Howto: Completely Transparent Shell on your Ubuntu desktop with Compiz Fusion

I will show how to create a conky'esque transparent shell using only gnome-terminal and Compiz-fusion. Check out the attached screenshots.



First create a new profile in gnome-terminal (Edit->Profiles->New), name it "trans". Set the following characteristics:

Cursor blinks: off
Show menubar: off
Initial title: trans
Dynamically-set title: Isn't displayed
Color scheme: Black on white
Transparent Background: on
Set the transparency down to "None"

The important part here is that now the gnome-terminal is gonna have the title trans. We can now target the gnome-terminal windows that are using trans profile from inside CompizConfig by using "title=trans".

Open CompizConfig (System->Preferences->CompizConfig). Make sure you have the regEx plugin enabled.

Go to the Window Decoration plugin and add "!title=trans" to the Decoration windows field. This will skip adding window borders to our trans terminals.
Go to the Window Rules plugin. Add "title=trans" to the following fields (This will turn the terminals into a widget-like windows):

  • Skip taskbar, Skip pager, Below, Sticky, Non resizable windows, Non minimizable windows, Non maximizable windows, Non closable windows
In the Fixed Size Windows section click add. Use "title=trans" for the the Sized Window field and put the height and width you want for your shells.

Go to the Place Windows plugin, go to the Windows with fixed positions tab, in Windows with fixed positions click add. Put "title=trans" in Positioned Windows field and put x and y coordinates of the default position you want for your shell (top-left corner is 0,0). After they have loaded you can move them by Alt-Dragging them.

To run the transparent gnome-terminal use:
Code:

gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=trans
Edit:
dock: avant-window-navigator
widgets: conky
conky theme: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=505


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Comments (16)

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could you please make a script to the script kiddies here?
I know that a terminal is a hackerlike stuff, but it wont be taht bad to see if your recipe can be turned in some reproducible feature.
by the way could you post a recipe to make a shiny desktop as yours?
n
This is one of the most useful things with linux. Thnk you so much/
http://www.fleako.com/open-source/
It would be super neat if you would share the location of that wallpaper.
Warning: this will cause any window containing trans to lose window decorations. Try it: search for trans in firefox, and see what happens.
1 reply · active 856 weeks ago
True, if you are worried about it you might replace trans with trans65416491 or something like that.
jep same here. setting size not working :(
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An updated version of the HOWTO, a link to the conky script, and a link to the photoshop psd file of the background can be found here:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?p=3254093
Thanks.
"Fixed Size Windows" doesnt work for me in compiz. So i specified gnome-terminal size on command line with:
gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=trans --geometry=150x50
(for 1280x1024px (above is char/lines))
hi! i love you desktop! i already installed conky and avant with your tuts, just wanna know how to change the panel on the top like yours?
You know what ? This works just great in... Enlightenment DR16, which is probably as remote to Compiz as M$ is to FOSS. And it just works natively...
I seriously recommend not just using the name trans because then whenever you have a window with that word in it, even a web page, it will lose the title bar and stuff. Name it something much more random like djFw4FgegemoJYU
@Bob and others
To avoid getting all windows with a "trans" in the title, replace title=trans with title=^trans$
That way, your settings will only affect windows with trans as their full name.
Hmmm.. I reckon this needs information on how to automatically stick the window to the dektop so it appears on all sides of the cube and how to hidee it from the application switcheroony bar, compiz application switcheroonys etc
Nvidia Gnome's avatar

Nvidia Gnome · 860 weeks ago

Couldn't say about before hardy 8.04.1 but Compiz Config Settings Manager does have a reset to defaults button in Preferences. I didn't see it at first and spent a minute trying to recover my title bars after following this :P
Very useful; I can have a server log and some automatic tests running all the time in the background, which is actually a big time-saver. Many thanks for the concise write-up.
The only issue is that the window gets minimised like all the others when you click on the "show desktop" button. Is there any way to make it part of the desktop like conky so it doesn't disappear?

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