Ubuntu – How to customize on-screen notifications

notificationnotify-osd

There was a tool to configure notifications in earlier versions of Ubuntu as described here. I tried to install it in Ubuntu 12.04 too but I failed.

I want to have the notifications dynamically located (e.g. notifications for music player and volume control will be shown at the same place) and to reduce the notification duration.

How do I change settings of notifications?

Best Answer

There is no official way of modifying the notifications, but many changes can be made to the notifications bubbles by installing a 3rd party patch which allows various changes to be made. More details are available here: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/06/closable-movable-notifyosd.html

To install:

Open a terminal window and enter these commands one by one:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:leolik/leolik 
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install libnotify-bin
pkill notify-osd

This installs a patched version of the notify-osd package. Then you will need to install the GUI configuration tool, to do this enter these commands one by one into a terminal window:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install notifyosdconfig

To use the congfiguration tool type "notify" into the dash and launch the NotifyOSD Configuration application.

enter image description here

Modifying the Notifications

  • From this application you can change the colour of the notifications by clicking on the Background Colour box (in the picture below I've turned it a horrible green!).
  • To change the length of time the notifications appear on screen adjust the value in the Timeout box

enter image description here

The tool also includes other customisations including:

  • Change font, opacity, size, corner radius
  • Disable fade out
  • Close the notifications on click
  • Enable/disable "use Dash background colour for the notification bubbles"

Changing the position

To change the location that the notification appears you need to open a terminal and enter the following:

gsettings set com.canonical.notify-osd gravity #

the # in the above code should be replaced by a number between 1-6 depending on where you want the notification to appear (3 doesn't seem to work for me though):

1 - top-right corner
2 - middle-right
3 - bottom-right corner
4 - bottom-left corner
5 - middle-left
6 - top-left corner

enter image description here

  • In the Position drop down box you can choose from Fixed and Dynamic, dynamic gets rid of the gap between the notification bubble and the top dash
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