Gnome

Introduction

This page stores useful information related to the Gnome desktop environment for Linux.

Configuration

• Check the nice utility GNOME Configuration Editor (eg. gconf-editor /apps/gnome-terminal )
• Editing a file Open With list in Nautilus: right click on file → properties → go to Open With panel. Add new applications and/or select default application. Some relevant files ([1]):
  • /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache (global list)
  • ~/.local/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache (custom list)
  • ~/.local/share/applications/defaults.list (default action)

Show Home Icons (and others) on Desktop

This tip can be used to show miscellaneous icons on the desktop:

• Open gconf-editor → apps → nautilus → check the appropriate boxes.

Configuring the Window List Panel

To configure the Window List Panel, one must right-click on the bottom left corner, right in the space that separates the Show Desktop button and the first window button. Interesting options are:

• Window List Content → Show windows from all workspaces
• Restoring Minimized Windows → Restore to native workspace

An alternate solution is to use the GNOME Configuration Editor (gconf-editor) in folder /apps/panel/applets/window_list_screen0/prefs/display_all_workspaces

Configuring Alt-Tab

Currently Gnome only allow Alt-Tab to scroll through Windows on the current workspace. This limitation is a known bug (see [2] and [3]). However this limitation can be circumvented using Compiz (see below).

Editing preferences of root

• To edit Appearance Preferences: gksudo gnome-appearance-properties

Compiz

Application Switcher (Alt-Tab)

By default the key bindings are:

• Alt-Tab / Shift-Alt-Tab are assigned to Next window / Prev window
• Ctrl-Alt-Tab / Shift-Ctrl-Alt-Tab are assigned to Next window (All windows) / Prev window (All windows)

It is possible to change these key bindings (for instance to swap them) with the Compiz config settings manager (package compizconfig-settings-manager).
Use either the Application Switcher or the Static Application Switcher.

Custom keyboard shortcuts

Shortcut	Action	Remark
Shift-Super-E	Expo - Expo key
Alt-Tab	Static Application Switcher - Next Window (all workspaces)
Meta-Tab	Ring Switcher - Next Window (all workspaces)
Super-A	Scale - Window Picker for all workspaces
Super-W	Scale - Window Picker

Desktop Theme

Macbuntu

A all-in-one package to customize Gnome desktop like a Mac. Amazing results!!!

• Macbuntu 10.04 on SourceForge
• Macbuntu 10.04 GNOME-Look.org

Mac4Lin

A all-in-one package to customize Gnome desktop like a Mac. Very similar to Macbuntu, but a bit too dark to my taste (+ has some issue with Opera input boxes...)

• Tutorial on MakeTechEasier for installing Mac4Lin on Ubuntu Lucid
• Official SVN repo with latest version
• long forum thread on Mac4Lin

Troubleshooting

• Opera — html input boxes have no border meaning they are not visible in most cases. To fix this, create a user stylesheet (Preferences → Content → Style Options...):

input {
	border-style: solid;
	border-width: 1px;
	border-bottom-color: #cccccc;
	border-left-color: #cccccc;
	border-right-color: #cccccc;
	border-top-color: #999999; 
}

textarea {
	border-style: solid;
	border-width: 1px;
	border-bottom-color: #cccccc;
	border-left-color: #cccccc;
	border-right-color: #cccccc;
	border-top-color: #999999; 
}

Other Mac OS-like themes

• GTK_Leopard_for_Linux_by_eamon63
• Apple OS X Tiger HOWTO on Flickr (very old though)

Startup programs

• To edit startup programs in Gnome, go to menu System → System → Sessions → Startup programs.
• One can also create a script to wait a certain amount of time before launching the program (script command sleep).
• Startup programs are also listed in user home, in folder ~/.config/autostart. A typical entry looks like this:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Encoding=UTF-8
Version=1.0
Name=No Name
Name[en_US]=Firefox
Comment[en_US]=Web Browser Firefox
Comment=Web Browser Firefox
Exec=firefox-2
X-GNOME-Autostart-enabled=true

Change the last line to false to disable an autostart entry, or even override an system-wide auto-start entry.

Applications

Gnome DO

• My Gnome+launcher bookmarks on Delicious.
• Added 2 new repositories (to get latest version on openSUSE):
  • http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono:/Community/openSUSE_11.0+Mono/
  • http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/Mono/openSUSE_11.0/
• To index Firefox bookmarks, they must be exported to .html. Type about:config in Firefox address bar, and change the settings browser.bookmarks.autoExportHTML ← true.
• To add kde3 applications to catalog:

 sudo ln -s /opt/kde3/share/applications/kde /usr/share/applications/kde

• My default configuration:
  • Start Gnome DO at login
  • Hide window on first launch (quiet mode)
  • Show notification icon
  • Launch key: <alt>+space
    But 1st disable Gnome shortcut for Activate the window menu (System → Preferences → Keyboard shortcut - restart Gnome DO afterwards for change to take effect)

Gnome Terminal

Changing default window size

• Per user - since Ubuntu 10.04:
  Click on menu Edit → Profile Preferences..., in tab General, set Default size.

• System-wide:

sudo gedit /usr/share/vte/termcap/xterm
# Edit :co / :li to change the default width / height. E.g.:
#    :co#80:it#8:li#24:\

• Via Panel launcher:
  Right-click on launcher, Properties, change command to gnome-terminal --geometry=150x50+100+100.
• Via Application Menu:
  Same as above, but need to edit Application Menu (use Main Menu - System View).
• Via Terminal preferred application:
  Open GNOME Configuration Editor. Go to desktop/gnome/applications/terminal, edit value exec-args=-x --geometry=150x50+100+100.
  This is same as changing the settings in System → Preferred Applications → Terminal.
• Q? Is there any use to change the file /usr/share/applications/gnome-terminal.desktop? I hoped that it would change the default settings in Gnome DO, but it doesn't :-(...

Keyboard shortcuts

Disable the following shortcuts to avoid conflicts with Midnight Commander:

• menu shortcut key (F10)
• menu access keys (Alt+F)
• help (F1)

Nautilus

• To change icon size:
  • Change the zoom level (in the preference window, or in the toolbar)
  • Or right click on an icon, select Stretch icon, and drag icon corner to desired size ([4]).
• To prevent Nautilus to draw the desktop, use Configuration Editor [5]:

gconftool -t bool /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop -s false

• To change default file association (Open With...) (see [6]),
  1. Right-click on a file of the type you wish to set a default application to open it with
  2. Select Properties
  3. Select the Open With tab (all makes sense, now, doesn’t it??)
  4. Select the application you want associated with that file-type
  5. Click OK

Nautilus Terminal

Nautilus Terminal is an integrated terminal for Nautilus.

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:flozz/flozz
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nautilus-terminal

Bugs

• Wish [7] on Indicator-applet (Add action when double-clicking on an indicator applet)