Linux Lake 12: Desktop landscaping that little thing

Each Linux desktop release just got the hands of the time, are more or less dissatisfied with some of them to make some modifications are necessary. There are a variety of Linux desktop landscaping tutorials and experience posted on the Web, which is a good reference for us Linux enthusiasts. Before you make a desktop beautification, keep in mind the following points:

1. Desktop Landscaping is a matter of the beholder and benevolent see. It is possible that you think the interface is beautiful, others think the soil is going to get rid of the slag, you may think that the special effects, others think flashy. As far as I'm concerned, I don't like desktop widgets, whether on a computer or on a phone. So my computer desktop is always bare, except for the background picture. But I like to make the console window translucent. Therefore, for this article, each reader may have their own different views, welcome to explore. In addition, I think understanding the Linux desktop Landscaping mechanism is more important.

2. Desktop landscaping is a very time-taking thing. In order to toss my Linux desktop system, I do not know how many days and nights spent. Many effects need to be tried in person, each setting is changed and changed. The resulting results may be just a relatively shallow beautification.

3. Desktop landscaping is a very dangerous thing to do. Although the Linux system is very robust, it does not mean that its graphical interface can let you toss without crashing. I've messed up the Ubuntu GUI many times, and then I couldn't fix it and had to reinstall the system. Therefore, before you perform a desktop beautification, be sure to back up your system or try it on a virtual machine first. Otherwise the consequences are self-esteem.

4. Desktop Landscaping is a matter of some luck. The hardware and software you use may determine whether certain software can be installed and run correctly. My notebook is the Nvidia GT 720M graphics card, the installation of video driver is very smooth, but the watermark effect is not coming out, on the contrary, on my virtual machine, the watermark effect is normal operation.

For different desktop systems, it does not beautify the same way. I don't use KDE at all, and I use the GNOME desktop for both Fedora and Ubuntu, and Gnome 3 doesn't go backwards and uses Gnome 2. The desktop manager for Fedora 20 is Gnome-shell, while Ubuntu 14.04 uses the desktop Manager as Ubuntu Unity. I have done less to beautify the Gnome-shell, so the focus of this article is on Ubuntu Unity.

I think that desktop landscaping can be started in the following ways:

1. Themes and wallpapers. This is common for any system. In the Fedora 20 system, you can use yum List | grep Theme and yum List | grep Wallpaper to find the themes and wallpapers available in the official software source, while in Ubuntu 14.04, you can use sudo aptitude Search Theme and sudo aptitude search Wallpaper to find the themes and wallpapers available in the official software source. After installing the theme, the Fedora system uses the Gnome-tweak-tool software to set the theme, while Ubuntu sets the theme using Unity-tweak-tool. In addition, you can download the latest themes and wallpapers by visiting the website http://gnome-look.org/. For Gnome-shell, you can also install extensions to extend its functionality and beautify it, in addition to the extensions provided in the official software source, you can also access https://extensions.gnome.org/to find the latest extensions.

2. Font. The font setting in the Linux desktop itself is a big hassle. For this, please refer to my book: Linux lake 04:linux Desktop system font configuration (above) and Linux Lake 05:linux desktop system font configuration (below).

3. Desktop effects. This is a icing on the cake, no, it doesn't matter. Ubuntu Unity Desktop is based on Compiz, with the right configuration to provide stunning effects, and Fedora's Gnome-shell is less fortunate. However, the Gnome-shell extension mechanism is very powerful, as long as JavaScript and CSS can be used to create a theme for it, you can casually change its appearance. For many of the front-end siege lions in the blog Park, Gnome-shell is the Linux desktop Landscaping paradise, although the father of Linux says Gnome 3 is "too messy to endure."

4.Dock. This needless to say, imitate the interface of Apple Computer, instantly let desktop effect raise a grade. There are a lot of dock software to choose from, not to repeat here.

5. Desktop Widgets. Some beautiful desktop widgets can provide some very useful features, but also can improve the level of desktop beautification. Since I am not particularly fond of desktop widgets, this part is not a special introduction, but in the back, I will give a link, let other experts show how to use Conky to beautify the desktop.

Let's start with a brief talk about the beautification of Gnome-shell in Fedora. After installing the system, I am not satisfied with the theme and wallpaper it comes with, and then, of course, install a new theme and wallpaper, then install a gnome-tweak-tool, set up a new theme and wallpaper, then set the font, and finally, Since the gnome-terminal installed by default in Fedora does not support translucent backgrounds, I update it. Here are the following:

Then, then, I didn't make any more changes to the Fedora interface. In fact, as long as it is JavaScript and CSS, changes to the Gnome-shell will be easy. In particular, Gnome-shell provides a very useful JavaScript console lookingglass, just press ALT+F2, and then run the LG command, you can pop up the following interface, directly input JavaScript code execution, Press two times TAB key and auto prompt, or translucent background, you say cool uncomfortable:

In addition, you can change the appearance of the Gnome-shell by modifying the/usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css file.

Here's a look at the Ubuntu 14.04 Desktop Landscaping process. I circled with a red line is the need to use a few settings tools:

Where "Launch Application" is the system comes with, you can set some software to run automatically when the system starts. Another three setup tools need to be installed separately. The simplest is the unity Tweak tool, which is used to replace Gnome-tweak-tool in the Ubuntu system and only needs to run sudo apt-get install Unity-tweak-tool can be installed. You can use this tool to set themes, fonts, and so on, such as:

At the same time, you can use the tool to open several more workspaces, such as:

One of the advantages of the Linux desktop is that you can open multiple workspaces, which can also be called multiple desktops, in fact the same. Ubuntu itself desktop switching effect is relatively simple, behind, can be provided by the Compiz 3D desktop function to set a more dazzling switching effect.

The tool nvidia X Server settings is generally not available, but the presence of the tool can prompt you to successfully install a graphics driver, and you can switch between dual graphics cards. Installing n cards in Ubuntu is a simple driver, and a sudo apt-get install nvidia-331 command is done. (Currently the latest driver version is nvidia-331, and the other versions are different from the numbers that follow.) ) is the result of the tool's operation:

The focus of landscaping on Ubuntu desktop is to set the Compiz effect. Here you need to talk about the origins of Ubuntu Unity and Compiz. Compiz is the masterpiece of 3D desktop effect in Linux system, but because of the differences of the concept of the developers, soon separated a Beryl branch, Beryl development for a period of time, the two sides also feel that the idea is consistent, and then merged into a new Compiz Fusion, After a while, Compiz Fusion resumed its original name Compiz. While the Ubuntu Unity was initially based on the same Mutter window manager and Clutter Graphics Tool Library development as the Gnome-shell, during the release of Ubuntu 10.10, Compiz's main developer was hired by canonical, Then Ubuntu Unity began porting to Compiz. So, since Ubuntu 11.04, the Foundation of Ubuntu Unity Desktop is Compiz. Can be verified by the pstree command, such as:

After the system is installed, Compiz is installed by default, but its setup software compizconfig Settings Manager needs to be installed separately, and Compiz effects are provided as plug-ins, so install Compiz-plugins as well:

Only the two packages I marked with a red line need to be installed. The other transitional dummy package is a transitional version and does not need to be installed. You can then use Compizconfig Settings Manager (CCSM) to set the effects of the Compiz. As I said before, desktop landscaping is a dangerous job and it's extremely easy to kill the graphical interface. So when you start CCSM, it pops up a friendly tip:

And from the above can be seen, Ubuntu unity is also a Compiz plug-in. Therefore, if you do not want to let the graphical interface die too ugly, we must pay attention to the following two points:

1. All open plugins cannot clash with Ubuntu Unity plugin, otherwise the desktop system will die for you in minutes.

2. All shortcuts cannot conflict with Ubuntu Unity plugin shortcut keys. In these special effects plug-ins, easy and Ubuntu Unity plugin occur shortcut key conflict is that several window switch plug-ins, because the window switch a total of a few shortcut key combinations, such as ALT + TAB, SHIFT+ALT+TAB, etc., if all the plug-ins are selected these shortcuts, It's hard not to conflict. So, when you enable the window switch effect, you must first set the shortcut key, and then enable.

If you really accidentally crashed the desktop, you can first press CTRL+ALT+F1 to switch to the Virtual Console 1, and then log into the system, and then enter the following command to help:

sudo RM -R. Compizsudokillall Gnome-shell

After entering the above command, the graphical interface will be restarted with the default settings. And then continue to toss.

Compiz offers a lot of features that I think are useful mainly in the following ways:

1. Desktop switching effect, which is often said 3D desktop;

2. Window switch effect, Compiz provides a lot of window switching effects, but I only choose one;

3. Other icing on the special effects, such as fire, fireworks, watermark effect, window like jelly, such as dithering effect, in addition, I think the annotation effect is also good, you can let the mouse on the screen casually painted, I above the red line is so drawn out.

First look at Ubuntu default desktop switching effect, press Alt+s shortcut key to display all the desktop, the effect is very simple, such as:

Set up 3D desktop, press ctrl+alt+ left mouse button, move the mouse left and right to rotate the desktop cube, the effect such as:

To achieve such a desktop switching effect, you need to refer to the following two images of my specially marked plug-ins:

Where the desktop cube and the rotation cube plug-in is sure to be turned on, and the desktop cube and the Desktops Wall plugin conflict, so the desktop cube must be disabled to disable desktop Wall, it turns out that this can be disabled, will not cause a system crash. The cube Reflection and deformation plug-in can then make the desktop cube more flashy, remove the top and bottom covers, and change the desktop cube to cylindrical and spherical. Finally, the wallpaper plugin can set a separate background image for each desktop, so that the four plugins in the image loading category are enabled in order to successfully load images in various formats.

Take a look at the window switch effect. Ubuntu default window switch effect is also good, the icon is larger, surrounded by a faint halo. Press ALT + TAB to switch windows within a workspace, press Ctrl+alt+tab to switch windows in all workspaces, such as:

Compiz provides a lot of window switch plug-ins, but I think the default is more than the Ubuntu switch effect is basically not, so I only choose one, I set the shortcut to press Shift+super+s to open the window to switch, and then press the left and right keys on the keyboard to switch windows, such as:

It's a good effect. I enabled the shift switcher plugin, such as:

Because I do not want to break the head to avoid shortcut key conflicts, so I only enabled a window switch mode, its shortcut keys set such as:

After watching the desktop switch and the window switch, and then look at those icing on the cake, the plug-ins in the random bar:

Flame effect, press shift+super+ left mouse button, you can draw a bright flame on the desktop, press Shift+super+c clear, such as:

Fireworks effects, press Super+q to open, and then press Super+q close, such as:

Note effects, press alt+super+ left mouse button can be scribble on the desktop, the front of I have widely used the effect to draw a circle, so it is not.

Watermark effect, on my laptop the effect does not come out, on the virtual machine can. Press Ctrl+super Open, release the end, press Shift+f8 to open the wiper effect, then press Cancel, press SHIFT+F9 to open the rain effect, and then press Cancel.

To beautify the desktop, the dock is indispensable. In Ubuntu, you can use Cairo-dock. A sudo apt-get install cairo-dock command is done. Then use the "Start Application" mentioned earlier to set the Cairo-dock to boot, such as:

The effects of the dock, such as:

I generally do not like the desktop widgets, I like to work when the window full screen, with a translucent background effect is better. For friends who like to add more elements to your desktop, you can go here: http://forum.ubuntu.org.cn/viewtopic.php?f=94&t=313031&start=0. This is the Ubuntu Chinese Forum on a post, the building has been covered very high, a lot of master works, it is worth learning. The tools they use are conky.

Not wanting to make this essay smelly and long, I have tried to be concise, but in order to clarify the problem, still use more than 20 pictures. It took me a few days to finish the article before the Little Singles Day (November 1). Unfortunately, on the evening of Friday, the estimated weekend, my essay will be submerged in the blog Garden of the Sea, the traffic will not be too high. I want the recommendation, where is it?

(Jingshan Ranger in the October 31, 2014 Night published in the blog Park, reproduced please indicate the source. ）

Linux Lake 12: Desktop landscaping that little thing