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I'd like to have a countdown timer in my taskbar on an Ubuntu 12.04 machine with Unity 2D. My use case is primarily time management, for example "countdown from 30 minutes, and I'll take a break when the timer finishes."

I installed gnome-shell-timer by doing sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-timer. However, I'm not sure how to launch the gnome-shell-timer application. Here's what I've tried:

  • I typed gnome-shell-timer on the command line, but it says command not found.
  • I restarted the computer, hoping that the timer would appear in the taskbar. No such luck, though.

I've installed gnome-shell-timer. How do I launch it?

While we're on this topic, here's my survey of Linux timer applications that I've tried recently:

  • pomodoro timer installs easily, and it's effective. BUT, it runs in its own window instead of in the taskbar. Also, it only allows you to choose "5, 15, or 25 minutes" instead of selecting whatever amount of time you want.
  • kteatime runs in the taskbar. It installs with apt-get, and it can be launched with kteatime &. BUT, it doesn't actually display a countdown, and it sometimes loses my settings when I restart it.
  • I used to use timer-applet on an earlier Ubuntu version (perhaps 10.04), perhaps running some version of Gnome desktop. However, when I try to install timer-applet on my current machine, there are a bunch of "uninstallable" dependencies like python-gnome2-desktop.
  • gnome-shell-pomodoro (not to be confused with pomodoro timer) runs in the taskbar, and it looks great in pictures. Based on the dependency errors I get when trying to apt-get install, gnome-shell-pomodoro is a wrapper around timer-applet.

Thanks to this SuperUser thread for introducing me to some of these apps.

Community
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solvingPuzzles
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6 Answers6

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Tomate seems to have everything you want, it's fairly simply and focused on pomodoros, but you can choose the lengths of the work and break times, and you can get it to hide into the taskbar: https://launchpad.net/tomate

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:stvs/tomate
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tomate

(By the way, this info was taken from here: https://askubuntu.com/a/190675/18478.)

Community
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dbdkmezz
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There is an explanation on how to activate the extension in the source readme file (just scroll down to "Enable the extension using gnome-tweak-tool ..." at https://github.com/olebowle/gnome-shell-timer

Unfortunately, I dont't understand how to use the gsettings in my terminal. Would like to get it to work, too :)

somethis
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There is also Alarm Clock

sudo apt-get install alarm-clock-applet
alarm-clock-applet &

The look of the panel:

picture of panel

And configuring an alarm/timer..

enter image description here

It seems to do everything I need it to.

Peter V. Mørch
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You probably just need to add the applet to the panel. I am not running gnome at the moment but it should be something like Right Click on the panel => "Add applet to panel" or "Panel properties" or similar.

terdon
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What about kalarm? It has a high level of customizability, and I think you can show time as a tooltip at least.

Sveinns
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I struggled quite a bit with getting it running too. Open the gnome-tweak-tool (run from terminal or use the 'advanced option' through gnome).

Go to Shell Extensions, and click on Timer Extension (don't expect it to be at the bottom).

It will now appear up top in gnome, near the volume controller, hope this will help others struggling to get the program running.

Wertilq
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