Enlightenment

[Cryptix]

sorry for this possibly annoying question but the enlightenment forums aren't much help. is anyone using enlightenment? if so how do i make the xterm and other windows semi-transparent?

[CroweT]

I don't think that Enlightenment makes any applications transparent; rather, the applications have to support transparency themselves. The transparent terminal windows you've been seeing are probably Eterms. Do an "emerge eterm" and you'll get it. Another application that supports transparencies which pops to mind is Xchat, by the way.

I'm not sure, but I _think_ that the desktop background has to be set by a program that supports transparency, for transparent windows to work. The good news is I also think Eterm comes with Esetroot, which does support the transparencies. I've used Eterm (and Esetroot) a lot with other window managers, but I got a new hard drive and haven't reinstalled them.

Also be aware that these are "semi-" transparencies: you'll see the desktop background thru the windows, but not any other windows that might be beneath.

[icefaerie]

I do know that Eterm can be set so it has that pretend transparency, where it shows the desktop but not any windows underneath the terminal. Unfortunately, Eterm runs really slowly and is unusable for me. I'd love to know how to make xterm transparent...

[jamiethehutt]

There is pseudo transparency options for various parts of E16: window borders, menus etc.

You'll find them under "Desktop Background Settings" and then hit the "Advanced Settings" button, remember to play with the "Theme transparency" drag bar in "Desktop Background Settings".

Transparent window borders are PRETTY.

EDIT: The only way to make Xterm transparent is with transset and the xcomposite extension, which DOES NOT play well with E16.
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[midnite_commander]

That's almost correct. You don't need to use Esetroot, you can just manually select it through the user menus. Just right click anywhere open on the desktop and select "Background Settings" (an interesting side note is that in that same dialog where you select your background you can set theme transparency as well, which will make all of the window borders and Enlightenment dialogs/menus transparent). As far as geting eterm to be transparent, just go to eterm.org and then go to their themes page. Now, the two themes that I recommend for transparency are glass and smoked glass. All you do is take the theme file from eterm's website and put it in ~/.Eterm/themes. Then you invoke the theme by starting Eterm and specifying theme on the command line, i.e. Eterm -t smoked_glass. Another easy way to make Eterm start a specific theme every time without using the command line is by putting a theme in ~/.Eterm/thems/Eterm. Inside the themes directory, any theme named "Eterm" will become the default theme. I.e, if you do

tar -xzf smoked_glass*.tar.gz -C ~/.Eterm/themes/Eterm

Smoked glass will become the default theme, allowing you to run Eterm with smoked glass just by invoking "Eterm" on the command line.

Just one more thing. If you install Eterm and the directory isn't there in your home directory (~/.Eterm), just create it. Same goes for the themes directory.

Hope this helps. I know how frustrating enlightenment can be for n00bs, but it's worth it so if I can help in any other way let me know.

[Bassism]

Actually, Enlightenment R16 in cvs right now has it's own composite manager built in.
You can right click on a window border and set the to be alpha transparent or shadowed.
It's apparently also much faster performing than xcompmgr.
You can emerge enlightenment-0.16.9999 to build it from cvs.

[CroweT]

Just for the record, I'm talking about Esetroot a program to set your desktop background. At least with Fluxbox, you need it (or feh, or wmsetbg...) to have window transparencies work. It also could be that since Eterm/Esetroot were designed around stuff like imlib2, which is part of Enlightenment --if I'm not mistaken --that Enlightenment already uses the necessary libraries for psuedo transparency by default. Or something.

By the way, if Eterm is too slow, there's also a similar terminal window called Aterm that may (or may not) be faster for you. You can also use the KDE terminal windows (the command is 'konsole', I think) but I doubt they'd be any speedier.

[Cryptix]

thanks guys, big help, ill try the emerge eterm thing then ill just download the themes for it

[Cryptix]

P.S. how do i get those macosx like bars?

[CroweT]

I found them about a year back by searching google, sourceforge and freshmeat.net for stuff like "kicker", "os x", etc. Also try throwing "linux" in along with them. This thread might be of interest (first result with google) http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/history/288154
Looks like it's aimed more at KDE (I didn't use Gnome back then), but it might work for you or at least provide new leads.

[dswissmiss]

I belive you're looking for engage

[shouldbesleeping]

I just emerged eterm, it has an option for transparency
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Being on the lower end of geniuses, I have to try a little bit harder than most of them. It still beats being a supreme moron.