| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
meldar
n00b
Joined: 06 Apr 2004
Posts: 26
Location: Denmark
|
 Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 9:07 pm Post subject: Console-text on desktop using Eterm |
 |
|
Ever wondered how people get console-text on the desktop?
Here is how to do it with KDE and Eterm:
| Code: | | kstart --skiptaskbar --skippager --alldesktops --onbottom Eterm -x -O --buttonbar no --scrollbar no --no-cursor yes --geometry 80x25+5+20 -e "command here" & |
Most flags are self-explainable; read the man-pages to customize it more. Replace command here with your command, and 80x25+5+20 with the coordinates you find fitting for your desktop.
Here is some nifty ways to use it:
fortune
A very core part of the unix-system 
Fortune on the desktop may give you more insight in life. Replace command here with
| Code: | | watch -tn 60 fortune |
to make a new quote appear on the desktop once a minute. Note that watch doesn't hide the text-cursor. Anybody who knows how to get a rid of that?
RSS-feeds
Nice to have the news on a real terminal, instead of using extensions like karamba? This is taken from Dave Taylors Tapping RSS with Shell Scripts.
Make a shell-script like this:
| Code: | url="http://slashdot.org/index.rss"
curl --silent "$url"|\
egrep "(title>|description>)"|\
sed -n '4,$p'|\
sed -e 's/<title>/\n/' \
-e 's/<\/title>//' \
-e 's/<description>/ /' \
-e 's/<\/description>//'|\
head -n 12|\
fmt |
And use it with the above code. This way it only updates when Eterm is launched. Replace 12 (in head) with the number of headlines you want times 3. Remove |description (in egrep) to make only the headlines appear.
Note: To stay popular with the owners of the feeds, do not update it too often. Most sites only updates this once an hour. Add a cron job fetching the feeds once per hour, and storing them locally.
Personally I have a shell-script to each site I want, and maked one script start another. This way, it also hides the text-cursor:
| Code: | clear
cat site1.rss|\
egrep "(title>|description>)"|\
sed -n '4,$p'|\
sed -e 's/<title>/\n/' \
-e 's/<\/title>//' \
-e 's/<description>/ /' \
-e 's/<\/description>//'|\
head -n 12|\
fmt
sleep 10
exec ./script2 |
You may want to use an XML-parser instead of this way. Try to look at Dave Taylors article; its excellent.
There are dosens of possibilities out there, the same as with the rest of the desktop extensions - but its funnier to make it yourself 
Try to mess around with it!
/meldar |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
ryceck
Apprentice
Joined: 13 Jan 2004
Posts: 195
|
| Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2004 11:02 pm Post subject: |
|
|
U can always use Enlightenment, set Eterm on the lowest layer, stick it there, give it 100% transparency, kill all borders and get the same effect without any effort
Still thnx fot this tip  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rcxAsh
Guru
Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 457
Location: /etc/localtime
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 12:58 am Post subject: |
|
|
How can I do this with Fluxbox? I can send windows to the lowest layer by a context menu from the window's title bar, but I don't know how to do this from the command line. I'm still relatively new to Fluxbox as a whole.
_________________
rcxAsh |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
meldar
n00b
Joined: 06 Apr 2004
Posts: 26
Location: Denmark
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 7:26 am Post subject: |
|
|
Set it to the lowest layer and sticky; then in the window menu choose remember->sticky and remember->layer.
You can also add this manually to ~/.fluxbox/apps:
[app] (Eterm)
[Layer] {12}
[Sticky] {yes}
[end]
The only problem is that every Eterm will have those properties. This can be solved (I think) by creating a symlink to Eterm with another name. Try to mess around with it.
_________________
There are no answers - only cross-references. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
hjlane3
Guru
Joined: 22 Feb 2003
Posts: 377
Location: Wilmington, DE USA
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 7:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
And for gnome, you can use devilspie, then create a config like this...
.devilspie.xml
| Code: |
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE devilspie SYSTEM "devilspie.dtd">
<!-- The root element is devilspie -->
<devilspie>
<flurb name="Hide Eterm from taskbar">
<matchers>
<matcher name="DevilsPieMatcherWindowName">
<property name="application name" value="Eterm 0.9.2"/>
</matcher>
</matchers>
<actions>
<action name="DevilsPieActionHide">
<property name="skip_tasklist" value="TRUE"/>
<property name="skip_pager" value="TRUE"/>
</action>
<action name="DevilsPieActionLayer">
<property name="below" value="TRUE"/>
</action>
<action name="DevilsPieActionSetWorkspace">
<property name="pinned" value="TRUE"/>
</action>
</actions>
</flurb>
</devilspie> |
Tell gnome to launch devilspie at login, then create a launcher to launch Eterm with options like this...
| Code: | | Eterm -x --trans --shade=0 --buttonbar=0 --scrollbar=0 -f black -g 150x24+0+800 |
_________________
I wish hell would freeze over already. 
EDIT: w00t, it has! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rcxAsh
Guru
Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 457
Location: /etc/localtime
|
| Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2004 2:17 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| meldar wrote: | Set it to the lowest layer and sticky; then in the window menu choose remember->sticky and remember->layer.
You can also add this manually to ~/.fluxbox/apps:
[app] (Eterm)
[Layer] {12}
[Sticky] {yes}
[end]
The only problem is that every Eterm will have those properties. This can be solved (I think) by creating a symlink to Eterm with another name. Try to mess around with it. |
Yah, that was what I was afraid of. I personally use aterm, but it should work the same. So, you're saying that I could copy/make a symlink to the aterm binary under a different name and then get Fluxbox to put that on the lowest layer. And hopefully, it will recognize it as separate from the normal aterms?
Will try that when I get back into Linux.
I've also thought of another way to do something like this... What if you have a cron job to run your command every so often, and get it to put the output into a file. (eg, $ fortune > fortune.txt ). Then, you could use a program such as root-tail to draw it right to the root window. No? (although, this probably wouldn't work in environments such as XFCE4, Gnome and KDE, which use the root window?)
Cause if I'm not mistaken, even if you're putting the eterm/aterm to the lowest level, it still covers your desktop. So even though it's transparent, right clicking there to open a menu would not have the same effect? For programs such as fortune, unless you make sure that it only uses the short fortunes, there will be no doubt times when areas that look empty are really not (as the eterm still exists under there, there's just no text in that area). Maybe I'm just too picky though lol
_________________
rcxAsh |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pindar
Apprentice
Joined: 30 Apr 2004
Posts: 220
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 12:36 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Mmh, have been trying to do this in fluxbox, but no dice so far. First: when I send an eterm window to the bottom layer and there are other applications open, I can't make it visible any more. And I would be very curious to know if it is possible to combine the two approaches: can I have a transparent eterm window without scrollbar and buttonbar in the background that will immediately run a command like fortune or tail -f /var/log/messages? Would be happy if someone could point me to a solution! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
rcxAsh
Guru
Joined: 03 Jul 2003
Posts: 457
Location: /etc/localtime
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 2:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| pindar wrote: | | can I have a transparent eterm window without scrollbar and buttonbar in the background that will immediately run a command like fortune or tail -f /var/log/messages? Would be happy if someone could point me to a solution! |
For tailing files, try root-tail.
It can tail your desired file to the root window at an interval you specify.
_________________
rcxAsh |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
pindar
Apprentice
Joined: 30 Apr 2004
Posts: 220
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2004 3:46 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: | For tailing files, try root-tail.
It can tail your desired file to the root window at an interval you specify. |
Awesome! That's really nice, and it worked out of the box, as it were. The power of linux will never cease to amaze me. Thanks a lot, rcxAsh! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ravnx
n00b
Joined: 02 May 2002
Posts: 9
Location: Houston, TX
|
| Posted: Wed Aug 25, 2004 8:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
paralogger is real nice for Eterm and log tailing.
http://gtk.no/paralogger
_________________
no.. you're a towell.. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Bill Cosby
Guru
Joined: 22 Jan 2005
Posts: 430
Location: Aachen, Germany
|
| Posted: Sun Jul 17, 2005 5:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
How can I autostart my terminal and devilspie with XFCE4?
Thanks in advance
Bill
_________________
The Creature from Jekyll Island. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
Documentation, Tips & Tricks
