Hello,

I'm one of the developers of Awn and Awn Extras. Thanks for promoting Awn! I'd like to point out that we don't recommend that Ubuntu users compile from source. To that end, we maintain a semi-official repository of development builds for both projects on Launchpad:

https://launchpad.net/~awn-testing/ archive

We try to make to keep these builds relatively stable, so they should be good for day-to-day use. Plus, you get to preview features that we're working on :)

-Mark (AKA malept)

Hi Mark,

Thank you for your comment! I have added the "repository installation" in the tutorial.

However, I wrote this guide because I've tested AWN on Hardy Heron for about 1 month (long before the Beta of 8.04) and since I couldn't found any repository with up-to-date packages for Hardy, I have tried the source installation and everything works perfect... no errors... no nothing :)

Kind regards,

Marius Nestor

Nice post. I was wondering if you could tell me which theme makes your teminal look like the one in your screen shot.
I also can't seem to find the Network Manager applet in the applet options so I had to remove AWN for that very reason.

No theme! It's an AWN applet... just right click on it and set the opacity to 0.8 and it will look like in the screenshot. About the Network Manager... a plugin will be available soon... but until then, you will have to use the System Tray applet to see it (just like in the screenshot).

Hi Guys,

This is great stuff, though I hit some problems.

I went through both the easy and hard installation guides and ran into problems in both procedures.

In the easy method, the repository did not have the awn-extras-applets-trunk package.

When I went to do the second "hard" install I also got an error when compiling the awn-extras.

I should add that this was a clean install and the OS had just gone through a partial update.

Thanks,

Andrew

Hi!

Can you post here the error from the awn-extras compilation please?

And the awn-extras-applets-trunk is in the repository as far as I see... :)

I am having the same problem. On Hardy I do not have the awn-extras-applets-trunk package. I have gone through all the steps several times and checked everything and still, no extras. I have checked from both Synaptic and the command line.

I could use some help finding/installing the extras package.

I resolved my problem by following this thread:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=385981

I uninstalled first and followed those directions and now I have the extras.

Hi Marius,

In reply to your post, I will include the output of the compile error I received when I tried to install the extras.

Note, this was a clean install of the OS without any patching or partial upgrades.

After running "bzr branch lp:awn-extras awn-extras" and the following next step "./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr && make"

I got the following output...

andrew@indie:~/Desktop/avant-window-navigator-0.2.6$ ./autogen.sh --prefix=/usr && make
/usr/bin/gnome-autogen.sh
checking for autoconf >= 2.53...
testing autoconf2.50... not found.
testing autoconf... found 2.61
checking for automake >= 1.9...
testing automake-1.10... found 1.10.1
checking for libtool >= 1.5...
testing libtoolize... found 1.5.26
checking for glib-gettext >= 2.2.0...
testing glib-gettextize... found 2.16.3
checking for intltool >= 0.30...
testing intltoolize... found 0.37.1
checking for pkg-config >= 0.14.0...
testing pkg-config... found 0.22
checking for gtk-doc >= 1.0...
testing gtkdocize... found 1.9
Checking for required M4 macros...
Checking for forbidden M4 macros...
Processing ./awn-extras/configure.ac
Running libtoolize...
You should add the contents of `/usr/share/aclocal/libtool.m4' to `aclocal.m4'.
Putting files in AC_CONFIG_AUX_DIR, `..'.
Running glib-gettextize... Ignore non-fatal messages.
Copying file mkinstalldirs
Copying file po/Makefile.in.in

Please add the files
codeset.m4 gettext.m4 glibc21.m4 iconv.m4 isc-posix.m4 lcmessage.m4
progtest.m4
from the /aclocal directory to your autoconf macro directory
or directly to your aclocal.m4 file.
You will also need config.guess and config.sub, which you can get from
ftp://ftp.gnu.org/pub/gnu/config/.

Running intltoolize...
intltoolize: 'po/Makefile.in.in' is out of date: use '--force' to overwrite
andrew@indie:~/Desktop/avant-window-navigator-0.2.6$

Note for your reference... I also did a full reinstall of the OS and patched it with a partial upgrade and ran your same procedure. While the I was able to compile and install both AWN and AWN-Extras, I received a crash error when launching AW Manager from the Accessories menu. I figured the crash was due to the partial upgrade which might have affected your procedure.

I hope this is of use. Thank you for putting this together.

Andrew

I got a tip 7, you can make AWN be in a curvy.

Press Alt F2, type in "gconf-editor". Then click on apps->avant-window-navigator->bar, and change the bar_angle to be -1.

Enjoy!

I've added your tip in the tutorial. Thanks!

Good tutorial, I got everything installed well but for some reason AWN doesn't want to start. I tried reinstalling it and restarting but nothing seems to work.

Thanks for the tutorial. It worked perfectly one machine in which i installed it for a friend. However when i tried to install it in mine it didnt work. I previously had a version of AWN for gutsy, and i removed it with the instructions in the before mentioned ubuntu forums thread (tutorial). Then i followed your repository method and all went well apparently. But, like the person of the comment above, AWN doesnt appear when i call it neither from the menu in accesories nor from the command prompt. When i call it from the terminal i get the following message:

fermin@fermin-laptop:~$ avant-window-navigator
avant-window-navigator: symbol lookup error: avant-window-navigator: undefined symbol: awn_vfs_init

Could you help me with this issue? What could it be?

Open a terminal and execute the following command:

sudo ldconfig

Now open AWN again and tell me if it's working!

very good tutorial!! it worked very well with me!!
Thanks a million!!!

I tried to install Awn using the first method and tip 3 but upon rebooting all I get is the background image and no menu bar on the top. Can ayone help?

To Arch Parsons: It appears the AWN doesn't automatically start at login, therefore hit ALT F2, type gnome-panel and hit enter. The panel will appear, right click on it and click on the Add to Panel... option. Add the Main Menu applet.

Now go to System -> Preferences -> Sessions and take a look at the Startup Programs list and see if Avant Window Navigator is listed there. If it's not listed there add it yourself by clicking on the Add button (type AWN on the Name field and avant-window-navigator on the Command field).

Log out and log back in to see if AWN appears. If it doesn't appear it may be another problem, so try to open a terminal and run AWN from there with the avant-window-navigator command and paste here the output!

I installed this as well last night (along with a cool OS X style theme. See screenshot here: www.trialoftears.net/temp/szabi_ubuntu.jpg). Everything seems to be working fine. Got one question though. How do I get the Ubuntu Main Menu on there. I know that it does have a menu, but that's not the standard Ubuntu Menu, but something called Cairo, And I want to get the Trash bin on there. I also known that there's TWO trash been apps in AWN, but neither is working properly: 1. the aren't showing when there's something in the trash bin (it doesn't change from empty to full) and eventhough you say "empty" it won't empty it. You then have to go into the Trash yourself and empty it with the button that's located there...

Another small bug that I found is that, sometimes when you have a full screen window for let's say Firefox, eventhough you go to the bottom the navigator won't appear. Any remedy to that? I have set it up like that, that when I go to full screen with some app, then the navigator disappears under it and it only comes up when I go to the bottom of the page.

Thanks!
Szabi

I use the Main Menu Applet not the Cairo one or the other menus.... The Main Menu Applet is the closest one to the real Ubuntu menu, but there is no trash!

Unfortunately I don't have any remedy for the trash and the full screen problems you mention.

Its very good, so share it.

I did install AWN - and also did add it to start up program list.
But it simply does not start at log on.
When i checked it in the start up programs list, it was still there. So i tried to run it from the terminal using cmd.
It gave the following error :
Error: Screen isn't composited. Please run compiz (-fusion) or another compositing manager.
I tried to run compiz -fusion, but this simply leg to a log off immidiately, and on log on no changes were applied.
Stll stuck, can u help !!

Yes, your problem is very simple... you don't have Compiz! To activate Compiz, right click on your desktop, choose "Change Desktop Background", click on the last tab (Visual Effects) and than select the 'Normal' option to activate Compiz.

Now run AWN.

Hi, thx for an excellent guide. But I've got a problem with that pidgin plugin. After I've put the "pidgin_awn.so" in the newly created "plugins" foldern nothing happens. It doesnt appear a "Awn plugin" in the plugins-preferences in pidgin. Any ideas?

Thx in advance

Hey, excuse me if this is a little late, but i installed awn using the repository method that you described, but for future reference, how would i go about uninstalling it completely please?

To uninstall it, paste the following command in a terminal:

sudo dpkg -P avant-window-navigator-data-trunk avant window-navigator-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk awn-manager-trunk libawn0-trunk python-awn-trunk

Hi, i have installed AWN using the easy method but can not get the dock to display. When i select it from the accessories menu i see a dark box appear in the top right corner for a moment and then nothing. I can see a avant-window-navigator process running but it is sleeping, i can open the AWN manger ok and have set it to autostart but still nothing, please could you help.

Thanks

Did you enabled Compiz?

When I attempt to install awn-manager-truck I get this result:

sudo apt-get install awn-manager-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk

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:
awn-manager-trunk: Depends: python-awn-trunk but it is not going to be installed
Depends: python-central (>= 0.6.7) but 0.6.5ubuntu1 is to be installed
E: Broken packages

Hi, just updated awn from trunk repository, this is the output I get by launching it from console:
fra@fra-desktop:~$ avant-window-navigator
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/usr/share/avant-window-navigator/awn-applets-migration.py", line 6, in
import awn
File "/usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn/__init__.py", line 13, in
from awn import *
ImportError: /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn/awn.so: undefined symbol: awn_applet_gconf_set_bool


What's going on ?
Thanx

I'm gonna install this tonight and hopefully I won't need the answer to my question, but:

You have included tutorial for complete uninstall for users installing "the hard way". How does one uninstall AWN when following "the easy" installation?

thanks

Great job mate, fantastic guides all of them. love your work.

now if only i could get ubuntu to install i might just be able to build a decent OS.!

Hey Marius, I got a complicated question, basically i am running ubuntu on vmware because i could not get it to install properly on bare metal. when i try to enable compiz, change settings to normal or extras it does not work and i get error saying desktop extras could not be enabled.
i am on a pretty decent machine so realistically i should be able to run on extras... everything is updated on ubuntu and im running in 1400x900, when i run compiz in terminal it says checking for xgl: not preset. No whitelisted driver found. aborting and using fallback metacity.
Do you know anyway to get around this?

VMWare or any other VM software, such as VirtualBox, will not provide compatible video drivers so you can run compiz :)

Compiz works only with real video cards, such as Nvidia, ATI or Intel... because you need OpenGL, XGL, etc...

Btw.... we have a new forum now, so if you want to get more help (for example with the installation of Ubuntu on a real machine) or you have some ideas about topics... do not hesitate to visit it http://board.softpedia.com/index.php?showforum=46 :)

Have fun!

Hi,

My AWN doing good, but I accidentally delete all gnome panel (top & bottom) when I follow step tip no 3. So now I have difficulties of accessing. Can anybody help to make it appear again, especially for top panel ?

Thanks

Thank you for a very helpful guide, Marius.

I believe I followed Tip #3 faithfully, but now I have several problems:

I cannot right click on the desktop. Firefox and Skype won't open. The Session Manager will not open, either. I feel a bit screwed. Oh, and Compiz Manager will not open, either.

They could all be related. I had three items left remaining on the top panel when I deleted it - Skype, Fusion-icon and the Network icon.

Please can you offer a solution...

so, i follow all the steps and when i enable awn a have in the docl three icons for each program who running. that means one firefox window is running and i have in the dock 3 icons.what happens?

sorry, problem above solved. just delete some directory in home/user

First ... many thanks to Marius for this tutorial and the opportunity to add comment.
When this error appear means that you have got some erratic files from an other awn installation, or could two awn running in confict. Usually files are in usr/lib/ and usr/local. AWN must be deep uninstalled.
First to do is search for libawn.so:
#find / -iname libawn.so
If more than one, delete both manually. Delete also this files:
#sudo rm -r usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn
Complete uninstall awn from Synaptic then unistall as per 'hard way'. Check again for libawn. You can leave the configuration files.

Add this official repository from http://wiki.awn-project.org/DistributionGuides#Hardy_Heron_.288.0x.29_and_later:

#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

Then run:
#sudo apt-get update
#sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-bzr awn-core-applets-bzr awn-manager-bzr

Now awn-manager will work :-)

Sorry ! In my message #24 I mean the solution to the error reported in
Comment #16 by: Francesco on 16 Jul 2008, 20:44 GMT
...
ImportError: /usr/local/lib/python2.5/site-packages/awn/awn.so: undefined symbol: awn_applet_gconf_set_bool

bye

Did you get any answer?
If yes, please, post here.
It's a usefull information.

Hi your post has been awesome!! Except I can't get the applets to install...I'm at the very last step when you mention that we have to install the applets using 'Sudo make install'
Except when I do this, the message I get says that "make: *** No rule to make target `install'. Stop."
Any suggestions?
Thanks

Although mentioned THIS TUTORIAL doesn't work for ubuntu 8.04 Hardy.
Even when the software sources are added correctly it will always answer:
E: Couldn't find package awn-manager-trunk

I think they removed all the necessary software for 8.04 :(