HOWTO: True or Pseudo-Transparent Borderless Pop-up Terminals

[zwiebug]

call me stupid, but how do i build a launcher that automatically opens up two or more of these consoles? i tried to do a "gedit /home/me/tterm.sh" and putting in "alltray ......... for terminal one" , then next line "alltray ......for terminal two next to terminal one" and starting that script as a launcher in the panel. doesn't work. opens up only the first terminal.

[hkspowers]

Hello everyone, I am a noob at linux but not to computers. Anyway I tried this script but I get this error.

james@ubuntu:~$ tar zxf transset-df-4.tar.gz cd transset-df-4/
tar: cd: Not found in archive
tar: Error exit delayed from previous errors
james@ubuntu:~$ tar zxf transset-df-4.tar.gz
james@ubuntu:~$ cd transset-df-4/
james@ubuntu:~/transset-df-4$ make
cc -Wall `pkg-config --cflags xcomposite xfixes xdamage xrender` -c transSet.c
transSet.c:14:19: error: stdio.h: No such file or directory
In file included from transSet.c:15:
/usr/include/X11/Xlib.h:52:23: error: sys/types.h: No such file or directory
In file included from transSet.c:17:
dsimple.h:42:19: error: regex.h: No such file or directory
In file included from transSet.c:17:
dsimple.h:99: error: syntax error before ‘regex_t’
transSet.c:18:20: error: stdlib.h: No such file or directory
transSet.c:19:20: error: getopt.h: No such file or directory
transSet.c:20:20: error: string.h: No such file or directory
transSet.c: In function ‘usage’:
transSet.c:30: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘fprintf’
transSet.c:30: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
transSet.c:30: error: ‘stderr’ undeclared (first use in this function)
transSet.c:30: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
transSet.c:30: error: for each function it appears in.)
transSet.c:60: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘exit’
transSet.c:60: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘exit’
transSet.c: In function ‘main’:
transSet.c:108: error: array type has incomplete element type
transSet.c:129: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘getopt_long’
transSet.c:145: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘malloc’
transSet.c:145: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘malloc’
transSet.c:145: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘strlen’
transSet.c:145: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘strlen’
transSet.c:145: error: ‘optarg’ undeclared (first use in this function)
transSet.c:167: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘atof’
transSet.c:173: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
transSet.c:173: error: ‘stderr’ undeclared (first use in this function)
transSet.c:174: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘exit’
transSet.c:181: error: ‘optind’ undeclared (first use in this function)
transSet.c:190: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘printf’
transSet.c:190: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
transSet.c:194: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
transSet.c:195: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘sscanf’
transSet.c:195: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘sscanf’
transSet.c:199: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
transSet.c:200: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘exit’
transSet.c:208: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
transSet.c:216: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘fprintf’
transSet.c:217: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘exit’
transSet.c:246: warning: implicit declaration of function ‘memcpy’
transSet.c:246: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘memcpy’
transSet.c:248: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
transSet.c:283: warning: incompatible implicit declaration of built-in function ‘printf’
transSet.c:108: warning: unused variable ‘long_options’
transSet.c:108: error: storage size of ‘long_options’ isn’t known
make: *** [transSet.o] Error 1
james@ubuntu:~/transset-df-4$ sudo make install
cp transset-df /usr/bin
cp: cannot stat `transset-df': No such file or directory
make: *** [install] Error 1
james@ubuntu:~/transset-df-4$

my hardware is a dual xeon with ht, 32bit and I have a Nvidia Quadro FX 3000.

can anybody tell me what i am doing wrong?

thanks in advance,
James

[23meg]

Hello everyone, I am a noob at linux but not to computers. Anyway I tried this script but I get this error.

james@ubuntu:~$ tar zxf transset-df-4.tar.gz cd transset-df-4/
tar: cd: Not found in archive

You need to break that line up before the "cd" part; it's actually two separate lines of commands. First copy and paste the "tar zxf transset-df-4.tar.gz" part, hit enter, and then do the same for "cd transset-df-4/".

[23meg]

call me stupid, but how do i build a launcher that automatically opens up two or more of these consoles? i tried to do a "gedit /home/me/tterm.sh" and putting in "alltray ......... for terminal one" , then next line "alltray ......for terminal two next to terminal one" and starting that script as a launcher in the panel. doesn't work. opens up only the first terminal.

Simply inserting two separate lines of the alltray command should work. The following worked for me:

#!/bin/bash
alltray -x -st -g +907+700 "gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=tterm" & sleep 2
alltray -x -st -g +907+700 "gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=tterm" & sleep 2
transset-df -n "tterm (AllTray)" 0.85

[23meg]

Hi guys,

I am not sure why, but it is not stable on my system. Sometimes i got a transparent terminal. And most of the time I got a white terminal as the thumbnail below.

Could 23meg or anyone help me, thanks for your time

Your script seems to work fine over here. Did you try playing with the "sleep" value? Start by trying 3 instead of 2 and experiment with other close values and see if that helps.

[curiita]

well, i get this error

root@portatil:/home/curiita/Desktop/downloads# sudo dpkg -i alltray.ubuntu_0.60-1_i386.deb
(Reading database ... 61356 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace alltray 0.60-1 (using alltray.ubuntu_0.60-1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement alltray ...
Setting up alltray (0.60-1) ...
root@portatil:/home/curiita/Desktop/downloads# sudo apt-get install xcompmgr libxcomposite1 libxcomposite-dev libxfixes3 libxfixes-dev libxdamage1 libxdamage-dev libxrender1 libxrender-dev
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
E: Couldn't find package xcompmgr

any help?

[sYs^]

Package xcompmgr

* hoary (x11): X composition manager [universe]
1.1.1+cvs.20041109-0ubuntu2: amd64 i386 powerpc
* breezy (x11): X composition manager [universe]
1.1.1+cvs.20041109-0ubuntu2: amd64 i386 powerpc
* dapper (x11): X composition manager [universe]
1.1.1+cvs.20041109-0ubuntu2: amd64 i386 powerpc

You will have to enable universe repository, follow this howto: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AddingRepositoriesHowto and enable universe repository, then

sudo apt-get update

and

sudo apt-get install xcompmgr

[23meg]

Anyone tried the transset-df method with XGL + Compiz? Worked straight away for me but I'm trying to iron some minor bugs; for example the terminal window sometimes gets decorated with a title bar after a while for no apparent reason.

[Felipe_U]

Hi, there.
I'm having trouble compiling the transset-df-5. I already installed the build-essential package and the following libxrender libraries: libxrender1, libxrender1-dbg, libxrender-dev, libxcomposite1, libxcomposite1-dbg, libxcomposite-dev
After all that I'm still getting the following error:

cc -Wall -o transset-df transSet.o dsimple.o `pkg-config --libs xcomposite xfixes xdamage xrender` -lm
Package xcomposite was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `xcomposite.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'xcomposite' found
transSet.o: In function `get_top_window':
transSet.c:(.text+0x189): undefined reference to `XQueryTree'
transSet.c:(.text+0x1d3): undefined reference to `XQueryTree'
transSet.o: In function `main':
transSet.c:(.text+0x63e): undefined reference to `XFetchName'
transSet.c:(.text+0x6d9): undefined reference to `XInternAtom'
transSet.c:(.text+0x70e): undefined reference to `XGetWindowProperty'
transSet.c:(.text+0x72e): undefined reference to `XFree'
transSet.c:(.text+0x857): undefined reference to `XInternAtom'
transSet.c:(.text+0x871): undefined reference to `XDeleteProperty'
transSet.c:(.text+0x88e): undefined reference to `XInternAtom'
transSet.c:(.text+0x8ae): undefined reference to `XChangeProperty'
transSet.c:(.text+0x8c1): undefined reference to `XSync'
dsimple.o: In function `Open_Display':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x1ea): undefined reference to `XOpenDisplay'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x201): undefined reference to `XDisplayName'
dsimple.o: In function `Open_Font':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x27b): undefined reference to `XLoadQueryFont'
dsimple.o: In function `Beep':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x2b2): undefined reference to `XBell'
dsimple.o: In function `ReadBitmapFile':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x342): undefined reference to `XReadBitmapFile'
dsimple.o: In function `WriteBitmapFile':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x392): undefined reference to `XWriteBitmapFile'
dsimple.o: In function `Resolve_Color':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x6ec): undefined reference to `XGetWindowAttributes'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x70b): undefined reference to `XParseColor'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x737): undefined reference to `XAllocColor'
dsimple.o: In function `Bitmap_To_Pixmap':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x785): undefined reference to `XGetGeometry'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x7af): undefined reference to `XCreatePixmap'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x7db): undefined reference to `XCopyPlane'
dsimple.o: In function `Select_Window':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x870): undefined reference to `XCreateFontCursor'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x894): undefined reference to `XGrabPointer'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x8bc): undefined reference to `XAllowEvents'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x8d0): undefined reference to `XWindowEvent'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x933): undefined reference to `XUngrabPointer'
dsimple.o: In function `Get_Window_Under_Cursor':
dsimple.c:(.text+0x978): undefined reference to `XCreateFontCursor'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x99c): undefined reference to `XGrabPointer'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x9df): undefined reference to `XQueryPointer'
dsimple.c:(.text+0x9ef): undefined reference to `XUngrabPointer'
dsimple.o: In function `Window_With_Name':
dsimple.c:(.text+0xa16): undefined reference to `XFetchName'
dsimple.c:(.text+0xa5c): undefined reference to `XQueryTree'
dsimple.c:(.text+0xac2): undefined reference to `XFree'
dsimple.o: In function `Window_With_Name_Regex_Recurse':
dsimple.c:(.text+0xaef): undefined reference to `XFetchName'
dsimple.c:(.text+0xb3b): undefined reference to `XQueryTree'
dsimple.c:(.text+0xba1): undefined reference to `XFree'
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make: *** [transset-df] Error 1

Any Ideas on why this is happening?

Thanks in advance,
Felipe

[23meg]

Did you by any chance install the required libs from some other source than the official Ubuntu repositories? And are you running Breezy?