[SOLVED] My eyes...my eyes...my xeyes are missing

[DoYouKubuntu]

I've missed having xeyes in my panel since getting this laptop, but given all the problems I've had, it was waaaaaaaay down at the bottom of my list. So today I thought I'd add it to my panel.

Nope. It's no longer addable as a widget (yes, I tried searching), nor can it be installed from CLI (sudo apt install xeyes fails, and says x11-apps replaces it). In Synaptic, I verified that I have x11-apps installed AND that xeyes is included. It is. Its location is /usr/bin/xeyes.

So I can run it from a command line (or menu), but that's not what I want. I want it to be in my panel, as I've had for decades--as can be seen in a long ago, unrelated post:


How do I get xeyes back in my panel?!

[GreyGeek]

Use "xeyes -geometry WIDTHxHEIGHT+XOFF+YOFF"
Where the first two are pixel width and height.
The XOFF is the pixels offset from the left edge of the screen and YOFF is the pixels below the TOP edge of the screen.
You can experiment with values that will place the eyes down on top of your system panel or wherever.
When you figure out what those four values are then you can put the entire command in a bash script and call it from the System Settings Startup and Shutdown option.

Experimenting around I found that
xeyes -display :0 -geometry 40x40+850+850
put a small pair of eyes just above the xeyes panel icon. However, I couldn't get it to set on the panel.


[/FONT]

[dequire]

Couldn't you pin it to the panel and use spacers to get it more or less in the position you want? Not tested - just a thought.

[claydoh]

I am not sure if xeyes itself can live i n the Plasma tray or taskbar, without a widget to do so....which is why there were a number of plasma widget 'clones' of it available.
Seems no one ever wanted or thought to port one to Plasma 5.

[Don B. Cilly]

On a 1920X1080 screen, I use
xeyes -fg black -geometry 60x60+1720+996 &
If I don't use fg black, the pupils are almost invisible.

[DoYouKubuntu]

Thanks for the suggestions, guys, but unfortunately none of them will give me the intended look/functionality. If I run it as a program, yes, I could use geometry to place it on/near my panel, but that won't turn it into an embedded-in-the-panel widget. Ditto for pinning it to the panel, etc.

Apparently, if I were using XFCE, I'd have no problem with this! In Synaptic, I see:

xfce4-eyes-plugin
eyes that follow your mouse for the Xfce4 panel

I don't understand why perfectly good, nice, fun, long-standing features are REMOVED from later versions. I've had eyes in my panel forever and want them back!

[DoYouKubuntu]

On a 1920X1080 screen, I use
xeyes -fg black -geometry 60x60+1720+996 &
If I don't use fg black, the pupils are almost invisible.

We were posting at the same time!

Okay, I just tried that, but it's not the same look/functionality that I want. As a widget, embedded in the panel, its eyes followed my pointer without any interaction with the widget. Using this method or any other involving running this as a program, you have to actively click on it to see it work.

Thanks, though.

[dequire]

I don't understand why perfectly good, nice, fun, long-standing features are REMOVED from later versions. I've had eyes in my panel forever and want them back!

You know what they say..."patches welcome"

[DoYouKubuntu]

You know what they say..."patches welcome"

Oh how I wish my programming skills weren't dead! I'd be more than happy to do this.

Is there some official way of requesting something like this? A feature that serves no meaningful, important purpose? That's just for fun? And apparently no one but me even noticed was gone?

[Don B. Cilly]

I don't have to click on anything... :-/

[DoYouKubuntu]

I don't have to click on anything... :-/

[ATTACH=CONFIG]9339[/ATTACH]

I didn't see it! When I tried originally, all I saw was the panel entry, which I had to click to bring up eyes that followed me. I NEVER NOTICED the other eyes! But now I do.

I've moved mine farther over to the right, at x=1850, and I like it there. I just wish I could get rid of the panel entry for the program itself.

Thanks! This is a great alternative.

[Don B. Cilly]

I just wish I could get rid of the panel entry for the program itself.

Yes, so do I :-/
I have Latte Dock too, so, two entries :-(

[DoYouKubuntu]

I also made the program 'always stay above' others, to keep the eyes visible at all times.

This is such a nice workaround, DBC. Now if we could just figure out how to lose the panel entry...

[GreyGeek]

I used to shorten the panel on both ends so that a margin about 50 pixels wide were at both ends. In 20.04 I thought that I could shorten the panel and move it to the left side, leaving room for the eyes to show in that space created on the right side at the panel level. Unfortunately, there is no longer a way to size the panel to be less wide than the screen. So, I tried "Auto Hide". With that setting the eyes move to the bottom of the screen when the panel hides itself. But I don't like hiding the panel, or having windows be able to go below the panel.

[kubicle]

Now if we could just figure out how to lose the panel entry...

You can make a kwin rule to hide xeyes from the taskbar (this can be created in SystemSettings>WindowManagement>WindowRules)
kwin rules can be a bit tricky to setup correctly as there are many options, but I created a quick one you can add/edit to fit your needs:
$HOME/.config/kwinrulesrc:

[$Version]
update_info=kwinrules.upd:replace-placement-string-to-enum

[1]
Description=Settings: yakuake
clientmachine=localhost
clientmachinematch=0
skiptaskbar=true
skiptaskbarrule=2
title=~?zsh ? Yakuake
titlematch=0
types=1
wmclass=yakuake
wmclasscomplete=false
wmclassmatch=1

[2]
Description=xeyes -hide from taskbar
above=true
aboverule=2
skiptaskbar=true
skiptaskbarrule=2
wmclass=xeyes
wmclassmatch=1

[General]
count=2

The xeyes rule is the [2] and [1] is my pre-existing rule for yakuake, you can copy this file as a starting point and then use systemsettings to edit as you see fit (you can also delete the yakuake rule in systemsettings)