How to install, setup and use Avant Window Navigator (Awn) in Ubuntu Feisty

by Ross McKillop on May 31, 2007

Linux

This tutorial will guide you in installing, setting up and using Avant Window Navigator (Awn) - a dock-like bar that sits at the bottom of your Linux desktop.


Awn requires a compositor like Beryl or Compiz in order to run.

  1. Update Repositories
  2. Install Awn
  3. Run Awn
  4. Adding apps to Awn
  5. Setting Awn Preferences

Update Repositories

  1. Open a Terminal by selecting Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal. Then enter the command:

    sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list

    and enter your root password when prompted

  2. Add the following two lines to the bottom of your sources.list file:

    deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 feisty avant-window-navigator
    deb-src http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42 feisty avant-window-navigator

    and then save the file and close gedit.


  3. click to enlarge

Install Awn

Back in the Terminal, enter the following five lines, one at a time:

  1. wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
  2. rm 8434D43A.gpg
  3. sudo apt-get update
  4. sudo apt-get upgrade
  5. sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-svn


click to enlarge

Run Awn

  1. On your keyboard, hold down the alt key and hit F2. Enter avant-window-navigator and click Run.
  2. A small box will appear at the bottom of your screen. This is Awn, with no apps running.
  3. To have Awn start each time Ubuntu boots, select System -> Preferences -> Sessions.

  4. With the Startup Programs tab selected, click the New button.

  5. click to enlarge

  6. Enter Awn as the name and avant-window-navigator in the Command field.
  7. Make sure that the new entry has been created, then click Close. The next time you start Ubuntu, Awn will start with it.


    click to enlarge

Adding apps to Awn

  1. Select the program from the Applications menu by clicking and holding the mouse button down, then drag it to the dock and release.

Setting Awn Preferences

  1. Right-click a blank area of the Awn launcher and choose Preferences
  2. From here you can modify all of the Awn settings.

  3. click to enlarge

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    { 5 trackbacks }

    news.osn.ro
    06.02.07 at 3:13 am
    El Canibal » Blog Archive » Buscando un dock
    06.04.07 at 11:44 am
    Avant Window Navigator - Dual Monitor Hack
    09.10.07 at 12:19 pm
    » Blog Archive » Converting an M$ fanboy to Ubuntu
    09.23.07 at 9:44 pm
    Ubuntu customization « Projects 2008
    05.04.08 at 9:25 am

    { 17 comments… read them below or add one }

    1 Rugge 06.02.07 at 11:40 pm

    Hello!
    May I translate this tutorial in italian? I’ll quote you as source, of course

    2 Ross McKillop 06.02.07 at 11:47 pm

    Though I answered directly to Rugge by email, I figured I’d state it here as well - anyone can translate and/or re-use anything on this site - as long as they link back to the original article.

    Oh, and don’t ‘hotlink’ to the pictures, please host them yourself.

    Cheers -

    Ross

    3 airtonix 06.09.07 at 4:41 am

    how to add plugins? is it as simple as moving the .so file to ~/.awn/plugins

    4 uggghhh :( 06.27.07 at 10:08 pm

    Well, crap. This doesn’t work. it end’s up looking like this on my machine :(

    http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/mrbungle821/Whatswrong.png

    That’s the picture, it shows my predicament. Help?

    5 Ross McKillop 06.27.07 at 10:34 pm

    uggghh -

    Great, great use of a screenshot to describe the problem. Kudos. To answer your question -

    Q: There’s a big ugly black bar around AWN! How do I get rid of it?
    A: You need to be running a compositor like Beryl or Compiz.

    6 Scott (renamed) 06.27.07 at 10:40 pm

    See, that’s the issue. I am running it. Let me show you.

    Before-
    http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/mrbungle821/Before-1.png

    After-
    http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y283/mrbungle821/After.png

    See, it still mess’s up. :( what can I do?

    7 Ross McKillop 06.27.07 at 11:01 pm

    Scott -

    Huh. OK well though I’m not sure it’s related, in fact I’m almost guessing it’s not - you can TRY the fixes outlined in this thread: http://www.planetblur.org/hosted/awnforum/index.php?shard=forum&action=g_reply&ID=302&page=1&isLive=true

    If that doesn’t work, I’d try asking in the Ubuntu forums @ http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=385981

    But before you do, make absolutely sure that you’re running the latest version of Beryl and AWN - that’s the first thing they’ll suggest.

    In other words, I have no idea :)

    Ross

    8 sr 06.28.07 at 6:18 am

    source: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=385981

    Q: There’s a big ugly black bar around AWN! How do I get rid of it?
    A: You need to be running a compositor like Beryl or Compiz.

    9 manatree 08.03.07 at 11:47 pm

    Great Tutorial! Just what I was looking for… too lazy to install from source…

    10 Rohit 08.04.07 at 5:09 am

    Thanks a bunch!

    11 Richard 10.04.07 at 7:48 pm

    Hey Scott, your running beryl-settings-manager, run beryl-manager, i can tell its not in the system tray, should fix the problem =)

    12 Chris 11.26.07 at 2:04 pm

    When I try to run the first line of “Install AWN” i get this:

    wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
    –16:59:22– http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg
    => `-’
    Resolving download.tuxfamily.org… 88.191.250.18
    Connecting to download.tuxfamily.org|88.191.250.18|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    16:59:23 ERROR 404: Not Found.

    13 XStylus 12.15.07 at 1:02 pm

    Try this instead, Chris.

    wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/F4ECF181.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

    14 Denis 03.25.08 at 9:02 am

    I’ve been looking for the past day or so on how to in stall AWN, finally I managed it, and now this extremely useful instruction to add launchers, thanks so much.

    15 Q 04.10.08 at 8:32 pm

    wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/F4ECF181.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -

    It didn’t work either, I got this error.

    –23:30:03– http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg
    => `-’
    Resolving download.tuxfamily.org… 88.191.250.18
    Connecting to download.tuxfamily.org|88.191.250.18|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    23:30:04 ERROR 404: Not Found.

    gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
    root@ma65p-laptop:/home/ma65p# wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/F4ECF181.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
    –23:31:09– http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/F4ECF181.gpg
    => `-’
    Resolving download.tuxfamily.org… 88.191.250.18
    Connecting to download.tuxfamily.org|88.191.250.18|:80… connected.
    HTTP request sent, awaiting response… 404 Not Found
    23:31:09 ERROR 404: Not Found.

    gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.
    -

    16 BlackoutAngel 06.29.08 at 10:32 pm

    everything but “sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-svn” and I already have “# sudo apt-get update” and “# sudo apt-get upgrade”… why is it not working?

    17 TeKKy 08.13.08 at 6:40 pm

    Hey, don’t forget that after you put the new repos in to: sudo apt-get update

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