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how do you use geek tool?

blue&whiteman

blue&whiteman

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 30, 2003
1,210
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I have tried everything and can't seem to get it to run any command. seen screenshots of geek tool and would love to run terminal stuff in the background like that rather than in a terminal window.

can someone please explain how to like i'm 5 please :) just want to use stuff like "top"
 
Okay, let's see...

If GeekTool is installed, there should be a file "GeekTool.prefPane" in your PreferencePanes folder (either your personal one - ~/Library/PreferencePanes - or your system-wide one - /Library/PreferencePanes).

Go to System Preferences. Down at the bottom, in the "Other" section, you should see "GeekTool". Click on it.

I've got two things being monitored on my desktop - the system log, and "top". I think this'd be easier with screenshots, so I hope this is okay...

The first two show the GeekTool settings for the logfile and top. The third is a small screenshot. Note that you can control window color and transparency - I like to have my GeekTool windows mostly transparent.
 

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thanks a bunch. that helped a lot.

1 more question though... how do I make the window background 100% gone like in your shot and so many others. I set the opacity all the way down and tried a bunch of different colors and there is still a faint background there. I want it so all I can see is the text itself.
 
blue&whiteman said:
1 more question though... how do I make the window background 100% gone like in your shot and so many others. I set the opacity all the way down and tried a bunch of different colors and there is still a faint background there. I want it so all I can see is the text itself.
Click to expand...

Setting the opacity to 0% should do it - however as long as you're in the GeekTool preferences and have that window selected, you'll see the background (it's basically being highlighted). But once you close the preferences that should go away.

You could also try playing with the brightness slider (the vertical slider on the right side of the color window).
 
cb911 said:
GeekTool eh... i've never heard about that. sounds good. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, GeekTool rocks - I'm not sure where I learned about it originally.

The only drawback is it's one of those toys that can start to use up a lot of your processor time (if enough "windows" are open). Sorta like those really involved screensavers.
 
Westside guy said:
Setting the opacity to 0% should do it - however as long as you're in the GeekTool preferences and have that window selected, you'll see the background (it's basically being highlighted). But once you close the preferences that should go away.

You could also try playing with the brightness slider (the vertical slider on the right side of the color window).
Click to expand...


it runs fine now. have everything set the way I want it. thanks again

just one issue now. I can only get it to run the system log when I have the geek tool pref. pane open. how do I get it to run always or at least without the pref pane open?
 
Make sure the system log window is checked. Mine keeps updated with no issues and that's the only thing I can think of that would cause it.
 
tomf87 said:
Make sure the system log window is checked. Mine keeps updated with no issues and that's the only thing I can think of that would cause it.
Click to expand...

it is checked. still have to have the pref pane open.
 
well i've been using GT a bit now, and it's ssoooo cool to be able to see this stuff on my desktop! :D

i'm just wondering... what are some other commands, logs, stuff that people like to have on their desktop?

and what command should i use if i want to see incoming/outgoing network connectoins? i've tried looking, but getting an answer here would be alot quicker. :p
 
check this out... I removed the quartz extreme hack to do some benchmarks. rebooted. starts up... geek tool auto loads at startup as it should!. put the quartz extreme hack back.. reboot.. geek tool doesn't load at startup! how can the quartz extreme hack be keeping it from loading as a startup item? I can still run geek tool with the hack active but it just won't load at startup. can I change the order things load at startup? I bet that might be it. not sure though...

ideas?
 
I figured out how to change load order but it didn't help anyway. there is no startup item in accounts for the hack. all I have in startup items is my logitech mouse sw and geektool.

I would really like to be able to use geektool and the hack together as one without having the pref pane open and just have it load at startup as it should. I don't see how a video hardware hack is stopping this but it is :(
 
blue&whiteman said:
check this out... I removed the quartz extreme hack to do some benchmarks. rebooted. starts up... geek tool auto loads at startup as it should!. put the quartz extreme hack back.. reboot.. geek tool doesn't load at startup! how can the quartz extreme hack be keeping it from loading as a startup item? I can still run geek tool with the hack active but it just won't load at startup. can I change the order things load at startup? I bet that might be it. not sure though...

ideas?
Click to expand...

Just to show my ignorance - what is the "quartz extreme hack" anyway?
 
Westside guy said:
Just to show my ignorance - what is the "quartz extreme hack" anyway?
Click to expand...

its a haxie to enable quartz extreme on a supported radeon gpu. works on radeon 32mb pci, radeon 7000 32mb pci and 1 or 2 mobile radeon chipsets that had only 8mb vram. for quartz extreme to enable itself you must have an agp slot and a supported gpu with at least 16mb ram. so you still need a supported gpu but can use it with an 8mb mobile or pci slot card. hope thats helps you understand.
 
wow. you sure have been doing alot of tweaking. :) sorry i can't help you with that, it might just be some weird behaviour.

but back, to my question.... what are your most used UNIX commands to display using GeekTool? :)
 
cb911 said:
wow. you sure have been doing alot of tweaking. :) sorry i can't help you with that, it might just be some weird behaviour.

but back, to my question.... what are your most used UNIX commands to display using GeekTool? :)
Click to expand...

all I use geek tool for is the system log. having that there with "keep on top" not selected so that is really is like part of my desktop because windows show over it.

the system log is good to have there. it lets you see all the stuff osx does to itself to stay fit and trim. :) osx sure does a lot of prebinding on its own. so much that I would say you never need to do it yourself.
 
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