Arch Linux

hungrybox

Member

Registered: 2010-11-21

Posts: 8

Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

I'm trying to achieve panel transparency with opaque text/icons, I googled around and eventually found a few helpful posts. I'm trying to use the patch guide posted in this topic a few years back:
https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=71248

when I try to makepkg, "xfce4-panel-4.6.1.tar.bz2" doesn't pass a validity check for the md5sums. Is this patch even up to date? If it isnt where can I find a more up to date one because so far I've been unsuccessful in that regard.

Also, I assume that patching is still the only option for achieving this transparency effect in xfce4 or has something new been developed?

Tux the penguin

Member

From: Tomorrow

Registered: 2010-05-25

Posts: 196

Re: Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

If you right click your panel and select "customize panel", then you can set the transparency, but it makes the entire panel panel transparent.

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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
MSI CR600 / 3GB Memory / 320GB HDD / Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00 GHz | Archlinux x86_64

hungrybox

Member

Registered: 2010-11-21

Posts: 8

Re: Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

yes I know, but unfortunately i'm not looking for a full transparency effect. Thats why i've specified that I'm looking for a transparent panel with opaque icons in the very first sentence of my post.

Tux the penguin

Member

From: Tomorrow

Registered: 2010-05-25

Posts: 196

Re: Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

Sorry about my last post. I just thought that if you couldn't get it to work with opaque icons, then you wanted the next best thing. Anyway, maybe it is because the patch is for xfce 4.6.1 .

heres the cairo patch for the new panel:

http://www.cooptel.qc.ca/~pggervais/xfc … tch.tar.gz

can anyone give me a step by step on how to apply this patch to my panel?

This is how I patched mine:

place the new 4.6.1 patch, this PKGBUILD, and the xfce4-panel.install files in a folder called ~/xfce4-panel-build:

PKGBUILD file:

# $Id: PKGBUILD 36266 2009-04-20 20:58:18Z andyrtr $
# Maintainer: tobias <tobias funnychar archlinux.org>

pkgname=xfce4-panel
pkgver=4.6.1
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc="Panel for the Xfce desktop environment"
arch=('i686' 'x86_64')
license=('GPL2')
url="http://www.xfce.org/"
groups=('xfce4')
depends=("libxfcegui4>=$pkgver" 'exo>=0.3.101' 'libwnck' 'hicolor-icon-theme')
makedepends=('pkgconfig' "xfconf>=$pkgver" 'intltool')
options=('!libtool')
install=${pkgname}.install
source=(http://www.xfce.org/archive/xfce-${pkgver}/src/${pkgname}-${pkgver}.tar.bz2
        xfce4-panel-4.6.1.tar.bz2)
md5sums=('73a366b9892152266b465d7d9c35bef4'
         '7078dba125570fd952de63a78c477d1c')

build() {
  cd ${srcdir}/${pkgname}-${pkgver}
  patch -Np0 -i /home/"your-name"/xfce4-panel-build/xfce4-panel-4.6.1_cairo.patch
  ./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc --libexecdir=/usr/lib \
    --localstatedir=/var --disable-static
  make || return 1
  make DESTDIR=${pkgdir} install || return 1
}

xfce4-panel.install file:

post_install() {
  gtk-update-icon-cache -q -t -f usr/share/icons/hicolor
}

post_upgrade() {
  post_install $1
}

post_remove() {
  gtk-update-icon-cache -q -t -f usr/share/icons/hicolor
}

then in the xfce4-panel-build folder run this in a terminal:

makepkg -c

I think this should work for you. Then all you have to do is install it using pacman -U, and then restart the panel using these 2 commands in alt+f2 run program:

killall xfce4-panel

then:

xfce4-panel &

Try changing everything that says xfce 4.6.1 to 4.6.2 because xfce4-session is 4.6.2 . Or maybe change it to 4.6.4 which is the version of the panel. I don't know what to do about the md5sum error. Delete the line maybe? If you are sure it downloaded correctly. Hope that helps.

Last edited by Tux the penguin (2010-11-21 20:14:47)

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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy every minute of it.
MSI CR600 / 3GB Memory / 320GB HDD / Intel Pentium Dual-Core CPU T4200 @ 2.00 GHz | Archlinux x86_64

hungrybox

Member

Registered: 2010-11-21

Posts: 8

Re: Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

i tried deleting the md5sum lines, but then the package couldnt pass validity checks. I tried to get the file that makepkg was looking for but with the correct version of xfce4-panel from "http://www.xfce.org/archive/xfce/4.6.2/src/xfce4-panel-4.6.4.tar.bz2 " but i can't get the patch to apply to this new version.

Would there be any problem with removing xfce4-panel-4.6.4 from my computer, going back to 4.6.1 and seeing if I can apply this patch to the outdated version?

hungrybox

Member

Registered: 2010-11-21

Posts: 8

Re: Xfce4-panel transparent with opaque text/icons

Well, i never got the patch enabled, but i've decided to ditch xfce4-panel and am now using tint2 which overall I think is much nicer. Great configuring options for just about everything including transparency. My only complaint is a lack of application launchers but an autohidden xfce4-panel now serves as my dock, and the right click app menu in xfce has everything else.