Howto: Get Google Gadgets easily!

[Vadi]

Google Gadgets are now available on Linux, but as of this moment, it's not in their Google Repository and they don't have an easy .deb. Thankfully, getdeb.net is making .debs of them, so they're quite easy to install on Ubuntu.

Installing

If you're on 32bit Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

Download and install this .deb (click).

If you're on 64bit Ubuntu 8.10 "Intrepid Ibex"

Download and install this .deb (click).

If you're on 32bit Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

Download and install this .deb (click).

If you're on 64bit Ubuntu 8.04 "Hardy Heron"

Download and install this .deb (click).


When they finish installing, simply press Alt+F2, and type "ggl-gtk" to start them. You should see a small icon show up in your system tray, and a sidebar. Right click on any of them and select 'Add Gadgets' to show a menu.

That's it, you're done! Enjoy.

Optional

Autostart

If you'd like to have Google Gadgets start automatically, go to System - Preferences - Session, click 'Add', paste 'Google Gadgets' for the name and 'ggl-gtk' for the command. Click OK and Close, and you're good to go.

No Sidebar

If you don't like the sidebar, then you can start Google Gadgets without it by doing "ggl-gtk -ns".

Uninstalling

I couldn't find an entry for Google Gadgets in Add/Remove, so the only way to uninstall them is to go to Applications - Accessories - Terminal, and pasting this in:

sudo apt-get remove google-gadgets

If you added them to be automatically started, go to System - Preferences - Sessions to remove them. That's it, you're good to go!


Note: Google Gadgets also features a QT gui (ggl-qt), but I don't use KDE as the DE, so I don't know how to set them up there. If someone does, please let me know, and I'll include the instructions.

Changelog:
Dec 25th, '08: updated to version 0.10.4. Gadget Designer should work now, along with a lot of other optimizations being done.
Nov 13th, '08: updated to version 0.10.3
Aug 15th, '08: updated to version 0.10.1
Aug 11th, '08: fixed a typo, the command is "ggl-gtk" not "ggk-qtk". Thanks to starcannon for pointing it out.
Jul 18th, '08: updated to Google Gadgets 0.10.0
Jun 15th, '08: added the no sidebar option
Jun 15th, '08: google gadgets 0.9.3 are out. The changelog is missing, but the noticeable changes are that the sidebar is enabled by default in the gtk version, and it's way less buggier.
Jun 15th '08, switched from the PPA to getdeb as the PPA already missed 2 releases while getdeb.net had them.

[petedct]

Hey Vadi. The link to click for installation seems to be dead. At least on my Windows box at work. I get "The page can not be displayed" in IE6.

[Vadi]

The installation link will only work on Ubuntu I'm afraid.

[petedct]

Would you post the code behind that link please?

[Vadi]

It simply does "apt:google-gadgets", utilizing a browser extension to install the "google-gadgets" package.

On Windows you'd have to use Google Gadget's installer.

[petedct]

Thanks. I'll give it a go when I get home to the serenity of my Ubuntu box.

[DJ_Peng]

Thanks, Vadi! I was wanting to add this. Now I just have to make sure I don't add too many games to it. I'll never get anything done if I do.

[greyfox1]

After following the steps above I get the output below. I have tried removing/reinstalling several times. What's going wrong here??

rick@rick-desktop:~$ ggl-gtk
Failed to open zip file /usr/share/google-gadgets/resources.gg: No such file or directory
Not a regular file: /usr/share/google-gadgets/resources
Not a regular file: /
Initialize default_framework extension.
Initialize gtk_edit_element extension.
Initialize gtkmoz_browser_element extension.
Initialize gst_mediaplayer_element extension.
Initialize gtk_system_framework extension.
Initialize gst_audio_framework extension.
Demarshal failed. Type dismatch, message type: , expected: s
No slot registered to handle this reply.
No slot registered to handle this reply.
Demarshal failed. Type dismatch, message type: , expected: s
Demarshal failed. Type dismatch, message type: , expected: s
Initialize linux_system_framework extension.
Initialize smjs_script_runtime extension.
Register smjs_script_runtime extension.
ggl-gtk: symbol lookup error: ggl-gtk: undefined symbol: _ZN7ggadget3gtk17SupportsCompositeEv
rick@rick-desktop:~$

[Prospero2006]

Worked perfectly.
Nice job!

[petedct]

We have gadgets and the fun begins. I thank you.