The good part is it’s highly customizable and hence will fit perfectly well with your Ubuntu theme.
Let’s see how to install and customize AWN on your Ubuntu machine.
It can be used to keep track of open windows and behaves like a normal window list.
I am using Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope).
Adding the PPA Repositories
1.
We’ll now add the sources.list entries to software sources, for Ubuntu 9.04 to know about the repositories.
To do so go to System > Administration > Software Sources.
Go to the tab that readsThird-Party Software.
smack the Add… button and add the following lines one by one.
choose the link 1024R/BF810CD5 and you’ll reach the public key server page.
Open gedit by hitting ALT+F2 and typing gedit.
Copy the code under “—–BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK—–” in your gedit.
Save the file as PGPAWN on your desktop.
We’ll now import this PGP (PGPAWN) security key.
Locate the PGPAWN file which we saved on desktop and import it.
Now hit the Close button to close Software Sources windows.
You’ll be prompted with a message to reload.
Click reload to update the software sources.
Installing AWN-Window-Navigator and AWN-Extras
1.
Open a terminal window by hitting ALT+F2 and typing “gnome-terminal” (without quotes).
Copy and paste the following line in your terminal window to install AWN-Navigator.
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-trunk
- jot down “y” to install.
Similarly we’ll install AWN-extras-applets by pasting the following lines in the terminal window.
You’ll now have AWN running.
It should look this:
Doesn’t look so great.
Let’s pimp it up and make it a real eye candy dock.
Delete the panel
In the above screenshot you’d notice a panel behind the dock.
Let’s get rid of it.
Right choose the panel and click “Delete This Panel”.
Confirm by hitting the Delete button.
With the panel gone, AWN looks neat but not as neat as we want it to look.
So let’s see how we can pimp it up.
This would check that that AWN is started with every new session of Ubuntu.
Adding Applets to your AWN
Don’t settle with just the above configuration.
We can add various Applets to our dock.
Start AWN Manager and select Applets.
From the list of avaialble applets snag the one you want to have on your dock.
I added a few
Theme AWN
Avant Window Navigator comes with a decent theme.
However, there is an option of adding more themes.
Download the theme from the theme page.
Open AWN Manager and select Themes.
Click Add to set up the theme
Click Apply to use the selected theme.
you might select a theme that best compliments your desktop wallpaper.
Feel free to try other prefs to see how creative you might get!
