Arch Linux

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Terminal set as background?

Ok so I have been running arch for about 6 months or so using kdemod. I just switched to kde vanilla and it don't look so pretty so I am on a mission to customize. First off I would like to set it up to take everything my computer does in the background and make that visible as a big terminal and set that as my background. I don't know if this is possible but I have seen some screenshots were that's what it looked like. Also any other tips for making sleek looking desktop. Thanks.

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.

mcmillan

Member

Registered: 2006-04-06

Posts: 737

Re: Terminal set as background?

Not sure if it's what you have in mind but I used to start on transparent console pinned to all desktops which might be what you've seen.

Since you use KDE, you can start a transparent konsole with the command "konsole --schema Transparent.schema" There's also Transparent_darkbg and Transparent_lightbg that use different colored fonts that might show up better. You'll also want to set it to have the the window decoration removed and probably skip the task manager and pager as well.

It looks kind of cool, but once the novelty wore off I found having a dropdown console like yakuake to be more useful.

hennes

Member

Registered: 2008-03-31

Posts: 50

Re: Terminal set as background?

Alternatively you could use devilspie to achieve this.

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Re: Terminal set as background?

Thanks I'll experiment with those. I am not looking for it to be interactive only an output of whats going on in the background.

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.

droog

Member

Registered: 2004-11-18

Posts: 877

Re: Terminal set as background?

maybe your thinking of root-tail?

heres a bad screenshot of it from the root-tail website
http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/images/root-tail.jpg

Last edited by droog (2008-05-28 09:58:04)

sm4tik

Member

From: Finland, Jyväskylä

Registered: 2006-11-05

Posts: 248

Website

Re: Terminal set as background?

maybe your thinking of root-tail?

heres a bad screenshot of it from the root-tail website
http://www.goof.com/pcg/marc/images/root-tail.jpg

A little more about that.
The advantage of root-tail (AFAIK) is that it acts like the desktop without any extra configuration needed. If you just use a transparent terminal, for instance right clicking on it will need some extra effort if you want a desktop menu popping up. Conky's got a useful tail variable also if you want to experiment

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Re: Terminal set as background?

Yea that looks pretty close to what I'm looking for thanks for the inputs. I'll have to experiment with it to see the capabilities. I think conky only runs in gnome so maybe I'll have to use karamba. I am probably going to have to do a fresh install first because of a font problem. http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=49315

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.

droog

Member

Registered: 2004-11-18

Posts: 877

Re: Terminal set as background?

conky doesnt run only in gnome but to do a fullscreen conky to get some log messages is a waste, root-tail is a pain to configure but once you do its great for what it does. then you can run conky for cpu gpu or up downspeed or whatever with no execi crap.

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Re: Terminal set as background?

Cool thanks for the info.

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Re: Terminal set as background?

I found this thread that says aterm works.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=39039

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.

sm4tik

Member

From: Finland, Jyväskylä

Registered: 2006-11-05

Posts: 248

Website

Re: Terminal set as background?

conky doesnt run only in gnome but to do a fullscreen conky to get some log messages is a waste, root-tail is a pain to configure but once you do its great for what it does. then you can run conky for cpu gpu or up downspeed or whatever with no execi crap.

You're quite right there, but you don't need execi to tail a file in conky (if I understood your post correctly). It's got a $tail variable which does it for you. ..only 30 lines can be displayed though..

I found this thread that says aterm works.
http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=39039

Aterm or any other terminal emulator which supports transparent background can be configured to do the thing, but as droog's already pointed out, root-tail would be "the" choice to get logs displayed on desktop. It's a program designed to do just that and nothing else, so I might say it also works best for the job. And though it takes time to configure the way you want it, I'd say it's still faster than getting a whatever term to do it without any drawbacks.
Whatever the case, I encourage you to try out different apps and configurations and then decide which you like the best, you can't know before trying I've messed around a lot with these kind of programs and still can't decide, but that's just one part of the excitement in all of this!
Sakari

~slice

Member

From: Arizona

Registered: 2007-10-31

Posts: 58

Re: Terminal set as background?

Thanks for clarifying Sakari.

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There are 10 types of peaple in the world. Those who know binary and those that don't.