This isn’t as much of a functional tip as it is decorative. Unless, you’re like me and you use your terminal for almost everything, then it can be quite functional as well. Today’s tip, embedding a terminal window onto your desktop.

For this example I’ll be using xfce4-terminal and alltray, so take the time to install both of them. Alternatively you can use gnome-terminal if you’re running Gnome or a number of other terminals. But let’s focus on xfce4-terminal for this example.

The command line for this is as follows:

• alltray --borderless --skip-taskbar xfce4-terminal --hide-menubar --hide-borders --geometry 60x600-10+10

Let’s break this down for those of you trying to dig through the man page for xfce4-terminal trying to find out what we just did. Xfce4-terminal doesn’t have many options listed in its man page, sadly, so you’re either going to have to take my word for it or do some serious digging online.

alltray
• --borderless
  removes the window borders that AllTray adds when the terminal is shown.
• --skip-taskbar
  keeps the terminal from showing a button on your taskbar, thus giving it the look of being embedded.

xfce4-terminal
• --hide-menubar
  keeps the menubar for the terminal from displaying. You can still access most menu functions with a simple right-click.
• --hide-borders
  keeps the window borders from being displayed.
• --geometry height x width left/right top/bottom
  sets the size and location of the terminal on your workspace.
  Right and bottom are designated in negative numbers (-10) while left and top are designated with positive numbers (+10)

Finish it up by right-clicking on the terminal, going to Preferences, and setting your colors, setting your background to transparent, and selecting your preferred level of transparency and you’re golden. I chose the top right corner for my terminal based on my wallpaper, feel free to play around with the geometry until you get it the way you want. And remember, the height and width are in columns not pixels. If all goes well, the result will look a bit like the screenshot of my desktop below. Of course, I’m using Xfce so your results my look slightly different. And the other application running embedded is called conky, I may cover that one at a later date.

If you liked that, try...

1. Linux Tip: Man Pages in Firefox
2. Quick Ubuntu Tip: A Leaner, Meaner GNOME
3. Xgl/Compiz: New Vistas in Desktop Prettification
4. Linux Users: Pimp Your Prompt (Part 2 of 2)
5. Linux Users: Pimp Your Prompt (Part 1 of 2)

2 Comments »

1. 
   randy
   June 23, 2008 at 1:40 am

   migo, very nice. works exactly as i wanted. how did you get that sys monitor?

   [Reply]

2. 
   randy
   June 23, 2008 at 1:46 am

   ahh. conky! get it! :)

   [Reply]

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