22. The Front Panel

The Front Panel is the long bar at the bottom of the screen. It stays above all windows and is the same on all four workspaces.

Every slot does two things: clicking its icon starts its main program, and clicking the small arrow above it opens its drawer, a list of more programs. A second click on the arrow, or a click elsewhere, closes the drawer again. The drawers fill themselves from the programs installed on the computer: install a new graphics program, and it appears in the Graphics drawer. Programs that fit no drawer, such as programming tools, are in the Application Manager (Tools slot), which lists every installed program.

The left side

Slot	Click on the icon	The drawer
Clock	— (a right click chooses Analog Clock or Digital Clock, as does Settings → Front Panel, chapter 37)	—
Calendar	Opens the Calendar, today's date on the icon	—
File Manager	Opens your home folder	The file managers, Home Directory (~) and Root Filesystem (/)
Text & Office	Starts the Text Editor	The text editors and WritePad, then the other office programs: the PDF Viewer, the Calculator, the Calendar, Contacts and LibreOffice (Writer, Calc, Impress, Draw, Math)
Mail & Internet	Starts the Mailer	The mail programs and Contacts, then the web browser and other internet programs
Sound & Video	Starts the first program of the drawer	Audio Station, Video Player and other media programs
Graphics	Starts the first program of the drawer	Image Viewer, Image Scan, Fractals, LibreOffice Draw and other graphics programs
Games	Starts the first game of the drawer	All installed games, from Blast to Town (chapter 49)

The workspace switch in the middle

The middle of the panel holds the controls of the session:

• The padlock at the top left locks the screen (chapter 26).
• The language button under it, with the code of the current language such as EN, switches the language (chapter 25).
• The four buttons One to Four switch between the workspaces. Each has its workspace's colour; the current one is pressed in. A second click on the current one renames its workspace (chapter 24).
• The busy light, the slit at the top right, and under it EXIT, which logs out, restarts or shuts down (chapter 26).

The right side

Slot	Click on the icon	The drawer
Print Manager	Opens the Print Manager with the printers and their jobs	Other printing programs and Add or Configure Printers (chapter 27)
Tools	Opens the Application Manager, the list of all programs	See below
Help	Opens this handbook in the web browser	The handbooks on the computer
Trash Can	Opens the trash in the File Manager	—
Status	Up to four small cells: the network, the sound, the battery on a laptop, and the software updates when updates are waiting	—

The Tools drawer

Entry	What it is
Settings	Colours, text size, backdrop, keyboard, mouse, beep, screen saver, windows and clipboard (Part IV).
Application Manager	All installed programs, sorted by kind.
Terminal (xterm)	A terminal window for commands.
Root Console (sudo)	A terminal with administrator rights; asks for your password (chapter 50).
Clipboard History	Your last copies, to paste them again (chapter 36).
Session Diagnostics & Logs	The logs of the desktop and the programs (chapter 57).
Hardware & System Info	Processor, memory, disks, graphics, network and battery on one page (chapter 57).

Below them come the other installed settings and system programs: amadeOS Print Manager, amadeOS Software for updates (chapters 51 and 52), Install amadeOS in the live system (chapter 14), the File Manager and the terminals.

The Help drawer

The first entry, amadeOS User's Handbook, opens this book in the web browser. It is installed on the computer (package amadeos-handbook), so it opens without a network; if the package is missing, the browser opens the copy on the web. The other entries are the handbooks installed as programs of the kind Documentation: the Application Developer's Handbook for writing amadeOS applications, the Game Developer's Handbook for writing games with the amade game engine, and the Documentation Viewer for the documentation of the installed packages.

The busy light

The slit above EXIT shows what the computer is busy with. It is dark when nothing happens.

The light	What it means
All dashes blink yellow	A program is starting. The light goes out when its window appears.
An amber run of dashes moves from left to right	Software is being installed or removed, by Software, the updates cell or a terminal (chapter 52).
The left half lights green	The disks are reading or writing. The more dashes, the more data.
The right half lights cyan	Data goes through the network.

Point at the light to see the rates, for example Disk 12 MB/s · Network 340 KB/s. A click opens Hardware & System Info (chapter 57). If you prefer the plain busy light of CDE, switch off the green and cyan halves in Settings > Front Panel (chapter 37).

The status cell

The network cell shows the connection: a cable for a wired network, bars for the WLAN signal, a cross when there is none. Clicking it opens the list of WLAN networks (chapter 27).

The sound cell beside it shows a loudspeaker with one to three waves for the volume, and an X when muted. Clicking it opens a volume slider and the choice of the output and the microphone; the mouse wheel over it makes it louder or softer, the middle button mutes (chapter 27).

The battery cell below them appears only on a computer with a battery, such as a laptop. The battery is filled to its charge: green above 50 %, yellow from 50 % down to 21 % and red at 20 % and below, time to plug in the charger. A lightning bolt shows that the computer is plugged in. Point at the cell to see the percentage and, while the battery charges or runs the computer, about how long until it is full or empty, for example Battery 38 %, about 1 h 11 min left. Settings > Front Panel can hide it (chapter 37).

The updates cell appears only while software updates wait: an arrow into a tray with their number, on red when security updates are among them. Its menu offers Install all updates, Install security updates only and Check now (chapter 52).

Planned

A cell for Bluetooth will join the status slot.

CDE heritage

The Front Panel follows CDE's: the clock and calendar on the left, the workspace switch with lock and EXIT in the middle, the Print Manager, Tools, Help and Trash Can on the right, and drawers ("subpanels" in CDE) above the slots. CDE's drawers were configured by hand; those of amadeOS fill themselves. The Games drawer and the status slot are new, and so is the language button, in the corner CDE left empty. CDE's busy light only blinked while an action started; the disk, network and install signals are new.

Under the hood

The Front Panel is the program amadeos-panel-cde, started by the session as /usr/bin/amadeos-panel. The drawers list the .desktop files in /usr/share/applications and ~/.local/share/applications by their Categories: FileManager, TextEditor and Office, Email and Network, AudioVideo, Graphics, Game, Printing, Settings and System, Documentation. A program started from the panel writes its messages to ~/.cache/amadeos/logs/<program>.log. The busy light reads /proc/diskstats (whole disks only) and /proc/net/dev (all interfaces but lo) four times a second, and looks for a running dpkg every two seconds. The battery cell reads /sys/class/power_supply every 20 seconds; the batteries of a wireless mouse or keyboard do not count, and two batteries in one laptop show as one.