aymara's Arch Linux Blog

Compiz Stand Alone WM

aymara — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 15:29:25 +0000

As usual, I’m trying new stuff on my desk. I was looking for a nice work environment on my tiny netbook screen.

I’ve using compiz on top of GNOME, and i get used to the plugins and some usefull effects, but some times I just wanted to go minimal, and all those GNOME stuff felt like bloated.

Then i’ve found a forum thread talking about compiz as Window Manager, and i thought: “Why not”.

The Instalation and configuration was easy and now I’m very happy with it.

My ~/.xinitrc
exec fusion-icon & compiz --indirect-rendering & emerald & xrdb -load ~/.Xdefaults & sleep 14s && conky -c /home/aymara/Scripts/conky-minimo-1-linea

¡Full minimalism!

As you can see, there is no panel over there. I don’t need it, and that way i managed to save vertical space, something really important in a tiny res of 1024x600px.

Instead, i can’t live without conky. As you probably know, conky uses an pseudo transparency to match with desktop background. Compiz is a WM not a DE, thats why you have to think in conky as a window, and pay special attention to the “own_window” parameters:

My conkyrc

double_buffer yes own_window yes own_window_type normal own_window_hints undecorate,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager draw_borders no gap_x -10 gap_y 4 alignment bottom_right update_interval 1 default_color 333333 own_window_transparent no use_xft yes xftfont mintsstrong:pixelsize=10 use_spacer no minimum_size 1024 10 mpd_host localhost mpd_port 6600


TEXT

The Time: ${color 7f7f7f}${time %a %d. %b %k:%M} ${color 60c8f2}| ${color}Kernel: ${color 7f7f7f}${font}${kernel}${color 60c8f2} | ${color}CPU: ${color 7f7f7f}${font}${cpu}% ${color} RAM: ${color 7f7f7f}${font}${mem} ${color 60c8f2} | ${color} Uptime: ${color 7f7f7f}${font}${uptime_short}${color 60c8f2} | ${color}Music: ${color 7f7f7f}$mpd_title - $mpd_artist ${color 60c8f2}| ${color}Battery: ${color 7f7f7f} ${battery BAT0}

This experiment helped me to think wich apps do i REALLY need to do my daily work.

Its a great thing to do at the end of the year. It’s like doing a deep cleaning on your mind and start over with those things that really matter.

My new conky clock

aymara — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 18:17:26 +0000

Recently i’ve found out that conky can be displayed as rings, and other forms using an lua script.

My new conky clock

Well here you have my clock drawn with conky. It also show the wireless and battery status, cpu and mem load, and disk space used.

Is really beautifull, dont you think??

It uses the last version of conky (1.7.2). Down here you’ll find the conkyrc and the lua script. I left the comments on the code, so you can customize it.

Thanks to londonali1010 for the script and the comments

Clock-Rings.lua

--[[ Clock Rings by londonali1010 (2009)


This script draws percentage meters as rings, and also draws clock hands if you want! It is fully customisable; all options are described in the script. This script is based off a combination of my clock.lua script and my rings.lua script.
IMPORTANT: if you are using the 'cpu' function, it will cause a segmentation fault if it tries to draw a ring straight away. The if statement on line 145 uses a delay to make sure that this doesn't happen. It calculates the length of the delay by the number of updates since Conky started. Generally, a value of 5s is long enough, so if you update Conky every 1s, use update_num>5 in that if statement (the default). If you only update Conky every 2s, you should change it to update_num>3; conversely if you update Conky every 0.5s, you should use update_num>10. ALSO, if you change your Conky, is it best to use "killall conky; conky" to update it, otherwise the update_num will not be reset and you will get an error.
To call this script in Conky, use the following (assuming that you save this script to ~/scripts/rings.lua):

	lua_load ~/scripts/clock_rings.lua

	lua_draw_hook_pre clock_rings
Changelog:

+ v1.0 -- Original release (30.09.2009)

]]
settings_table = {

	{

		name='cpu',

		arg='cpu0',

		max=100,

		bg_colour=0x353535,

		bg_alpha=0,

		fg_colour=0x353535,

		fg_alpha=0.8,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=137.5,

		thickness=15,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='memperc',

		arg='',

		max=100,

		bg_colour=0xd8d8d8,

		bg_alpha=0.1,

		fg_colour=0xd8d8d8,

		fg_alpha=0.5,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=157,

		thickness=13,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='fs_used_perc',

		arg='/',

		max=100,

		bg_colour=0x353535,

		bg_alpha=0,

		fg_colour=0x353535,

		fg_alpha=0.5,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=100,

		thickness=20,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='battery_percent',

		arg='BAT0',

		max=100,

		bg_colour=0x353535,

		bg_alpha=0.4,

		fg_colour=0xd8d8d8,

		fg_alpha=1,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=120,

		thickness=10,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='wireless_link_qual_perc',

		arg='wlan0',

		max=100,

		bg_colour=0x353535,

		bg_alpha=0.1,

		fg_colour=0x353535,

		fg_alpha=0.9,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=80,

		thickness=12.5,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='time',

		arg='%I',

		max=12,

		bg_colour=0x868686,

		bg_alpha=0.1,

		fg_colour=0x868686,

		fg_alpha=0.9,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=28,

		thickness=3.5,

		start_angle=0,

    		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='time',

		arg='%M',

		max=60,

		bg_colour=0x868686,

		bg_alpha=0.1,

		fg_colour=0x868686,

		fg_alpha=0.95,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=33,

		thickness=3.5,

		start_angle=0,

    		end_angle=360

	},

	{

		name='time',

		arg='%S',

		max=60,

		bg_colour=0x868686,

		bg_alpha=0.1,

		fg_colour=0x868686,

		fg_alpha=1.0,

		x=195, y=195,

		radius=13.5,

		thickness=23,

		start_angle=0,

		end_angle=360

	},

}
-- Use these settings to define the origin and extent of your clock.
clock_r=125
-- "clock_x" and "clock_y" are the coordinates of the centre of the clock, in pixels, from the top left of the Conky window.
clock_x=195

clock_y=195
show_seconds=true
require 'cairo'
function rgb_to_r_g_b(colour,alpha)

	return ((colour / 0x10000) % 0x100) / 255., ((colour / 0x100) % 0x100) / 255., (colour % 0x100) / 255., alpha

end
function draw_ring(cr,t,pt)

	local w,h=conky_window.width,conky_window.height
	local xc,yc,ring_r,ring_w,sa,ea=pt['x'],pt['y'],pt['radius'],pt['thickness'],pt['start_angle'],pt['end_angle']

	local bgc, bga, fgc, fga=pt['bg_colour'], pt['bg_alpha'], pt['fg_colour'], pt['fg_alpha']
	local angle_0=sa*(2*math.pi/360)-math.pi/2

	local angle_f=ea*(2*math.pi/360)-math.pi/2

	local t_arc=t*(angle_f-angle_0)
	-- Draw background ring
	cairo_arc(cr,xc,yc,ring_r,angle_0,angle_f)

	cairo_set_source_rgba(cr,rgb_to_r_g_b(bgc,bga))

	cairo_set_line_width(cr,ring_w)

	cairo_stroke(cr)
	-- Draw indicator ring
	cairo_arc(cr,xc,yc,ring_r,angle_0,angle_0+t_arc)

	cairo_set_source_rgba(cr,rgb_to_r_g_b(fgc,fga))

	cairo_stroke(cr)

end
function draw_clock_hands(cr,xc,yc)

	local secs,mins,hours,secs_arc,mins_arc,hours_arc

	local xh,yh,xm,ym,xs,ys
	secs=os.date("%S")

	mins=os.date("%M")

	hours=os.date("%I")
	secs_arc=(2*math.pi/60)*secs

	mins_arc=(2*math.pi/60)*mins+secs_arc/60

	hours_arc=(2*math.pi/12)*hours+mins_arc/12
	-- Draw hour hand
	xh=xc+0.7*clock_r*math.sin(hours_arc)

	yh=yc-0.7*clock_r*math.cos(hours_arc)

	cairo_move_to(cr,xc,yc)

	cairo_line_to(cr,xh,yh)
	cairo_set_line_cap(cr,CAIRO_LINE_CAP_ROUND)

	cairo_set_line_width(cr,5)

	cairo_set_source_rgba(cr,1,1,1,0.8)

	cairo_stroke(cr)
	-- Draw minute hand
	xm=xc+clock_r*math.sin(mins_arc)

	ym=yc-clock_r*math.cos(mins_arc)

	cairo_move_to(cr,xc,yc)

	cairo_line_to(cr,xm,ym)
	cairo_set_line_width(cr,3)

	cairo_stroke(cr)
	-- Draw seconds hand
	if show_seconds then

		xs=xc+clock_r*math.sin(secs_arc)

		ys=yc-clock_r*math.cos(secs_arc)

		cairo_move_to(cr,xc,yc)

		cairo_line_to(cr,xs,ys)
		cairo_set_line_width(cr,1)

		cairo_stroke(cr)

	end

end
function conky_clock_rings()

	local function setup_rings(cr,pt)

		local str=''

		local value=0
		str=string.format('${%s %s}',pt['name'],pt['arg'])

		str=conky_parse(str)
		value=tonumber(str)

		pct=value/pt['max']
		draw_ring(cr,pct,pt)

	end
	-- Check that Conky has been running for at least 5s
	if conky_window==nil then return end

	local cs=cairo_xlib_surface_create(conky_window.display,conky_window.drawable,conky_window.visual, conky_window.width,conky_window.height)
	local cr=cairo_create(cs)
	local updates=conky_parse('${updates}')

	update_num=tonumber(updates)
	if update_num>5 then

		for i in pairs(settings_table) do

			setup_rings(cr,settings_table[i])

		end

	end

draw_clock_hands(cr,clock_x,clock_y) end

conkyrc

alignment top_left background no border_inner_margin 0 border_outer_margin 0 cpu_avg_samples 2 default_color 94959C default_outline_color 94959C default_shade_color 94959C double_buffer yes draw_borders no draw_graph_borders no draw_outline no draw_shades no gap_x 0 gap_y 0 maximum_width 500 max_port_monitor_connections 64 max_specials 512 max_user_text 16384 minimum_size 400 400 net_avg_samples 2 no_buffers yes out_to_console no own_window_colour black own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager own_window_transparent yes own_window_type normal own_window yes update_interval 0.4 uppercase no use_spacer none use_xft yes xftalpha 0.8 xftfont Purisa:size=7


# -- Lua load -- #

lua_load ~/clock.lua

lua_draw_hook_pre clock_rings
TEXT

I've noticed… I'm a desktop modding addict!!

aymara — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:38:02 +0000

That’s not so hard to realize… if you see my profile on archlinux’s forums, my posts are mainly about desktop screenshots, and conky.

It’s funny, because arch users in most cases are console fans and modding desktops is not so important to them (maybe taking KISS too far?? )

I guess that may change with time, now that Archlinux is more popular even on newbies and simple desktop users (like me).

I think that maybe I should share with you all those desktop modds. Perhaps it helps someone to find new ideas or save some time…

I'm Back!!

aymara — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:48:45 +0000

Last month happened lots of things. My mini-notebook was stolen, so no more Archlinux playing for me for a while…

But now i’m back!! I’ve bought a new mini-notebook. This one it’s a bit different.

Some specs:

Model: Bangho DU1001TH-S

Intel® Atom N270(1.6GHz,533FSB,BGA)

2GB DDR2 667Mhz RAM

250 Gb 5400 Rpm HD

Intel 945 GSE / ICH-7 Chipset

Weight 1,2Kg.

10,2” WXGA screen

As you can see its more powerfull than the last one.The name I’ve choosen for it: “Zephyrus”.

Downsides:

It came with “Vista Starter Edition”, guess what happened with it

Inmediatelly installed Archlinux. No much problems… except for one thing: The Wireless card its a big pain on… (you know where).

Its an “Wifi + Bluetooth 3dsp chipset bluew2310″. Its chinese and for now it only give drivers for windows and ubuntu, both restricted, so i cant see the source code…

I’ve decided that i dont need bluetooth but i really need wifi connection, so I’ve changed the wifi chipset for an less chinese one

It’s not the best solution, but works for me. If any of you have a clue about 3dsp drivers, just tell me!

Grub Splash Image

aymara — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 15:06:37 +0000

Los que me conocen, saben bien que me gusta cambiar todo lo que tiene que ver con mi entorno visual de trabajo, más que nada para lograr funcionalidad sin renunciar al deleite estético.

Ésta vez es el turno de mi GRUB.

Hice varios Splash para irlos variando cuando me canse:

imágenes para los splash

Pueden descargar éstos splash que funcionarán perfectamente en pantallas de 1024×600

Para utilizarlos deben copiarlos en /boot/grub/splashimages/

Y luego agregar en /boot/grub/menu.lst lo siguiente

splashimage /boot/grub/splashimages/xxxxxxx.xpm.gz

Con ello tendrán un hermoso fondo para su GRUB sin nada de trabajo.

→ English Version

Those who knows me, know that i’m always trying to make changes to my workspace to make it more funktional AND beautifull. Today i “pimped” my GRUB with some splashimages.

This ones, will work great on 1024×600 screens.

Download the files and save it on /boot/grub/splashimages/ and then, add this line to your /boot/grub/menu.lst :

splashimage /boot/grub/splashimages/xxxxxxx.xpm.gz

Hope you find this usefull…

V-Penis

aymara — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:26:03 +0000

Es de público conocimiento la necesidad masculina de “medirse el miembro”. Haciendo un paralelo, a los nerds les gusta mostrar sus archivos de configuración, la velocidad de booteo… en pocas palabras la “performance” en general de su sistema.

Resulta que dentro de la comunidad de #archlinux hubo quienes hicieron un pequeño script en pyton para transformar los datos generales del sistema en una medición en cm. Si: lo transforma en “Virtual Penis”.

Yo sé que los que estan leyendo probablemente ahora tengan la increible tentación de medirse. Pues bien, aquí tienen el script.

Si así lo desean pueden medirse y luego contarme “qué tan grande la tienen”.

Lo encontré en el blog de jelly (Uno de sus creadores).

// –> English Version

Men always need to prove themself in some way, some people like to show off their nice hardware and dotfiles. So a couple of people of #archlinux made a script that does that in a fair way.

“Virtual Penis” is an small script that takes the cpu freq, number of cores , ram, disk space, uptime and calculates the result in centimeters.

I know that maybe you want to know how you’re doing… well: download the script here and find out!

I’ve found it on jelly’s blog (one of the coders).

Estoy corriendo Archlinux en… / I'm running Archlinux on…

aymara — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:22:34 +0000

Mi nueva Mini Notebook

(Llamarla “Netbook” no es lo más apropiado)

Al principio pensé que era mejor instalarle alguna distribución especial para “Netbooks” como Ubuntu Netbook Remix, pero luego de revisar bien las características técnicas, noté que podía instalarle Archlinux sin mayores problemas, así que eso hice.

La instalación me llevó menos de una hora.

Características

Pantalla TFT LCD WideScreen de 10,2 Pulgadas
Memoria RAM de 1 GB
Disco Rígido de 160 GB
Procesador Intel Atom N270 a 1.60 GHz
Webcam incorporada de 1.3 Mpx
Sonido estéreo y micrófono incorporado
Chipset Intel 945 GSE
WLAN 802.11 b/g
LAN 10/100 Mbps
3 puertos USB
Multilector de tarjetas 4 en 1 (Memory Stick, MS Pro, Multi Media Card, Secure Digital)
Salida para monitor

El único “problema” que tuve luego de una actualización, fue que el kernel 2.6.30 entraba en conflicto con el driver de la tarjeta wi-fi.

La solución para ello fue instalar el paquete parchado del driver de la tarjeta. Se encuentra en AUR: rtl8187se-patched

Fuera de eso, todo funcionó con las opciones “por defecto”.

// –> English Version

My new Mini Notebook

At first i thougt it would be better to install an especific distribution like Ubuntu Netbook Remix. But looking carefully to the technical specs, I noticed that Archlinux would work without any troubles. I was right. The clean instalation took me about an hour.

The only “trouble” was related to the wifi driver (rtl1817) and kernel 2.6.30. I have installed a package called rtl8187se-patched wich is on AUR. That solved the problem. Everything else worked “out of the box”.

Mi escritorio de Julio / Desktop Screenshot – July

aymara — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 22:14:24 +0000

Mi escritorio actual

Mi primer post en mi blog de Archlinux es para presumir de la configuracion de mi escritorio.

Soy del tipo de persona que todo el tiempo busca que el escritorio se vea lindo además de funcional.

Voy a compartir con ustedes mis configuraciones de tint2 y de conky si es que estan interesados en lograr algo similar. En un post posterior les voy a compartir el tema de iconos que estoy utilizando (todavia lo estoy modificando).

El wallpaper lo pueden descargar aqui

//–> English Version

My first post on my brand new blog, its about my desktop config. I’m the kind of person who is always looking for a funcional and good looking work environment.

I’m sharing my conky and tint2 configs for you to use if you want something that looks similar to mine. Read More to see the config files!!

tint2


#---------------------------------------------
# TINT2 CONFIG FILE
#---------------------------------------------

#---------------------------------------------
# BACKGROUND AND BORDER
#---------------------------------------------
rounded = 6
border_width = 2
background_color = #F0F0F0 100
border_color = #FFFFFF 100

rounded = 0
border_width = 0
background_color = #000000 0
border_color = #212121 100

rounded = 0
border_width = 0
background_color = #e8f9a9 100
border_color = #e8f9a9 100

#---------------------------------------------
# PANEL
#---------------------------------------------
panel_monitor = all
panel_position = bottom center horizontal
panel_size = 1000 22
panel_margin = 3 8
panel_padding = 0 0
font_shadow = 0
panel_background_id = 1
wm_menu = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# TASKBAR
#---------------------------------------------
taskbar_mode = multi_desktop
taskbar_padding = 0 0 2
taskbar_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# TASK
#---------------------------------------------
task_icon = 0
task_text = 1
task_maximum_size = 140 20
task_centered = 1
task_padding = 20 0
task_font = snap 7
task_font_color = #1d1e18 50
task_active_font_color = #7f7f7f 100
task_background_id = 2
task_active_background_id = 3
task_rounded =5

#---------------------------------------------
# SYSTRAYBAR
#---------------------------------------------
systray_padding = 4 3 4
systray_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# CLOCK
#---------------------------------------------
time1_format = %H:%M - %d/%m/%g
time1_font = Impact bold 8
#time2_format = %A %d %B
time2_font = DejaVu Serif Book 6
clock_font_color = #7f7f7f 50
clock_padding = 2 2
clock_background_id = 0
#clock_lclick_command = xclock
clock_rclick_command = orage

#---------------------------------------------
# BATTERY
#---------------------------------------------
battery = 0
battery_low_status = 0
battery_low_cmd = (null)
bat1_font = (null)
bat2_font = (null)
battery_font_color = #000000 0
battery_padding = 2 2
battery_background_id = 0

#---------------------------------------------
# MOUSE ACTION ON TASK
#---------------------------------------------
mouse_middle = none
mouse_right = none
mouse_scroll_up = toggle
mouse_scroll_down = iconify

Conky

wifi-monitor


# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=9
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 1024

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type override
#own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 50 0
#maximum_width 120

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 5

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color ffffff
# 4C4039
#default_shade_color black
#default_outline_color white
own_window_colour white

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
alignment top_left
#alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 17
gap_y 50

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer none

color0 ffffff
color1 e8f9a9

TEXT
${voffset -15}${font Martin Vogel's Symbols:size=62}m
${if_existing /proc/net/route wlan0}  ${voffset -119}${alignr 37}${wireless_link_bar 14,70 wlan0}
${voffset -148}${alignc -41}${color1}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=8}${wireless_link_qual wlan0}%${else}${if_existing /proc/net/route ath0}  ${voffset -119}${alignr 37}${wireless_link_bar 14,70 ath0}
${voffset -148}${alignc -41}${color1}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=8}${wireless_link_qual ath0}%${endif}${else}
${voffset -172}

battery monitor

# Use Xft?
use_xft yes
xftfont font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=9
xftalpha 0.8
text_buffer_size 2048

# Update interval in seconds
update_interval 1

# This is the number of times Conky will update before quitting.
# Set to zero to run forever.
total_run_times 0

# Create own window instead of using desktop (required in nautilus)
own_window yes
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_type override
#own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager

# Use double buffering (reduces flicker, may not work for everyone)
double_buffer yes

# Minimum size of text area
minimum_size 50 0
#maximum_width 180

# Draw shades?
draw_shades no

# Draw outlines?
draw_outline no

# Draw borders around text
draw_borders no

# Stippled borders?
stippled_borders 0

# border margins
border_margin 5

# border width
border_width 1

# Default colors and also border colors
default_color ffffff
# 4C4039
#default_shade_color black
#default_outline_color white
own_window_colour white

# Text alignment, other possible values are commented
#alignment top_left
alignment top_right
#alignment bottom_left
#alignment bottom_right

# Gap between borders of screen and text
# same thing as passing -x at command line
gap_x 20
gap_y 50

# Subtract file system buffers from used memory?
no_buffers yes

# set to yes if you want all text to be in uppercase
uppercase no

# number of cpu samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
cpu_avg_samples 2

# number of net samples to average
# set to 1 to disable averaging
net_avg_samples 2

# Force UTF8? note that UTF8 support required XFT
override_utf8_locale yes

# Add spaces to keep things from moving about?  This only affects certain objects.
use_spacer none

color0 ffffff
color1 e8f9a9

TEXT
${alignr 66}${font StyleBats:size=62}8${font}${if_existing  present}
${voffset -47}${alignc -9}${color1}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=6}${battery_percent}%
${alignc -21}${voffset 29}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=5.5}${acpiacadapter}${voffset -56}${endif}
${if_existing /proc/acpi/battery/BAT1/info present}${voffset -47}${alignc -9}${color1}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=6}${battery_percent BAT1}%
${alignc -21}${voffset 29}${font DejaVu Sans:style=Bold:size=5.5}${acpiacadapter}${voffset -56}${endif}