How to recolor/change taskbar on Slacko and Precise?

[JamesTheAwesomeDude]

I don't know how to change the look of the taskbar (or panel, or whatever,) at the bottom of the screen. Back in Lucid, I think I remember an option to change the color, also it was transparent so you could always "spoof" one with a wallpaper, but I can't find out how to change that in recent versions of Puppy.

[`f00]

Depends on the wm.

Jwm uses tray(s) natively - part of the look is in the theme used, other options are in ~/.jwmrc-tray .. translucency is possible with x-or-kcompmgr enabled and opacity option set in the theme. You can use separate trays, make them autohide and so on. Most of the reading is in eyecandy or howto sections. Jwm tray(s) are wm-specific to jwm

Panels - several available .. look around for lxpanel, fbpanel/pfbpanel, and tint2 (there's others as well, no idea what Lucid has/had). Usually these are a bit heavier on resource usage but there's often a gui to change the look and so forth. Panels can be used in most wms (if they don't conflict with native stuff)

Other wms with native transparency - afterstep, enlightenment (e16/17) and fluxbox to name a few

[musher0]

Hi, JamesTheAwesomeDude.

Let's not forget the rox-panel, which is a part of the ROX environment, and therefore independent of any wm. It also means it can be used in any Puppy, not just a slacko or a precise Pup.

To create a rox-panel, say, on the right side, issue this command :
rox -r=right in a console or from a bash script. Right click on the new panel, and on the second item from the bottom of the sub-menu that appears. Then, you click on "Options" and you can modifiy the panel settings.

You can easily change the look of a rox-panel by creating a .gtkrc.mine file in /root, and tweaking it. Here's mine.

Code: Select all

gtk-can-change-accels = 1

pixmap_path "/usr/share/backgrounds/gtkrc-mine"
# This is the path to the small *.png files you'll use for theming.

style "rox" = "default"
# This is how you theme the filer (where the list of files are shown).
{
  bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "18a-2x1024.png"
# See the dimensions: 3 pixels wide by 1024 pixels long. 
# A long gradation of a single tone give the best results.
# Also multiples of 22, probably because of the number 
# of pixels for the height of a font.
# Various examples :
# "18a-1x768.png"  # "Business-3x924.png"
#  bg[NORMAL] = "#94ABC3"
# Putting in a single color, as above, does not seem to work in recent versions of ROX. 
#  bg[ACTIVE] = "#ffffff"
# Doesn't apply, really, on a panel.
  font_name = "Liberation Sans-10:italic"
}
widget_class "*Collection*" style "rox"

style "panel-style" {
# This is how you theme the rox panels on the side of your screen.
  bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "ecogreen.png"
# "MurrinaCappucino.png" # "quiescent.png" # 
# "bluecrystal.png" 
# The four above are "excerpts" I created from icewm themes. 
# You use the theme of the same name and a corresponding 
# small rectangle or square in png "excerpted" from it, 
# and it gives unity to the look.
# "johindes-1257119336a-41x.png" #  "johindes-1257119336a-41x1024a.png"
# "johindes-1257119336a-41x1024.png" # "pose_longue40x.png"
#  bg[NORMAL] = "#09415A"
# Same remark as above.
  font_name = "Liberation Sans-10:italic"
}
widget "rox-panel.*" style "panel-style"
 

Or you can crop any side of your backdrop to the width of your rox-panel and give the illusion of transparency.

To activate the new look, you have to exit to the initial black console with Alt-Cntrl-Backspace and type the usual:
xwin jwm
or
xwin icewm
or
xwin [whatever your window manager is]

You have to go back to the console, because simply restarting the X-server gives iffy results. (This I know from experience. It's not in any manual.)

See the rox manual in /usr/local/apps/ROX_Filer/Help/Manual.html. Also,
http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/book ... l/249.html

I hope this helps.

Best regards.

musher0