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tint2 - FAQ.wiki

Frequently asked questions. Please add any extra tips to the comments.

What is tint2?

  • Tint2 is a panel/taskbar for modern X window managers like GNOME, KDE, XFCE, Openbox etc.

Who is the developer of tint2 ?

  • Main developers of tint2 are Thierry Lorthiois and Andreas Fink.

tint2 does not show the systray/notification area

  • Check your tint2rc to see if you have the systray enabled (systray = 1 in tint2 0.11 or 'S' in panel_items in SVN ONLY)
  • Only one systray can run at a time. Run tint2 in a terminal. If you see 'tint2 : another systray is running', you have another systray running and tint2 cannot display its own.
    • Under Gnome 2, you can remove the Gnome systray with a right click on the separator before your systray in the panel -> remove.

Why did some systray icons disappear from the panel?

  • tint2 stops/restarts the systray on some events (such as switching the theme, or changing monitor resolution). Some systray icons do not implement the stop/restart of the systray and so disappear from the panel. You should report the problem to us and also to the developers of the applications that misbehave.

Why don't some systray icons appear when you run tint2 in a KDE session?

  • Some KDE applications use the KDE status notifier service to show system tray icons. If you disable this service (systemsettings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Service Manager -> uncheck "Status Notifier Manager") all the icons should appear normally in tint2.

I want to disable the tint2 systray

  • To disable the systray, just use systray = 0 in your tint2rc.

How to configure real transparency for xcompmgr

  • tint2 autodetects your compositing manager and uses real transparency when possible. However, xcompmgr has a bug which prevents tint2 from detecting it.
  • If you want transparency with xcompmgr, download and apply to xcompmgr the patch from this bug report: xcompmgr patch

Tint2 does not work on compiz correctly?

I want to disable compiz shadow on Tint2

  • Run ccsm the compiz configuration tool. Go to Window Decorations. For both decoration and shadow windows, replace 'any' with 'any & !name=tint2'.

Adding a 'show desktop' button

  • tint2 does not implement a 'show desktop' button. But here is a way to get it.
    Create a file with following text
#!/bin/sh

if wmctrl -m | grep "mode: ON"; then

exec wmctrl -k off

else

exec wmctrl -k on

fi

Save it in /usr/bin/show_desktop.sh and make it executable.
Install the package 'wmctrl'. And call the script in tint2rc config file.

time1_format = %H:%M

time1_font = sans 8

time2_format = %A %d %B

time2_font = sans 6

clock_font_color = #ffffff 76

clock_padding = 4 4

clock_background_id = 0

clock_lclick_command = show_desktop.sh

Then left click on the clock will do it.

Alternative (SVN ONLY): create a .desktop file with the above command and add it to the launcher.

Task list is limited

  • In your tint2rc file, check the value of taskbar_mode. If it is multi_desktop, tint2 shows multiple taskbars, one per desktop. Change the value to single_desktop if you want just one taskbar.

How can I get 'pager like capability' ?

  • In your tint2rc file, change the value of taskbar_mode to multi_desktop. This option will show one taskbar per desktop. So you can detect on which desktop an application is and which desktops are empty (or full). You can close an application whithout switching to the desktop. You can also drag and drop applications between desktops.

I want to hide some tasks from the panel

  • In the Openbox config file 'rc.xml' you can assign the property 'skip_taskbar' to your window.

The tint2 panel is blank

  • A new option, called panel_items has been added to the config file. This option defines the items tint2 will show and the order of those items(from left to right). Please define that in your tint2rc file. The format is shown below. The options are L for Launcher, S for the Systray, T for the taskbar, C for the clock and B for the battery. panel_items = LTSBC

How to maximize windows over tint2

  • You can manage interaction between tint2 and windows with : panel_layer = bottom/normal/top strut_policy = follow_size/minimum/none autohide_height = integer

If you want maximized windows to never cover tint2: panel_layer = top strut_policy = follow_size If you want maximized windows to appear behind tint2: panel_layer = top strut_policy = none If you want maximized windows to appear behind tint2, but have 2 pixels free so you can use desktop action (right click, ...): panel_layer = top strut_policy = minimum autohide_height = 2

I get errors when I try to compile tint2 on my own

  • Do you have all the dependencies installed? Please check here

I upgraded from tint to tint2 and I still have the old panel with its bugs

  • The tint binary was renamed tint2 to avoid a conflict with another package. So your new tint2 startup command is tint2

Tint2 doesn't show in Pekwm

  • The problem is that pekwm defines by default edge borders, and does not allow a panel to get inside these edge borders. The config option is in ~/.pekwm/config under Screen/EdgeSize. You can either disable the edge borders or set tint2 to a size where it does not enter these borders (i.e. play with panel_size and panel_margin).
  • Setting the margin to one pixel made it appear on my screen. With horizontal panel: panel_size = 95% height panel_margin = 0 1
  • With vertical panel: panel_size = width 95% panel_margin = 1 0

Is there an IRC channel?

  • Yes. There is now an irc channel, #tint2 on irc.freenode.net.
  • Just ask your question and stay there, because we are not always watching the channel ;)