Turn Your Ubuntu Hardy to Mac OSX Leopard
Updated: The updated version of this tutorial for Ubuntu Intrepid can be found at Turn Ubuntu Intrepid into Mac Leopard.
You can’t really turn a Linux system to a Mac, but you definitely can make your Ubuntu Hardy looks like a Mac OSX Leopard.
If you want to change this
into
, follow the steps below.
Before we start…
First, create a folder in your Home and name it Mac_files. Download the following files to the Mac_files folder.
Using Archive manager, extract the three Mac4Lin zip files Modified Mac4Lin theme and Mac4Lin wallpaper to the Mac_files folder.
Apply Mac OSX Leopard Theme
Go to System->Preferences->Appearance.

Select Install and select the Mac4Lin GTK theme (/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/GTK Metacity Theme/Mac4Lin_GTK_v0.4.tar.gz).

Next, click Install again and select the Mac4Lin icon theme. (/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_Icons_Part2_v0.4.tar.gz /home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_Icons_modified.tar.gz). When prompted, select “Apply new themes“.
Click Install again and select the Mac4Lin mouse cursor theme. (/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/GTK Cursor Theme/Mac4Lin_Cursors_v0.4.tar.gz). Select “Apply new themes” when prompted.

Click ‘customize’ and choose Mac4Lin_GTK_v0.4. Go to the “Window border” tab, choose Mac4Lin_GTK_v0.4. Click Close.

On the top, go to the Background tab. Click Add and select the Leopard wallpaper. (/home/username/Mac_files/Wallpapers/Leopard.jpg). Click Close to terminate the Appearance window

Install the Dock (Avant Window Navigator)
Open a terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal) and type
gksu gedit /etc/apt/sources.list
and add the following lines to the end of the file:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/awn-testing/ubuntu hardy main
Save and close the file. In your terminal, type
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install avant-window-navigator-trunk awn-manager-trunk awn-extras-applets-trunk
Go to System->Preferences->AWN manager. On the left, click on the Theme. On the right, click Add and navigate to the Mac_files folder. Select the Elegant_glass.tgz file. Check the bullet beside the Elegant glass theme and click Apply.

Next on the left, click on the Applet icon. On the right, scroll down to the stack Applet. Highlight it, then click Activate. This will add the Mac Leopard stack to your dock.

Before you launch the AWN, remove the bottom panel from the desktop first. Right click on the bottom panel and select “delete this panel”. Open AWN via Applications->Accessories->Avant Window Navigator. Once it is activated, you can simply drag and drop the applications into the dock.
Install OSX Fonts
Open a terminal and type the following:
sudo apt-get install msttcorefonts
This will Install the Microsoft core fonts.
Next, copy the OSX fonts to the fonts folder
cd /usr/share/fonts
sudo tar xvzf /home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/Fonts/OSX_Fonts.tar.gz
Configure the fonts:
cd/
sudo tar xvjpf /home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/Fonts/fontconfig.tbz -C /etc/fonts
Open the Appearance window (System->Preferences->Appearance) and select Fonts tab. Select the following fonts according to the image below. Click Close.

Change the traffic light window control to the left
In the terminal, type
gconf-editor
This will bring up the gconf-editor window. Scroll down to App->Metacity->general. On the right, double click on the button_layout and change the content to ‘close,minimize,maximize:menu’ (without the quote). Click Ok and close the gconf-editor.


Change the menubar
Remove all the icon and applications on the left side of the top panel. Right-click on the icon and select ‘Remove from panel‘. You will left with something like this:
![]()
On the right of the top panel, remove the logout icon. Still on the right hand side of the top panel, right click and select ‘Add to panel‘. Scroll down the list and add ‘Search for files‘. This will add the spotlight icon to the panel.

On the extreme left, right-click and select ‘Add to panel‘. Scroll down the list and add ‘Main Menu‘. This will add the apple icon on the left. You can now log out and shut down from the Apple dropdown menu (same as Mac OSX).

Next, we are going to install globalmenu so as to display the menubar for each application. In your terminal,
cd Mac_files
wget http://gnome2-globalmenu.googlecode.com/files/gnome-globalmenu-0.4-svn964.tar.gz
tar zxvf gnome-globalmenu-0.4-svn964.tar.gz
cd globalmenu
sudo dpkg -i *.deb
If you have any errors when installing the package, try
sudo dpkg -i –force-overwrite *.deb
If you are having some installation problems with the gnome-globalmenu-applet, try
sudo apt-get install -f
Once finished, right click on the top panel and select ‘Add to panel‘. Scroll down the list and add ‘Global Menu Applet‘.

You might not see anything initially. Log out and log in again, you should now see the menubar for each application showing on the panel.
If your globalmenu is of a different shade of grey from the rest of the panel (as shown in the image below), right click on any empty space on the panel and select ‘Properties‘. Go to Background tab and select ‘Background image’. Under the selection, go to /home/username/.themes/Mac4Lin_GTK_v0.4/gtk-2.0/Panel and select panel-bg.png. Click OK. (Updated: If you can’t find the .themes folder, right-click and select ‘show hidden files‘.)
![]()
Drag the globalmenu to the left just beside the Apple icon. Right click on the globalmenu and select ‘Preferences’. Tick the box beside ‘Display the title of the current application‘ and put maximum width 100. Select the font to be Lucida Grande Bold. Click Apply and OK. You should now have a desktop that resemble Mac Leopard.

![]()
Configuring the Login screen
Click on the Apple icon, go to System->Administration->Login Window. On the Local tab, click Add. Navigate to the path /filesystem/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/GDM Theme and select the file Mac4Lin_GDM_v0.4.tar.gz. Check the box beside the newly installed theme to activate it.

Underneath, there is a color selection field, select it and key in the number E5E5E5 into the color code field.

Click Ok. Log out. You should see the login screen as the diagram below.

Configure usplash screen
usplash is the screen that you see when your computer is booting up. We are going to change it to show the white apple screen. In your terminal,
sudo apt-get install startupmanager
Go to System->Administration->Start-Up Manager Go to Appearance tab. Click on the ‘Manage bootloader theme‘. Click Add and navigate to the file /filesystem/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/GRUB Splash/appleblack.xpm.gz. Check the box “Use background image for bootloader menu” and select ‘appleblack”.


Next, click “Manage usplash theme”. Click Add and add the file /filesystem/home/username/Mac_files/Mac4Lin_v0.4/USplash Theme/osx-splash.so. Click OK. Select OSX-splash from the dropdown box.
Now reboot. You should see the following images:


Creating Dashboard effect
We will use a combination of screenlets and Compiz widget plugin to achieve the dashboard effect.
Install Screenlets
sudo apt-get install screenlets compizconfig-settings-manager
Go to System->Preferences->Advanced Desktop Effect Setting. On the Left, click on Desktop. On the right, put a check beside ‘Widget layer’

Go to Accessories->Screenlets. Activate the widgets that you want to display. Right click on the widget and select ‘Properties’. Go to Options tab and select ‘Treat as widget’. Do this for all the widgets that you have activated.

You can now see your dashboard in action by pressing F9.

Done. You have completed the transformation of your Ubuntu desktop to Mac OSX Leopard.
Some screenshots:
Tags: Leopard, Linux, Mac, transformation, Ubuntu
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[Click to close]285 Responses
.. and now all the linux user became a windows user, only desktop effect and not use linux as it is ^_^ ..
Reply
I have an AMD64 version of the Ubuntu Hardy Heron, and I’m trying to install the Global Menu Bar on my system, and it says the following:
“dpkg: error processing gnome2-globalmenu-applet_0.4-3_i386.deb (–install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
dpkg: error processing gtk2.0-examples_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb (–install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
dpkg: error processing gtk2-engines-pixbuf_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb (–install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
dpkg: error processing libgtk2.0-0_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb (–install):
package architecture (i386) does not match system (amd64)
Selecting previously deselected package libgtk2.0-bin.
(Reading database … 120805 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libgtk2.0-bin (from libgtk2.0-bin_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_all.deb) …
Preparing to replace libgtk2.0-common 2.12.9-4ubuntu3 (using libgtk2.0-common_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_all.deb) …
Unpacking replacement libgtk2.0-common …
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of libgtk2.0-bin:
libgtk2.0-bin depends on libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.12.9-4ubuntu3); however:
Version of libgtk2.0-0 on system is 2.12.9-3ubuntu5.
dpkg: error processing libgtk2.0-bin (–install):
dependency problems – leaving unconfigured
Setting up libgtk2.0-common (2.12.9-4ubuntu3) …
Errors were encountered while processing:
gnome2-globalmenu-applet_0.4-3_i386.deb
gtk2.0-examples_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb
gtk2-engines-pixbuf_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb
libgtk2.0-0_2.12.9-4ubuntu3_i386.deb
libgtk2.0-bin”
What should I do? Gr8 tutorial, by the way.
Reply
Hi!
I did this procedure, but the globalmenu install show me errors, i suspect thats errors was originated by the Ububtu update (2.16).
When attempt install .deb package at the system, the Packager Installer show me the next error: A later version is already installed
you have already any update to this package?? (globalmenu)
Thanks in advance
Rgds.
Reply
Hi,
Thanks a lot for instructions. I installed this on Jaunty.
I would not recommend using force option to install package. Find the right ones and install it.
Best Regards,
Freedom
Reply
Thanks for the great job! But how do you get the mac sound done in one shot? Or is changing the sound one by one the only method? Thanks.
Reuben
Reply
Loved the instructions. Followed it to the tee. Marvellous job!!!! Thanks.
Note: Screenlets is is System->Preferences->Screenlets and not in accessories.
Reply
Cairo-Dock2 is now the recommended dock. It gives a much better “MacOS” look and feel.
Reply
Once before when I installed this i had wiggly windows when I moved them; now they don’t wiggle. What can I do to get them back? Thanks.
Reply
Great Instructions for a linux newbie ! got a bit started but started seeing erros with first 2 commands:
Need some help:
1st command: Is this OK ?
sudo apt-get update
E: Some index files failed to download, they have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
2nd one: Install avant window manager failed as follows:
Looks like some packages need to be installed but I dont know how or where from. So, now I dont have the AWN in system->preferences.
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
avant-window-navigator-trunk: Depends: libawn0-trunk (>= 0.3.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: python-awn-trunk (>= 0.3.3~bzr566-1.8.04) but it is not going to be installed
awn-extras-applets-trunk: Depends: libawn0-trunk (>= 0.3.0) but it is not going to be installed
Depends: libffi4 but it is not installable
Depends: libgnome-desktop-2 (>= 1:2.22) but it is not installable
Depends: python (< 2.6) but 2.6.2-0ubuntu1 is to be installed
Recommends: python-awn-trunk but it is not going to be installed
Recommends: vala-awn-trunk but it is not going to be installed
awn-manager-trunk: Depends: python-awn-trunk but it is not going to be installed
E: Broken packages
Reply
which Ubuntu version is recommend for this mac osx?
Reply
which Ubuntu version is recommend for this mac osx???
Reply