System for bringing mini programs (desklets) onto your desktop
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RaumZeit/gdesklets-core
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gDesklets - GNOME Desktop Applets ================================= 1. Introduction --------------- 'gDesklets' provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets - tiny displays that sit on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness. Populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors, news tickers... whatever you can imagine! Virtually anything is possible and may even be available some day. 2. Requirements (the package names are the debian ones!) --------------- * Python 2.4 or higher with XML support; if you want to compile gdesklets you'll have to install the development package, too! * python-gtk2 2.10 or higher (*) * python-gtk2-dev if you want to compile gDesklets * python-pyorbit 2.0.1 (**) * python-gnome2 2.6.x or higher (***) * python-gnome2-dev if you want to compile gDesklets * libexpat (try to avoid 1.95.7 since it seems to be buggy!) * libgtop2 (2.8.0 or higher is recommended) * libgtop2-dev if you want to compile gDesklets * librsvg (2.8.0 or higher from http://librsvg.sf.net) * librsvg-dev if you want to compile gDesklets * some Controls may have extra requirements The following remarks apply to Mandrake 10.1, SuSE 9.2 and Fedora Core 3. Of course, they apply to older versions as well: (*) SuSE, Mandrake and Fedora 2 & 1 are shipping versions which are too old, so you will have to find newer versions, the ones currently shipped will not work! You can try to find them at rpmseek.com or rpmfind.net. (**) Recent Mandrake and older SuSE or Fedora versions ship 2.0.0 which won't work; you have to upgrade to 2.0.1. (***) SuSE, Mandrake and Fedora 2 & 1 are shipping old versions; please find newer versions for your distribution. These distributions split up gnome-python2 in small packages. To avoid problems install every gnome-python2 package. Debian Sarge has all the necessary packages and should work out of the box. gDesklets won't work on older versions of Debian. Pascal Bleser created some packages for SuSE 9.2. They are available at http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ gDesklets is available in the Fedora Extras software collection for Fedora Core 3 and later. Mandrake Cooker (and v10.2 when it's out) usually has all the necessary dependencies. If you have an older version of Mandrake (v10.1 and below), use a source RPM and build gDesklets for your system. If gDesklets won't start, it usually means that either one or more dependencies aren't installed. In some cases the bindings and libraries which are involved are broken. In that case, you either have to reinstall your packages or if that won't help try compiling them from source. Also make sure that you don't have more than one version of a required package on your system! gDesklets runs a dependency check when you're starting it for the first time. The check makes sure that everything's ok. In case it doesn't start, follow the instructions. 3. Installation --------------- First make sure that you have all necessary dependencies installed on your system! In addition to that you also need the (gtk/gnome) python devel packages. If you're new to Linux please don't try to compile gDesklets; it's for your own protection. $ ./autogen.sh (if you're compiling a CVS version) $ ./configure $ make $ su -c "make install" If you want 'gDesklets' to appear on the GNOME menu, be sure to put it where GNOME can find it, e.g.: $ ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc Sensors can be installed by copying them into the directory '~/.gdesklets/Sensors' or into 'PREFIX/Sensors' where PREFIX is the installation path of 'gDesklets', e.g. '/usr/share/gdesklets'. Most sensors come packaged as handy executable installer files which you just have to run in order to get the sensor installed. Controls can be installed by copying them into the directory '~/.gdesklets/Controls' or into 'PREFIX/Controls'. Displays don't get installed anywhere special. It's up to the distributors where to install the .display files. The preferred places, however, are '~/.gdesklets/Displays' and 'PREFIX/Displays'. The graphical shell assumes that the displays can be found there. The recommended way for users to install displays/sensors/controls is by using the graphical shell (see below). 4. Usage -------- If you chose GNOME integration, the graphical shell will be available in the Accessories menu. Otherwise, you will have to run it by hand: $ gdesklets shell 4.1 The Command Line Tool ------------------------- The command line tool 'gdesklets' allows you to perform all administration tasks from the command line. Display files can be opened using $ gdesklets open <displayfile> [displayfile] ... If the gdesklets-daemon wasn't already running, this will start the daemon as well. You can only have one daemon per X-Display. The daemon can be stopped again by calling $ gdesklets stop Usage of the command line frontend: gdesklets [option] <command> [arguments...] <command> open <files> (Opens the given display files) start (Runs the gDesklets daemon) stop (Stops the gDesklets daemon) list (Lists open displays) restart (Restarts the gDesklets daemon) profile <profile> (Switches to the given profile) profile (Shows the current and the available profiles) shell (Opens the graphical shell) slay (Kills the daemon -- use in emergency) status (Checks daemon status) about (Prints information about gDesklets) version (Prints gDesklets version) configure (Opens the configuration dialog) help (Displays this text) check (Dependency check for python bindings) [option] --no-tray-icon (disables the systray icon) If you don't pass a command, the script will fall back to "gdesklets start" which is the default. 4.2 The gDesklets-Shell ----------------------- The shell is a graphical frontend for managing your desklets. You can start it either by selecting it from the GNOME menu (Accessories -> gDesklets), the tray icon popup menu, or by calling: $ gdesklets shell The shell currently lets you create and switch between profiles, install new desklets, and search for installed desklets. New desklets can be installed by dragging links from your web browser or files from the file manager into its window, or by selecting the menu item "File -> Install package...". 4.3 Working with Displays ------------------------- Displays stick to your mouse pointer when you first run them. Choose the desired position and press the left button to place it. You can move displays around by pressing and holding down the middle mouse button (or both mouse buttons if your mouse only has two buttons). 'gDesklets' will remember the new position of the display for the future. If you press the right mouse button over a display, a popup menu will open. It depends on the display what you will see there, but the following items are always available: Configure display Opens the configuration dialog for this display. It depends on the display what you can configure. Move display Lets you move the display around. Press the left mouse button once you have found a good place. View Source Opens the default editor so you can view and edit the display files. This is quite handy for developers and people who want to learn more about gDesklets. Restart display Restarts this display. This menu item is mainly for sensor debugging. Remove display Removes this display from your desktop. 4.4 Float Mode -------------- Press <Shift> <F12> to switch to Float mode, where all your desklets come to front, floating above your applications. If you press the keys again, they will return to their original position. The keybinding can be freely changed in the configuration dialog. Note: Due to limitations of older X servers, you might see blocks around desklets in Float mode. This cannot be solved in a satisfying. 4.5 Logfile ----------- The gdesklets-daemon writes a log file. That file can be found in ~/.gdesklets/logs/gdesklets<display>.log where <display> is the name of the X-Display. You can select the item "View log" in the popup menu of the tray icon to view the log messages. 5. Supported Window Managers ---------------------------- In order to run on as many desktops as possible, gDesklets relies on the EWMH specification from freedesktop.org. This specification is respected among many window managers. We currently know of the following EWMH compliant window managers: * metacity * xfwm4 * openbox * enlightenment (>= 0.16.6, see http://enlightenment.org/pages/news.html) * fvwm (2.5.x, see http://www.fvwm.org/features.php) * sawfish (+PATCH: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=210518) * kwin * evilwm * recent fluxbox versions * waimea * ...and certainly some others which we forgot here. 6. Bugs ------- If you encounter bugs which are not listed here, please post a bug report at bugzilla.gnome.org for 'gdesklets'. Please don't report useless bug reports, like "gDesklets crashes" without checking the log file first, because that doesn't tell us much. Also make sure, that you have all the necessary dependencies installed. If the log says: "ImportError: No module named X" then you clearly don't have the python module "X" installed on your system. We are going to close useless bug reports immediately(!), so please save your time and ours and be smart! * some versions of sawfish show applets with the 'below' flag set above other windows; please read section 5. "Supported Window Managers" for a patch for a bug in sawfish 7. Memory Consumption and Memory Leaks -------------------------------------- This is taken seriously. In every release we're addressing these issues. Unfortunately, gDesklets is relying on libraries which contain their own bugs or leaks. In some places it's possible to create a work-around. Sometimes, we have to wait until an issue in bugzilla is fixed. gDesklets itself shouldn't leak. We've checked the relevant C code to make sure of that. At startup the program claims approximately 16 MB of RAM. In the future we're going to decrease that number. Some people in the GNOME and GTK+ community are also addressing these problems at a lower level (gtk+ and gnome libraries). gDesklets will automatically benefit from these efforts. 8. Community ------------ The site 'http://www.gdesklets.de' is the place where you can get new desklets or upload your own creations for sharing them with other users. Discussion and Help http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gdesklets-list gDesklets Developer's Book (for developing on the gDesklets platform) http://develbook.gdesklets.de A printed reference in German language is available from 'Software & Support Verlag GmbH'. The book 'Exploring Python' covers desklet development on 34 pages. You can meet the 'gDesklets' developers and other fans on the IRC channel #gdesklets on GIMPnet (irc.gimp.org). 9. Thanks --------- I'd like to thank all people who supported (and are still supporting) me so well with 'gDesklets'. Please complain if I forgot you... ;) * Christian Meyer -- ideas, autotools tweaks and core/sensor programming * Jesse Andrews -- core/sensor programming * Johannes "Waldgeist" Rebhan -- artwork * Christian Neumair -- installation * Sebastien Bacher -- man page and lots of other stuff * Benoît Dejean -- libgtop2 bindings and lots of code improvements * Marius M.M. -- www.gdesklets.org website and forum * Luke Stroven -- gdesklets.gnomedesktop.org and former 'gDesklets' forum * James Henstridge -- excellent GTK bindings for Python * Joe Sapp -- helping with the Developer's Book * VidaLinux (http://desktop.vidalinux.com/) -- sponsoring the www.gdesklet.org domain 10. License and Disclaimer -------------------------- This software is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTIBILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the file 'COPYING' for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this software; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 390, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA This software is provided "as is" and the author is not and cannot be made responsible for any damage resulting from the use of this software. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 'gDesklets' is copyright (c) 2003 - 2007 by Martin Grimme <martin@pycage.de>, Christian Meyer <chrisime@gnome.org>, Jesse Andrews <jdandr2@cs.uky.edu> Benoît Dejean <tazforever@dlfp.org> 'glibtop Python wrapper' in libdesklets is copyright (c) 2003 - 2005 by Benoît Dejean <tazforever@dlfp.org> (see http://dejean.benoit.free.fr/software/glibtop/glibtop.html) The latest version of 'gDesklets' can be found at http://www.gdesklets.de/ The 'gDesklets' bzr repository can be found at https://code.launchpad.net/gdesklets/
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