how to: get a cool and functional mac-os like bar

Wbar is a light mac-os like launcher. It looks very cool on the AA1 and is also quite useful since it gives you a quick access to your the apps that you use more often. (have a look here: http://www.linux.com/feature/128982)
1- The first thing we need to do is download the Wbar file and its dependencies:
Get the Wbar here http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/ ... 6.rpm.html
and the needed dependencies from here http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/ ... 6.rpm.html
and here http://rpm.pbone.net/index.php3/stat/4/ ... 6.rpm.html
2- Install first the imlib2-1.4.0.46, then the imlib2-loaders and finally the wbar-1.3.3 (to install them right click on them and select the software manager).
3- Now you should have the wbar installed in your machine. To test it press Alt+F2 and type “wba”r or “wbar -above-desk -pos top-center -isize 40 -nanim 5 -bpress” if you want it at the top or “wbar -above-desk -pos top-bottom -isize 40 -nanim 5 -bpress” if you prefer it at the bottom (note you don't have to include “ in your command).
You'll see that you may not need many of the default icons or you may want to add your own; to do these open a terminal as root (on the terminal write su and enter your password you'll see that the sign on the command line changes from $ to # that means that you are the root now – which also means that you could break your computer if you are not careful with what you do), and type “thunar /usr/share/wbar” press enter and you'll find yourself in the folder where the configuration file for wbar is.
To change the icons on the bar you need to edit the dot.wbar file. Write click on the file and choose open with Mousepad. The document looks something like this

i: /usr/share/wbar/iconpack/wbar.osx/firefox.png
c: firefox
t: firefox

where i: is the path to the icon, c: is the command to launch the app and t: is the name of the app. Now if there are some icons that you don't want you can do 2 things; you can stick a # in front of every field ( like for example #c:firefox), this will make the icon not to show on the bar, or you could change the icon and the app that they launch, to do this:
on the i:filed write the path to the icon that you want to add to the bar (a tip is to copy and paste the icon that you want into the wbar.osx folder, in this way you only need to change the name of the icon).
On the c: field write the command that launches the app (e.g. thunar etc ) if you don't know the command to the app in kde you can drag the app that you want from the menu into the desktop to get and icon for it, then right click on the icon go to properties and check the application tab where you'll find the command. I dont know how to do it in xfce.
Now if you save the document and open the wbar (or right click on it if is already running) you should get the new icons showing. If the wbar doesn't turn up that means that you didn't type the path for the icon correctly, check and try again (it'd be a good idea to leave the conf file open until things are looking how you want them this will save you having to open the file if it doesn't work.
Have fun!

 

here is a screenshots of my desktop.

 

Will this work under Linpus + xfce?

 

Yes definitely, but I think that you may need to have the normal xfce desktop rather than the default acer one. If you don't have it already check this post that explains how to a a switch button so you can change from one to the other viewtopic.php?f=39&t=1612

 

hum hum

viewtopic.php?f=31&t=2553

 

Hi kapinouwi, instead of compiling it I just got the rpms,. To compile it you'd need to download a few compiler programs and I have the 8 gb storage.

 

i have the 8gb too! and it work like a charm

 

True, but I find that earlier set of instructions to be much less straightforward.

 

Thanks rjm , I didn't know that there were instructions for the wbar already, may be I should add this post to the other one. I tried the wbar with the default desktop and I can confirm that it also works with it.

 

ok

to change and add icon

you can try that!
download http://linux.softpedia.com/get/Utilitie ... 4908.shtml

tar xzf wbarconf-0.7.2.tar.gz
cd wbarconf
./wbarconf

 

that looks quite good kapinouwi, I have downloaded it but it doesn't seem to be working for me at the moment, when I add another item it doesn,t show on the wbar, I,ll have to play with it a bit.

 

Tried to do this but got an error message when installing imlib2-loaders. Something about a potential conflict. I was really looking forward to trying this as I am a Mac user with no Linux experience!

 

Here is the error message:
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/argb.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/argb.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/bmp.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/bmp.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/bz2.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/bz2.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/gif.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/gif.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/jpeg.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/jpeg.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/lbm.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/lbm.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/png.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/png.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/pnm.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/pnm.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/tga.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/tga.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/tiff.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/tiff.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/xpm.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/xpm.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/zlib.la conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8
file /usr/lib/imlib2/loaders/zlib.so conflicts between attempted installs of imlib2-loaders-1.4.0-46.1 and imlib2-1.4.0-7.fc8

Any ideas?

 

Hi docdyson, try not installing that file, just install the next one and then the wbar 1.3. Let me know if that help. Cheers

 

Hi Jimyjazz
Many thanks for the suggestion.
Tried just installing imlib2-1.4.0.46 then wbar but got the message: Missing Dependency: imlib2-loaders is needed by package wbar!

 

:shock: Ok check on the add/remove software if you have any versions of the imlib2-loaders installed (go to List and click on installed packages), if you have one remove it and try installing the other version and see what you get, if it works great, if not go back and install the original imlib2-loaders (the one that was there in the first place) and I'll see if I can find any more info about it.
Note: check when you try to uninstall the library that pirute doesn't want to uninstall anything else, if it does cancel it and we'd try to look for another option

 

Hi Jimyjazz

Had a look with pirute.There are at least 3 imlib loaders in the system but one are actually installed! They are available for installation. They are all versions 1.xx. As a newbie I'm at the limit of my knowledge here.

Doc

 

Hi Jimyjazz

I checked again and there are some imlib 2 packages: 1.4.0-3.fc8.i386 and 1.4.0-7.fc8.i386. None are installed.

Doc

 

ok docdyson try installing the latest ones of those libraries (ej the ones with the higher numbers) and see if that does the trick.
Also you say that you are a mac user, the wbar is similar to the mac dock-bar but it doesn't work as a task manager (windows don't minimize into it), there is another dock called the cairo-dock which is functionally more similar to the mac dock-bar but it is much heavier on system resources so to used it you probably need to have the 1 gb ram version of he AA1, I'm going to see if I can install it temporary on my machine and check if it has many annoying dependencies. Cheers

 

I just checked that cairo-dock iis in the repositories so you can install it with add/remove software. It works ok, the only thing is that you need a composition manager , basically you need to activate compiz, you can do that by pressing Alt+F2 and typing compiz-manager, this is an application that gives you many cool (and some useful) effects such as desktop cube, wobbly windows etc( you can configure it from the compiz config manager on the settings menue) , the whole thing is quite impressive on the AA1. As I said it'd be ideal if you have 1gb of ram to use them;let my know if you get it going;.