GNOME: Difference between revisions
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For hinting, RGBA will likely be desired as this fits most monitors types, and if fonts appear too blocked reduce hinting to ''Slight'' or ''None''. | For hinting, RGBA will likely be desired as this fits most monitors types, and if fonts appear too blocked reduce hinting to ''Slight'' or ''None''. | ||
==== | ==== Autostarting applications ==== | ||
GNOME implements [[XDG Autostart]]. | |||
The {{Pkg|gnome-tweaks}} allows managing autostart-entries. | The {{Pkg|gnome-tweaks}} allows managing autostart-entries. |
Revision as of 11:56, 14 April 2018
GNOME (pronounced gah-nohm or nohm) is a desktop environment that aims to be simple and easy to use. It is designed by The GNOME Project and is composed entirely of free and open-source software. GNOME is a part of the GNU Project. The default display is Wayland instead of Xorg.
Installation
Two groups are available:
- gnome contains the base GNOME desktop and a subset of well-integrated applications;
- gnome-extra contains further GNOME applications, including an archive manager, disk manager, text editor, and a set of games. Note that this group builds on the gnome group.
The base desktop consists of GNOME Shell, a plugin for the Mutter window manager. It can be installed separately with gnome-shell.
GNOME Sessions
GNOME has three available sessions, all using GNOME Shell.
- GNOME is the default which uses Wayland. Traditional X applications are run through Xwayland.
- GNOME Classic is a traditional desktop layout with a similar interface to GNOME 2, using pre-activated extensions and parameters. [1] Hence it is more a customized GNOME Shell than a truly distinct mode.
- GNOME on Xorg runs GNOME Shell using Xorg.
Starting
GNOME can be started either graphically, using a display manager, or manually from the console.
Graphically
Select the session: GNOME, GNOME Classic, or GNOME on Xorg from the display manager's session menu.
Manually
Xorg sessions
- For the GNOME on Xorg session, add to the
~/.xinitrc
file:exec gnome-session
. - For the GNOME Classic session, add to the
~/.xinitrc
file:export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME-Classic:GNOME export GNOME_SHELL_SESSION_MODE=classic exec gnome-session --session=gnome-classic
After editing the ~/.xinitrc
file, GNOME can be launched with the startx
command (see xinitrc for additional details, such as preserving the logind session). After setting up the ~/.xinitrc
file it can also be arranged to Start X at login.
Wayland sessions
- An X server—provided by the xorg-server-xwayland package—is still necessary to run applications that have not yet been ported to Wayland.
- Wayland with the proprietary NVIDIA driver currently suffers from very poor performance: FS#53284.
Manually starting a Wayland session is possible with XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland dbus-run-session gnome-session
.
To start on login to tty1, add the following to your .bash_profile
:
if [[ -z $DISPLAY ]] && [[ $(tty) = /dev/tty1 ]] && [[ -z $XDG_SESSION_TYPE ]]; then XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland exec dbus-run-session gnome-session fi
GNOME applications in Wayland
When the GNOME session is used, GNOME applications will be run using Wayland. For debugging cases, the GTK+ manual lists options and environment variables.
To learn how to use the GNOME shell effectively read the GNOME Shell Cheat Sheet; it highlights GNOME shell features and keyboard shortcuts. Features include task switching, keyboard use, window control, the panel, overview mode, and more. A few of the shortcuts are:
Super
+m
: show message traySuper
+a
: show applications menuAlt-
+Tab
: cycle active applicationsAlt-
+`
(the key aboveTab
on US keyboard layouts): cycle windows of the application in the foregroundAlt
+F2
, then enterr
orrestart
: restart the shell in case of graphical shell problems (only in X/legacy mode, not in Wayland mode).
Legacy names
Current | Legacy |
---|---|
Files | Nautilus |
Web | Epiphany |
Videos | Totem |
Main Menu | Alacarte |
Document Viewer | Evince |
Disk Usage Analyser | Baobab |
Image Viewer | EoG (Eye of GNOME) |
Passwords and Keys | Seahorse |
Configuration
The GNOME System Settings panel (gnome-control-center) and GNOME applications use the dconf configuration system to store their settings.
You can directly access the dconf database using the gsettings
or dconf
command line tools. This also allows you to configure settings not exposed by the user interfaces.
Up until GNOME 3.24 settings were applied by the GNOME settings daemon, which could be run outside of a GNOME session using:
$ nohup /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gnome-settings-daemon > /dev/null &
GNOME 3.24 however replaced the GNOME settings daemon with several separate settings plugins /usr/lib/gnome-settings-daemon/gsd-*
. These plugins are now controlled via desktop files under /etc/xdg/autostart
(org.gnome.SettingsDaemon.*.desktop). To run these plugins outside of a GNOME session you will now need to copy/edit the appropriate desktop entries to ~/.config/autostart
.
The configuration is usually performed user-specific, this section does not cover how to create configuration templates for multiple users.
System settings
Color
The daemon colord
reads the display's EDID and extracts the appropriate color profile. Most color profiles are accurate and no setup is required; however for those that are not accurate, or for older displays, color profiles can be put in ~/.local/share/icc/
and directed to.
Night Light
GNOME comes with a built-in blue light filter similar to Redshift. You can enable and customise the time you want to enable Night Light from the display settings menu. Furthermore, you can tweak the kelvin temperature with the following dconf setting, where 5000 is an example value:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.color night-light-temperature 5000
Date & time
If the system has a configured Network Time Protocol daemon, it will be effective for GNOME as well. The synchronization can be set to manual control from the menu, if required.
To show the date in the top bar, execute:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-date true
Additionally, to show week numbers in the calendar opened on the top bar, execute:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.calendar show-weekdate true
Default applications
Upon installing GNOME for the first time, you may find that the wrong applications are handling certain protocols. For example, totem opens videos instead of a previously used VLC. Some of the associations can be set from system settings via: System > Details > Default applications.
For other protocols and methods see Default applications for configuration.
Mouse and touchpad
To help reduce touchpad interference you may wish to implement the settings below via gnome-control-center:
- Disable touchpad while typing
- Disable scrolling
- Disable tap-to-click
Depending on your device, other configuration settings may be available, but not exposed via the default GUI. For example, a different touchpad click-method
$ gsettings range org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method
enum 'default' 'none' 'areas' 'fingers'
to be set manually:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.peripherals.touchpad click-method 'fingers'
or via gnome-tweaks.
Network
NetworkManager is the native tool of the GNOME project to control network settings from the shell. Install the networkmanager package and enable the NetworkManager.service
systemd unit.
While any other network manager can be used as well, NetworkManager provides the full integration via the shell network settings and a status indicator applet network-manager-applet (not required for GNOME).
Online accounts
Backends for the GNOME messaging application empathy as well as the GNOME Online Accounts section of the System Settings panel are provided in a separate group: telepathy. See Unable to add accounts in Empathy and GNOME Online Accounts. Some online accounts, such as ownCloud, require gvfs-goa to be installed for full functionality in GNOME applications such as GNOME Files and GNOME Documents [2].
Search
The GNOME shell has a search that can be quickly accessed by pressing the Super
key and starting to type. The tracker package is installed by default as a part of gnome group and provides an indexing application and metadata database. It can be configured with the Search and Indexing menu item; monitor status with tracker-control. It is started automatically by gnome-session when the user logs in. Indexing can be started manually with tracker-control -s
. Search settings can also be configured in the System Settings panel.
The Tracker database can be queried using the tracker-sparql command. View its manual page tracker-sparql(1) for more information.
Advanced settings
As noted above, many configuration options such as changing the GTK+ theme or the window manager theme are not exposed in the GNOME System Settings panel (gnome-control-center). Those users that want to configure these settings may wish to use the GNOME Tweaks (gnome-tweaks), a convenient graphical tool which exposes many of these settings.
GNOME settings (which are stored in the DConf database) can also be configured using the dconf-editor (a graphical DConf configuration tool) or the gsettings command line tool. The GNOME Tweaks does not do anything else in the background of the GUI; note though that you will not find all settings described in the following sections in it.
Appearance
GTK+ themes and icon themes
To install a new theme or icon set, add the relevant ~/.local/share/themes
or ~/.local/share/icons
respectively (add to /usr/share/
instead of ~/.local/share/
for the themes to be available systemwide.) They and other GUI settings can also be defined in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
[Settings] gtk-theme-name = Adwaita # next option is applicable only if selected theme supports it gtk-application-prefer-dark-theme = true # set font name and dimension gtk-font-name = Sans 10
Additional theme locations:
- DeviantArt.
- gnome-look.org.
- GTK+ 3 themes in the AUR.
- Cursor themes in the AUR.
- Icon themes in the AUR.
Once installed, they can be selected using the GNOME Tweaks or GSettings - see below for GSettings commands:
For the GTK+ theme:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface gtk-theme theme-name
For the icon theme
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface icon-theme theme-name
Global dark theme
GNOME will use the Adwaita light theme by default however a dark variant of this theme (called the Global Dark Theme) also exists and can be selected using the Tweaks or by editing the GTK+ 3 settings file - see GTK+#Dark theme variant. Some applications such as Image Viewer (eog) use the dark theme by default. It should be noted that the Global Dark Theme only works with GTK+ 3 applications; some GTK+ 3 applications may only have partial support for the Global Dark theme. Qt and GTK+ 2 support for the Global Dark Theme may be added in the future.
Window manager themes
The window manager theme follows the GTK+ theme. Using org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences theme
is deprecated and ignored.
Titlebar height
~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
headerbar.default-decoration { padding-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; min-height: 0px; font-size: 0.6em; } headerbar.default-decoration button.titlebutton { padding: 0px; min-height: 0px; }
See [3] for more information.
Titlebar button order
To set the order for the GNOME window manager (Mutter, Metacity):
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout ':minimize,maximize,close'
Hide titlebar when maximized
- Install gnome-shell-extension-pixel-saver-gitAUR or gnome-shell-extension-pixel-saverAUR. Maximized windows get the title bar merged into the activity bar, saving precious pixels.
- Install mutter-hide-legacy-decorationsAUR. It changes a default setting in the window manager, so as to automatically hide the titlebar on legacy (non-headerbar) apps when they are maximized or tiled to the side.
- Install maximusAUR. To start the application, execute maximus from a terminal. When running, the daemon will automatically maximize windows. It will undecorate maximized windows and redecorate them when they are unmaximized. If you do not want all windows to start maximized, run
maximus -m
instead. Note that this will only work with windows decorated by the window manager; applications that use client-side decoration such as GNOME Files will not be undecorated when maximized.
GNOME Shell themes
The theme of GNOME Shell itself is configurable. To use a Shell theme, firstly ensure that you have the gnome-shell-extensions package installed. Then enable the User Themes extension, either through GNOME Tweaks or through the GNOME Shell Extensions webpage. Shell themes can then be loaded and selected using the GNOME Tweaks.
There are a number of GNOME Shell themes available in the AUR.
Shell themes can also be downloaded from gnome-look.org.
The default GNOME schema doesn't display any icon on menus. To display icons on menus, issue the following command.
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides "{'Gtk/ButtonImages': <1>, 'Gtk/MenuImages': <1>}"
Desktop
Various Desktop settings can be applied.
Icons on the Desktop
Up until GNOME 3.28, icons on the desktop were provided by Files which would draw a transparent window over the desktop containing the icons. As of GNOME 3.28 this functionality has been removed and desktop icons are no longer available in GNOME. Possible workarounds include using Nemo (a fork of Files which still has desktop icons functionality) or installing gnome-shell-extension-desktop-iconsAUR which partially replicates the desktop icon functionality available in GNOME 3.26 and below. For more information, please see the following Arch forum thread.
Lock screen and background
When setting the Desktop or Lock screen background, it is important to note that the Pictures tab will only display pictures located in /home/username/Pictures
folder. If you wish to use a picture not located in this folder, use the commands indicated below.
For the desktop background:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:///path/to/my/picture.jpg'
For the lock screen background
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver picture-uri 'file:///path/to/my/picture.jpg'
Disable top left hot corner
You can disable the top left hot corner with the gnome-shell-extension-no-topleft-hot-cornerAUR package.
Extensions
GNOME Shell can be customized with extensions per user or system-wide.
The catalogue of extensions is available at extensions.gnome.org. By a user they can be installed and activated in the browser by setting the switch in the top left of the screen to ON and clicking Install on the resulting dialog (if the extension in question is not installed). After installation it is shown in the extensions.gnome.org/local/ tab, which has to be visited as well to check for available updates. Installed extensions can also be enabled or disabled using gnome-tweaks.
More information about GNOME shell extensions is available on the GNOME Shell Extensions about page.
Installing extensions via a package makes them available for all users of the system and automates the update process.
The gnome-shell-extensions package provides a set of extensions maintained as part of the GNOME project (many of the included extensions are used by the GNOME Classic session).
Users who want a taskbar but do not wish to use the GNOME Classic session may want to enable the Window list extension (provided by the gnome-shell-extensions package).
Listing currently enabled extensions can be achieved with:
$ gsettings get org.gnome.shell enabled-extensions
Input methods
GNOME has integrated support for input methods through IBus, only ibus and the wanted input method engine (e.g. ibus-libpinyin for Intelligent Pinyin) needed to be installed, after installation the input method engine can be added as a keyboard layout in GNOME's Regional & Language Settings.
Fonts
Fonts can be set for Window titles, Interface (applications), Documents and Monospace. See the Fonts tab in the Tweaks for the relevant options.
For hinting, RGBA will likely be desired as this fits most monitors types, and if fonts appear too blocked reduce hinting to Slight or None.
Autostarting applications
GNOME implements XDG Autostart.
The gnome-tweaks allows managing autostart-entries.
gnome-tweaks
. See the following forum thread.Power
When you are using a laptop you might want to alter the following settings:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout 3600 $ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-type hibernate $ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-timeout 1800 $ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type hibernate $ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power power-button-action suspend $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen true
To keep the monitor active when the lid is closed:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xrandr default-monitors-setup do-nothing
GNOME 3.24 deprecated the following settings:
org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-hibernate org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-power org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-sleep org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-suspend org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power critical-battery-action
Configure behaviour on lid switch close
The GNOME Tweaks can optionally inhibit the systemd setting for the lid close ACPI event.[4] To inhibit the setting, start the tweaks tool and, under the power tab, check the Don't suspend on lid close option. This means that the system will do nothing on lid close instead of suspending - the default behaviour. Checking the setting creates ~/.config/autostart/ignore-lid-switch-tweak.desktop
which will autostart the Tweaks's inhibitor.
If you do not want the system to suspend or do nothing on lid close, you will need to ensure that the setting described above is not checked and then configure systemd with HandleLidSwitch=preferred_behaviour
as described in Power management#ACPI events.
Change critical battery level action
The settings panel does not provide an option for changing the critical battery level action. These settings have been removed from dconf as well. They are now managed by upower. Edit the upower settings in /etc/UPower/UPower.conf
. Find these settings and adjust to your needs.
/etc/UPower/UPower.conf
PercentageLow=10 PercentageCritical=3 PercentageAction=2 CriticalPowerAction=HybridSleep
Sort applications into application (app) folders
~/.local/share/applications-categories
named after each category and containing a list of the desktop files belonging to apps you would like to have inside. Optionally, you can have it cycle through each app without a folder and input the desired category until you ctrl-c or run out of apps.In the dconf-editor navigate to org.gnome.desktop.app-folders
and set the value of folder-children
to an array of comma separated folder names:
['Utilities', 'Sundry']
Add applications using gsettings
:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Sundry/ apps "['alacarte.desktop', 'dconf-editor.desktop']"
This adds the applications alacarte.desktop
and dconf-editor.desktop
to the Sundry folder. This will also create the folder org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folders.Sundry
.
To name the folder (if it has no name that appears at the top of the applications):
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Sundry/ name "Sundry"
Applications can also be sorted by their category (specified in their .desktop file):
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Sundry/ categories "['Office']"
If certain applications matching a category are not wanted in a certain folder, exclusions can be set:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.app-folders.folder:/org/gnome/desktop/app-folders/folders/Sundry/ excluded-apps "['libreoffice-draw.desktop']"
For further information, refer to the app-folders schema.
Use a different window manager
GNOME Shell does not support using a different window manager, however GNOME Flashback provides sessions for Metacity and Compiz. Furthermore, it is possible to define your own custom GNOME sessions which use alternative components.
See also
- Official Website
- GNOME-Shell Extensions
- GNOME Shell Cheat Sheet
- Customization (themes, icons...):
- GNOME applications:
- GNOME Source/Mirrors: