What is AWN?
Avant Window Navigator (Awn) is a dock-like bar which sits at the bottom of the screen. It has support for launchers, task lists, and third party applets. The official applet and plugin repository is in a separate project, awn-extras

The Awn project is the development of the 'dock', avant-window-navigator, and its corresponding shared library 'libawn', which is used to develop applets.

In this article we will walk you through a quick install of AWN along with a basic configuration and AWN Applet support.




Enable video hardware drivers:

System -> Administration -> Hardware Drivers -> Check box video driver (if any)

Enable "Extra" Visual effects

System -> Preferences -> Apperance -> Visual Effects Tab -> Extra Radio Button

Install AWN:

Launch Terminal and type:

$ sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator

Run AWN:

Applications -> Accessories -> Avant Window Navigator

Configure AWN:

Right click on a icon on the AWN Dock and choose Dock Preferences

or

Launch Terminal and type:

$ awn-manager

Bar behaviour:

General tab -> Check off "Keep below maximized windows when not in use" and "Alert when application window updated"

Icon Effects:

General tab -> Icon Effects Dropdown -> Select Zoom

Show running apps:

Task Apperance -> Tasks have arrows

3D bar:

Bar Apperance -> Look -> 3D Look

Install AWN Applets:

Even though AWN Dock is part of the offical ubuntu repositories, Awn Extras unfortunately did not make it into either the official Gutsy or Hardy repositories. It did however make it into Ubuntu 8.10.

8.10 Users:

Launch Terminal and type:

$ sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-trunk awn-manager-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk

8.04 Users:

Add apt sources

System -> Administration -> Software Sources -> Password -> Third-Party Software -> Add

Put the following two repositories

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main

Close -> Reload

Launch Terminal and type:

$ sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-trunk awn-manager-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk

Add AWN Applets:

Right click on Dock -> Preferences

or

Terminal -> awn-manager

Select Applets

Add:

• Awn Main Menu


• Awn Notification Daemon (for system notices)


• Clock/Calandar Applet (we're removing the bar at the top with the time in it!)


• Digg (Because we all cant live without our precious tech news)


• File Browser Launcher (we're removing the bar at the top that has Places!)


• Last.fm (To configure, right click on icon and select Preferences)


• Notification Area (will be a white line for now, system tray is already in use by gnome-panel at the top)


• Quit-Logoff Applet (we're removing the logout/shutdown from the top!)


• Trash Applet (we're removing it from the bottom panel!)

Add apps to dock:

Applications -> Internet -> Drag Firefox to dock

Remove panels:

Right click bottom panel -> Delete this panel -> Confirm Delete

Right click top panel -> Note that "Delete this panel" is greyed out

System -> Preferences -> Sessions -> Current Sessions -> Remove Gnome Panel

Session Options -> CLOSE ALL OPEN APPS -> Remeber Currently Running Applications

Startup Programs -> Add -> avant-window-navigator -> Close -> REBOOT

Enjoy Avant Window Navigator Dock!