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tint2
tint2
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FAQ

If your problem is not listed here, please try searching the issue tracker and if you still did not find your problem, create a new issue.

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 ?

  • The 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 (S must be present in panel_items)
  • Only one systray can run at a time. To see if another systray is running, start tint2 in a terminal and look for the message another systray is running.
    • 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 changing monitor resolution). Some applications do not implement reloading the systray icon so it disappear from the systray. This is a bug in those applications, and you should report it to us and to the developers of the misbehaving applications.

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 remove S from panel_items in your tint2rc.

Why is there a margin (empty space) around tint2?

How to configure real transparency for xcompmgr

  • Tint2 autodetects your compositing manager and uses real transparency when possible. However, some versions of xcompmgr have 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 shadows on Tint2

  • Run ccsm (CompizConfig Settings Manager). 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 (chmod +x /usr/bin/show_desktop.sh).
Install the package wmctrl.
Add an option to call the script in tint2rc:

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: 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. With this you can see on which desktop an application is and which desktops are empty (or full). You can also close an application whithout switching to the desktop, or 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 is now used when reading 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 the ordering of tint2 and other windows with:
panel_layer = bottom/normal/top
strut_policy = follow_size/minimum/none
autohide_height = integer
panel_dock = 0/1
  • 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

Taskbar activated application on different desktop does not receive focus on Openbox

See http://openbox.org/wiki/Configuration#Focus This behaviour is due to the tag in the openbox rc.xml config file, which tells whether to focus the last active window on the selected desktop. Setting "no" in rc.xml should solve the issue.

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 ;)