From ArchWiki

Contents 1 Configuration Tips 1.1 Better Video Performance 1.2 Add/Edit GDM Sessions 1.3 Tweaking 2 Misc Tips 2.1 Screen Lock 2.2 Nautilus Tips 2.2.1 Change Browser Mode (Spatial View) 2.3 Speed Up Panel Autohide 3 Useful Add-ons 3.1 FAM 3.2 Gnome System Monitor 3.3 Burning CDs from Nautilus 3.4 Alacarte 3.5 Gnome System Tools 3.6 Gdesklets: Desktop Candy 4 Other Applications 4.1 gnome-terminal 4.2 gedit 4.3 eog 4.4 file-roller 4.5 gcalctool 4.6 rhythmbox 4.7 sound-juicer 4.8 totem 4.9 gimp 4.10 gftp 4.11 abiword 4.12 gnumeric 4.13 Leave message feature in gnome screensaver 4.14 DevilsPie 5 See also

[edit] Configuration Tips

[edit] Better Video Performance

Some users report that, if they move the player window while playing a video file, a blue border appears around the video while it is moving. If you experience this, go to Desktop->Preferences->Multimedia Systems Selector, and under video change the "Default Sink" to "XWindows (No Xv)". When you click test, the blue border should be gone and on the whole, video should perform better.

Edit: This no longer applies to Gnome 2.20 and later (Evanlec)

[edit] Add/Edit GDM Sessions

To add or edit sessions to GDM: The GDM configuration file is located at /opt/gnome/etc/gdm/gdm.conf. The gdm.conf file links to the desktop/window manager sessions in the folder /etc/X11/sessions. The sessions are in the format *.desktop. To add a new session

1. Copy an existing *.desktop file to use as a template for a new session:

cd /etc/X11/sessions
cp enlightenment.desktop waimea.desktop

1. Modify the template *.desktop file to open the required window manager:

nano waimea.desktop

Alternatively, you can open the new session in KDM. This creates the *.desktop file. Then return to using GDM and the new session will be available.

[edit] Tweaking

If your gnome applications seem sluggish and gnome hangs at start-up after killing the previous session, it's likely you haven't set your /etc/hosts file correctly and enabled the loopback device. Make sure your /etc/rc.conf file includes:

HOSTNAME="YOURHOSTNAME" 
lo="lo 127.0.0.1"
INTERFACES=(lo)

if you have a router for your broadband connection then last line looks like:

INTERFACES=(lo eth0)

where "eth0" is the ethernet card connecting to your router.

and your /etc/hosts file includes:

127.0.0.1       localhost.localdomain     localhost      YOURHOSTNAME

Then run "/bin/hostname YOURHOSTNAME" and "/sbin/ifconfig lo up" as root.

also see [1]

[edit] Misc Tips

[edit] Screen Lock

1. Install xscreenserver

 pacman -S xscreensaver

1. Go to Desktop -> Preferences -> Screensaver
2. Enable one or more screensavers
3. Lock Screen will now start your screensaver and require your password to stop it.

or you can install gnome-screensaver

pacman -S gnome-screensaver

[edit] Nautilus Tips

Get a certain path in spatial view? Just type:

control + L

[edit] Change Browser Mode (Spatial View)

1. Start gconf-editor
2. Browse to apps/nautilus/preferences
3. Change the value of "always_use_browser" (it's a yes/no value and should be visible as a checkbox or say "false", for the later change the value to "true")

Or you can do this through the preferences:

1. In a Nautilus window go to Edit>>Preferences
2. Change to the Behaviour tab
3. Check (or uncheck) Always Open in Browser Windows

[edit] Speed Up Panel Autohide

If you find that your panels are taking too long to appear/disappear when using the Panel Autohide feature, try this;

1. Start gconf-editor
2. Browse to /apps/panel/global
3. Set panel_hide_delay and panel_show_delay to more sensible (integer) values. Note that these values represent milliseconds!

[edit] Useful Add-ons

[edit] FAM

FAM allows gnome to do such useful things as automatically update the menu when new applications are installed, and refresh nautilus when a directory it is viewing is changed.

See the FAM Wiki for instructions on how to install it.

[edit] Gnome System Monitor

This application appears when the "System Monitor" applet is clicked, and displays the processor/memory usage of all running applications. It is not installed be default in the gnome group, so you need to install it separately using:

pacman -Sy gnome-system-monitor

[edit] Burning CDs from Nautilus

pacman -Sy nautilus-cd-burner

[edit] Alacarte

This is a more powerful menu editor than the built in. Many other distros have this bundled in, so you may find it more as you expect. Once installed, it is run by right-clicking the menu and clicking Edit Menus. Install with

pacman -S alacarte

[edit] Gnome System Tools

This adds several Gnome menu items under System->Administration, specifically user management, date and time, network configuration, runlevels, and shared folders through samba or NFS. See Gnome documentation.

pacman -Sy gnome-system-tools

Pay attention to the post-install message from pacman.

[edit] Gdesklets: Desktop Candy

Put a clock, calendar, weather report, and more onto your desktop

pacman -S gdesklets

You can find more desklets at gdesklets.org. To install them, download the files. Next, in the Gnome menu, open Applications->Accessories->gDesklets. When the gDesklets Shell appears, drag the new gdesklet file onto the shell. If you want gdesklets to load when you log in, click on the Gnome menu under System->Preferences->Sessions. Choose "Startup Programs", click "add", and type in the data. The command should be /usr/bin/gdesklets. You can always find such a path by typing "whereis gdesklets".

[edit] Other Applications

These are some other nice applications and utilities for gnome, most of which can be downloaded all at once with:

pacman -Sy gnome-extra

This is a group, so it is quite easy to choose not to download some of the packages, such as the documentation.

[edit] gnome-terminal

Install this application before logging into gnome for the first time unless you prefer to use xterm.

[edit] gedit

A text editor with syntax highlighting.

[edit] eog

Eye-of-Gnome, a handy, fast little image viewer which can re-size and rotate photos.

[edit] file-roller

An archive manager which supports many different formats. (Install unrar, unzip, ... to get the respective formats)

[edit] gcalctool

A calculator, what else?

[edit] rhythmbox

An iTunes like audio library and player.

[edit] sound-juicer

CD Ripper, integrates with rhythmbox.

To enable default mp3 profiles in preferences menu:

pacman -S gstreamer0.10-lame gstreamer0.10-taglib

Note: This should not be necessary anymore, since these packages now are included in gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins and gstreamer0.10-good-plugins.

If you're having other problems with SoundJuicer , click here

[edit] totem

A video player which uses gstreamer for decoding its input.

[edit] gimp

Photoshop alternative for linux, only better and open-source. A must-have if you ever do anything with graphics.

[edit] gftp

An nice little FTP client for gnome.

[edit] abiword

A small, fast, .doc compatible word processor.

[edit] gnumeric

A very nice, excel like spreadsheet editor.

[edit] Leave message feature in gnome screensaver

This is a cool feature provided by gnome-screensaver 2.20, somebody can leave a message for you when you are not at your desk. Please install notification-daemon to make this work.

• SECURITY WARNING

Do not keep any important or secret information in your clipboard before you lock the screen and leave your machine unattended. See : http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=482159 for more information

[edit] DevilsPie

A very useful application that can be run as a daemon within gnome. It manipulates windows allowing you to start programs on a desired desktop or in a size of your choice among many other things. Brings a whole new level of control into the metacity engine. There's a pretty good HOWTO on their homepage,

[edit] See also

• Gnome
• Gnome Menu tweaking
• Gnome Custom Menu Icon