Howto install Google Gadgets in ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron)
Posted by admin on June 9th, 2008 
Email This Post
The Windows and Mac versions of Google Desktop has provided gadget hosting functionality on Windows and Mac for a while now and the Linux version of Google Gadgets will extend this platform to Linux users. By enabling cross-platform gadgets, a large library of existing gadgets are immediately available to Linux users. In addition, gadget developers will benefit from a much larger potential user base without having to learn a new API.
There’s two main components to the application: one is a common gadget library responsible for running and presenting a gadget, and the other is a host program that allows the user to choose gadgets and run them on the desktop. Currently we have hosts written for GTK+ and QT, with the GTK+ host offering a sidebar similiar to that of Google Desktop for Windows.
Install Google Gadgets in ubuntu 8.04
You need to edit /etc/apt/sources.list
sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
add the following lines
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main
Save and exit the file
Now you need to update the source list using the following commnd
sudo aptitude update
or you can use the following procedure
Go to System —> Administration —> Software Sources, click on the Third-Party tab, then Add, and paste the following line
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/googlegadgets/ubuntu hardy main
Then click Close and Reload.
Install Google Gadgets using the following command from terminal
sudo aptitude install google-gadgets
This complete the installation process
Using Google gadgets
After finishing installation press Alt+F2, and type ggl-gtk click on Run to start Google Gadgets.
Now You should see a small icon show up in your system tray - right-click on it and select ‘Add Gadgets’ to show a menu
After opening Google gadgets browser you can see similar to the following scree here you can select one and add
After adding you can see similar to the following screen
Add Google Gadgets in Sidebar
If you want to add Google Gadgets in your side bar follow this procedure
Press Alt+F2, and type ggl-gtk -s -bg click on Run to start Google Gadgets
After adding google gadgets you should see similar to the following screen
Start Google Gadgets at startup
Go to System –> Preferences –> Sessions
Once it opens you should see similar to the following screen here you need to click on ‘Add’
Enter the following details and click on ok
Uninstall Google Gadgets in Ubuntu
If you want to uninstall Google Gadgets in Ubuntu go to Applications —>Accessories—>Terminal enter the following command
sudo aptitude remove google-gadgets
and you need to remove Google Gadgets from startup
If you want to be notified the next time we write something please subscribe to our RSS feed.Thanks for Visiting!
June 9th, 2008 at 1:20 am
damn i wish u posted this awhile back. I wasted 1hr compiling from source
June 9th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Refuses to load for me. Something to do with the xml parser… cant see this in the repository (libxml2-xml-parser)…
—–
20:34.185: ../../../ggadget/extension_manager.cc:175: Extension default-framework was loaded successfully.
20:34.185: ../../../ggadget/module.cc:105: Failed to load module libxml2-xml-parser
20:34.186: ../../../ggadget/xml_parser.cc:34: The global xml parser has not been set yet.
20:34.186: ../../../ggadget/xml_parser.cc:34: VERIFY FAILED: g_xml_parser
ggl-gtk: ../../../../extensions/default_options/default_options.cc:77: ggadget::::DefaultOptions::DefaultOptions(const char*, size_t): Assertion `parser_’ failed.
Aborted
June 9th, 2008 at 9:09 am
Works great. Is there a way to make it visible in all the desktops ? There seems to be only a few gadgets about 20 or so. Is there a way to add more gadgets ?
Karthik
June 9th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I had previously downloaded .deb file even b4 this post , i installed .deb file all went fine , now if i run i don see and icon on my menu bar , i have deleted drawer bar how do i restore ?
June 9th, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Thanks..great blog..i can’t stop learning from this site.THANKS.
June 9th, 2008 at 5:22 pm
chenjiancong@chenjiancong:~$ sudo aptitude install google-gadgets
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states… Done
Building tag database… Done
Couldn’t find any package whose name or description matched “google-gadgets”
Couldn’t find any package whose name or description matched “google-gadgets”
No packages will be installed, upgraded, or removed.
0 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0B of archives. After unpacking 0B will be used.
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
Reading extended state information
Initializing package states… Done
Building tag database… Done
could you give me a hand ?
June 9th, 2008 at 9:25 pm
The gadgets look cool but I don’t seem to be able to install any new one.
I can download the .gg files, but have no idea where to put or extract them
June 10th, 2008 at 6:32 pm
Nik Gare,
once you have the .gg file, put those, from your home, in the (think the path is ok, but please check) “.google/gadgets/downloaded/”.
From there, first, exit from Google-Gadgets. Then, choose the .gg then right-click and choose “open with” and select a command line with “ggl-gtk” (or “ggl-qt”). This will add the Gadget to the desktop/side bar.
Hope this helps.
Regards
Alain
June 13th, 2008 at 8:47 am
It really seems nice
and it’s easier then desklets to configure.
At the other hand, My cpu really hates me when I use some of the gadgets.
June 14th, 2008 at 6:27 am
VERY VERY COOL!!! THANKS!!!
June 15th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
It is fantastic…
thank you very much for your good info.
June 15th, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Hey,
It seems to load (i can see it in system monitor taking a lot of CPU), but nothing shows up. Help?
Thanks
June 19th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Cool! I always wanted to get it for my Ubuntu but did not dare to compile it. This was really easy. However, there is one issue…. It does not show up on all Workspaces.
June 26th, 2008 at 9:29 pm
when i run this app it doesnt run in color Why????????? its like black and white
June 29th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
According to the version on the launchpad repos, it is 0.9.1. You can get version 0.9.3 for both 32 and 64 bit from http://www.getdeb.net/app/Google+Gadgets, this will place a shortcut for the sidebar in the Applications -> Accessories -> Google Gadgets menu. Hopefully the launchpad repos will provide version updates.
@Diego
It sounds like you are running compiz and the program is not responding. You can try to disable compiz or your “Visual Effects” and see if there is a difference.
July 7th, 2008 at 2:45 am
I guess there is no solution to getting the gadgets on all workspaces
July 13th, 2008 at 12:32 pm
Nice work, and thanks for the posting!
All seems to work fine - I do have problems with some of the gadgets: e.g. the Games, Google Earth gadget and Google News gadgets show up as a white box … any ideas what I may be missing?
July 15th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
Norman, right-click on the system tray icon and check the box for “Always on top” and you should see your Gadgets on every workspace
August 21st, 2008 at 12:30 am
Also, can add “-ns” to get “ggl-gtk -ns” to get the sidebar to be invisible, so you only have the widgets <3
October 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
it worked perfectly! thanks a lot, i really like this gadgets