enigma9o7
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 3, 2020 1:01:24 GMT
Desktop with a couple terminals.
Menu, Settings Panel, Right-Maximized File Manager . Fully Maximized Browser
Note:
Time-string appears in the title of maximized (and right maximized) windows.
Maximized windows barely underlap the dock and start menu button. Elements from multiple Moksha themes - Custom Dock (no ibar or taskbar)
- Translucent terminal with prompt at bottom
- System Tray and Shelf consistent colors
Components
Base Theme: MokshaGreen borders: MokshaDetour (colors customized ) modules/calendar: MokshaArkGreen
modules/battery: MokshaKL4K modules/clock: MokshaBlueElectric modules/mixer: MokshaKL4K
modules/conf: MokshaMidnight modules/everything: MokshaGreen
modules/start: MokshaPassion modules/syscon: MokshaArkGreen
modules/temperature: MokshaBling
shelf: MokshaJapan
Application Theme: MokshaArkGreen (V2) (V3) Application Icons: Ubuntu-Mono-Dark (+ custom qbitorrent status icon) Elementary Theme: MokshaGreen Elementary Icons: MokshaArkGreen
plank: simple lightweight dock that acts as combined taskbar+launcher picom: compositor for better transparency and effects (use moksha-module-comptonmod) conky: system info text on desktop (can be heavily customized).
Packagesbodhi-theme-* moksha-module-* plank conky gpick mtpaint neofetch
This includes all Bodhi themes and Moksha mokdules, a color matching tool gpick, a simple paint program, neofetch for basic system info in the terminal, plank dock, and conky. Feel free to sudo apt install the entire list, or pick and chose after reading through this and deciding what you might be interested in.
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enigma9o7
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 3, 2020 1:11:51 GMT
Moksha ModulesLoad any modules you want on your shelves or desktop. For the purposes of this tutorial I will always identify where things can be found in the Settings Panel, which can be opened with single click if you put a settings module on a shelf, but all settings can also be opened additional ways including from the start menu or everything launcher.
Unload any modules you are not using to save resources; for example ibar, tasks, and pager. This is the advantage of modularity.
Under Look, load comptonmod for transparency and other graphical effects. If you don't like the included transparency settings then delete or edit enlightenment/modules/comptonmod/compton.conf from /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/ or /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu. (If you delete it, transparency will still work for Terminology, Conky, and Shelves.)
Utilities: Calendar, Clock, Forecasts, Screenshot, Shot, Start, Systray, TClock System: Battery, Mixer, Temperature Look: ComptonMod Core: Gadgets, Notification, Setings Panel, System Controls, Window Switcher
Setting Panel --> Extensions --> ModulesSettings Panel --> Extensions --> Shelves --> <select shelf> --> Contents
Bottom Corner Click to Show Desktop.
I find this convenient for quick access to the desktop (and conky). However, in a virtual machine I instead use the deskshow module as corner click does not work in a windowed VM.
Settings Panel --> Input --> Edge Bindings
Terminology
Right click for Settings. I use the black theme, and background translucently at 90% or higher (which requires compositing, so use comptonmod).
Scale factor of 1.3 or less or the icons get too big with the default font size. Be careful with this scale factor; the icon sizes in terminology stick, but it appears to change title and menu size, but those will revert to regular scale factor when Moksha is restarted.
Prompt at Bottom
2021 Update: This may cause problems. Not recommended. Looking for a better way to do this.
I always felt it was odd that a new bash terminal starts with the prompt at top until you execute some commands to fill up the screen. If you want it to start at the very bottom, add this to your ~/.bashrc file PS1='\[\e[$LINES;1H\]'$PS1 # prompt at bottom
This also means if I open a terminal there on the bottom, with another maximized app I will see the prompt and know its a terminal window with big place to click if i wanna open it qucikly..
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enigma9o7
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Posts: 1,499
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 3, 2020 2:59:56 GMT
Shelves
A total of eight shelves were used to complete this desktop, six of them invisible.
Settings Panel --> Extensions --> Shelves
Invisible shelves are sometimes are hard to edit, so after selecting a shelf as shown below, select Settings --> Style --> Default while you are moving or configuring modules, then back to Invisible before closing the dialog.
Tclock & Calendar Modules
The tclock allows custom time strings and text color, however it doesn't offer a calendar-on-click, so I keep a calendar module in the bottom right corner on an invisible shelf (which makes it a little bigger than if I left it on the shelf itself).
I sized tclock to be vertically centered on a maximized title bar and positioned to avoid the mix/max/close buttons, with the following time string:
%A %d %B %l:%M%P
To float above windows, I put the tclock module on an invisible shelf, above everything, allowing windows to overlap. In order to be able to move the tclock away from the edge, it cannot be set to shrink to content width. It needs to be almost twice as tall as the front size to avoid truncating day to dav, so shelf height of 28 was used for size 16 font.
The forecast and temperature modules sit on their own invisible shelf 16 pixels high which is above everything, while the everything everything starter on a 20 pixel high shelf in the corner below windows.
Start Button Always on Top
I know I can just click on the desktop for a menu - and with this layout that is quite easy, as there is usually open desktop along the bottom - but for some reason I like having a start menu button even tho it is not needed. This was placed similar to the floating tclock on an invisible shelf, above everything and allow windows to overlap, but this one shelf is set to shrink to content width.
Maximized windows slightly underlap the dock and start button.
I do not personally like auto-hiding taskbars or docks, I want my open applications to be right there easy to switch to all time, as I tend to use most apps maximized. So another invisible shelf, this one with nothing on it - it's only purpose is to keep maximized windows from using the bottom 28 pixels, as other shelves are set to allow windows to overlap.
Top Visible Shelf Under Everything
This shelf is mainly for looks and disappears behind windows, but does contain functional battery monitor and shutdown button. The everything launcher sits on an invisible shelf so it can be scaled one size larger without increasing the bar.
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enigma9o7
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Posts: 1,499
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 3, 2020 3:13:13 GMT
Moksha Theme Customization
Each element can be assigned to come from a different theme, so by switching thru the themes and locking in specific elements to my favorites, I settled on this:
Base theme: MokshaGreen
modules/calendar: MokshaArkGreen modules/battery: MokshaKL4K modules/clock: MokshaBlueElectric modules/mixer: MokshaKL4K modules/conf: MokshaMidnight modules/everything: MokshaGreen modules/start: MokshaPassion modules/syscon: MokshaArkGreen modules/temperature: MokshaBling shelf: MokshaJapan
Settings Panel --> Look --> Theme --> Advanced
The preview pane doesn't always show what I'm looking for, and I don't know where the names are documented, so I found the easiest way is trial and error with Settings --> Theme --> <selection> and watch what you are looking to change specifically. Once you know you want, then lock that particular element into desired theme. Some themes allow you to change the colors of elements, some do not, and you do not know until you try. Colors Customization - Window Border Frame & Title Text
After changing the window border to MokshaDetour, I added some green to Border Frame and Border Frame Active.
Settings Panel --> Look --> Colors
System Tray & Bottom ShelfThis clip is a similar alternative with shelf from the Moksha forum theme that I used previously with ark dark gtk theme and blue window border, but I've since gone green I considered floating the system tray and indicators on the top like the tclock, but the system tray does not allow placement on an invisible shelf, so could not be placed on top of maximized windows without blocking icon, title, or buttons. So instead of using 12-16 pixels along the top for another bar that was there even when app was maximized, I used available space on the bottom right for system tray. The icons themselves are set by the application theme, and the spacing between icons is controlled somewhat by scale factor but is usually very small. I wanted the system tray and shelf modules to all match each other and fit the overall theme, but not every icon was available in green or blue, but monochrome was available for everything except the forecast, temperature, or notification. I used another invisible shelf to place the forecast module and cpu temperature on top near the tclock, then put settings, mixer and snapshot modules on a visible shelf with the system tray.
The background color of transparent system tray icons seems to be controlled by the module/systray theme selection. MokshaGreen was the darkest background so I locked it in and set the shelf background color to match:
Settings Panel --> Look --> Colors --> Shelf Background Base --> Custom Colors
I then checked every theme for the other modules on my tray and locked in the ones I liked. I like that speaker turns red when muted. At this scale the only cpu temperature module that is readable is MokshaBling, and only the MokshaArkGreen calendar module had colors I liked but
as the date text was smaller when placed on the main visible shelf, and there was enough space on the right for another icon, I used another invisible shelf to hold the calendar. I have three icons that usually appear in the system tray: nm-applet (wifi), discord, and qbitorrent (sharing Bodhi ISOs of course). QB's default icon is blue, and web search told me the system tray icon is named qbittorrent-tray.svg. I downloaded a transparent qb png icon and used it to put qbitorrent-tray.png in the folder I found the original svg, and rename/delete the original svg (see first post for screenshot of the folder). I later used mtpaint to increase the canvas size (to create an invisible border to compensate for lack of icon spacing) and change the background color to match the other system tray icons. With the forum shelf at size of 20 I found I had to set the systray spacing to 11 - any lower and systray icons would get partially clipped, and larger increases spacing to the right and left of the systray, but with shelf size of 16, a spacing value of 6 was sufficient to prevent any clipping. On the MokshaJapan shelf at size 16, 0 actually works.
Settings Panel --> Advanced --> Environment Variables Scale Factor1.4-1.6 seems to be the right balance for scale factor for me in most cases on my 17" 1920x1080 laptop. Anything smaller and the start menu gets too small, anything bigger and fonts get too big. Different themes have different size start menu and default fonts and your eyes, resolution and screen size play into this preference too. 1.6 Made the menu text bold which I liked.
Settings Panel --> Look --> Scaling --> Advanced
Application Theme & Icons
If I chose to match MokshaGreen theme, some apps including pcmanfm and firefox are affected. pcmanfm would have bold white text on black which I do not find appealing and a bright green highlight. I particularly looked at firefox and pcmanfm, two of my most regularly used programs so obviously important, and decided to go with MokshaArkGreen. There are lots of other GTK themes available online too and probably tools for customizing them, but I didn't look further, maybe that'll be my next step, as I would like a darker background for pcmanfm similar to MokshaGreen.
Settings Panel --> Look --> Application Theme
For the start menu, window border, and dock, I wanted colorful icons, but I'm not especially picky. I used Ubuntu Mono Dark because it was included with Bodhi and seems fine to me, as do a couple other included sets. However, there are plenty of places online to get icon sets and individual icons etc if you want to customize further; I just mainly wanted colorful instead of the flat defaults offered with most bodhi themes. Removing the "Enable Icon Theme for Moksha" keeps the shutdown menu icons green; enabling icon theme for applications make the start menu applications entries have icons instead of nothing.
Settings Panel --> Look --> Application Theme --> Icons
Elementary Theme & Icons
Elementary configuration affects Terminology and Ephoto. I have the Elementary theme set to MokshaGreen and icons set to MokshaArkGreen. Changing Moksha themes affects this so it may need to be done each time you make other changes. Additionally it seems you can end up having more than one Elementary Theme selected, so before selecting your theme, unselect any themes that are already selected or you may get unexpected results. (Remember this if you get a weird right click menu in ephoto!). The elementary scale factor affects size of icons in terminology/ephoto, and also appears to change the font size of the window title but that will get reverted to the primary scale after when Moksha restarts. If you change your elementary scale factor, restart Moksha or re-apply your regauar scale factor afterwards to see the true effects of your change.
Settings Panel --> Preferences --> Elementary Configuration --> Theme
Notifications
I like the instantly appearing black background notifications that come with MokshaGreen, but find on the top (left or right) they often block access to buttons I want to use, and bottom left blocks where I may be typing. Ideally I'd put them right center but the next best thing is right bottom. and works well enough. I increased the time, although wouldn't mind an extra option to click anywhere to dismiss, not just the corner, for the rare occasion they are in my way. Settings Panel --> Extensions --> Notification Wallpaper
I found it online, liked the colors, thought the moon looks like a Bodhi leaf, so made it my Wallpaper.
Settings Panel --> Look --> Wallpaper --> Personal
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enigma9o7
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Posts: 1,499
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 3, 2020 3:13:25 GMT
Plank Dock
I've used traditional taskbar (small icon and abreviated title text for every window, like win95-xp and moksha default) for a long time. When Microsoft changed their default in Windows 7, I set it back like XP on every computer I used. But I decided its time to try the graphical version and am actually liking it, but want to keep the benefits of a traditional taskbar - quick access to open programs with single click along the bottom. I would prefer to use something included with Bodhi, but nothing works quite the way I want it to. For example ibar doesn't show open applications (whether its on desktop, on shelf, or or engage dock) so requires a taskbar in addition for each switching between open apps. The taskbar offered for the shelf/engage does not allow pinning things that aren't running so requires ibar in addition for easy launching. I saw in Bodhi 6 e24 preview that their ibar does have an option to show open applications, which is a one option I'd like and certainly an improvement. However, I do not like e24 ibar method of switching apps, if you click on icon it opens new copy. To switch to an existing one you have to hover over popup graphical effects which is a bit award for me. Plank will instead immediately switch to an already open window, and only opens a new one with middle click (or if it isn't open yet) without unnecessary graphical effects. I also disable the icon zoom thing; fortunately both plank and engage offer that option already. I don't mind it pretty but still want it quick and effective and those type animations don't seem to make anything easier to me, just look cool to play with, but more often I wanna switch apps than play with my icons zooming! Personal preference of course.
For plank settings, hold the Ctrl key when you right click on any dock icon.
good: allows pinning applications - icon stays in dock even when app closed good: click icon switches to open window if already open, or opens if not open. good: middle click icon opens second copy of same program (useful for terminal etc). good: colored dot indicatees program is open good: two colored dots indicate more than one copy of program is open
bad: click icon doesn't minimize app (like taskbar and some other docks) bug: right click/close doesn't work (dunno why, it shows the option) To start the plank dock once, Start --> Applications --> Accessories --> Plank (or win+space plank). To make it start automatically with Moksha, add it to startup programs.
Settings Panel --> Apps --> Startup Applications --> Applications
A cool idea if anyone knows how to modify Moksha modules would be to add options to the launcher in the engage module for the features I marked as good from plank. I'd switch in a heartbeat, the default theme fits the style I like perfectly.... And that would hopefully give me back Moksha's right click menu which works well on default taskbar. Conky
This is my ~/.conkyrc file, which puts text and status bars on the desktop. I adjusted the gap to put it directly under the tclock text and used the same color text as the gtk theme, which also allows room for an analog clock gadget in the top right corner.
conky.config = { background = true, gap_x = 130, gap_y = 5, own_window = true, own_window_class = 'override', own_window_type = 'normal', own_window_transparent = true, own_window_hints = 'undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager', own_window_argb_visual = true, own_window_argb_value = 0, update_interval = 3.0, use_spacer = 'right', top_name_width = 16, double_buffer = true, alignment = 'top_right', use_xft = true, draw_shades = false, }
conky.text = [[$color${color CCFFFF}${font mono:size=8} DiskIO: $diskio Free: $fs_free ${diskiograph 000000 597DB2} Read: $diskio_read Write: $diskio_write CPU: ${acpitemp}°C ${cpu cpu0} % ${cpubar} ${cpugraph 000000 597DB2} RAM: $memperc% $mem Free: ${memfree} ${memgraph 000000 597DB2} Swap: $swapperc% $swap${swapbar 6} CPU% MEM% ${top_mem name 1}${top_mem cpu 1} ${top_mem mem 1} ${top_mem name 2}${top_mem cpu 2} ${top_mem mem 2} ${top_mem name 3}${top_mem cpu 3} ${top_mem mem 3} ${top_mem name 4}${top_mem cpu 4} ${top_mem mem 4} ${top_mem name 5}${top_mem cpu 5} ${top_mem mem 5} ${top_mem name 6}${top_mem cpu 6} ${top_mem mem 6} ${top_mem name 7}${top_mem cpu 7} ${top_mem mem 7} ${top_mem name 8}${top_mem cpu 8} ${top_mem mem 8} ${top_mem name 9}${top_mem cpu 9} ${top_mem mem 9} ${top_mem name 10}${top_mem cpu 10} ${top_mem mem 10}$color ]] Other Related Info: www.bodhilinux.com/w/conky-full-guide/
To autostart it without creating a desktop file, you can add the following command to .e/e/applications/startup/startupcommands:
sleep 6;conky --daemonize
I have the six seconds sleep to ensure Moksha has time to load comptonmod before conky appears.
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 4, 2020 8:55:21 GMT
Dec 2, 2020 17:01:24 GMT -8 enigma9o7 said: This is my current desktop.
Dec 2, 2020 23:14:14 GMT -8 fidoedidoe said: Nice write-up! With your permission I'll include this in the wiki, as it's a great advert for what's possible with regards to customisation / personalisation. I'll use verbiage / screenshots as seen, and will credit you and link back to this post for others to follow / comment. Dec 3, 2020 00:21:24 GMT -8 enigma9o7 said: Thanks, and yep that sounds great, but give me a week or so to keep editing and adding before you start converting it to wiki.
I ran out of placeholder posts tho, I thought I had left a few more.... I deleted the above post to maintain flow... sorry... wish we could put more than 3 pics in one post.... thought I'd put plenty of placeholder posts yesterday tho but they disappeared......
Yikes, that's my bad. I didn't realise what you meant and deleted them thinking they were duplicate posts. Sorry buddy. I'll see if I can move stuff around or sort something else to make it flow better when I get a few minutes. Or feel free to see if you can do that as you have full permission on the forum. Sorry buddy! :/
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wimc
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Post by wimc on Dec 4, 2020 13:45:42 GMT
Thumbs up for everything so far.
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enigma9o7
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Posts: 1,499
Likes: 1,380
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Post by enigma9o7 on Dec 5, 2020 16:43:07 GMT
Dec 2, 2020 17:01:24 GMT -8 enigma9o7 said: This is my current desktop.
Dec 2, 2020 23:14:14 GMT -8 fidoedidoe said: Nice write-up! With your permission I'll include this in the wiki, as it's a great advert for what's possible with regards to customisation / personalisation. I'll use verbiage / screenshots as seen, and will credit you and link back to this post for others to follow / comment. Dec 3, 2020 00:21:24 GMT -8 enigma9o7 said: Thanks, and yep that sounds great, but give me a week or so to keep editing and adding before you start converting it to wiki.
I ran out of placeholder posts tho, I thought I had left a few more.... I deleted the above post to maintain flow... sorry... wish we could put more than 3 pics in one post.... thought I'd put plenty of placeholder posts yesterday tho but they disappeared......
Yikes, that's my bad. I didn't realise what you meant and deleted them thinking they were duplicate posts. Sorry buddy. I'll see if I can move stuff around or sort something else to make it flow better when I get a few minutes. Or feel free to see if you can do that as you have full permission on the forum. Sorry buddy! :/
I did look at the moderator options, but no insert post or reoder options. I saw I could delete peoples posts (which I did delete one) , or I could move posts to another thread, but it always puts them in date order, and I didnt see a way to edit the date of a post. No big deal. I think you understand what I was trying to do now. I jknew I wanted to add more, including more pictures, and since we cannot add more than three pictures to an existing post I knew I couldnt edit the original ones, so I put a few extras there to edit later before people replied.
I realized now I could use ephoto's imgur option to upload pictures elsewhere probably, so that means I can add more pictures to earlier posts in fact. I'm still editing, updating, adding, and tidying up and will probably keep doing that for a week. Yesterday I updated the original pictures because in the past couple days since I started the watier fixed an old bug (that didnt really bother me) in the moksha green menu, but I figured I better update to show that! I've also discovered that the moksha moonlight config module is broken which is the one I have pictured, so am crossing fingers maybe that gets fixed shortly so I can update the description back to MokshaMoonlight instead of changing the photo to MokshaRadiance, as i like that icon better than the radiance one, but the radiance one fits the theme and is actually functional. I decided the one I was using before was too dark.
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 5, 2020 18:36:44 GMT
Would people mind if I delete the posts in between the tutorial posts for the sake of continuity?
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Post by majpooper on Dec 5, 2020 19:51:26 GMT
Excellent idea - maybe lock it except for the author if that is possible. It will make a nice How To thread. We can always start a new thread for moksha customization comments and questions. So I say do it.
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Post by fidoedidoe on Dec 5, 2020 20:41:27 GMT
Would people mind if I delete the posts in between the tutorial posts for the sake of continuity? Nope... go for it!
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wimc
Moderator
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Post by wimc on Dec 5, 2020 21:36:24 GMT
Would people mind if I delete the posts in between the tutorial posts for the sake of continuity?
Another, go for it.
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 5, 2020 21:57:42 GMT
Done. thanks everyone.
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Post by archaem on Dec 7, 2020 3:40:56 GMT
enigma9o7: Thank you for sharing your tutorial on customizing Bodhi! It was a pleasure to read through the instructions you've shared regarding various methods for modifying the appearance of the graphical user interface. Cheers!
Hippytaff: Great idea sharing enigma's tutorial on the Bodhi wiki. The tutorial is not only informative and beneficial users, it also provides more content to the website itself thereby enhancing the knowledge base.
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Post by Hippytaff on Dec 7, 2020 8:09:17 GMT
It’s Fido that’s in charge of the wiki, but I agree it’s a great idea.
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