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.

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 [1] and [2]). 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

Apple OS X Tiger-like theme

• Example on Flickr

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 (system-wide)

 sudo gedit /usr/share/vte/termcap/xterm

A few lines from the top, edit :co to change the default width, and :li to change the default height.

:co#80:it#8:li#24:\

• Changing default window size (per user - since Ubuntu 10.04)
  • Click on menu Edit → Profile Preferences..., in tab General, set Default size.
• Changing default window size (Panel launcher)
  • Right-click on launcher, Properties, change command to gnome-terminal --geometry=150x50+100+100.
• Changing default window size (Application Menu)
  • Same as above, but need to edit Application Menu (use Main Menu - System View).
• Changing default window size (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 :-(...

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 ([3]).
• To prevent Nautilus to draw the desktop, use Configuration Editor [4]:

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

Bugs

• Wish [5] on Indicator-applet (Add action when double-clicking on an indicator applet)