wiki.awn-project.org/index.php?title=Awn_Extras

Updating:

Repository:

The repository will automatically keep you up-to-date in the same manner that ubuntu updates the rest of your software. You can update manually with these commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

Source:

In the source directory, enter these commands:

sudo make uninstall
bzr up
./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

Uninstalling:

Repository:

sudo apt-get remove --purge avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-manager-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr libawn-bzr

Source:

Open a terminal in the source directory (it should have a file called Makefile in it) you installed from and do

sudo make uninstall
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/awn-manager
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/avant-*

FAQs:

Q: Can I put AWN on another side of my screen?
A: Not currently, but this is a planned feature for a future version of AWN.

Q: When does the next version of AWN come out?
A: When it's ready.

Q: There's a big ugly black bar around AWN! How do I get rid of it?
A: You need to be running a compositor like Beryl or Compiz. xcompmgr or xfwm4 may also work, although there are known bugs with each.

Q: Why does AWN depend on so much of Gnome? I'm a kde/xfce/other user who doesn't want to be burdened by all that ****
A: The original developer chose to build on top of Gnome because it was what he was familiar with and could develop the fastest. However, there has been a lot of work poured into making a desktop-agnostic version of AWN that eliminates most of these dependencies and will likely be merged into main AWN fairly soon.

Q: Some of the applets won't load! I only get a white line/nothing!
A: Several of the applets are currently not functional in my builds. Others may not work without installing additional dependencies.

Broken: standalone taskmanager
Needs Deps: Affinity (tracker), TsClient (tsclient), Volume Control (python-alsaaudio), Mail (python-feedparser)

Q: Why don't you support Vala applets?
A: AWN requires a newer version of Vala than is available in Ubuntu. That means that I would have to package a newer version of Vala as well to be able to provide this, which is not only more effort than I am willing to expend, but also can interfere with Ubuntu's Vala packages. So, until such time as a suitable version of Vala becomes available in Ubuntu I cannot build in support for Vala applets.

Q: I want my AWN to look like this! (curves)

A: In gconf-editor, set apps->avant-window-navigator->bar->bar_angle to -1.

Q: I installed from source, but now I want to remove AWN and I have no source dir! What can I do?
A: Run this set of commands in a terminal:

sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/awn*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/bin/avant*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/awn
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/locale/*/LC_MESSAGES/avant-window-navigator.mo
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/applications/avant*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/share/applications/awn*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/avant-window-navigator
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libawn*
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/include/libawn
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/libawn*
sudo rm -f /usr/local/lib/pkgconfig/awn.pc
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/share/awn-core-applets
sudo rm -rf /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn/

[eitan_a]

I have awn, and love it.

I saw affinity is recently released. I tried installing it from that rep but i get an error about libtrackerclient0 not installable. That package is not found in any rep I have. Any help?

[lvanderree]

I think that the dependency (in Feisty) for beagle is libbeagle-dev and not beagle-dev.

Thanks for the other info!

[Deeival]

I had to install gnome-common for ./autogen.sh to work.
And libtrackerclient-dev can't be found. Is that what I need to make the file search possible? Cause right now it wont find nothing.

[cinnix]

Repos do not work for me. After adding them to my sources .list and trying to install the packages, here is what I get.

cinnix@Jehuty:~$ sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-svn affinity
Reading 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.
  affinity: Depends: libtrackerclient0 but it is not installable
E: Broken packages

[migla]

When installing, one could use

sudo checkinstall -D

instead of sudo make install, in order to make a .deb package, which will allow uninstalling with a package manager. Also the system would notify if/when there is a newer version available in the repositories. Right?

[Protoss]

Yup, affinity seems to be broken in the reps. Anyone got a fix?

[saracen]

How are you suggesting to compile from source and install using 'make install', and then saying to remove the packages that were installed with apt-get? When you compile from source using 'make install' it is not registered with the system's package manager (apt-get or synaptic). You should use 'checkinstall' as was suggested.

[kaffekopp]

I saw affinity is recently released. I tried installing it from that rep but i get an error about libtrackerclient0 not installable. That package is not found in any rep I have. Any help?

I installed affinity on edgy - I think you need to install tracker first - see instructions here:

http://www.gnome.org/projects/tracker/start.html

You need to add a repository and install the package libtrackerclient0-dev before doing the ./configure step

Hope it works.

[Deeival]

Originally Posted by kaffekopp I installed affinity on edgy - I think you need to install tracker first - see instructions here: http://www.gnome.org/projects/tracker/start.html You need to add a repository and install the package libtrackerclient0-dev before doing the ./configure step Hope it works.

It's called libtrackerclient-dev