Install Hamster Indicator (Time Tracking Tool) In Ubuntu

Hamster applet is a tool that helps you keep track on how much time you've spent during various activities. For more information, see the Hamster Project page.

To be able to use Hamster applet in Unity, it had to use an AppIndicator and thanks to Alberto Milone's work, an Hamster Indicator is finally available and comes with a PPA for easy installation.

By default, Hamster Indicator only displays an icon on the Unity panel. If you want to get your current activity label like in my screenshot,  see "Tweaking Hamster Indicator" below.

Install Hamster Indicator in Ubuntu

To add the PPA and install Hamster Indicator in Ubuntu 11.04 or 11.10, use the commands below:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:albertomilone/hamster-indicator
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install hamster-indicator

Once installed run it by pressing ALT + F2 and entering:

hamster-indicator

Tweaking Hamster Indicator

By default, Hamster Indicator won't display any info on the Unity panel. To get it to display the activity label, use the command below:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/hamster-indicator/show_label" --type bool "true"

To disable this, use the following command:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/hamster-indicator/show_label" --type bool "false"

Because of the activity label length settings, only the time will be displayed when using the command above. To change the maximum label length and thus display the activity too (you can tweak the value for the command below to whatever you like), use the command below:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/hamster-indicator/label_length" --type int "20"

Hamster Indicator can also display a glow when an activity is undergoing (this is useful if you don't want Hamster Indicator to display any text on the panel) which you can enable using the command below:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/hamster-indicator/icon_glow" --type bool "true"

If you change your mind and want to disable the icon glow, use the command below:

gconftool-2 --set "/apps/hamster-indicator/icon_glow" --type bool "false"

And finally: Hamster Indicator is not added automatically to your startup applications so to add it, search for "Startup Applications" in Dash, then click "Add", under "Name" enter "Hamster Indicator" and under "Command" enter "hamster-indicator". That's it!

Many thanks to Alberto Milone for Hamster Indicator and the info!