[Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

alekzxd · 2014-12-22 07:47:48

Good, now I undertook a project to migrate my girlfriend to Linux, so we'll give a mini laptop with Xubuntu, but which will disguise as if Windows, but I have a problem to customize the panel.
I want to change the distance between icons in the taskbar, but the GUI does not provide this feature, so I went to ~ / .config / xfce4 / xfconf / xfce-perchannel-xml / ffce4-panel.xml, but not I found no attribute that speaks of padding.
Another thing is the network icon, is horrible! Size is awful, I was looking icons corresponding to the network in / usr / share / pixmaps / but I could not find them to resize with Gimp. When editing the menu icon Whisker, I get into the possible selections network icons, meaning that somewhere they belong.

MountainDewManiac · 2014-12-22 08:11:57

You can add separators to the panels. They can be expanded. IDK if this will give you the spacing that you are after or not. (I've got "double-height" panels on the top and bottom of the screen; the bottom is just for window buttons and the top is full at this time, so I have no use for separators AtM.)

BtW, why make her laptop look like a Microsoft OS (not disparaging, I'm honestly curious)? Personally, I've never found any of them to be especially pleasing visually, and if she's never used linux before, might as well set it up so that it presents as something different so that she (hopefully) won't reflexively assume that it is... operated in the same way, so to speak, as if that happens and she tries to do something "the Windows™ way" and it doesn't work, I'd think that she'd have a less positive experience because of it. Besides, lol, most distros have many themes built-in or at least available via Synaptic Package Manager (et cetera) - I use Mint and it is that way and I'm guessing that it's about average in that regard. If it were me, I'd aim for "obviously different, but mild and pleasant," and let her spend five minutes under your supervision learning how to change the main things (desktop background, theme, ...) and seeing how many choices are available if she is desirous of further change.

The above is just my opinion, of course (please do not be offended).

I didn't know much about linux (still don't , but I'm comfortable using it), and I ended up with an "everything AND the kitchen sink" distro (Ultimate Edition) which had multiple applications installed for many tasks... That could be a bit daunting. Synaptic Package Manager had MANY thousands of choices (which could also be a bit daunting). Ultimate Edition had an over-the-top dark theme, which I didn't care for - so I started with changing the visual look, both because I wanted something more to my taste (and easier to read) and because I figured I couldn't harm the system merely by messing around with the looks of the thing. I immediately found something that I liked a little better, but then ended up spending close to an hour trying out all of the different choices (and, in the process, got it set up in a way that I liked MUCH better). In so doing, I became more comfortable with using it - and I "made it mine" .

Apologies for rambling. Pat yourself on the back for bringing linux to someone who hasn't used it.

Regards,
MDM

alekzxd · 2014-12-22 08:51:42

What to add separators, for a moment it seemed like a good idea, but then I thought, you have to add a separator for each icon in the panel, which is dynamic, so every time a program opens has a separator added, which I see no viable and do not know how.
About why the visual theme, my girlfriend is my polar opposite regarding curiosity, I love to move, break and then repair, she does not, is not given much use of computers, is machined to use Win2 that if I put something else in front his mind could collapse, so I'm trying to make is that the subconscious thinks it is in the comfort zone of her.

Now to the main issue, I managed to resize the network icon, but does not show when the network is with 4 stripes, I created the icon that did not exist, but do not know how to tell the system that it should use. I do not understand, that if there are those same icons with smaller, why take a large size?

Last edited by alekzxd (2014-12-22 08:52:22)

ToZ · 2014-12-22 11:48:06

With respect to spacing icons on the taskbar, you can use a gtk hack to add this spacing (this will affect the spacing on the launchers and on the taskbar items):

style "my-spacing"
{
    xthickness = 2
    ythickness = 2
}
widget "*launcher*" style "my-spacing"
widget "*tasklist*" style "my-spacing"

You can add the above snippet to one of two locations:

1. For per-user use -> add it to the ~/.gtkrc-2.0 file. Create the file if it doesn't exist.
2. For system-wide use -> add it to the /etc/gtk-2.0/gtkrc file. This will affect all users on the system.

Also, feel free to experiment with the "xthickness" and "ythickness" values to find the spacing that you are looking for. To have the change take effect, simply select another theme (Settings Manager -> Appearance) and return back to your theme for it to take effect.

EDIT: Cleaned up post.

Last edited by ToZ (2014-12-22 13:36:25)

ToZ · 2014-12-22 14:00:03

alekzxd wrote:

Now to the main issue, I managed to resize the network icon, but does not show when the network is with 4 stripes, I created the icon that did not exist, but do not know how to tell the system that it should use. I do not understand, that if there are those same icons with smaller, why take a large size?

I've only ever seen these icons in increments of 25 (00, 25, 50, 75, 100). This might be a limitation of the Network-Manager package as I don't see any sort of limitation in the freedesktop icon naming spec.

EDIT: Yep. From http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~vcs-import … ice-wifi.c:

		if (strength > 80)
			*out_icon_name = "nm-signal-100";
		else if (strength > 55)
			*out_icon_name = "nm-signal-75";
		else if (strength > 30)
			*out_icon_name = "nm-signal-50";
		else if (strength > 5)
			*out_icon_name = "nm-signal-25";
		else
			*out_icon_name = "nm-signal-00";

Last edited by ToZ (2014-12-22 14:23:45)

sixsixfive · 2014-12-22 17:08:19

you can also use text eg:

if intel use iwconfig to get your maximal signal quality(mine is 70)

ssf@debtop:~$ su -c "iwconfig wlan0"
Passwort: 
wlan0     IEEE 802.11bgn  ESSID:"Batcave"  
          Mode:Managed  Frequency:2.462 GHz  Access Point:
          Bit Rate=1 Mb/s   Tx-Power=16 dBm   
          Retry short limit:7   RTS thr:off   Fragment thr:off
          Encryption key:off
          Power Management:off
          Link Quality=44/70  Signal level=-66 dBm  
          Rx invalid nwid:0  Rx invalid crypt:0  Rx invalid frag:0
          Tx excessive retries:0  Invalid misc:357   Missed beacon:0

create a script eg:

#!/bin/sh
cat /proc/net/wireless | grep wlan0 | awk '{print $3}' | sed 's#\.#/70#g'

install the xfce4-genmon-plugin

and execute your script every 30s eg: sh /home/mysupercoolwlanscript.sh

gives you something like:

also i prefer connman + the connman-ui-gtk as network manger because its much easier and lightweight:

Last edited by sixsixfive (2014-12-22 17:52:00)

alekzxd · 2014-12-24 18:37:37

Thank you very much for the replies, ToZ try what you said about space I'll try, insurance work, but yesterday I gave my girlfriend's laptop, then take it off for a while and I try it.
sixsixfive, I liked the connman + the connman-ui-gtk, is pleasing to the eye, I'll install it.

Again, thank you very much for your answers, I'll edit as resolved.

And as a bonus, I will create a tutorial on how was I edited XFCE in this manner, so if anyone is interested in doing it, do it. Then I'll post in the forum.

Xfce Forum

Sub domains

#1 2014-12-22 07:47:48

[Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#2 2014-12-22 08:11:57

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#3 2014-12-22 08:51:42

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#4 2014-12-22 11:48:06

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#5 2014-12-22 14:00:03

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#6 2014-12-22 17:08:19

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

#7 2014-12-24 18:37:37

Re: [Solved] Problems customizing the panel.

Board footer