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Thread: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Coimbra, Portugal
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    135
    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Hello everyone, since i don't like gdesklets heavy requirements (because is too heavy for the hardware), i've decided to find a more lightweight alternative for gnome. So I present in this small guide how to install, and run adesklet on Gnome, KDE, and XFCE. This guide was tested in Dapper, Edgy and Feisty and Gutsy.

    Requirements:
    - Internet connection
    - Universe repository enabled

    First of all you will need to get the adesklets package by typing the folowing command in the console:

    sudo apt-get install adesklets
    This will install the adesklet package and all related packages.

    Important Note:
    I advise the upgrade to 0.6.1 or upper, since some important,
    bugs like memory leaks were adressed, for that see the folowing link:


    After that, you need to download a valid desklet to use in adesklets

    This can be done by two ways:

    1 -
    Go to http://adesklets.sourceforge.net/desklets.html, and download a valid desklet, if you want to see weather information try downloading the weatherforecast package

    You will need to extract the package, and copy it to your home directory for instance:

    tar-xvf weatherforecast-0.2.0.tar.bz2
    mv weatherforecast-0.2.0 /home/"you home name account"
    2 -

    run the folowing command and adesklets will automatically give you the option of downloading and installing the adesklets using an graphical user interface:

    adesklets -i

    Either way. assuming that you've chosen to go by the first step, go to your home directory and do:

    cd weatherforecast-0.2.0
    ./weatherforecast.py
    that batch will ask you if you want to register this desklet, say 'r' (you want to register)

    This will create the file .adesklets in your home directory and it will fill it with instructions, for running weatherforecast each time adesklets is executed

    after that you need to know your city code, so go to weather.com and type your city name:

    Click on your city in the search results, and he will display the weather information, copy the link and copy the reference between "/local/" and "?from=", see the following example:

    http://www.weather.com/outlook/trave...om=search_city

    for my city the weather.com code is POXX0035

    after that do inside weatherforecast directory:

    sudo nano config.txt
    and replace the location default code with your code for instance i've did for my city:

    'location': 'POXX0035'
    After that to run your adesklet do:

    for gnome:
    adesklets --nautilus
    for kde:
    adesklets --kde
    for XFCE:
    adesklets --xfce4
    for Enlightenment:
    adesklets --e16
    If you want that adesklets load at boot time, in gnome you can go to System => Sessions, KDE and XFCE have equivalent ways of doing that, and add one of the previous lines to startup.

    If you want to download and install another desklet you can do something similar what i've did to install the weatherforecast desklet, all desklet include an config.txt, and an python batch file for registering the desklet.

    The following scenarios were tested in a AMD k6-II 450 Mhz, with 256 MB RAM:
    - Ubuntu (Gnome), and it worked fast.
    - Kubuntu (KDE), and it worked fast.
    - Xubuntu (XFCE), and it was even faster.


    So you can take your own conclusions


    Note for BERYL and Compiz users


    Some users of beryl have been experiencing transparency problems with desklets. Since there isn't yet a solution, i found a workaround. This workaround was bnased on the feisty instructions available at the beryl project homepage. If u have any file already loading bery-manager please remove it, or don't load it.

    Create the following file in your home directory


    nano startcomposite.sh
    after that fill it with the following info:

    #!/bin/sh
    adesklets --"your DE abbreviation"
    sleep 4
    beryl-manager
    #if you have compiz to the following
    #compiz --replace&
    and save the file.

    The trick here is to run adesklets before beryl / compiz, and make a sleep of 4, in order to adesklets to load before beryl-manager. Pay attention if you have more applications in the startup, you should include then in that file, for instance in my system, i also load amsn at startup so my startberyl.sh file is:

    #!/bin/sh
    adesklets --xfce4
    sleep 4
    beryl-manager
    amsn
    Finally i had this script in my autostarted applications (In my XFCE system, Applications > Settings > Autostarted Applications)


    This workaround worked on my Xubuntu Feisty system. In other systems the you may have to adjust the time of the sleep if it isn't enough to do the trick.

    --

    Adesklets its the only desklets program, prepared to be installed in either Gnome, KDE and XFCE, without installing "half system" (like it would be required if you wanted to install gdesklets in another DE than Gnome).

    I've uploaded the following screenshot, taken from Xubuntu Feisty, for people who want to see adesklets in action, before installing it.

    Hope this guide is useful to you!
    --

    UPDATE

    A recent change on weather.com have broken weatherforecast desklet behaviour, if you were afected by this, please visit the following post, for the resolution.

    http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...94#post5152994
    Attached Images Attached Images
    Last edited by racoq; June 10th, 2008 at 03:42 AM. Reason: weatherforecast desklet fix!

  2. #2
    Join Date
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    Lubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Good guide. A quick tip for anyone in the USA, you can just use your 5 digit zipcode instead of looking up the city code as suggested.

  3. #3
    Join Date
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    Melbourne, Australia
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    9

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Thanks! Nice guide. This is the first time I've tried really tried to make my desktop look good and it's looking pretty good . The next few days look cold according to this desklet :S.

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Coimbra, Portugal
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Thanks, this was my first guide, i'm glad someone enjoyed it.

  5. #5
    Join Date
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    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Perhaps you can point me in the right direction. I started a thread in the desktop support forum asking if any one knows how to have gnome run a user script on logoff. So far there are no takers. Do you know how to call adesklets -k on logoff so that all running desklets will be shutdown?

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Coimbra, Portugal
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    See the following thread, i think it will adress your issue:

    http://www.ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=185261

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    I tried this with Dapper but nothing happens launching "adesklets --nautilus". Does adesklets work under Dapper or is it just me?

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
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    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    i'm running it well on Dapper, why don't you try, within your desklet directory, for instance:

    ./weatherforecast.py --nautilus (for weatherforecast, its the same parameter for other desklet)


    and try chosing 't' to test.

    If it appears then you're setup is OK, and it's working.

    If not, please post here the errors.
    Last edited by racoq; June 5th, 2006 at 02:29 PM.

  9. #9
    Join Date
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    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    Quote Originally Posted by giuliastro View Post
    I tried this with Dapper but nothing happens launching "adesklets --nautilus". Does adesklets work under Dapper or is it just me?
    Hey
    Exact same problem. I've tried running the desklet from the console. Here's the output:
    Code:
    pawel@pawel-p1500:~/.desklets/weatherforecast-0.2.0$ ./weatherforecast.py
    Do you want to (r)egister this desklet or to (t)est it? t
    Now testing...
    ============================================================
    If you do not see anything (or just an initial flicker
    in the top left corner of your screen), try `--help',
    and see the FAQ: `info adesklets'.
    ============================================================
    Traceback (most recent call last):
      File "./weatherforecast.py", line 332, in ?
        Events(dirname(__file__)).pause()
      File "./weatherforecast.py", line 97, in __init__
        adesklets.Events_handler.__init__(self)
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/adesklets/events_handler.py", line 157, in __init__
        self.ready()
      File "./weatherforecast.py", line 105, in ready
        join(self.basedir,'config.txt'))
      File "./weatherforecast.py", line 79, in __init__
        adesklets.ConfigFile.__init__(self,id,filename)
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/adesklets/configfile.py", line 162, in __init__
        self._load_and_save()
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/adesklets/configfile.py", line 205, in _load_and_save
        all= ConfigImport.load(buf[:])
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/site-packages/adesklets/configfile.py", line 41, in __call__
        return dict(self._group(
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/compiler/transformer.py", line 52, in parse
        return Transformer().parsesuite(buf)
      File "/usr/lib/python2.4/compiler/transformer.py", line 129, in parsesuite
        return self.transform(parser.suite(text))
      File "<string>", line 1
        'location': 'UKXX0085'
                  ^
    SyntaxError: invalid syntax
    pawel@pawel-p1500:~/.desklets/weatherforecast-0.2.0$
    please help.
    :://ehh quidquid latinum dictum est, altum viditur\\::.
    .:://Life is a tragedy for those who feel, and a comedy for those who think ;D \\::.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Coimbra, Portugal
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    Distro
    Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx

    Re: Lightweight Eyecandy with adesklets

    i guess that it's a bug from the weatherforecast-0.2.0 desklet, i've had the same problem. you can try using, weather 0.0.4 instead at, http://adesklets.sourceforge.net/desklets.html. This happens because the weather info that weather.com provides in some city's, some times go down, causing this error from the desklet, however weather 0.0.4, doesn't have this problem.

    The use of this desklet was just an example on how to set up adesklets. So don't worry, if you can run another desklet on adesklet that means that your configuration is just fine !
    Last edited by racoq; July 27th, 2006 at 02:41 PM.

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