CairoDock launch bar

Introduction

Cairo-Dock is an animated application launch bar for the desktop, comparable to the dock in Mac OS X or Rocket Dock (for Windows). Now, you can use Cairo-Dock withOpenGL (to use your graphic card!). You can find some screenshots here.

Since Cairo-Dock 2.4 (by default on Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric), it's possible to launch a Cairo-Dock session: it will launch a Gnome session with Compiz (or Metacity) without any panel/dash except Cairo-Dock. But Cairo-Dock is compatible with most WMs (Compiz-Fusion, Beryl, Compiz, Metacity, Kwin, etc.), most environments (Gnome, XFCE, LXDE, KDE, etc.), most sessions/panels/dashes (Unity, Gnome-Shell, XFCE panel, LXDE panel, KDE panel, etc.). It's better with a composite manager (if your WM doesn't support the compositing -- e.g. if you're a black/non transparent background -- simply install Compton or Xcompmgr), but it can also use fake transparency.

This page only describes how to install Cairo-Dock and some basic usage instructions. If you want to know more about configuration and themes you should go to the Cairo-Dock website, its wiki and read this tutorial. The site is in French and in English, the wiki has a complete English section and don't be afraid to ask questions or report bugs in the forum.

Installation

The project is split into two parts: the dock itself and the plug-ins. Only the installation of the dock is explained, but installing the plug-ins is the same, just make sure you install the plug-ins after the dock.

The config file will not be overwritten during updates as Cairo-Dock is capable of inserting the missing fields if any without losing your previous settings.

Please note that, although Cairo-Dock is listed in the Universe repository since Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) and can be installed using Synaptic Package Manager, but it is recommended to install Cairo-Dock using one of the methods described below to get the most up-to-date and stable version of Cairo-Dock.

From the Repository/PPA (Stable)

Cairo-Dock devs maintain their own repository and a PPA for all supported versions of Ubuntu.

PPA

Simply launch these commands from a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/ppa
sudo apt-get update

If Cairo-Dock is already installed, install the updates by using the Update Manager or this command:

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

If not, install it via the Software Center or via this command:

sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins

Cairo-Dock repository

To add the Cairo-Dock repository to your sources simply launch these commands from a terminal:

sudo -v

echo "deb http://download.tuxfamily.org/glxdock/repository/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) cairo-dock ## Cairo-Dock-Stable" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
wget -q http://download.tuxfamily.org/glxdock/repository/cairo-dock.gpg -O- | sudo apt-key add -
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install cairo-dock cairo-dock-plug-ins # OR if it's already installed => # sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Development version: PPA (can be unstable)

A PPA is regularly updated. You can add it and install the latest version of Cairo-Dock with these commands launched from a terminal:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:cairo-dock-team/weekly
sudo apt-get update >/dev/null
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Development version: Compilation (can be unstable)

A script has been written to compile the BZR version of Cairo-Dock easily. So, you just have to create a directory where the script will be installed in, download the script and launch it:

Open a terminal, and create a new directory:

mkdir /cairo-dock_bzr
cd /cairo-dock_bzr

Then get the script, make it executable and launch it:

wget http://bzr.glx-dock.org/cairo-dock_bzr.sh
chmod u+x cairo-dock_bzr.sh
./cairo-dock_bzr.sh

Simply follow the instructions (in English)

To finish, enter your own password when prompted by the script in order to proceed with to the installation.