I'm running a 2-port KVM connected to my two Linux machines. I'll eventually move to the fast one and have just the one, but at the moment I'm looking for a way to label the Gnome top menu, or something else just as obvious, with the machine name. Any ideas? I'd rather not try to put it as the background, since that's pretty much covered up all the time.

i do the same thing, but i have fluxbox running on my server, and gnome on my desktop, so its obvious which one i'm on. could you try setting up the icons differently if you have icons on the top bar ? if you wanted to put a lot of work into it, you could make icon-sized letters and add a bunch of useless apps to the top bar all in a row, then set their icons so they spell out the name of the machine.

Icons? Is desktop wallpaper change a taboo?

*if you wanted to put a lot of work into it, you could make icon-sized letters and add a bunch of useless apps to the top bar all in a row, then set their icons so they spell out the name of the machine.*

Thanks epoo, I've been thinking of just that, actually. In the interim, I've just been opening a gnome-terminal and looking at the title-bar.

Cheers!

Maybe make host name title of terminal icon then? I'll post ImageMagick-based script to generate letter icons when I make Firefox not crash under Beryl after every window switch..

cat mkemptyxpm
#! /bin/bash

cat >"$1" <<EOF
static const char * const a[] = {
"1 1 1 1",
" c #FFFFFF",
" "
}
EOF

if [ -n "$2" ]; then
convert -resize "$2x${3:-$2}!" "$1" "$1";
fi;

#! /bin/bash

x=36;
y=36;

./mkemptyxpm "$1" $x $y;
convert "$1" -font $(cat fontname) -gravity Center -draw "text 0,-$((y/3 -1)) '$2'" "$1";

Raskin,

I couldn't get your scripts to work; probably cause I'm lame. But, I did get the general idea, I think. I tried setting that title bar background to an icon that had the short machine name in it. Blechhh, that was simply nasty. Maybe I can figure out how to change the title bar name of one of the three gnome applications: "Applications", "Places", or "Desktop".

I hope doing it in your favorite font and surrounding it with margins that ensure that scaling will not kill proportions was tried.

About scripts - they can be bash-version-specific, or ImageMagick-version-specific, or both, as I tested them only on one install of LFS. And didn't you forget to create file 'fontname' in the same directory and put the desired font mask into it? Surely 'mkemptyxpm' should be in the same directory as the main script etc.

"And didn't you forget to create file 'fontname' in the same directory and put the desired font mask into it?"

Did I forget it? Hell, I can't even spell it! Seriously, I have only a vague idea of what you're talking about. I hate to say it, but this sounds like more work than I want to do for this problem. I may resort to just putting the first letter of my hostname on top of the icon for the gnome-terminal. I think I can manage that without totally destroying things. I have to tell you that today, just now, is the first time I've ever run gimp.

Er.. Sorry.. Failed to estimate you are not fluent user of xfontsel and also you haven't fully accustomed to shell syntax. I will try to remember to look at first GNU/Linux install date before offering scripts that use full knowledge of man bash.. Sorry once more time.

One more funny solution: try setting backgrounds of different tint. I use violet-green-red for laptop battery indication, but the same can be used to make boxes differ. You'll get accustomed quickly, and using this technique you'll know where you are in zero actions (depends on layout, though - you may have desktop fully hidden most of the time)!

Run something like gkrellm (a nice graphic system monitor) on both machines.

Raskin, I'm (re)new to Linux/Unix. Until I loaded Debian recently, it had been just about 10 years since I was a UnixWare programmer writing airline related programs. We just didn't have a lot of need for messing about with fonts in that environment.

So, OK, what I did was to make the toolbar transparent on the "fast" machine. Hopefully it won't take me too long to associate "transparent toolbar" with which machine I'm on. If it does, then I can probably manage to put a big red initial on top of the gnome-terminal icon to help me on my way.

Thanks, everyone, for all the suggestions.

i dont know why you dont want to change the wallpaper, but what if you make both toolbars partially or fully transparent, then edit the wallpaper and write in the name of the machine that youre on so it appears under an open spot in the toolbar - so you can see the machine name through the toolbar.

Hi epoo,

"i dont know why you dont want to change the wallpaper,"

I rarely see much of the wallpaper because of all the open windows. Using the transparent top toolbar puts it visually in a place where I don't have to be searching for a glimpse of the background. I suffer from eyestrain pretty easily, and I'm just trying to keep everything pretty neutral with no big "look at me" places, if you know what I mean.