Make Your Linux Desktop Look Like A Mac - Mac4Lin Project Documentation

Revision 1.1
1 November, 2007
Mac4Lin Guide Copyright Anirudh, 2007
Developer: Anirudh (infra_red_dude)
Website: http://sourceforge.net/projects/mac4lin

Do you want to give your desktop a dash of Mac OS X? Do you want to change your GNOME desktop from the default look to something like this?

Then read on.....

The goal of this project is to bring the look and feel of Mac OS X (latest being 10.5, Leopard) on *nix GTK based systems. This document will present the procedure to install Mac4Lin pack & tweak certain things to get that almost perfect Mac OS X like desktop.

NOTE: Backup all files before deleting/replacing the original ones. Nobody can be held responsible for any loss of data that may occur when installing and/or during usage. This guide holds good for all versions of Mac4Lin. For version specific information please see the README file for each component (if any). Also see the changelog file for changes in that version. Compiz in this guide refers to Compiz-Fusion. Unless explicitly specified, the installation procedures apply to all versions of GNOME.

Download all the Mac4Lin .tar.gz files from the latest release & except the Icon themes extract all other files to a temporary folder .

1 Applying GTK Metacity Theme

GNOME 2.20

Goto System > Preferences > Appearance. Click Install. Browse and choose the Mac4Lin GTK Metacity Theme .tar.gz file (wherever it is extracted).

After the installation is confirmed click on 'Apply new theme'.

GNOME 2.18

Goto System > Preferences > Theme > Customize > Control. Click Install. Browse and choose the Mac4Lin GTK Metacity Theme .tar.gz file (wherever it is extracted). Select to Apply.

Also make sure that the Window border is set to the Mac4Lin theme. Click on the Window border and select the Mac4Lin GTK theme.

For both GNOME 2.18 & 2.20

To set Leopard like GNOME panel background right click on an empty area on the top panel and select Properties. Now goto the Background tab and click on the Background image radio button. Navigate to /home/<user name>/.themes/<Mac4Lin GTK theme folder>/gtk-2.0/Panel and select the image you like, to be set as background for the GNOME panel.

The following is only for those who do not use Emerald theme manager:

To shift the traffic lights (close,min,max buttons) to the left of the title bar goto a terminal windows and type:

gconf-editor

and press Enter. Now navigate to: apps>metacity>general. On the right double click 'button_layout'. Delete that & type: 'close,minimize,maxmize:menu' (without quotes). Press OK and then quit. The buttons will now be on the left side of titlebar.

To restore the original layout, just replace the string by 'menu:minimize,maximize,close'.

2 Applying GTK Icon Theme

GNOME 2.20

Goto System > Preferences > Appearance. Click Install. Browse and choose the Mac4Lin Icon Theme .tar.gz file (wherever it is extracted). Be sure to select the correct icon theme, the GNOME 2.20 ONLY version.

After the installation is confirmed click on 'Apply new theme'.

GNOME 2.18

Goto System > Preferences > Theme > Customize > Icons. Click Install. Choose the Mac4Lin GTK Icon Theme .tar.gz file (wherever its extracted). Select to Apply.

For both GNOME 2.18 & 2.20

For the Search/Network/Wi-Fi icon to work correctly, you need to add the applets: "Search for files.." and "Network Monitor" to the GNOME Panel. Right click on an empty are on the panel and click "Add to panel" now scroll down and select "Search for files" applet. Now again do that, this time select the "Network Monitor" Applet. Look at the main screenshots for their placement on the panel.

This theme also contains lot of extra icons. Find them at ~/.icons/<Mac4Lin Icon folder>/EXTRAS. These are some of the icons in the pack:

3 Emerald Theme For Beryl & Compiz

You will need to install Beryl/Compiz and Emerald theme manager first. To install: Goto System > Preferences > Emerald Theme Manager. Click on 'Import...' button. Now browse to the folder where this pack was extracted and select the .emerald file from the Emerald folder. Click 'Open'. Now scroll and select the Mac4Lin Emerald theme to apply.