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Emblem Parade
September 17th, 2014, 04:51 AM
I happen to really like Ubuntu's default look for Unity. Too bad Unity has too many usability flaws for me to make it my main desktop. Happily, Xubuntu is a great derivative, that indeed does everything I need. But it's a bit too raw out of the box. In this guide, I'll show you how I made my Xubuntu look and feel as beautiful and as smooth as Ubuntu.

http://i.imgur.com/uBOZlWt.jpg

We'll be using the Ambiance and Radiance Colors (http://www.ravefinity.com/p/ambiance-radiance-colors-suite.html) theme, the Faenza icons (http://tiheum.deviantart.com/art/Faenza-Icons-173323228), DockbarX (https://github.com/M7S/dockbarx) (with Xfce panel plugin), and Compton (https://github.com/chjj/compton) as our compositor.

EXTRA AND UPDATED PACKAGES

sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:ravefinity-project/ppa
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:tiheum/equinox
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:richardgv/compton
sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:gottcode/gcppa
sudo apt update
sudo apt install ambiance-colors radiance-colors faenza-icon-theme xfce4-dockbarx-plugin dockbarx-themes-extra compton

SETTINGS

Appearance

Style: "Ambiance-XFCE-LXDE-Orange"
Icons: "Faenza-Dark"
Fonts:
Default Font: "Ubuntu 12"

Window Manager

Style:
Theme: "Ambiance-XFCE-LXDE-Orange"
Title font: "Ubuntu Medium 11"
Button layout: "X _ [] Title"

Window Manager Tweaks

Compositor: disable "Enable display compositing" (we'll be using Compton instead)

Panel

Appearance:
Background:
Style: Solid color
Alpha: 60
Color: #4E4E4E

Items:

Remove "Window Button" and replace it with "DockbarX".

Double click on Whisker Menu
Icon:
Select icon from "Image Files", and then select the file you download from here (http://design.ubuntu.com/wp-content/uploads/logo-ubuntu_cof-orange-hex.svg)

Double click on DockbarX
Solid color
Color: #4E4E4E
Alpha: 60

You can configure DockbarX by running the "DockbarX Preference" application. The theme I like is "Brit", with the window list style "Deep".

Session and Startup

Application Autostart

Add:
Name: "Compton"
Description: "Compositor"
Command: "/usr/bin/compton -b"

COMPTON

We'll need to create a configuration file for it. You can use mine! Run Mousepad, and paste this:


# See: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2144468

# Backend
# See: https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/perf-guide
backend = "glx";
glx-no-stencil = true;
glx-no-rebind-pixmap = true;
#glx-use-copysubbuffermesa = true; # may have negative effects on vsync
paint-on-overlay = true;
unredir-if-possible = true; # may fix some fullscreen apps

# Vsync
# See https://github.com/chjj/compton/wiki/vsync-guide
vsync = "opengl-swc";

# Shadow
shadow = true;
shadow-radius = 4; # the blur radius (default 12)
shadow-offset-x = -5; # the left offset (default -15)
shadow-offset-y = -5; # the top offset (default -15)
clear-shadow = true; # might help with irregularly shaped windows
no-dock-shadow = true;
no-dnd-shadow = true;
shadow-exclude = [
"n:e:Notification",
"n:e:Docky",
"g:e:Synapse",
"g:e:Conky",
"n:w:*Firefox*",
"n:w:*Chromium*",
"n:w:*dockbarx*",
"class_g ?= 'Cairo-dock'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-notifyd'",
"class_g ?= 'Xfce4-power-manager'"
];

# Opacity
detect-client-opacity = true;

# Fading
fading = true;
fade-delta = 3; # the time between steps in a fade in milliseconds (default 10).
fade-in-step = 0.03; # opacity change between steps while fading in (default 0.028).
fade-out-step = 0.03; # oppacity change between steps while fading out (default 0.03).
#no-fading-openclose = true; # Fade windows in/out when opening/closing

# Window type settings
wintypes:
{
tooltip = { fade = true; shadow = false; };
};

Save the file as ".compton.conf" (note the first ".") in your home folder.

TERMINAL

Run "Terminal Emulator". Right click, and choose "Preferences".

Appearance
Font: "Ubuntu Mono 13"
Background: "Transparent background", transparency: 0.90

Colors
Presets: Tango
Background color: #320927 (you need to set this again every time you load a preset!)

YAY!

Logout, login again, and everything should be awesome. :)

ibjsb4
September 18th, 2014, 04:12 PM
I am going to try your compton script when I get some time.