Gadget Tools: Customize NotifyOSD Notification Bubbles In Ubuntu 16 04 Xenial Xerus

Thursday, April 13, 2017

Customize NotifyOSD Notification Bubbles In Ubuntu 16 04 Xenial Xerus

Sukochev Romans (Leolik) patched NotifyOSD PPA adds extra features on top of the Ubuntu NotifyOSD notifications, like closing the notifications on click, option to move the notifications to a different screen corner, configurable colors for both the notification background and text, and much more.

The PPA was updated recently with packages for Ubuntu 16.04 Xenial Xerus.

Features:

change notification position: top-right, middle-right, bottom-right, bottom-left, middle-left and top-left;
close notifications on click;
enable/disable fading notifications on hover;
change the size of various NotifyOSD notification elements, such as the notifications vertical and horizontal gap, icon size, notification width, corner radius, etc.;
change notification text and background color, and opacity;
change font size, weight, margin, opacity, etc.;
the NotifyOSD Configuration tool also allows saving and restoring custom notification settings and restoring the defaults.

Leoliks patched NotifyOSD doesnt come with a GUI to change the notification settings but theres a tool developed by Amandeep Grewal, called NotifyOSD Config, that can be used for this. Since the NotifyOSD Config PPA wasnt updated for Ubuntu 16.04, I uploaded it to the main WebUpd8 PPA.

Heres a quick demo showing Leoliks patched NotifyOSD with NotifyOSDConfig in Ubuntu 16.04 (Xenial Xerus):

(direct video link; for more videos, subscribe to the WebUpd8 Youtube channel)

Install the patched NotifyOSD and Notify OSD Config in Ubuntu

The instructions below should work with Ubuntu 16.04, 15.10, 15.04 and 14.04.

1. Add Leoliks patched NotifyOSD PPA, update notify-osd, install libnotify-bin (for testing the notifications) and restart notify-osd:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:leolik/leolik
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install libnotify-bin
pkill notify-osd

2. Install NotifyOSD Config by using the WebUpd8 PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:nilarimogard/webupd8
sudo apt update
sudo apt install notifyosdconfig

Once installed, open NotifyOSD Configuration from Dash and tweak the NotifyOSD notification settings to your needs. To test the settings, click the "Apply" button and a test notification which uses the new settings should be displayed.

Note that by default, the notifications will use the old color settings (dark grey instead of using the Unity Dash color). To get the patched NotifyOSd to use the Unity Dash color, in NotifyOSD Configuration, on the Bubble tab, enable "Use Unity Dash colour".

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