WinterSky ver-11

Theme now looks correct in IE7 and IE8.
IE6 is functional, only sub color schemes (to do with selectors in the color scheme css), and png images need work.

Added extra option in templates/init_custom.vm:
$custom_places = true ## will replace the communities/my places menu with a simplified view hiding any public community view from non community owners. (Beta feature added to simplify the my places menu for sites that only use private pages)

Head tag also employs google chrome frame if enabled for better rendering in IE6.

Update can be installed now via the software catalog directly in Liferay.

Requisite Screenshot

It has made a perfect intranet theme for our uses. Most appreciated is the simplified interface look.

I have finished most visual touchups. Things left on my to do list are submenu indicators, tools menu rearrangement and rethemeing the chat portal.

If anybody has ideas on integrating the chat portal visuals closer I’d be happy to listen.

DOWNLOAD and INSTALL: The theme should now be available from the theme installer in liferay-5.2.2 installs and the WinterSky theme page on Liferay is here.

Now to work on some new portals. Till next time.

When using the default Ubuntu desktop (Gnome) the main interface applications see after bootup are:

• gnome-panel – The top and bottom panels
• gnome-applets – The items on the top and bottom panels
• nautilus – The file manager and desktop icons
• metacity or compiz – The window decorator / manager

Userspace Daemons

Underlying those applications are others that run in the background, which can be found via System->Preferences->Sessions. In the following list only the applications which are not self explanatory have descriptions. Applications that are referred to as daemons are just applications that run invisibly in the background, either at a system level which affect everybody using the machine (such as mail server daemons), or at a userspace level which only affect you. Most of the applications in this list fall into the category of userspace daemons.

• AT SPI – Assitive technology (For keyboard and mouse assistance and screen reading)
• Bluetooth Manager
• jockey-gtk – Checks for new hardware drivers
• gnome-keyring-daemon – Keeps stored passwords safely in a keyring and keep them in memory
• gnome-settings-daemon
• network-manager
• OpenOffice Quickstart Applet
• Power Manager – For managing laptop battery’s and CPU speed for conserving power
• Print Queue Applet
• PulseAudio Session Manager – The sound server
• Remote Desktop
• Tracker – For keeping a database of your files for fast searching of names and contents
• Update Notifier – When system updates are available
• User folders updater
• Visual Assistance

To slim down system usage and increase startup times unused items above can be disabled. And on the flip side, common applications that you want to start every time you login can also be added here too. On slower systems I disable tracker, and on my personal machine I also start pidgin, skype and tomboy.

Gnome Panel

The gnome-panels are initially located at the top and bottom of the screen. On their own they are not very use full. Their contents though are made up of gnome-applets. The default applets are:

• Top Left:
  • Menu Bar
  • Firefox Launcher
  • Evolution Email Launcher
  • Help Launcher
• Top Right:
  • Notification Area
  • Volume Control
  • Clock
  • User Switcher
• Bottom Left:
  • Show Desktop
  • Window List
• Bottom Right:
  • Workspace Switcher
  • Garbage Bin

New applets can be added to the gnome-panel by right clicking the panel where a new applet is desired, selecting Add to panel then selecting the desired applet and clicking Add.

Some applets can also be customised by right clicking on them and selecting Preferences.

New panels can also be added or removed by right clicking on an existing panel. The minimum number of panels is also 1 so dont worry about deleting all the panels and not being able to create a new one.

My preference is for a single panel at the top of the screen with my only additional applets being a Menu shortcut, and System Monitor displaying CPU, memory, and disk activity.

GNOME Do

GNOME Do is also fast becoming a favorite application for me. Especially with the addition of the Docky theme. A precise description of GNOME Do is best found on it’s homepage.

GNOME Do serves me in many ways as a global shortcut key. The shortcut key is by default <Win>-Space and after activating gnome-do the basic procedure is select and item and preform an action on it. Maybe some examples I use often will make this clearer. I will skip the shortcut key and dive straight into what I type and what I type I show in bold and the completions GNOME Do makes is non bold. And GNOME Do is not case sensitive. Some examples may have upper case characters, but I just type everything in lower case.

GIMP Image Editor <Enter> – Just typing gimp and pressing enter executes the default action for that item. In this case launching The Gimp. I also use this example for launching most applications I use. It does help to know the name of the application first though as there is no automatic list. Also from the screen shot you can see the whole name of the application as GIMP Image Editor. You can enter as much or as little of that name until you see the result you want. You can even just press g then the up and down arrows to move through the list of items that GNOME Do has found with that letter starting from the most commonly used.

Mum <Tab> Chat <Enter> – Pidgin plugin required. This opens a Pidgin conversation window with my Mum. Simple. No reason not to keep in touch now.

Downloads <Enter> – Opens my Downloads folder

Temp <Tab> Open Terminal Here <Enter> – Opens a new terminal in my Temp folder.

Install <Tab> banshee <Enter> – Install a package using apt. Banshee here is only an example. I use this command a far bit more than I should sometimes.

Search Google <Tab> Search Term <Enter> – Search Google for your search term and either display the results in GNOME Do or in a new browser tab.

Installing GNOME Do

The latest Ubuntu releases for gnome-do can be found at the GNOME Do PPA. Once you have followed the instructions for adding the PPA to your Ubuntu repositories, install gnome-do and gnome-do-plugins. 64bit builds of GNOME Do are also broken on launchpad at the moment, but there is a link at the top of the launchpad page to download the working package (as I had to do).

Configuring GNOME Do

After installing gnome-do it can be started from Applications->Accessories->GNOME Do.

The initial window looked a bit useless when I first saw GNOME Do, but you quickly learn that it’s simplicity is it’s strength.

If you do not see the GNOME Do window after launching try pressing <Win>-Space.

Click the triangle then Preferences in the top right corner to start configuring GNOME Do. I first change the Theme to Docky on the Appearance tab, then tick any plugins that look like they would be use full to me. To see how to use a plugin, click on it then click the About button below which will open that plugins wiki page on the GNOME Do website if available.

Applications can be added by dragging application launchers from the Application menus, gnome-panel or nautilus. They can also be removed from GNOME Do by right clicking and selecting Remove from Dock.

The length of Docky can be changed by dragging either end of the panel, and the height can be adjusted by placing the mouse the separator.

Zoom effects, window overlap, and the trash icon can all be configured by right clicking the GNOME Do icon.

Elements of GNOME Do

The default Docky theme will display from left to right: GNOME Do icon, application launchers, a separator, running applications and the trash icon.

The glowing dots below some icons indicate that the application is already open. If the application is not visible clicking it’s icon will bring it back to the fore, or if it is already visible, will minimise the window. If it is not open clicking the icon will launch it. Other actions can also be found by right clicking the icons, such as when the banshee plugin is enabled, right clicking banshee will give you Next, Play and Previous actions in addition to the defaults.

GNOME Do is activated by pressing <Win>-Space or clicking the GNOME Do icon and the panel then looks like the above. I have typed down, and it displays the Downloads folder as it’s first result. The plus in the circle on the left can be used to add this result permanently to Docky. The large folder icon display the icon of the currently found match. The smaller icon next to it is the icon of the default action if you just press enter. In this case Open Folder. Pressing <Tab> will then make the next icon the largest, from which you can choose your desired action.

The more you practice with GNOME Do the more shortcuts you will find.

Conclusion

I know this turned out to be a fairly large post about GNOME Do but using GNOME Do really has had that much affect on my desktop and the way I interact with it. And this is also the last beginner post I had to complete. As a linux sysadmin most of the rest of my posts will be more of a technical nature. But lets finish off with a final screenshot for good times sake in all of it’s minimalistic glory.

Gtk Engines

Most of the time you will not need to worry about Gtk Engines. But Gtk Engines are application libraries that Gtk Themes use to draw widgets (elements such as button, tabs and list boxes) on the screen. A Gtk Theme may use multiple Gtk Engines but most use only one.

Gtk Engines should only need to be installed once. And the only Gtk Engine that I add to my system is Murrine-SVN. From that link I install either the i386 or AMD64 package depending on which install I am using. If Gtk Themes require a certain engine than most themes will mention it.

Gtk Themes

The most abundant themes available are Gtk Themes. They are easy to find on gnome-look.org. The current theme I use is Shiki-Colors.

Gtk Themes are easily installed by dragging the dragging the downloaded archive into the Appearance Preferences Theme tab, then clicking Install. Some downloaded archives will have to be extracted first by right clicking and selecting Extract here..

Metacity Themes

Window borders by default in Ubuntu are controlled by an application called Metacity. Although the name Metacity may not be mentioned in the Appearance Preferences application, it is still handy to know when looking at the running applications in Ubuntu and when looking for new themes. There are other applications that decorate the window borders such as Enlightenment (incl, e16 and e17), IceWM, Fluxbox,  Beryl, Emerald, 9wm, AfterStep, Blackbox, KWM, xfwm, ion and many more. None of which have themes compatible with Metacity. So look for Metacity when searching for new themes to decorate the window borders.

Metacity themes are installed the same way as Gtk Themes.

Find Metacity themes at gnome-look.org too.

Icon Themes

And lastly icon themes determine the look of most visible images. Pictures on menus, buttons, the desktop and file icons.

Easily installed the same way as Gtk Themes and Metacity themes and found on gnome-look.org too.

Once Gtk, Metacity and Icon themes have been installed they can be selected by clicking the customize button on the Theme tab of Appearance Preferences where they are also broken up into their own tabs. Controls, Window Borders and Icons. If the Gtk Theme supports it, it’s colors can be customized on the Colors tab.

Each of the changes should take effect immediately except some parts of Firefox and OpenOffice. And if the combination of Gtk Theme, Colors, Window Borders and Icons is satisfactory, the combination can be saved using the Save As button.

Background / Wallpaper

The next simple change is the Background / Wallpaper. Most people are familiar with this concept and the selection of background images can be kept seperate from the actual images on your hard drive by using the Add and Remove button on the Background tab in Appearance Preferences.

Many decent backgrounds can be found all over the internet in almost any preference imaginable. Save them to your prefered location then add them to the backgrounds tab by either dragging them in from the file manager or using the Add button and navigating to them.

Fonts

And lastly the great thing about most Linux applications is that they are ‘resolution independent’. Ie, they do not use fixed widget positioning, or in other words, if you like large fonts, you can have large fonts and the windows on you screen will adjust their size so as non of the text will be obscured. If 20/20 vision is not your forte, then Linux is your answer.

Changing the font in each of the selection boxes on the Fonts tab of Appearance Preferences should have immediate effect and should be adjusted to you personal preference.

The Rendering preferences on the bottom section of that tab should also be used to select the best looking fonts of the 4 previews. For most LCD monitors (incl Laptops) the best option is Subpixel Smooting which smooths the orders of colors on the edges of the fonts according to the order of the colors displayed on LCD monitors.

Screen shots

Before

After

Conclusion

Experiment.

See you next time.

GDM Composite Preview

The usplash theme only supports Ubuntu Intrepid and there still appear to be some issues with widescreen support in Usplash.

From boot time there are three main themes that you see until you arrive at your desktop. Grub, Usplash and GDM themes. These themes are machine specific not user specific. That means that it affects all users, but only until their desktop is displayed. Then they will not see these two themes again until they log out or shutdown.

For user specific (desktop) themes the main components that govern you look are GTK2 engines and themes, Metacity, Icons, Wallpaper, Fonts and Splash Screen images.

After changing user themes the interface can also be customised by configuring existing applications (ie, gnome-panel and nautilus) and by adding new applications (ie, gnome-do). There is a thin line between configuring applications to change you desktop look and applications that change the themes used.

Although there is much more to cover than I will list, I will limit my content to just the changes I use most and separate the topic into three posts.

Machine Specific Themes

Grub

GNU Grub is the GRand Unified Bootloader. , and it handles choosing which operating system to boot (ie, Windows XP, Ubuntu, Fedora).

If you only have Ubuntu installed on your machine then you may not even see the Grub boot screen. If you look closely when starting your computer you will see one of the following:

If you only see the first image before the Ubuntu loading screen appears then it is up to you if you want to skip theming Grub as the default is very inconspicuous.

It is probably also time to point out that Linux Mint, Fedora and openSUSE all use gfxgrub which is an extended version of Grub with a new theme engine. It does look vastly cleaner and more modern. I have been unable to test because of a lack of 64bit packages available and will not cover it here as this blog is for beginers and messing with your bootloader can render your system unbootable (but fixable).

There are many good Grub themes at www.kde-look.org or at www.gnome-look.org by searching for grub. But for some reason gnome-look.org does not have a category for grub themes. Only kde-look.org does. Grub splash images can also be created from existing images you may have too.

Grub themes are simply a gzipped, 14 color, 640×480 xpm image. And only Grub themes of this type will work (ie, Alice in Wonderland). Gfxgrub themes will not work (ie KDE4 gfxgrub theme).

The easiest way to organise all these themes you will be collecting is to create a directory structure like so:

So create the Themes folder in your home folder. Organise the sub-folders as you like or need. Then get to downloading some Grub themes. If your in a hurry download the following theme: Ubuntu Infinitesque GRUB Splash.

StartUp-Manager (aka SUM) is an easy GUI tool for selecting Grub and Usplash themes. It is not installed by default. Click Applications->Add/Remove…. Show All available applications and search for startup manager. Tick the StartUp-Manager in the results box and click Apply Changes. Once installed StartUp-Manager can be launched via System->Administration->StartUp-Manager.

After launching SUM select the second tab called Appearance then Manage bootloader themes… From the resulting window click Add and select the desired Grub image. Because this application runs with super user privileges you will need to navigate manually to your home folder. Click File system on the left, then home, then you username. You will also find it handy to drag your themes folder to the bookmarks list on the left for quick retreival in the future too. Now go to where you saved the Grub theme and open it. Then close the Manage bootloader themes.. window.

The Grub theme will now appear in the list for Grub background image. Select it then tick the box above it to enable it. Also select show bootloader menu on the first tab too if you want to see the image every time you boot your pc.

Upon reboot I now see the following Grub theme:

Congratulations. But so much more to cover. Lets move on.

Usplash

Usplash manages to boot progress indicator. See the end of the Usplash section for screenshots of usplash. The easiest way to configure usplash is using the same method as Grub.

Points to note though. Not all usplash themes can be used on all systems as they get divided by two categories. Screen ratio (Widescreen / Normal) and system type (x86 (32bit) / amd64 (64bit)). Chances are that if the usplash theme does not mention either of those categories then it is a Normal aspect ratio x86 theme. My system is a widescreen laptop running ubuntu-8.10-amd64. So I have to find widescreen amd64 usplash themes for my system.

Second point is that some usplash themes are also release specific. Ie, Ubuntu Hardy usplash themes will not work on Ubuntu Intrepid as the have different versions of usplash.

For finding themes try searching for usplash at gnome-look.org or try any of the following specific categories at: ubuntu-art.org kde-look.org. And again save you themes to the Themes/Usplash folder.

Usplash themes are also often ‘archived’. The easiest way to use their contents is to locate the archive (ie usplash-theme.tar.gz) in the file browser, right click the archive and select Extract here. The contents will then be placed in a folder by the same name and the archive (ie usplash-theme) unless there is only one file in the archive. In which case it will just be placed in the current folder.

Open StartUp Manager and select the Appearance tab, then Manage usplash themes… Add your theme (the file ending in .so). Select it from the Usplash theme list. Close SUM and reboot to see the results.

The following two screenshots are my before and after installing KDE Parallax Usplash.

Creating you own usplash themes will have to held over for another post too.

GDM

GDM manages the login screen in Ubuntu. And similar to the Grub bootloader, if you selected Auto Login in the Ubuntu installer, you may very rearly see your GDM screen. But lets change the theme anyway.

GDM themes can be found again at gnome-look.org. GDM themes are a lot less picky than Grub or Usplash and if you have survived so far GDM will be a piece of cake. For this example I have chosen Industrial II.

After downloading I needed to right click on Industrial_II_GDM_Theme_by_kErNeL_sCrIpT.gz and select Extract all. I then ended up with two files that looked almost identical, but dont worry, GDM will only show the correct one.

The application to change GDM themes is located at System->Administration->Login Window. Once open, select the second tab called Local. Then click the Add button in that window and navigate to where the GDM theme was extracted and open your theme. Industrial now appeared at the bottom of my theme list to the left of the Add button, and all I have to do is click the dot to the left of the thumbnail.

Also to not with GDM are the options at the top of the Local tab. Style and Theme. In Style, Plain and Plain with face browser are for slower systems and use little memory. Themed and Themed with face browser allow you to choose from the installed themes. The ‘face browser’ option will display a list of users on you PC and allow you to click that user and type a password instead of having to type your username (ala win xp). This is also dependent upon support from your theme too.

With the Theme option, you can either use only one GDM theme (Selected only) or you can choose a pool of multiple themes that will be chosen from at random each time you hit the GDM login screen. It just depends on your preference.

After choosing Industrial, closing Login Window and then logging out, I can see the results of my effort. And some before and after shots.

Conclusion

By carefull choice of Grub, Usplash and GDM themes, Ubuntu can have a very smooth consistant look (not that I have demonstrated consistancy here). Themes can also greatly add or subtract from a users expectations and experience with Ubuntu. Both in good and bad ways. There is also still no tool for customising Grub+Usplash+GDM for a consistant look using one image/theme throughout. And that is a shame. Maybe it will end up being my next project.

Stay tuned for Part 2 which will cover User Specific themes and get into the themes you will spend the most time stairing at.