looking good :)
thanks

Thanks :-)

thanks but the only thing which didn't work was the Expander so my icons are still in the middle

Nice! Where can I find a copy of your first background, its sick! Anyways here are my screenshots:

http://img2.pict.com/8c/a3/98/3754267/0/awnonly1.jpg
http://img2.pict.com/2f/04/0b/3754268/0/awnonly2.jpg

Happy 4th!

Nice job Brian, I like the screens! The first background is http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/1799900931_5476a9d0b9_o.jpg

Thanks! Yeah I saw that you had that link up top to all of the wallpapers. Thanks again for this guide - things look much nicer now! ;)

To others I recommend you install gnome-do as AWN seemingly uses this for its 'Launch' function on the menu. Also if anyone is interested in my wallpaper or Emerald theme they can be found here:
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://gnome-look.org/usermanager/search.php?username=PerturbedPenguin&action=contents&h=7ab8bsPrYMEzATF5ZDzFkxlJWqg

...and I will be updating the Emerald theme soon hopefully! Thanks!

Brian what is your window theme on you first screenshot? Where can I get it?

Ok sorry, my link above doesn't work, it was late when I posted it. ;) Try this:

http://gnome-look.org/usermanager/search.php?username=PerturbedPenguin&action=contents

@mohaned_nj u have to expand the AWN first

yes my friend and that's what i did, but it didn't work i dont know why?!!!

I know why.... because you probably did not check the "Expand the panel" option...

See this screenshot: http://i1-news.softpedia-static.com/images/extra/LINUX/large/ubuntu1004customization-large_011.jpg

Check the "Expand the panel" option and the Expander will work :)

Add applets, turn into 3D and it looks awesome!!!

great work, thank you

where can i find the space wallpaper?

Thanks very much
I love it

It's in the requirements, where it says...

3. A nice wallpaper.

Click it :)

The backgrounds used in the guide are:

1. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2013/1799900931_5476a9d0b9_o.jpg
2. http://wallpaper-s.org/11__Lusitania_Eclipse.htm
3. http://www.wallpapersgo.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/Fantasy-Nature-Wallpaper.jpg

Enjoy!

@Marius Thanks!

Wow!

Thanks!

Wow,thanks.

Where does the taskbar go? Sorry, I'm a former Windows user.

He he, there is no taskbar... the icons (shortcuts) are the taskbar :) When you open a program, you'll see an arrow under the icon, which indicates that the program is running.

Actually, this is the best part of using a dock. Because you know every time where your applications are!

Anyway, in Windows 7 the taskbar functionality is similar to a dock :)

Everything went okay except two things: my icons are 'surrounded' by a gray rectangle instead of being transparent and the intelhide function doesn't work (it's supposed to hide when you're on Firefox and so on, right?).

Can you help me?
Thanks in advance,



Ftuuky.

You don't have desktop effects, such as Compiz Fusion. Active Compiz and everything will be fine.

If you're using Ubuntu, right click on the desktop, select Change Desktop Background, and then go to the last tab - Visual Effects - and hit the Normal option :) Wait for it to activate!

Have fun!

Hi, thanks for your reply. I don't want to bother but I do have the Compiz Fusion activated (I think) but when I hit the Normal option in the Visual Effects it gives me an error 'Desktop effects could not be enabled'. What am I doing wrong?



Thanks in advance,



Ftuuky.

That means you don't have desktop effects enabled. Please install the video driver for your graphics card first and then try to enable the desktop effects. Usually, after you install the video drivers and reboot the PC, the desktop effects are automatically enabled.

But first, please try to install a decent driver for your video card.

Awesome job, just one thing. I am having trouble moving the notification area. When I click on the wireless symbol at the top of the screen, it does not give me an option of removing it from the panel. I am scared to do something like kill nm-applet because I do want the app; just not up there. Also, when I try to add the notification area on the awn panel, it says I must first remove the one in existence. How do I do that?

You have to remove the notification area... those icons are included in the notification area applet of the GNOME panel. It is a thin line with black dots, in from of the first tray icon... right click on it and remove it!

Hi , very nice custom!!. here is my new desktop
http://yfrog.com/0vscreenshotkkp

WOW! I like what you did with your desktop... very very nice! I'm impressed :)

I also love the wallpaper... can you give me a link to it? Thanks!

This is beautiful! I'll do this but make a backup of default in case I want to change back.

Thanks for this. Is there an applet that allows control of webcam, wireless and bluetooth off and on? Lost those when I started using this.

Wireless control should be in the network applet... but webcam and bluetooth, I have no idea. I don't use a webcam or bluetooth... Anyway, all I can tell you is that the systemtray applet of AWN shows the items you had on the original system tray area.

Take a look at Preferences -> Startup Applications app and add the applets you want... they will start automatically every time you power up your PC.

I just got that tool and did some customization, along with cairo dock.....here is a snapshot of my screen. i think its the best ive seen so far../../../

http://nnamtech.com/uploads/Screenshot.png

Very nice, indeed :) What's that on top? With the FF icon, volume control, etc....

thats cairo-dock.....its in your synaptics manager, just search for "cairo-dock".....great tool too :)

its cairo dock...its a really neat tool, like object dock ;-)

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock

Great application and tutorial !

Here is what i made out of it: http://imgur.com/nhN8G.png

cheers !

Honestly, I'm not impressed at all.

AWN is very unresponsive. I have to hover for a while before the icons become enabled. I was under the impression they would also grow as you hover over them.

I'm also not a fan of the 21 pixel space at the top of the screen. I was hoping I could fill the whole screen with my applications, but I guess that's a shortcoming that wasn't mentioned.

Is there any way to quickly restore my GUI to the way it was before this tutorial??

AWN works very well if you have the proper video drivers for your graphics card. That means 3D support! And a decent computer!

In the AWN settings (General tab) you can find a lot of effects for your dock, including the "Zoom" effect (the icons grow as you hover over them).

At the moment, there is no easy way to delete the upper panel. Maybe in future version of GNOME.

What's stopping you to fill the whole screen with your applications? The upper panel is set on autohide and it will not be on your way!

Restore guide is here -> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-8-10-Desktop-Customization-Revert-Guide-104942.shtml

I can't perform the last adjustment of the Notification Area Applet. I get the following message: "There is already another notification area running on this screen!" and the applet will not start. I can't find any other notification applet to close. I could use some suggestions if anyone has any. Thanks

Richard, that's because you did not removed the notification area applet from the GNOME panel. It is a It is a thin line with black dots.... right click on it and remove it!

It won't let me delete my bottom panel...which I find supremely weird. Any thoughts?

I believe it was in '/desktop/gnome/session/required_components_list', using gconf, where you can find the 'required panel' key or something like that. I simply replaced this with the command for AWN rather than 'gnome-panel'. This does have one big downside though - the alt+f2 run function is part of the gnome-panel so you will lose the run command. :(

I managed to figure it out. It was simply a matter of rebooting. I use GNOME Do so losing the run function isn't so terrible.

Really nice write-up on Ubuntu desktop customization. Thanks for sharing.

Here is my screen shot.

http://sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc4/hs046.snc4/34642_114518465262520_100001131002581_90065_2984386_n.jpg

Whoop! the applet crashed. click here to restart it.
There is already another notification area running on the screen.
please remove existing notification area and then restart

i AM NEW TO UBUNTU. pLEASE ADVISE.

That's because you did not removed the notification area applet from the GNOME panel. It is a thin line with black dots.... right click on it and remove it!

Remove EVERYTHING from the panel!

Thanks buddy!! I was looking for something like this.. Here is my screen

http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c97/neelabh75/Screenshot-2.jpg

You're welcome! Very nice wallpaper btw, can we have a link to it? Thanks ;)

This is great, thanks. I have just one question: The weather applet shows the weather for Amsterdam, Netherlands, how do I change the location for the the weather?

Thanks

Very simple: right click on the applet, go to Preferences, click on the Current location box (where you see Amsterdam, Netherlands), a new dialog will appear, type your city and click the "Find" button. Select your city from the results and click OK.

That's all!

Thanks for the help Marius. Works great now.

Here's my shot. I've modified it by adding AWN Terminal near the launchers which replaces my terminal launcher on the top panel. I am also using the StarFighter theme for GTK+ and Royal Blue icon theme. I also added some laptop-specific applets (CPU frequency and battery).

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/2364/screenshotid.png

thanks,,very nice.

Great, thanks. One question: the weather applet, how do you change the location? I have Amsterdam, but I live in Cape Town.

Very simple: right click on the applet, go to Preferences, click on the Current location box (where you see Amsterdam, Netherlands), a new dialog will appear, type your city and click the "Find" button. Select your city from the results and click OK.

Great!!! Thanks!!

My launcher/taskbar is not working properly, I guess... when I open an application from a launcher, another icon is placed in the bar... so I end up having two icons side by side, the launcher and the icon in the taskbar.

I have looked over settings but couldn't find anything to solve this. any clues?

thanks! and hey, this looks beautiful!

Make sure the application is closed first!

i like it but i cant do the last part because i cant get the filr browser because i accidentally mad it so it would not show it and im new to Linux Ubuntu so i need help to get it back thanks oh and how do you take screen shots on here ??

Upload the screenshot to http://imageshack.us/ and post the link here!

Hello,

I managed all the steps except the one with notification area. The applet kept crashing and now it has turned into something else ! It shows up as wired network connection. It does not have any dock preferences !! Please help me get it right.. I am a noob. Thanks. Sunil

That's because you did not removed the notification area applet from the GNOME panel. It is a thin line with black dots.... right click on it and remove it!

thanks,,Mr Nestor for this tutorial, and my desktop is very2 nice now.
here my desktop screenshot:
http://img571.imageshack.us/img571/2936/screenshotyz.png

thanks :)

http://img831.imageshack.us/i/gurkscreenshos1a.png

http://img833.imageshack.us/img833/5687/gurkscrennshot2.png

how can i change back to the default window?

ubuntu 10.10 have the integrated sound menu for rhythmbox,, how to make that work in AWN sound menu??

very nice article, thank you!
that's what i did ^_^
http://imgs.no-ip.org/?di=712880163921

Hi, marius... thanks a lot for the cool-customization-guide !!!!

Here is my screenshot....http://my.opera.com/saheel1511/albums/show.dml?id=5101972

and the link to the wallpaper...http://www.skinsgallery.com/gallery/data/media/12/joker.jpg

Will this work across 2 screens, actually I run 2 screens together and a third running a seperate x-session ? It would be tremendous if it would.

Thanks a LOT!!! :)

excellent! thanks :)