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.
- 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
- 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-navigatorand then save the file and close gedit.
Back in the Terminal, enter the following five lines, one at a time:
- wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/8434D43A.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
- rm 8434D43A.gpg
- sudo apt-get update
- sudo apt-get upgrade
- sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-svn
- On your keyboard, hold down the alt key and hit F2. Enter avant-window-navigator and click Run.
- A small box will appear at the bottom of your screen. This is Awn, with no apps running.
- With the Startup Programs tab selected, click the New button.
- Enter Awn as the name and avant-window-navigator in the Command field.
- Make sure that the new entry has been created, then click Close. The next time you start Ubuntu, Awn will start with it.


To have Awn start each time Ubuntu boots, select System -> Preferences -> Sessions.

- Select the program from the Applications menu by clicking and holding the mouse button down, then drag it to the dock and release.
- Right-click a blank area of the Awn launcher and choose Preferences
- From here you can modify all of the Awn settings.




























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Hello!
May I translate this tutorial in italian? I’ll quote you as source, of course
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
how to add plugins? is it as simple as moving the .so file to ~/.awn/plugins
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?
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.
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?
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
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.
Great Tutorial! Just what I was looking for… too lazy to install from source…
Thanks a bunch!
Hey Scott, your running beryl-settings-manager, run beryl-manager, i can tell its not in the system tray, should fix the problem =)
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.
Try this instead, Chris.
wget http://download.tuxfamily.org/syzygy42/F4ECF181.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
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.
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.
-
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?
Hey, don’t forget that after you put the new repos in to: sudo apt-get update
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