Adding indicators to Unity's Top/Application Panel

**jackn** · May 1st, 2011

I like Unity, and I appreciate Canonical's work in making the desktop cleaner-looking and more intuitive.

I think that being able to customize the top/application(?) panel would be very powerful. By this, I mean both adding and removing indicators.

I guess the developers are aware of this, and it's easier said than done. I don't know.

Personally, I miss the weather and CPU temperature applets of the old Gnome layout.

I tried to apply the best guide I've found to modifying the top panel, to no avail.

After I followed the instructions for the addition of three different indicators (weather, cpu frequency and CPU and RAM % usage), my top panel remained the same.
I don't know whether the indicators should show up right away or only upon restart. I did restart, though.

For both the weather and CPU frequency indicators, the terminal said:

Failed to fetch gzip:/var/lib/apt/lists/partial/fr.archive.ubuntu.com_ubuntu_dists_natty_main_sour ce_Sources Hash Sum mismatch

I don't know how to get around this.

Thanks,
jackn

**johnnyredshirt** · May 2nd, 2011

This is one of the problems I have with unity too. I'd be very happy to be able to put those same applets on the top bar (just as I have in gnome for a few years already) unless this some how messes up the "Bold New Paradigm of Unity" (and the fanboy angels sing alleluia ;} ).

**jackn** · May 2nd, 2011

OK, but let's be good about it.
First, I do like the new interface. I find it intuitive, elegant and more in line with the latest hardware.
Then, if you like, you can keep the Gnome layout.

Finally, as you can see from the link provided in the first post, the developers are thinking of it.
I do hope more indicators will become available and that the panel becomes fully customizable.
In the meantime, an Alt-Tab toggle to see the Xsensors window with the CPU temperature, which I used to have as an applet, is not the end of the world.

And I'll go on trying to use the indicators featured in the link in the first post. My failure to install three of them was the main reason for the post.
Help anyone?

Thanks,
jackn

**Copper Bezel** · May 2nd, 2011

WebUpD8 has an item for indicators. That's separate from the old panel applets. Apparently, the weather indicator needs to be installed, but it's in the repos as indicator-weather.

**jackn** · May 2nd, 2011

Thanks, Copper.

Ok, learnt a bit.
As Copper says, can allow any application to reside in the panel. The 'GUI' part of the guide referred to in the previous post is easy (scroll down).
Here is a comprehensive guide to configuring Unity, including a few points about the panel. It includes the above point on the whitelist for the panel and other, graphical aspects. But I'm left wondering about removal of indicators...

It turns out the CPU usage indicator I referred to in the initial post did get downloaded and installed, except it doesn't automatically sit on the panel.
This I realized from an Askubuntu post, in which it happened to another user.
Perhaps then indicators should go right to the panel. It could either be the default, or it could ask the user whether to do so.

And. Launching 'Skype', for example, immediately put an icon in the panel. So, it seems, if an application has an indicator feature, launching it will place one on the panel. It is necessary, though, to launch/open an app/indicator, not just to install it.

I am left with one big q: how to remove things from the panel?... While trying to find out, I've accumulated four different CPU usage indicators on the panel...

How do you remove indicators, either those you add or those that come in by default?

Thanks for all of this input.
jackn

**johnnyredshirt** · May 2nd, 2011

Apologies for the sarcasm. I just learned about 'indicators' myself and I'm wondering how to remove them as well. Another little quibble i have is that I'm an 'auto-hider' and I'd like that ability too.

**jackn** · May 2nd, 2011

Some more headway.
I could remove the extra Sysmonitor (% CPU usage) indicators by restoring the whitelist (see previous posts on modifying panel) to default. This did not happen right away, I had to restart, too.
Don't know whether restarting would have eliminated the indicators by itself, though I can't see why it should.
Then, I again changed the whitelist back to 'all', added the Sysmonitor indicator by clicking on it from the dash, and all was well.

Further, it is easy to download and install other indicators from the Ubuntu Software Center (contrary to adding repos, etc, as suggested in the guide in the first post). This way, I now have the weather and the cpufrequency indicators installed.
The Ubuntu Software Center is a model of user-friendliness, I must say.

I was able to place the weather indicator on the panel. It's clear and useful.
Two issues remain.

I cannot place the cpufrequency indicator on the panel. While it is installed and I can click on it from the dash, and the whitelist is set on 'all'... no cigar. Likewise, couldn't place the hp-systray indicator (featured in the default whitelist) on the panel.
More importantly, I still don't know how to remove default indicators... (the whitelist, it seems, only applies to indicators which the panel does not feature by default).

OK, so the panel is pretty satisfactory now, and the ability to customize it has improved.
I guess it's easier said than done... but a drag and drop MO would be welcome. Likewise, being able to freely move the indicators along the panel, ordering them setting space between them, would be handy.
Also, perhaps mutiple instances of the same indicators should either be blocked or warned about.
I think I might drop Launchpad a line. What do you think?

Redshirt, what's a 'auto-hider', anyway?

**johnnyredshirt** · May 2nd, 2011

I like all of my bars, docks and menus set to auto hide to maximize screen space. I mostly use ubuntu on my msi u230 netbook, 12.1" screen is bigger than some others, but I like to use it all.

As far as the cpufreq indicator I got it working after creating a launcher then adding it to startup.

**stinkeye** · May 2nd, 2011

You'll eventually find suitable customizations for Unity.

On Maverick I used to have the panel full of cpu,temp,mem and netspeed applets so I could see them when the window was maximized.

Now I just use conky and toggle it's above/below properties using a
wmctrl script bound to a mouse gesture.