------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is OBSOLETE with Gnome 3 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gnome 3 hints Switch to gnome 2 fallback 1. Open “System Settings” in the Status menu at the top-right of the screen. 2. Click “System Info” in the System Settings window. 3. Click the “Graphics” tab on the side. 4. Flip the switch for “Forced Fallback Mode”. Note it is missing a lot of previous configuration items! Gnome-3 customization http://blog.fpmurphy.com/2011/03/customizing-the-gnome-3-shell.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gnome File Manager Hints and Tips The Location bar button to text-entry switch is listed in 'Go' instead of 'View'!!!! Arrrggghhhh Extra Keys Ctrl-L change Location bar to text-entry temporarily Esc Return to normal view Ctrl-X Clears location bar so you can type in a location Ctrl-W Closes nautilus Ctrl-R Refreshes Ctrl-S Starts selection pattern dialog Ctrl-B Bookmark Editor Ctrl-N Opens a new window with old view restored Ctrl-"+ or -" changes zoom Ctrl-1 or 2 changes views To make text-entry location bar the permanent default Open Applications->System Tools -> Configuration Editor find the entry "/apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry" and click the checkbox "on" For Nautilus 2.14.1 Edit->Preferences->Behaviour Tab Then Tick the "Always use text-entry location bar" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gnome configuration settings... The "gconf-editor" is interactive and can be used to browse through the settings database. It helps to find the desired settings. Sometimes sudo yum install gconf-editor gconf-editor The "gconf-cleaner" trys to clean out unused gconf settings. However it over does it, removing settings which are in use. gconftool-2 --get KEY gconftool-2 --get-type KEY gconftool-2 --short-docs KEY gconftool-2 --long-docs KEY Set using... gconftool-2 --set KEY --type TYPE VALUE Some interesting settings... /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop (bool) Show any icons at all on a desktop 'root window' /apps/nautilus/preferences/always_use_location_entry (bool) is locatation string visible, or direcory buttons /apps/nautilus/preferences/desktop_is_home_dir (bool) Makes the contents of your homefolder appear on the desktop instead of the contents of your "$HOME/Desktop" folder /apps/nautilus/desktop/[computer|home|trash]_icon_visible (bool) Show the [computer|home|trash] icon on the desktop /apps/gnome-session/options/logout_prompt (bool) Show the logout window when you log out /apps/gnome-session/rh/window_manager (string) Window manager to launch /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename (string) Holds the background picture filename /desktop/gnome/background/draw_background (bool) draw the root background or not /desktop/gnome/font_rendering/dpi (integer) What density gnome thinks the screen in (default=0 - x server dpi) Note: Firefox does not seemt ot obey this! - better to remove /desktop/gnome/interface/font_name (string) /desktop/gnome/interface/document_font_name (string) /apps/nautilus/preferences/desktop_font /apps/metacity/general/titlebar_font /desktop/gnome/interface/monospace_font_name Fonts to use default?? "Sans 12" "Monospace 12" Lots more in interface such as toolbar_icon_size /apps/tomboy/enable_custom_font (bool /apps/tomboy/custom_font_face (string) Set to True and "Monospace 8" /apps/tomboy/menu_note_count (integer) Limit of number of notes in menu (older ones will disappear!) /apps/totem/subtitle_font (string) For example Turn off the nautilus 'root window' gconftool-2 --type bool --set /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop false Change the window manager gconftool-2 --type string --set /apps/gnome-session/rh/window_manager \ '/home/anthony/bin/x_scripts/launch_wm' Set background image.. gconftool-2 -s /desktop/gnome/background/picture_filename -t string \ ~/lib/slideshow/fantasy/unicorn_dream.jpg Fix the way VFAT USB mounts handle 'simple' filenames gconftool-2 --set /system/storage/default_options/vfat/mount_options \ --type list --list-type string '[shortname=winnt,uid=]' ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gnome Session - What things are started This controls the order and restart of various gnome based programs. .gnome2/session When you don't have a session file this is used for initial launches /usr/share/gnome/default.session Also note that the commands listing in .desktop files in /usr/share/gnome/autostart are also executed on session open. this includes bluetooth-applet.desktop gnome-volume-manager.desktop gnome-power-manager.desktop ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Auto login on Startup vi /etc/gdm/custom.conf [daemon] AutomaticLogin=anthony AutomaticLoginEnable=true RHEL6 does not provide you with 'sessions' To force GDM to call .xsession scripts use this patch to remove the GDMSESSION check. =======8<--------CUT HERE----------axes/crowbars permitted--------------- =diff --git a/xinit/Xsession b/xinit/Xsession index e12e0ee..ab94d28 100755 --- a/xinit/Xsession +++ b/xinit/Xsession @@ -30,6 +30,14 @@ SWITCHDESKPATH=/usr/share/switchdesk # Xsession and xinitrc scripts which has been factored out to avoid duplication . /etc/X11/xinit/xinitrc-common +# RHEL6 GDM doesn't seem to support selectable sessions, and always requests a +# gnome-session. So we unset this default here, to allow things like user +# .xsession or .Xclients files to be checked, and /etc/sysconfig/desktop +# settings (via /etc/X11/xinit/Xclients) honoured. +if [ -n "$GDMSESSION" -a $# -eq 1 -a "$1" = gnome-session ]; then + shift +fi + # This Xsession.d implementation, is intended to obsolte and replace the # various mechanisms present in the 'case' statement which follows, and to # eventually be able to easily remove all hard coded window manager specific ======8<--------CUT HERE----------axes/crowbars permitted--------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keyring without passwords asking First remove all existing passwords rm -rf ~/.gnome2/keyrings/* Logout and log back in (when using automatic login) When keyring asks for a password, just hit enter. Passwords will now be stored unencrypted. Alternative After removing existing passwords rm -rf ~/.gnome2/keyrings/* Now have the login start up run this command (or equivelent) somewhere. Such as during gnome startup applications. echo password | /usr/libexec/pam-keyring-tool --unlock --keyring=default -s Next time keyring asks for password, give that password and that should be the last ime it asks for it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nautilus (Gnome) scripts. Any program in the .gnome2/nautilus-scripts/ directory that is executable will appear in the right click scripts menu. You can make sub-directories of scripts too. That is the user can define and select scripts to excute in specific directories or on seleected files. Note that changes to the nautilus scripts may not appear unless nautilus actually visits the script directory to reconise the changes. This is especially the case if symblic links for the script directory is used. When a script is invoked, Nautilus sets a few environment variables that can be used by the script: NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_FILE_PATHS: newline-delimited full-paths for selected files NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS: newline-delimited URIs for selected files NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_CURRENT_URI: current directory location NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_WINDOW_GEOMETRY position and size of current window Selected files are passed as command line arguments, (no paths) and script is run in the directory being looked at (if local) More Info http://g-scripts.sourceforge.net/faq.php To move files (given as URIs) to a target directory use... gvfs-move $NAUTILUS_SCRIPT_SELECTED_URIS "$target" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thumbnail Cache This is located in .thumbnails and is not just used by nautilus. To turn off simply and easilly link it to /dev/null rm -rf ~/.thumbnails ln -s /dev/null ~/.thumbnails Icons are stored in the cache, as PNG file. The filename is the md5sum of the URI of the file beifn thumbnailed as such... file:///home/anthony/Nyleta_Water.jpg maps to the thumbnail ~/.thumbnails/normal/502d4d6379fffa4b68b447e68e250dd9.png The thumbnail may not be present if a standard thumbnail is used, But you can make a thumbnail for even these standard thumbnails. The Thumbnail can be up to 128x128 pixels and applications should resize as apropriate. The thumbnails however also contain a number of propertities these are not strictly needed but recommended, as it allows for posible future cleanup code, and rebuilding of the thumbnail. Software: GNOME::ThumbnailFactory Thumb::Image::Height: 768 Thumb::Image::Width: 1024 Thumb::MTime: 1294701871 Thumb::URI: file:///home/anthony/Nyleta_Water.jpg See... http://people.freedesktop.org/~vuntz/thumbnail-spec-cache/creation.html As of February 2011... Gnome will not refresh its icon unless re-entering a directory, Or the refresh panel button is pushed. If no icons is present touching the file will get gnome to load icon But not if it already has an thumbnail removing a files thumbnail icon will NOT update the displayed icon until gnome leaves and returns to the directory. Refresh will not do it. Untested... It may update if the file MTime becomes larger than the properity MTime ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Gvfs if not running (remote login) use dbus-launch gvfs-mount or more low level using (fails second time) /usr/libexec/gvfs-fuse-daemon ~/.gvfs The ".gvfs" directory of your home is then a fuse filesystem To stop use.. fusermount -u /home/anthony/.gvfs To mount a remote filesystem use gvfs-mount sftp://varuna.itc.griffith.edu.au/ The creates a directory ".gvfs/SFTP for varuna.itc.griffith.edu.au" or gvfs-mount sftp://username:password@remote.domain/ Unmount using gvfs-mount -u sftp://varuna.itc.griffith.edu.au/ You can access a file using Though for http you are better of using "wget" or "curl" gvfs-cat http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/anthony/comment.html Interesting requests Open file 'bookmarks.png' (say from Eye-Of-Gnome) eog file:///tmp/stuff.tar#tar:bookmarks.png or from a compressed tar eog file:///tmp/stuff.tar.gz#gzip:#tar:forum.png or gedit (read only) a file from bziped tar gedit file:///tmp/docs.tar.bz2#bzip2:#tar:2010_Dec/writeup.txt Commands gvfs-cat output file contents gvfs-ls output permissions, mime type, and size gvfs-info more verbose information about file and permissions including icons types -------------------------------------------------------------------------------