So in this article I am going to show you how to install the Pandora Screenlet so you can stream pandora radio to your Linux desktop. I will warn you, however, that the Pandora Screenlet is very much in beta (currently in release 0.1.01), so you use it at your own risk. But don’t worry, using a beta version of Pandora Screenlet will not steal your soul or your data. It might act a bit buggy at times though. You’ve been warned.

Prior to installation

You don’t have to take this step, but I find the whole Pandora experience much better if you sign up for an account. This way your stations can be saved so you don’t always have to search for your favorite type of music.  You will also have to have the Screenlets tool installed (covered in the article mentioned above). With that installed you will find the ~/.screenlets directory. This is where your downloaded Screenlets are stored.

Installation

The first step is to download the Pandora Screenlet archive file. Do this from the Download link on the product main page. Once you have downloaded this there are two ways to install the Screenlet:

• Unpack the archive into the ~./screenlets directory.
• Use the Screenlets installer.

I have always found using the Screenlets installer is a much more reliable method of installation. To use this method you need to right click on the Screenlets icon in the Notification area of your desktop and select Install Screenlet. This will open a window where you navigate to the downloaded Pandora Screenlet .gz file. Select that and then click Open. This will then install the screenlet.

Figure 1

Now you have to add the screenlet to your desktop. To do this right click the Screenlet icon again and select Screenlets Manager. From this new window, scroll down until you see the Pandora icon. Doublt click on that icon to launch the Pandora Screenlet (see Figure 1).

Of course you can sign into your Pandora account as well as do a bit of personalization. To configure the screenlet, right click the screenlet border and select Properties. In the Properties window you will find two tabs that have configurable options:

Themes: This is actually not usable yet because theme support is not working.

Options: Here you can configure the size, position, opacity, keep above/below, and much more.

Final thoughts

If you are a fan of Pandora Radio, and you are a Linux user, this Screenlet is one of the best options (outside of keeping a browser open at all times).

Screenlets take up very little in the resources department, are very unobtrusive on the desktop, and are user-customizable. The amount of available screenlets is fairly numerous so you should be able to find plenty to serve you. In this article you will learn how to install the Screenlets application, add screenlets, and customize screenlets.

Features

• Install SuperKaramba themes.
• Install Google Gadgets.
• Load web apps.
• Compositing support.
• Supports compiz widget plugin for a “Dashboad” feel.
• Open source.

Installing

I will be illustrating how to install Screenlets on Ubuntu. For other distributions you can check the Screenlets Install FAQ for more information. The first thing you will need to do is add the PPA repository to your /etc/apt/sources.list file. To do this open up a terminal window and issue the command:

sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Now add the following to the end of this file:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ketilwaa/ubuntu RELEASE main

Where RELEASE is the release name you are working with (such as jaunty).

Now save that file and issue the following command:

sudo apt-get update

Since you already have the terminal window open you can install the application with the following command:

sudo apt-get install screenlets

This will install everything you need to work with Screenlets.

Adding screenlets to your desktop

Figure 1

Figure 1 shows what screenlets can look like on your desktop. Here you can see:

• Clear RSS
• Weather.com weather applet
• Gmail notification
• Applications menu
• Digital clock

In order to install any of these you first have to open up the Screenlets Manager tool. This tool can be opened two different ways. The first is to use the menu entry which is found in the Preferences sub-menu of the System menu in GNOME. The second method of opening the manager is from the System Tray icon (see Figure 2 – fourth icon from the left). To open it from the icon you must double-click the icon. If you do not see this icon in the System Tray you will need to enable it from the Screenlet Manager by checking the “Show daemon in try” option.

Figure 2

The Screenlet Manager is where you

Figure 3

take care of addling screenlets to your desktop, getting new screenlets, and more (see Figure 3). To add a screenlet to your desktop scroll through the list of available screenlets, select a screenlet and click the Launch/Add button. You can also just double-click the screen let you want to add.

In some cases the screenlet will open almost off the screen. If this happens just click and drag the screenlet where you want it.

Configuring your screenlets

If you right click the screenlet you will see a number of options. Each screenlet will have unique entries in the right-click menu. But most all screenlets will have a Preferences. This Preferences entry is where you can get to the the options for that screenlet. I won’t go into the various options because they will differ from screenlet to screenlet.

I will mention the layring of the screenlets. There are basically three options for layering. These options are found in the Window sub-menu and they are:

Keep above: This will ensure the screenlet is always in front of your windows.

Keep below: This will ensure the screenlet is always behind your windows.

Widget: This is the option you want to choose to make a screenlet part of the “Dashboard” effect.

Dashboard effect

Figure 4

If you’ve used OS X you know if you hit F9 your windows disappear and all of your widgets appear. You can have this same effect with the help of Screenlets and Compiz. To do this set all of your screenlets layering to Widget and then open up the Compiz Settings Manger. Within the CSM you need to enable the Widget Layer feature. Once you have enabled this feature you can hit F9 and all windows will fade and the screenlets will appear. When the widgets are not visible they will be completely invisible. You can also assign only certain screenlets so that only those assigned to the Widget layer will appear when F9 is hit (see Figure 4).

You can adjust the darkness of the background layer within the CSM. In order to get your desktop back just click on the desktop and your widget layer will disappear again.

Final thoughts

Screenlets is an outstanding application that brings new functionality to the Linux desktop. It’s very easy to install and use and the added functionality it brings is well worth the time spent.