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
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:
gnome-terminal --window-with-profile=trans
dock: avant-window-navigator
widgets: conky
conky theme: http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php...&postcount=505
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Comments (16)

Comments by IntenseDebate
· 917 weeks ago
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
· 917 weeks ago
http://www.fleako.com/open-source/
· 917 weeks ago
· 917 weeks ago
M@ · 856 weeks ago
· 916 weeks ago
· 915 weeks ago
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
· 910 weeks ago
"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))
· 906 weeks ago
· 898 weeks ago
· 892 weeks ago
· 888 weeks ago
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.
Pete · 865 weeks ago
Nvidia Gnome · 860 weeks ago
JJ Buckley · 838 weeks ago
Vikram · 833 weeks ago