HOWTO Avant Window Navigator

From Gentoo Linux Wiki

[edit] Installing the software

Avant Window Navigator (AWN or Awn) is now in Portage. Community-developed applets are provided in the avant-window-navigator-extras package. If you're running a stable arch and Awn has not been stabilized for it, you need to unmask it first. Issue as root (replace ~x86 with your arch):

echo "gnome-extra/avant-window-navigator ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "gnome-extra/avant-window-navigator-extras ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords
echo "net-libs/libgmail ~x86" >> /etc/portage/package.keywords

Then emerge it:

emerge -av avant-window-navigator avant-window-navigator-extras

There are a few ways to run Awn. To change its settings, go to the Preferences by right clicking on the bar, or alternatively, run awn-manager from the terminal.

Note:You need to have compositing enabled to run AWN. Another discussion on compositing managers is at the Awn wiki.

[edit] Autostart AWN

In Xfce 4.4 and above, right click on desktop then go to "Settings > Autostarted Applications" and add "avant-window-navigator" to the list. Similarly, in GNOME go to System > Preferences > Sessions and add a new entry there. Another option is to make a new file in ~/.config/autostart called AWN.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=0.9.4
Type=Application
Name=AWN
Comment=
Exec=/usr/bin/avant-window-navigator
StartupNotify=false
Terminal=false
Hidden=false

[edit] Xfce

If you don't need to start the xfce4-panel, modify /etc/xdg/xfce4-session/xfce4-session.rc accordingly:

[Failsafe Session]
Count=4
Client0_Command=xfwm4
Client0_PerScreen=False
#Client1_Command=xfce4-panel
#Client1_PerScreen=False
Client2_Command=Thunar,--daemon
Client2_PerScreen=False
Client3_Command=xfdesktop
Client3_PerScreen=False

In order to change the default file manager, in Nautilus, right-click on a folder and go to "Open With" tab in the properties; add "Thunar" and select it.

[edit] Applets

If an applet does not start properly run the AWN in a terminal and look for the errors. Usually there is a python package that is missing. Additional details about awn-extras's dependencies can be found on its official installation page.

[edit] Battery

To get the battery applet working you need to emerge sys-power/acpi:

emerge -av sys-power/acpi

[edit] AWN System Monitor

The default look (background/foreground) can be customized by right clicking on individual items in the dialog.

[edit] Volume Control

You need pyalsaaudio and gnome-python:

emerge -av dev-python/pyalsaaudio dev-python/gnome-python

This applet reads the default values in gconf under /desktop/gnome/sound/. You could change the default device and track either directly using gconf-editor or using gnome-sound-properties (Hold Ctrl to select more than one track).

[edit] See also

• Official Wiki
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
• Themes