gDesklets and transparency

[code_astronomer]

I've been looking around trying to find out how to get the transparency working with gDesklets, but can't find anything that actually helps.

Has anyone got the transparency working with FC4? Please could you give me some help/advice on how to get mine working?

Thank you

[tronic]

I'm not sure I completely follow what your trying to do.

gDesklets provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets -- tiny displays sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness.

can you be more specific.

[code_astronomer]

Basically, the translucency doesnt work. I have it checked in the gDesklets configuration options. I don't know what else I'm supposed to do. I followed some tutorial, but it didn't make a bit of distance.

I'm just trying to get the backgrounds to be transparent rather than solid black. I have seen screenshots of other users using it and apparently you have to have a certain version of xorg which is (apparently) fine if you have FC4 (which I do).
I don't know what else I would need to do to get them working with the transparency.

[tronic]

ok, well i personally never have had to configure gdesklets or anything to get it to work. I think and I'm no expert but python2 is what is needed to make transparent appets work. Try installing that or reinstalling gdesklets. How did you install gdesklets?

[code_astronomer]

I have python 2.4 installed.
I installed using an RPM. I will try uninstalling it and reinstalling and see if it makes a difference.
I believe there is a fedora extras rpm. I think I installed using one from somewhere else, so perhaps thats the problem.

I'll try it out and see what happens.

[tronic]

i allways us yum install gdesklets

[code_astronomer]

I uninstalled it and reintalled using yum...but it still has a solid black background.
I even deleted the .gdesklets folder before reinstalling.
Very annoying.

[tronic]

which applet are you trying to use

[code_astronomer]

I tried, tuxclocks, another clock applet, weather applets (goodweather and iweather), countdown...I've tried a lot, but cant get them without a black background. I have seen screenshots of the applets before I download them, so I know that some of them (at least) should have translucent backgrounds instead of pure black.

[tronic]

I have had this problem but I think just reinstalled gdesklets. what video card do you have? if so is it the default driver that came with the install of FC4? if so you may need the acutual driver

[code_astronomer]

I have an nvidia geforce fx 5200. I installed the nvidia driver a while ago because my 3D stuff was incredibly slow.
Could that cause the problem with gdesklets?
I did read somewhere about editing the xorg.conf file but when I tried it, it made no difference.

[tronic]

I'm at a lost of things to try, if someone else looking at this thread sees a solution by all means. Heres the requirements, make sure you have all these installed. Sorry i can't find a solution, but i will keep trying.

Requirements

- Python 2.3 or higher
- pygtk 2.4.0 or higher
- libgtop 2.8.0 or higher
- librsvg
- GConf
- gnome-python 2.6.0 or higher
- GConf support for gnome-python (only for versions <= 0.34.3) (extra package gnome-python2-gconf on Redhat Linux)
- some applets may have extra requirements

[tronic]

you might considor trying adesklets

http://adesklets.sourceforge.net/

[code_astronomer]

Thank you for trying to help me sort this out. I really appreciate it

I'm still very much a noob with linux, so I could be thinking I have what I need when I dont...
I have checked for the requirements. My results are: (using locate to find most of them - this could be the wrong way to go about finding them)

* python -V : returns Python 2.4.1
* I can't get a version with pygtk, but 'locate pygtk' shows the folders...for example /usr/share/2.0
* locate libgtop returns things like /usr/lib/libgtop-2.0.so.5
* locate librsvg returns a load of dirs and the following looks interesting:
/usr/lib/librsvg-2.a
/usr/lib/librsvg-2.so
/usr/lib/librsvg-2.so.2
/usr/lib/librsvg-2.so.2.9.5

* locate gconf returns a hell of a lot!
and locate gnome-python returns a load of folders.

[tronic]

ok, here yah go, on the gdesklets notification icon on the task bar right click it and enable transluncey. that should fix it.