Sunday, April 29, 2012

Ubuntu 12.04. Weather on Unity's top panel

Okay, in Unity the widgets are gone and the bottom panel is gone, but I still want Ubuntu Desktop to tell me things.  Simple things like the date, time, sound volume and network connections are all up there on the top panel but there is one I really miss, the WEATHER.  Let's add it.

AppIndicators are applications that come with an indicator displayed on the top Unity panel (near where the TIME is displayed).  We want Weather Indicator.  It's a nice little app that displays the temperature and when clicked on gives more weather related details.

How to install it;

1.  Open a TERMINAL window.

2.  Type the following into the TERMINAL window;
     sudo add-apt-repository ppa:weather-indicator-team/ppa (Hit Enter)
     sudo apt-get update (Hit Enter)
     sudo apt-get install indicator-weather (Hit Enter)
     
3.  Close the TERMINAL window.

4.  Click on the DASH HOME button on the UNITY BAR (upper left corner see screen shot)

5. In the search bar type indicator-weather.

6. Click on the WEATHER INDICATOR app (orange one in screen shot)



7. Go through the setup wizard to select your home city and other settings.

8.  Done.



Notice that it's 62 degrees outside!  
If you click on the temperature you will get other weather related info.



NOTE:  I noticed that you have to manual start WEATHER INDICATOR app if you reset your computer.  I'll have figure out how to run it at start up and post here. 

UPDATE: See comments to read how to get weather indicator to run at startup.  Thanks swhitney for the help.

A BETTER WEATHER - If you want a much nicer weather app check out this one
   

12 comments:

swhitney said...

Couldn't agree more, the weather indicator was the most missed applet with 12.04. Other than applets not being standard (without tweaking) I love Precise Pangolin.

To have the indicator start with the machine (at start up)

1. Click on the DASH HOME button (or hit your "Windows" or super key)

2. Type in "Startup Applications"

3. Click on the Startup Applications icon

4. A window will open for "Startup Application Preferences"

5. Click "Add"

6. In "Name:" type whatever name you want to help you remember what you are adding. In "Command:" type "indicator-weather". In "Comment:" add whatever explanation you need to know what the command is doing.

7. Click "Add" and restart your machine and you are done!

Jeff M. said...

Thanks for the help. Indictor-weather now runs everytime I log in.

Dmitry Cidious said...

1. What is the "HP" icon near the weather?
2. If you have an HP laptop, did you tried to show the motherboard/CPU temperature on this bar?

Jeff M. said...

The HP Logo is a program for my HP printer/scanner. It gives me "status" on print jobs and gives me quick access to printer settings.

Jeff M. said...

The computer is a custom built machine and the case has temperature monitors on it. (Hardware based).

dewBuntu said...

Thanks for the setup info, works great. The install also added the indicator to startup applications automatically.

dewBuntu said...

Thanks for the setup info, works great. The install also added the indicator to startup applications automatically.

Jeff M. said...

Thanks dewBuntu, it's nice to hear from people who use some of the info I post.

yarnivorous said...

Thanks for this info - I've just jumped about four releases to quantal and it is driving me INSANE with the lack of information available. Like the weather.
It is almost making me want to use windows 8....

Geoff said...

It appears that the indicator-weather package is available in Quantal (12.10) without having to add the PPA mentioned in this post.

Geoff said...

Also, I found indicator-weather to crash in Quantal. I had better luck with my-weather-indicator.

Jeff M. said...

GEOFF, at the time of this article you had to add the PPA to get Indictor-Weather working, but now you can just install it from the UBUNTU SOFTWARE CENTER.

I agree with you, the MY-INDICTOR-WEATHER is a better app. That's why just 3 days ago I post a how-to on installing it. It needs the PPA added though.

Thanks for the comments