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Dave
Asked: 2011-11-09 08:01:07 +0800 CST

How can I tell what workspace I am in with Unity?

  • 772

Long time user of Ubuntu struggling to use Unity here....

I am running Unity 2D and can click on the workspace launcher icon to switch to a different workspace. However if I just walk up to a system, how can I tell by looking what workspace I am on?

Is the launcher icon supposed to change when you change workspace? Is there an indicator applet for this I can install? I am used to the old Gnome workspace switcher in the middle of the top panel!

unity

4 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    13.04

    This functionality is now inbuilt within 13.04 and later - the launcher workspace icon shows which workspace you are currently on:

    Imgur

    Imgur

    12.10 and previous

    enter image description here

    10.04/10.10/11.04/11.10

    To do this, first install the PPA:

    sudo add-apt-repository ppa:geod/ppa-geod

    Update and install:

    sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install indicator-workspaces

    12.04 onwards

    The PPA author does not have a preprepared package for 12.04 and later. However, you can download the same deb-package used in 11.10 and install that.

    Download the v0.6.2.2 deb package

    Install the prerequisite:

    sudo apt-get install python-wnck

    how to start

    Finally add indicator-workspaces to your startup-applications (search in Dash for this) if the installation hasn't already added this:

    enter image description here

    • 18

  2. Ubunutu 14.10 (Based off of fossfreedom's answer, sorry I need more rep to comment)

    1. sudo apt-get install python-wnck
    2. sudo apt-get install python-appindicator
    3. wget http://ppa.launchpad.net/geod/ppa-geod/ubuntu/pool/main/i/indicator-workspaces/indicator-workspaces_0.6.2.2_all.deb
    4. sudo dpkg -i ./indicator-workspaces_0.6.2.2_all.deb
    5. indicator-workspaces & disown
    6. (Add to startup as fossfreedom mentions above)
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  3. If you do download the latest version from http://ppa.launchpad.net/geod/ppa-geod/ubuntu/pool/main/i/indicator-workspaces/ make sure you grab the required wnck libs/bindings in synaptic or the software center. Otherwise this indicator will not work.

    • 5

  4. Ubuntu's Unity desktop uses viewports , not workspaces, which is a coordinate-based system.

    To know current viewport , you can bind the following set of commands (or place them into a script and bind that ) to a keyboard shortcut:

    xprop -root -notype _NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT  | awk -F '=' '{ print "Current Viewport:"$2  }' | xargs -I {} notify-send {}

    enter image description here

    That way you can invoke an on-screen notification to report where are you on the grid right now.

    Personally, because I spend 99% of time between firefox and terminal, I've all those commands , set into a function in my .bashrc

    get_viewport()
{
  xprop -root -notype _NET_DESKTOP_VIEWPORT  | \
      awk -F '=' '{ print "Current Viewport:"$2  }' | \
      xargs -I {} notify-send {}
}
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