How to get back a "GNOME 2 look and feel" in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot

1. Install "GNOME Classic" session

sudo apt-get install gnome-session-fallback

You now get the possibility to choose the "GNOME Classic" session when you log in, but there are some problems with this session:

• The top panel's height and its icons are too large
• The panel background is inconsistent

GNOME Classic:

With the fixes below:

After turning sound and bluetooth off and on again:

The fixes also work for the Radiance theme:

2. Reduce the size of the icons to 16 pixels

This will also reduce the height of the top panel from 30 to 24 pixels.

2a. Create folder for config files:

mkdir ~/.config/gtk-3.0

2b. Create or edit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini and add this:

[Settings]
gtk-icon-sizes = panel-menu=16,16:gtk-large-toolbar=16,16

3. Fix the panel background

Note: Instead of the following solution, the background can also be fixed by using:
(Win-)Alt-rightclick on panel -> Properties -> Background -> Solid color

3a. Create or edit ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css and add this:

/* Fallback Mode Panel */
/* Fix background color (needed in Ubuntu 11.10 Oneiric Ocelot). */
/* Based on /usr/share/themes/Ambiance/gtk-3.0/apps/gnome-panel.css. */

PanelWidget,
PanelApplet,
PanelToplevel {
    background-color: @dark_bg_color;
    background-image: none;
}

.gnome-panel-menu-bar,
PanelApplet > GtkMenuBar.menubar,
PanelApplet > GtkMenuBar.menubar.menuitem,
PanelMenuBar.menubar,
PanelMenuBar.menubar.menuitem {
    background-color: @dark_bg_color;
    background-image: none;
}

PanelAppletFrame {
    background-color: @dark_bg_color;
    background-image: none;
}

At this point, you should log out and in again using the "GNOME Classic" session in order to see the changes.

4. Further panel configuration

Use (Win-)Alt-middleclick-drag and (Win-)Alt-rightclick to configure the panel further.

Note that the panel items snap to the left/center/right of the panel, so they might need to be dragged some distance before they move at all.

Launchers can easily be added by dragging items directly from the Applications menu to the panel.

5. Fix icon spacing

There seems to be a bug which causes excessive spacing between the icons in the notification area tray:

An easy fix is to change the icons back and forth, e.g. muting/unmuting the sound and disabling/enabling bluetooth. This solution is unfortunately only temporary and must be performed again after each login.

Final remarks

Make a note for future reference that you just added two config files in:

~/.config/gtk-3.0/

This is nice to know in case the config files mess things up with later Ubuntu releases and need to be removed again.

Results

Before:

After:

See also

• How to revert to GNOME Classic Desktop?

With a dirty workaround, it can be done quite well. Using xdotool, you can make it move the mouse to the position of the Applications menu, open it and automatically move back to its original position.

Since all happens very quickly and the mouse is moved back to its original position, you won't notice it.

The script assumes your Applications menu is in the upper left corner, like in the image above. If that is not the case, the coordinates in cmd1 have to be altered.

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import time

cursordata = subprocess.check_output(["xdotool", "getmouselocation"]).decode("utf-8").split()
loc = [d.split(":")[1] for d in cursordata[:2]]
cmd1 = "xdotool mousemove 10 5"; cmd2 = "xdotool click 1"; cmd3 = "xdotool mousemove "+(" ").join(loc)
for cmd in [cmd1, cmd2, cmd3]:
    subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd])
    time.sleep(0.05)

In detail:

fetch the current mouse position:

cursordata = subprocess.check_output(["xdotool", "getmouselocation"]).decode("utf-8").split()

Parse the output (x/y) into coordinates:

loc = [d.split(":")[1] for d in cursordata[:2]]

Run the commands [cmd1, cmd2, cmd3] to subsequently:

• move the mouse to the Applications menu
• click
• move the mouse back to wherever it was

for cmd in [cmd1, cmd2, cmd3]:
    subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd])
    time.sleep(0.05)

How to use the script

1. Install xdotool:

   sudo apt-get install xdotool
   

2. Paste the script into an empty file, save it as open_appmenu.py

3. Test-run it with the command:

   python3 /path/to/open_appmenu.py
   

4. If all works well, add it to a shortcut key: choose: System Settings > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts". Click the "+" and add the command:

   python3 /path/to/open_appmenu.py
   

Move to the other items

Once you opened the Applications menu, you can simply switch to the next item with the arrow keys.

Edit: generalized version

Below a version of the script that can be used in a flexible way, to click on the screen on any position, to be changed easily. The script can be run with two options:

1. to set (remember) the current mouse location:

   run_click -set
   

2. to click on the last-remembered position:

   run_click -run
   

If no position was set, a zenity message appears, inviting to set a position:

The script creates a hidden file; ~/.run_click where it stores the latest remembered coordinates.

As a test, I put both commands under the key combinations: Ctrl+Alt+R, and Ctrl+Alt+A, making it easy to change the click position on the spot.

How to set up

1. like in the first script, Install xdotool:

   sudo apt-get install xdotool
   

2. copy the script below into an empty file, save it as run_click (no extension) in ~/bin (create the directory if necessary) and make the script executable.

3. If you just created ~/bin, run source ~/.profile.
4. Test both commands, first run_click -set, then run_click -run to see if all works as expected.
5. Add both commands to two different key combinations: choose: System Settings > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts" > "Custom Shortcuts". Click the "+" and add the commands.

The script

#!/usr/bin/env python3
import subprocess
import time
import sys
import os

option = sys.argv[1]
datafile = os.path.join(os.environ["HOME"], ".run_click")

def get_mousepos():
    cursordata = subprocess.check_output(["xdotool", "getmouselocation"]).decode("utf-8").split()
    return [d.split(":")[1] for d in cursordata[:2]]

if option == "-run":
    try:
        data = open(datafile).read()
        coords = (" ").join([l for l in data.splitlines()])
    except FileNotFoundError:
        message = "Please run the command: 'run_click -set' first, to set the click position"
        subprocess.Popen(["zenity", "--info", "--text", message])
    else:
        cmd1 = "xdotool mousemove "+coords; cmd2 = "xdotool click 1"; cmd3 = "xdotool mousemove "+(" ").join(get_mousepos())
        for cmd in [cmd1, cmd2, cmd3]:
            subprocess.Popen(["/bin/bash", "-c", cmd])
            time.sleep(0.05)
elif option == "-set":
    open(datafile, "wt").write(("\n").join(get_mousepos()))