Difference between revisions of "GNOME"
m (→Starting GNOME) |
m (→Starting GNOME) |
||
Line 67: | Line 67: | ||
Should GNOME fail to start, you could try adding your user to the {{ic|video}} group as shown below | Should GNOME fail to start, you could try adding your user to the {{ic|video}} group as shown below | ||
− | # gpasswd -a ''username'' video | + | # gpasswd -a ''username'' video |
Replace the word username with your own username. You will need to log out and log in again for the changes to be applied. | Replace the word username with your own username. You will need to log out and log in again for the changes to be applied. |
Revision as of 17:07, 13 January 2014
From GNOME website:
- The GNOME Project was started in 1997 by two then university students, Miguel de Icaza and Federico Mena. Their aim: to produce a free (as in freedom) desktop environment. Since then, GNOME has grown into a hugely successful enterprise. Used by millions of people across the world, it is the most popular desktop environment for GNU/Linux and UNIX-type operating systems. The desktop has been utilised in successful, large-scale enterprise and public deployments, and the project’s developer technologies are utilised in a large number of popular mobile devices.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Installation
- 3 Starting GNOME
- 4 Using the shell
- 5 Pacman integration: GNOME PackageKit
- 6 Customizing GNOME appearance
- 6.1 Overall appearance
- 6.2 Totem
- 6.3 GNOME panel
- 6.4 Activity view
- 6.4.1 Remove entries from Applications view
- 6.4.2 To Remove Wine Launchers from the Applications menu
- 6.4.3 Change application icon size
- 6.4.4 Change dash icon size
- 6.4.5 Change switcher (alt-tab) icon size
- 6.4.6 Change system tray icon size
- 6.4.7 Disable Activity hot corner hovering
- 6.4.8 Disable Message Tray hovering
- 6.5 Titlebar
- 6.6 Login screen
- 6.7 Power Management
- 6.8 Other tips
- 7 Miscellaneous settings
- 7.1 Switch back scrolling behavior
- 7.2 Autostarting / Automatic program launch upon logging in
- 7.3 Editing applications menu
- 7.4 Some 'System Settings' not preserved
- 7.5 Inner padding in Gnome Terminal
- 7.6 Disable blinking cursor in Terminal
- 7.7 Make new tabs inherit current directory in Gnome Terminal (3.8+)
- 7.8 Move dialog windows
- 7.9 Show context menu icons
- 7.10 GNOME shell extensions
- 7.11 Default file browser/replace Nautilus
- 7.12 Default PDF viewer
- 7.13 Default terminal
- 7.14 Default Applications
- 7.15 Default web browser
- 7.16 Middle mouse button
- 7.17 Display dimming
- 8 Search
- 9 Hidden features
- 10 Integrated messaging (Empathy)
- 11 Troubleshooting
- 11.1 Cannot Set Settings in Dconf-Editor
- 11.2 When an extension breaks GNOME
- 11.3 Extensions do not work after GNOME 3 update
- 11.4 Remove Gnome Shell Extensions
- 11.5 The "Windows" key
- 11.6 Keyboard Shortcut do not work with only conky running
- 11.7 Window opens behind other windows when using multiple monitors
- 11.8 Multiple monitors and dock extension
- 11.9 Gnome sets the keyboard layout to USA after every log in
- 11.10 "Show Desktop" keyboard shortcut does not work
- 11.11 Nautilus does not start
- 11.12 Unable to apply stored configuration for monitors
- 11.13 Lock button fails to re-enable touchpad
- 11.14 Unable to connect to secured Wi-Fi networks
- 11.15 "Any command has been defined 33"
- 11.16 GDM and GNOME use X11 cursors
- 11.17 Tracker & Documents do not list any local files
- 11.18 Passwords are not remembered
- 11.19 Windows cannot be modified with Alt-Key + Mouse-Button
- 11.20 Gnome-shell 3.8.x fails to load with a black screen + cursor
- 11.21 Gnome 3.10 UI elements scale incorrectly
- 12 External links
Introduction
GNOME 3 has two sessions:
- GNOME is the standard, innovative layout.
- GNOME Classic is a traditional desktop layout, similar to the GNOME 2 user interface whilst using standard GNOME 3 technologies. It does so through the use of pre-activated extensions and parameters (see here for a list). Hence it consists more of a customized GNOME Shell than a truly distinct mode.
Both of them use GNOME Shell, a desktop shell and plugin of the Mutter window manager. Mutter acts as a composite manager for the desktop, employing hardware graphics acceleration to provide effects aimed at reducing screen clutter. GNOME session manager automatically detects if your video driver is capable of running GNOME Shell and if not, falls back to software rendering using llvmpipe.
Installation
GNOME 3 is available in the official repositories and can be installed with two groups of packages:
- The gnome-shell package provides a minimal desktop shell.
- The gnome group contains the core desktop environment and applications required for the standard GNOME experience.
- The gnome-extra group contains various optional tools such as an editor, an archive manager, a disk burner, a mail client, games, development tools and other non-critical applications that integrate well with the GNOME desktop. Installing this group is optional.
Starting GNOME
Graphical log-in
For the best desktop integration, GDM (the GNOME Display Manager) is recommended. GDM is installed as part of the gnome and can be used by enabling its systemd service file
# systemctl enable gdm
Other display managers can be used in place of GDM if desired.
The login manager is a limited process entrusted with duties that impact the system. The PolicyKit article addresses the topic of system‑wide access control.
Should GNOME fail to start, you could try adding your user to the video
group as shown below
# gpasswd -a username video
Replace the word username with your own username. You will need to log out and log in again for the changes to be applied.
Starting GNOME manually
If you prefer to start GNOME manually from the console, add the following line to your ~/.xinitrc
file:
~/.xinitrc
exec gnome-session
Or exec gnome-session --session=gnome-classic
for GNOME Classic. After editing your ~/.xinitrc
, GNOME can be launched by typing startx
.
See xinitrc for details, such as preserving the logind session.
Using the shell
GNOME cheat sheet
The GNOME web site has a helpful GNOME Shell cheat sheet explaining task switching, keyboard use, window control, the panel, overview mode, and more.
Restarting the shell
After appearance tweaks you are often asked to restart the GNOME shell. You could log out and log back in, but it is simpler and faster to issue the following keyboard command. Restart the shell by pressing Alt
+ F2
then r
then Enter
Shell crashes
Certain tweaks and/or repeated shell restarts may cause the shell to crash when a restart is attempted. In this case, you are informed about the crash and then forced to log out. Some shell changes cannot be accomplished via a keyboard restart; you must log out and log back in to effect them.
It is common sense — but worth repeating — that valuable documents should be saved (and perhaps closed) before attempting a shell restart. It is not strictly necessary; open windows and documents usually remain intact after a shell restart.
Shell freezes
Sometimes shell extensions freeze the GNOME Shell. In this case a possible strategy is to switch to another terminal via Ctrl+Alt+F2
through Ctrl+Alt+F6
, log in, and restart gnome-shell with:
# pkill -HUP gnome-shell
All open applications will still be available after restarting the shell.
Sometimes, however, merely restarting the shell might not be enough. Then you will have to restart X, losing all work in progress. You can restart X by:
# pkill X
The GNOME Shell then restarts automatically.
If this does not work, you can try to restart your login manager. For instance, if you use GDM, try:
# systemctl restart gdm.service
Pacman integration: GNOME PackageKit
GNOME 3 has his own GUI integration of pacman: gnome-packagekit.
Using the alpm backend, it supports the following features:
- Install and remove packages from the repos.
- Periodically refresh package databases and prompt for updates.
- Install packages from tarballs.
- Search for packages by name, description, category or file.
- Show package dependencies, files and reverse dependencies.
- Ignore IgnorePkgs and hold HoldPkgs.
- Report optional dependencies, .pacnew files, etc.
You can change the remove
operation from -Rc to -Rsc by setting the DConf key org.gnome.packagekit.enable-autoremove
.
Packages updates notifications
If you want GNOME to check automatically for updates, you must install gnome-settings-daemon-updates from the official repository.
Customizing GNOME appearance
Overall appearance
GNOME 3 may have "started from scratch", but like most large software projects it is assembled from parts dating to different eras. There is not one all-encompassing configuration tool. The new Systems Settings tool is a big improvement over previous control panels. System Settings is well-organized, but you may find yourself wishing for more control over system appearance.
You may be familiar with existing configuration tools: some of these still work; many will not. Some settings are not readily exposed for you to change. Indubitably, many settings will migrate to newer tools and/or become exposed as time progresses and the wider community embraces and extends the latest GNOME desktop.
Gsettings
A new command-line tool gsettings
stores data in a binary format, unlike previous tools using XML text. A tutorial Customizing the GNOME Shell explores the power of gsettings.
GNOME tweak tool
This graphical tool customizes fonts, themes, titlebar buttons and other settings. gnome-tweak-tool is available from the official repositories.
GTK3 theme via settings.ini
It is possible to set a GTK3 theme via ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
(usually ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
).
Adwaita, the default GNOME 3 theme, is a part of gnome-themes-standard. Additional GTK3 themes can be found at Deviantart web site. For example:
${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
[Settings] gtk-theme-name = Adwaita gtk-fallback-icon-theme = gnome # 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
It is necessary to restart the GNOME shell for settings to be applied. More GTK options are found at GNOME developer documentation.
Icon theme
Using gnome-tweak-tool version 3.0.3 and later, you can place any icon theme you wish to use inside ~/.icons
.
Usefully, GNOME 3 is compatible with GNOME 2 icon themes, which means you are not stuck with the default icons. To install a new set of icons, copy your desired icon theme's directory to ~/.icons
. As an example:
$ cp -R /home/user/Desktop/my_icon_theme ~/.icons
The new theme my_icon_theme is now selectable using gnome-tweak-tool
under interface.
Alternatively, you may textually select your icon theme with no need for gnome-tweak-tool. Add the GTK icon theme name to ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
. Please note, not to use "" as your settings would not be recognised then.
${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
... previous lines ... gtk-icon-theme-name = my_new_icon_theme
Totem
To play back h.264 videos, you need to install gst-libav
For more information on gstreamer hardware acceleration, see Gstreamer: Hardware Acceleration.
GNOME panel
Show date in top bar
By default GNOME displays only the weekday and time in the top bar. This can be changed with the following command. Changes take effect immediately.
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-date true
Hiding icons in the top bar
When doing a GNOME install, some unwanted icons might appear in the panel. These icons can be removed either with GNOME shell extensions or by manually editing the GNOME panel script.
Hiding icons with shell extensions
To remove the accessibility icon, one can use the https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/112/remove-accesibility/.
The best way to use extensions is installing them from the gnome extensions web page like the one above.
Manually editing the GNOME panel script
For example, to remove the universal access icon, comment out the 'a11y' line in PANEL_ITEM_IMPLEMENTATIONS:
/usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/panel.js
const PANEL_ITEM_IMPLEMENTATIONS = { 'activities': ActivitiesButton, 'appMenu': AppMenuButton, 'dateMenu': imports.ui.dateMenu.DateMenuButton, // 'a11y': imports.ui.status.accessibility.ATIndicator, 'volume': imports.ui.status.volume.Indicator, 'battery': imports.ui.status.power.Indicator, 'lockScreen': imports.ui.status.lockScreenMenu.Indicator, 'keyboard': imports.ui.status.keyboard.InputSourceIndicator, 'powerMenu': imports.gdm.powerMenu.PowerMenuButton, 'userMenu': imports.ui.userMenu.UserMenuButton };
Then, save your results and restart the shell:
Alt+F2
r
Enter
Show battery icon
To show the battery tray icon, install gnome-power-manager from the official repositories.
Eliminate delay when logging out
The following tweak removes the confirmation dialog and sixty second delay for logging out.
This dialog normally appears when you log out with the status menu. This tweak affects the Power Off dialog as well. This is not a system-wide change; it affects only the user who enters this command. The change takes effect immediately after entering the command.
$ gsettings set org.gnome.SessionManager logout-prompt 'false'
Show system monitor
Install the gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet-gitAUR extension available in the AUR.
Show weather information
Install gnome-shell-extension-weather-gitAUR from AUR.
Activity view
Remove entries from Applications view
Like other desktop environments, GNOME uses .desktop files to populate its Applications view. These text files are in /usr/share/applications
. It is not possible to edit these files from a folder view ‒ Nautilus does not treat their icons as text files. Use a terminal to display or edit .desktop file entries.
# ls /usr/share/applications # nano /usr/share/applications/foo.desktop
For system wide changes, edit files in /usr/share/applications
. For local changes, make a copy of foo.desktop in your home folder.
$ cp /usr/share/applications/foo.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
Edit .desktop files to fit your wishes.
The following command appends one line to a .desktop file and hides its associated icon from Applications view:
$ echo "NoDisplay=true" >> foo.desktop
Enter ~/.local/share/applications/wine/Programs/
and look for the wine application's name. In the directories are the ".desktop" files which configure the launchers. Remove the program directory to easily remove the launchers.
Change application icon size
One awkward selection of the GNOME designers is their choice of large icons for Applications view. This view is painful when working with a small screen containing many large application icons. There is a way to reduce the icon size. It is done by editing the GNOME-Shell theme.
Edit system files directly (make a backup first) or copy theme files to your local folder and edit these files.
- For the default theme, edit
/usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css
- For user themes, edit
/usr/share/themes/<UserTheme>/gnome-shell/gnome-shell.css
Edit gnome-shell.css and replace the following values. Afterward, restart the GNOME shell.
gnome-shell.css
... /* Application Launchers and Grid */ .icon-grid { spacing: 18px; -shell-grid-horizontal-item-size: 82px; -shell-grid-vertical-item-size: 82px; } .icon-grid .overview-icon { icon-size: 48px; } ...
Change dash icon size
GNOME's Activities view has a dash on the left hand side, the size of the icons in this dash will scale depending on the amount of icons set to display. The scaling can be manipulated or set to a constant icon size. To do so, edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/dash.js
.
dash.js
... let iconSizes = [ 16, 22, 24, 32, 48, 64 ]; ...
Change switcher (alt-tab) icon size
GNOME comes with a built in task switcher, the size of the icons in this task switcher will scale depending on the amount of icons set to display. The scaling can be manipulated or set to a constant icon size. To do so, edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/altTab.js
altTab.js
... const iconSizes = [96, 64, 48, 32, 22]; ...
Change system tray icon size
GNOME comes with a built in system tray, visible when the mouse is hovered over the bottom right corner of the screen. The size of the icons in this tray is set to a fixed value of 24. To change this value, edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/messageTray.js
messageTray.js
... ICON_SIZE: 24, ...
Disable Activity hot corner hovering
To disable automatic activity view when the hot corner is hovered, edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/layout.js
(that was panel.js in GNOME 3.0.x) :
layout.js
this._corner = new Clutter.Rectangle({ name: 'hot-corner', width: 1, height: 1, opacity: 0, reactive: true });icon-size: 48px; }
and set reactive
to false
. GNOME Shell needs to be restarted.
Disable Message Tray hovering
The message tray is shown when the mouse hovers at the bottom of the screen for one second. To disable this behavior, comment out the following line in /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/messageTray.js
:
messageTray.js
//pointerWatcher.addWatch(TRAY_DWELL_CHECK_INTERVAL, Lang.bind(this, this._checkTrayDwell));
GNOME Shell needs to be restarted. The message tray is still visible in activity view.
Titlebar
Reduce title bar height
- global - edit
/usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
, search fortitle_vertical_pad
and and reduce its value to a minimum of0
. - user-only - copy
/usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
to/home/$USER/.themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
, search fortitle_vertical_pad
and reduce its value to a minimum of0
.
To restore the original values, install the package gnome-themes-standard from the official repositories or remove /home/$USER/.themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
Reorder titlebar buttons
At present this setting can be changed through dconf-editor.
For example, we move the close and minimize buttons to the left side of the titlebar. Open dconf-editor and locate the org.gnome.shell.overrides.button_layout key. Change its value to close,minimize:
(Colon symbol designates the spacer between left side and right side of the titlebar.) Use whichever buttons in whatever order you prefer. You cannot use a button more than once. Also, keep in mind that certain buttons are deprecated. Restart the shell to see your new button arrangement.
Hide titlebar when maximized
# sed -i -r 's|(<frame_geometry name="max")|\1 has_title="false"|' /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
Restart the GNOME shell. After this tweak, you may find it difficult to un-maximize a window when there is no titlebar to grab.
With suitable keybindings, you should be able to use Alt+F5
, Alt+F10
or Alt+Space
to remedy the situation.
To prevent metacity-theme-3.xml
from being overwritten each time package gnome-themes-standard is upgraded, add its name to /etc/pacman.conf
with NoUpgrade
.
/etc/pacman.conf
... previous lines ... # Pacman will not upgrade packages listed in IgnorePkg and members of IgnoreGroup # IgnorePkg = # IgnoreGroup = NoUpgrade = usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml # Do not add a leading slash to the path ... more lines ...
To restore original Adwaita theme values, install the gnome-themes-standard package.
Login screen
Login background image
Once session variables have been exported as explained above, you may issue commands to retrieve or set items used by GDM.
The easiest way to changes all the settings is by launching the Configuration Editor gui with the command
$ dconf-editor
The location of each setting is the same as in the command line style of configuration shown below:
The following is the command-line approach to retrieve or set the file name used for GDM's wallpaper.
$ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri $ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-uri 'file:///usr/share/backgrounds/gnome/SundownDunes.jpg' $ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background picture-options 'zoom' ## Possible values: centered, none, scaled, spanned, stretched, wallpaper, zoom
An alternative graphical interface to changing themes (gtk3, icons and cursor), the wallpaper and minor other settings of the GDM login screen, you can install gdm3setupAUR from AUR.
Larger font for login
This tweak enlarges the login font with a scaling factor. It is the same method employed by Accessibility Manager on the desktop.
You must export the GDM session variables before performing this tweak.
$ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface text-scaling-factor '1.25'
Turning off the sound
This tweak disables the audible feedback heard when the system volume is adjusted (via keyboard) on the login screen. You must first export the GDM session variables.
$ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.sound event-sounds 'false'
If the above tweak does not work for you or you are unable to export the GDM session variables, there is always the easiest solution to the "ready sound" problem: mute or lower the sound while in GDM login screen using the media keys (if available) of your keyboard.
Make the power button interactive
The default installation sets the power button to suspend the system. Power off or Show dialog is a better choice. You must first export the GDM session variables as outlined previously.
$ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-power 'interactive' $ GSETTINGS_BACKEND=dconf gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-hibernate 'interactive' $ gsettings list-recursively org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power
GDM keyboard layout
GDM does not know about your GNOME 3 desktop keyboard settings. To change keyboard settings used by GDM, set your layout using Xorg configuration. Refer to this section of the Beginner's Guide.
Power Management
Prevent Suspend-To-RAM (S3) when closing the LID
Since GNOME 3.0 the necessary options are removed from the System Settings and since GNOME 3.6 (buildung up on Systemd) even the remaining configuration options are removed from dconf. The current approach is to manage this on the level of Systemd. Change the variable HandleLidSwitch to ignore in /etc/systemd/logind.conf
/etc/systemd/logind.conf
HandleLidSwitch=ignore
No reaction on lid close
When configuring the lid close events via Systemd#ACPI_power_management, the settings may seem to have no effect. If you have an external monitor connected to your laptop, this is default GNOME behaviour. Disconnect the monitor and the settings should work, otherwise your /etc/systemd/logind.conf
may be incorrect.
Change Critical Battery Level Action (for Laptops)
The gnome-power-manager gui does not have a choice for "do nothing" on laptops at critical battery level. To manually edit this, open the dconf-editor -> org -> gnome -> settings-daemon -> plugins -> power. Edit the "critical-battery-action" value to "nothing".
Other tips
See GNOME Tips.
Miscellaneous settings
Switch back scrolling behavior
If you do not like the new scrollbar behavior just put gtk-primary-button-warps-slider = false
under the [Settings]
section in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
:
~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
[Settings] gtk-primary-button-warps-slider = false ...
Autostarting / Automatic program launch upon logging in
Specify which programs start automatically after logging in using gnome-session-properties
. This tool is part of the gnome-session package.
$ gnome-session-properties
gnome-menus provides gmenu-simple-editor which can show/hide menu entries.
alacarte provides a more complete menu editor for adding/editing menu entries.
Some 'System Settings' not preserved
GNOME 3 is using systemd (an init daemon for Linux) with more modern capabilities. Previously GNOME programs were altered to use Arch's init functionalities to gather settings but either the maintenance required to do this or possibly this is because of a transitioning to the new init system (read more about this here). Areas that settings will not be preserved are Date and Time and adding ICC profiles in the Color menu and possibly others.
To gain the functionality back, systemd needs to be installed and the gdm.service and NetworkManager.service services need to be enabled.
Inner padding in Gnome Terminal
To move the terminal output away from the window borders create the stylesheet ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
with the following setting:
TerminalScreen { -VteTerminal-inner-border: 10px 10px 10px 10px; }
Disable blinking cursor in Terminal
Since Gnome 3.8 and dconf the key required to modify in order to disable the blinking cursor in the Terminal differs slightly in contrast to the old gconf key. To disable the blinking cursor in Gnome 3.8 use:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface cursor-blink false
Make new tabs inherit current directory in Gnome Terminal (3.8+)
In Gnome 3.8, the behaviour of how current directories are tracked has changed. To restore this behaviour, you need to source the /etc/profile.d/vte.sh
file, put this in your ~/.bashrc
or ~/.zshrc
for zsh users:
source /etc/profile.d/vte.sh
For more information refer to the Gnome wiki
Move dialog windows
The default configuration for dialogs will not allow you to move them which causes problems in some cases. To change this you will need to use gconf-editor and change this setting:
/desktop/gnome/shell/windows/attach_modal_dialogs
After the change you will need to restart the shell for it to take affect.
Some programs do have context menu icons which, however, are disabled by default to show up in Gnome. In order to show them set org.gnome.desktop.interface menus-have-icons
to true.
GNOME shell extensions
GNOME Shell can be customized with extensions. These provide features such as a dock or a widget for changing the theme.
Many extensions are collected and hosted by extensions.gnome.org. They can be browsed and installed simply activating them in the browser. More information about gnome shell extensions can be found here.
See when an extension breaks GNOME for troubleshooting information.
Default file browser/replace Nautilus
You can trick GNOME into using another file browser by editing the Exec
line in /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop
. See the correct parameters in the .desktop
file of the file manager of your choice, e.g.:
/usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop
[...] Exec=thunar %F OR Exec=pcmanfm %U OR Exec=nemo %U [...]
Default PDF viewer
In some cases when you have installed Inkscape or other graphic programs Evince Document Viewer might no longer be selected as the default PDF application. If it is not available in the Open With entry which would be the GUI solution, you can use the following user command to make it the default application again.
xdg-mime default evince.desktop application/pdf
Default terminal
gsettings
(which replaces gconftool-2
) is used to set the default terminal. The setting affects nautilus-open-terminal (a Nautilus extension).
To make urxvt the default, run:
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec urxvtc gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.terminal exec-arg "'-e'"
-e
flag is for executing a command. When nautilus-open-terminal invokes urxvtc
, it puts a cd
command at the end of the command line so that the new terminal starts in the directory you opened it from. Other terminals will require a different (perhaps empty) exec-arg
.Default Applications
While one can right click any file and set the default applications in 'Preferences', the settings are actually saved in $HOME/.local/share/applications/mimeapps.list
and $HOME/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
Default web browser
To configure the web browser used by the AUR package gnome-gmail-notifierAUR, open gconf-editor
and edit the /desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/
key. You may want to change https/
, about/
, and unknown/
keys while you are at it.
Middle mouse button
By default, GNOME 3 disables middle mouse button emulation regardless of Xorg settings (Emulate3Buttons). To enable middle mouse button emulation use:
$ gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.peripherals.mouse middle-button-enabled true
Display dimming
By default GNOME 3 has a ten second idle timeout to dim the screen regardless of the battery and AC state:
gsettings get org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power idle-dim-time
To set a new value type the following
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power idle-dim-time <int>
where <int> is the value in seconds
Search
There is a tracker package that installs Tracker, an indexing application. You can configure it with tracker-preferences
, and monitor status with tracker-control
. Once installed, indexing should start automatically when you log in. You can explicitly start indexing with tracker-control -s
.
Hidden features
GNOME 3 hides many useful options which you can customize with dconf-editor. GNOME 3 also supports gconf-editor for settings that have not yet migrated to dconf.
Changing hotkeys
Certain hotkeys cannot be changed directly via Settings -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts. In order to change these keys, use dconf-editor. An example of particular note is the hotkey Alt-Above_Tab. On US keyboards, this is Alt-`: is a hotkey often used in the Emacs editor. It can be changed by opening dconf-editor and modifying the switch-group key found in org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings
.
It is possible to manually change the keys via an application's so-called accel map file. Where it is to be found is up to the application: For instance, Thunar's is at ~/.config/Thunar/accels.scm, whereas Nautilus's is located at ~/.config/nautilus/accels and ~/.gnome2/accels/nautilus on old release.
The file should contain a list of possible hotkeys, each unchanged line commented out with a leading ";" that has to be removed for a change to become active. For example to replace the hotkey used by Nautilus to move files to the trash folder, change the line :
; (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/DirViewActions/Trash" "<Primary>Delete")
to this :
(gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/DirViewActions/Trash" "Delete")
The file is regenerate regularly so do not waist time on commenting the file. The uncommented line will stay but every comment you may add will be lost.
Nautilus 3.4 and older
Firstly, use dconf-editor to place a checkmark next to can-change-accels
in the key named org.gnome.desktop.interface.
We will replace the hotkey — a.k.a. keyboard shortcut, keyboard accelerator — used by Nautilus to move files to the trash folder.
The default assignment is a somewhat-awkward Ctrl+Delete
.
- Open Nautilus, select any file, and click Edit on the menu bar.
- Hover over the Move to Trash menu item.
- While hovering, press
Delete
. The current accelerator is now unset. - Press the key that you wish to become the new keyboard accelerator.
- Press
Delete
to make the new accelerator be the Delete key.
Unless you select a file or folder, Move to Trash will be grayed-out. Finally, disable can-change-accels
to prevent accidental hotkey changes.
Screencast recording
Gnome features the built-in possbility to create screencasts easily. Thereby Control+Shift+Alt+R keybinding starts and stops the recording. A red circle is displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen when the recording is in progress. After the recording is finished, a file named 'Screencast from %d%u-%c.webm' is saved in the Videos directory. In order to use the screencast feature you need to have installed the gst plugins which are:
$ pacman -Qs gst
Modify Keyboard with XkbOptions
Using the dconf-editor, navigate to the key named org.gnome.desktop.input-sources.xkb-options and add desired XkbOptions (e.g. 'caps:swapescape') to the list.
See /usr/share/X11/xkb/rules/xorg for all XkbOptions and then /usr/share/X11/xkb/symbols/* for the respective descriptions.
Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
combination to terminate Xorg, use the gnome-tweak-tool from official repositories. Within the Gnome Tweak Tool, navigate to Typing > Terminate and select the option Ctrl+Alt+Backspace
from the dropdown menu.Toggle keyboard layouts
Since Gnome does not consider any configuration in /etc/X11/conf.d/*.conf
you have to set the command for layout switching either via the control center with the options Switch to previous source and Switch to next source or if you want to use Alt - Shift combination you have to use the Gnome-Tweak-Tool and set Typing -> Modifiers-only input sources -> select Alt-shift. For more information see also the forum thread.
Integrated messaging (Empathy)
Empathy, the engine behind integrated messaging, and all system settings based on messaging accounts will not show up unless the telepathy group of packages or at least one of the backends (telepathy-gabble, or telepathy-haze, for example) is installed.
These packages are not included in default Arch GNOME installs. You can install the Telepathy and optionally any backends with:
# pacman -S telepathy
Without telepathy, Empathy will not open the account management dialog and can get stuck in this state. If this happens -- even after quitting Empathy cleanly -- the /usr/bin/empathy-accounts
application can remain running and will need to be killed before you can add any new accounts.
View descriptions of telepathy components on the Freedesktop.org Telepathy Wiki.
Troubleshooting
Cannot Set Settings in Dconf-Editor
When one cannot set settings in dconf, it is possible their dconf user settings are corrupt. In this case it is best to delete the user dconf files in.config/dconf/user*and set the settings in dconf-editor after.
When an extension breaks GNOME
When enabling shell extensions causes GNOME breakage, you should first remove the user-theme and auto-move-windows extensions from their installation directory.
The installation directory could be one of ~/.local/share/gnome‑shell/extensions,
/usr/share/gnome‑shell/extensions,
or /usr/local/share/gnome‑shell/extensions
. Removing these two extension-containing folders may fix the breakage. Otherwise, isolate the problem extension with trial‑and‑error.
Removing or adding an extension-containing folder to the aforementioned directories removes or adds the corresponding extension to your system. Details on GNOME Shell extensions are available at the GNOME web site.
Extensions do not work after GNOME 3 update
Locate the folder where your extensions are installed. It might be ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
or /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions
.
Edit each occurrence of metadata.json
which appears in each extension sub-folder.
Insert: | "shell-version": ["3.6"]
|
Instead of (for example): | "shell-version": ["3.4"]
|
"3.x" indicates the extension works with every Shell version. If it breaks, you will know to change it back.
Remove Gnome Shell Extensions
If you have trouble with uninstalling Gnome Extensions via https://extensions.gnome.org/local/, then probably they have been installed as system-wide extensions with pacman -S gnome-shell-extensions
before. To remove them, you have to be careful, because the following instruction removes all extensions from other user's, too.
pacman -R gnome-shell-extensions
Following that, you refresh Gnome Shell by pressing ALT+F2 and entering restart
Then go to https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ again and have a look for your installed extensions list. It should have changed.
All other extensions should be removable by pressing the red X icon to the right. If not, something may be broken.
As a final step, you can remove them manually from ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/*
and/or /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions
. Restart Gnome Shell again and you should be fine.
The "Windows" key
By default, this key is mapped to the "overlay-key" to launch the Overview. You can remove this key mapping to free up your Windows Key
(also called Mod4
), which GNOME calls Super_L
, by utilizing gsettings
.
Example:
gsettings set org.gnome.mutter overlay-key 'Foo';
.
You can leave out Foo to simply remove any binding to that function.
Alt+F1
to launch the Overview.Keyboard Shortcut do not work with only conky running
The gnome-shell keyboard shortcuts like Alt+F2
, Alt+F1
, and the media key shortcuts do not work if conky is the only program running. However if another application like gedit is running, then the keyboard shortcuts work.
solution: edit .conkyrc
own_window yes own_window_transparent yes own_window_argb_visual yes own_window_type dock own_window_class Conky own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
Window opens behind other windows when using multiple monitors
This is possibly a bug in GNOME Shell which causes new windows to open behind others. Unchecking "workspaces_only_on_primary" in desktop/gnome/shell/windows using gconf-editor solves this problem.
Multiple monitors and dock extension
If you have multiple monitors configured using Nvidia Twinview, the dock extension may get sandwiched in-between the monitors. You can edit the source of this extension to reposition the dock to a position of your choosing.
Edit /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/dock@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org/extension.js
and locate this line in the source:
this.actor.set_position(primary.width-this._item_size-this._spacing-2, (primary.height-height)/2);
The first parameter is the X position of the dock display, by subtracting 15 pixels as opposed to 2 pixels from this it correctly positioned on my primary monitor, you can play around with any X,Y coordinate pair to position it correctly.
this.actor.set_position(primary.width-this._item_size-this._spacing-15, (primary.height-height)/2);
Gnome sets the keyboard layout to USA after every log in
See the [this] bug report for more information. It is related to GDM and can be fixed by choosing the correct layout at GDM login startup. However, users who do not use GDM or any login manager but a pure startx approach have to use a workaround. Create the file ~/.keyboard
and make it executable chmod +x
:
# Set the correct keyboard layout after Gnome start setxkbmap -layout "us,pl" -variant altgr-intl -option "grp:alt_shift_toggle" nodeadkeys
Now run gnome-session-properties
and add this .keyboard file to the programs run at startup:
Name: Keyboard layout Command: /home/username/.keyboard Comment: Sets the correct keyboard layout after Gnome start
Further you need to create the executable file /etc/pm/sleep.d/90_keyboard
with the following content in order to run the script on resume from suspend and hibernation.
#!/bin/bash case $1 in resume|thaw) /home/username/.keyboard ;; esac
"Show Desktop" keyboard shortcut does not work
GNOME developers treated the corresponding binding as bug (see https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=643609) due to Minimization being deprecated. To show the desktop again assign ALT+STRG+D to the following setting:
System Settings --> Keyboard --> Shortcuts --> Navigation --> Hide all normal windows
Nautilus does not start
- Press
Alt+F2
- Enter
gnome-tweak-tool
- Select the File Manager tab.
- Locate option Have file manager handle the desktop and assure it is toggled off.
Unable to apply stored configuration for monitors
If you encounter this message try to disable the xrandr gnome-settings-daemon plugin :
$ dconf write /org/gnome/settings-daemon/plugins/xrandr/active false
Lock button fails to re-enable touchpad
Some laptops have a touchpad lock button that disables the touchpad so that users can type without worrying about touching the touchpad. It appears currently that although GNOME can lock the touchpad by pressing this button, it cannot unlock it. If the touchpad gets locked you can do the following to unlock it.
- Start a terminal. You can do this by pressing
Alt+F2
, then typinggnome-terminal
followed by pressingEnter
. - Type in the following command
$ xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Device Enabled" 1
Unable to connect to secured Wi-Fi networks
You can see the network connections listing, but choosing an encrypted network fails to show a dialog for key entry. You may need to install network-manager-applet. See GNOME NetworkManager setup.
"Any command has been defined 33"
When you press the Print Screen
key (sometimes labeled PrntScr
or PrtSc
) to take a screenshot, and you got "Any command has been defined 33", install metacity.
GDM and GNOME use X11 cursors
To fix this problem, become root and put the following into /usr/share/icons/default/index.theme
(creating the directory /usr/share/icons/default
if necessary):
/usr/share/icons/default/index.theme
[Icon Theme] Inherits=Adwaita
Note: Instead of "Adwaita", you can choose another cursor theme (e.g. Human).
Tracker & Documents do not list any local files
In order for Tracker (and, therefore, Documents) to detect your local files, they must be stored in directories that it knows of. If your documents are contained in one of the usual XDG standard directories (i.e. "Documents" or "Music"), you should install xdg-user-dirs and run:
# xdg-user-dirs-update
This will create all of the usual XDG home directories if they do not already exist and it will create the config file definining these directories that Tracker and Documents depend upon.
Passwords are not remembered
If you get a password prompt every time you login, and you find password are not saved, you might need to create/set a default keyring:
$ pacman -S seahorse
Open "Passwords and Keys" from the menu or run "seahorse". Select View > By Keyring. If there is no keyring in the left column (it will be marked with a lock icon), go to File > New > Password Keyring and give it a nice name. You will be asked to enter a password. If you do not give it a password it will be unlocked automatically even when using autologin, but passwords will not be stored securely. Finally, right-click on the keyring you just created and select "Set as default".
Windows cannot be modified with Alt-Key + Mouse-Button
Change the dconf-setting "org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences.mouse-button-modifier" from <Super> back to <Alt>. It is not possible to change this with System Settings > "Keyboard" > "Shortcuts", you will find there only the regular keybindings. The developers of GNOME decided to change this from 3.4 to 3.6 because of this bug report https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=607797
Gnome-shell 3.8.x fails to load with a black screen + cursor
If you have a non-UTF8 language enabled, Gnome 3 can fail to load. Disable non-UTF-8 locales and perform a locale-gen until this is resolved. For more information see this bug report: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=698952
Gnome 3.10 UI elements scale incorrectly
With 3.10 Gnome introduced HDPI support. If your displays EDID info does not contain the correct screen size, but the resolution is right, this can lead to incorrectly scaled UI elements. As a workaround you can open dconf-editor and find the key scaling-factor
in org.gnome.desktop.interface
. Set it to 1 to get the standard scale.
External links
- The Official Website of GNOME
- Extensions for GNOME-shell
- Themes, icons, and backgrounds:
- GTK/GNOME programs: