Widgets with Compiz on Ubuntu

I have being using compiz recently with ubuntu, a really nice desktop control environment.

One of the things I had wanted from the start were Desktop Widgets (aka Desklets or Screenlets)

There is in the Compiz configuration settings, under the “Desktop” section, a “Widget Layer” feature.

I have just gotten this to work with arbitrary widgets, indeed one can make any application behave like a widget, through unique identification of the window for that application.

I have installed MacSlow’s Cairo-Clock and gDesklets. I use the Éphémeride Calendar, SideCandy Network, Disk IO and Binary Clock gDesklets. I also run Mutt Mail Client in a gnome-terminal window and would like that to behave as a widget also.

So, I enable the “Widget Layer”, and set the following for the “Widget Windows” field on the “Behaviour” tab :

name=cairo-clock | (name=gnome-terminal & title=mutt) | name=gdesklets-daemon

I got the details of the windows via the xprop command. Just open a terminal, run xprop and then click the window you want information for, and it will be dumped out to screen.

Be warned, the output of xprop doesn’t look pretty, but you are looking for the values of variables like WM_CLASS or WM_NAME in order to identify your application.

One set, your specified applications will be hidden. When you press F9 they appear as an overlayed layer, and the rest of the desktop fades out.