GNOME - ParabolaWiki

# GNOME

Summary
GNOME 3 provides a modern desktop, rewritten from scratch, using the GTK3+ toolkit.
Overview
The Xorg project provides a free software implementation of the X Window System – the foundation for a graphical user interface. Desktop environments such as E17, GNOME, KDE, LXDE, and Xfce provide a complete graphical environment. Various window managers offer alternative and novel environments, and may be used standalone to conserve system resources. Display managers provide a graphical login prompt.
Related
Xorg
GTK+

From About Us | GNOME:

  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.

## Introduction

GNOME 3 has two interfaces: GNOME Shell, the new standard layout; and fallback mode. Gnome-session automatically detects when your computer is incapable of running Gnome Shell and starts fallback mode when appropriate.

Fallback mode is similar to GNOME 2. (Fallback mode uses gnome-panel/Metacity instead of gnome-shell/Mutter.)

When you are on fallback mode you can still replace GNOME's default window manager with your preferred one.

## Installation

GNOME 3 is in the [extra] repository. The gnome group contains the core desktop environment and applications, and gnome-extra contains the rest. You likely do not want all of the packages installed, so consider reading the package descriptions before installing them (or just remove them later).

You must install the gnome group, but you can exclude some packages such as epiphany (See the pacman man page for an explanation of how to do this). gnome-extra does not imply that you want everything in gnome.

Example:

    # pacman -S gnome

Choose which applications you wish to use from gnome-extra. It is not mandatory to install the whole group.

    # pacman -S gnome-extra

### D-Bus daemon

The GNOME desktop requires the D-Bus daemon. Refer to the dbus article for setup instructions.

### Running GNOME

For the best desktop integration, login manager GDM is recommended. Other login managers (a.k.a. display managers) such as SLiM can be used in place of GDM. Check out the wiki article on display managers to learn how desktop environments are started.

The login manager is a limited process entrusted with duties that impact the system. The PolicyKit wiki article addresses the topic of system‑wide access control.

    # pacman -S gdm

If you prefer to start GNOME manually from the console, add the following line to your ~/.xinitrc file. Make sure it is the only line (remove the if/fi block from the standard ~/.xinitrc since the if/fi block can cause problems) and the only command starting with exec. See the xinitrc wiki article.

    ~/.xinitrc

     #ONLY THIS LINE
     exec ck-launch-session gnome-session

After the exec command is placed, GNOME can be launched by typing startx.

## 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, such as switching between GNOME Shell and fallback mode, 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.

## 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.

    # pacman -S gnome-tweak-tool

Version 3.0.3 only works when gnome-shell is installed (OK if forced to fallback mode). Bugzilla bug report here.

#### GTK3 theme via settings.ini

Like ~/.gtkrc-2.0 with GTK2+, it is possible to set a GTK3 theme via ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/gtk-3.0/settings.ini.

Variable $XDG_CONFIG_HOME is usually set to ~/.config

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

### Nautilus

#### Remove folders from the places sidebar

The displayed folders are specified in ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs and can be altered with any editor. An execution of xdg-user-dirs-update will change them again, thus it may be advisable to set the file permissions to read-only.

#### Always show text-entry location

The standard Nautilus toolbar shows a button bar interface for path navigation. To enter path locations using the keyboard, you must expose the location text-entry field. This is done by pressing Ctrl+l

To make the location text-entry field always present, use gsettings as shown.

    $ gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences always-use-location-entry true

Note: After changing this setting, you will not be able to expose the button bar. Only when the setting is false can both forms of location navigation be employed.

### 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.shell.clock show-date true

#### Hiding icons in the top bar

When doing a GNOME install, some unwanted icons might appear in the panel. To remove the icons, edit the GNOME panel script.

For example, to remove the universal access icon. Remove 'a11y' from the AREA_ORDER line and comment out the 'a11y' line in AREA_SHELL_IMPLEMENTATION

    /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/panel.js

    const STANDARD_STATUS_AREA_ORDER = ['ally', 'keyboard', 'volume', 'network', 'bluetooth', 'battery', 'userMenu'];
    const STANDARD_STATUS_AREA_SHELL_IMPLEMENTATION = {
        'a11y': imports.ui.status.accessibility.ATIndicator
        'volume': imports.ui.status.volume.Indicator,
        'battery': imports.ui.status.power.Indicator,
        'keyboard': imports.ui.status.keyboard.XKBIndicator,
        'userMenu': imports.ui.userMenu.UserMenuButton
    };

to

    /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/panel.js

    const STANDARD_STATUS_AREA_ORDER = ['keyboard', 'volume', 'network', 'bluetooth' 'battery', 'userMenu'];
    const STANDARD_STATUS_AREA_SHELL_IMPLEMENTATION = {
        //'a11y': imports.ui.status.accessibility.ATIndicator
        'volume': imports.ui.status.volume.Indicator,
        'battery': imports.ui.status.power.Indicator,
        'keyboard': imports.ui.status.keyboard.XKBIndicator,
        'userMenu': imports.ui.userMenu.UserMenuButton
    };

save your results and restart the shell to see results:

1. Alt+F2
2. r
3. Enter

#### Disable "Suspend" in the status and gdm menu

A quick way to do it system-wide for GNOME 3.2 is to change line 539 of /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/userMenu.js and line 103 of /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/gdm/powerMenu.js. (For GNOME versions prior to 3.2, look at line 153 of /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/statusMenu.js.) This change takes effect the next time GNOME Shell is started.

    /usr/share/gnome-shell/js/ui/userMenu.js

     // this._haveSuspend = this._upClient.get_can_suspend();  //  Comment this line out.
     this._haveSuspend = false;                                //  Use this line instead.

To accomplish this, paste the following command(s) in your terminal:

     GNOME_SHELL=/usr/share/gnome-shell
     SCRIPTS=`grep -lr get_can_suspend $GNOME_SHELL/js`
     for FILE in $SCRIPTS ; do
           sed -r -i -e 's/[^= ]+.get_can_suspend\(\)/false/' "$FILE"
     done

The above change does not persist after a GNOME version update, however. A more perennial solution is to add the code above in some gdm or system startup script (eg: /etc/rc.local), to keep the "suspend" option disabled after updates.

Alternatively you can install the GNOME shell extension alternative status menu in package gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu.

#### 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'

### 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. Note: removing a .desktop file does not uninstall an application, but instead removes its desktop integration: MIME types, shortcuts, and so forth.

The following command appends one line to a .desktop file and hides its associated icon from Applications view:

    $ echo "NoDisplay=true" >> foo.desktop

#### Reduce 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

     .icon-grid {
         spacing: 18px;
         -shell-grid-item-size: 82px;
     }

     .icon-grid .overview-icon {
         icon-size: 48px;
     }

#### 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.

### Titlebar

#### Reduce title bar height

    # sed -i '/title_vertical_pad/s|value="[0-9]\{1,2\}"|value="0"|g' /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml

Restart the GNOME shell. This changes vertical padding from 14 to 0, which gives windows a sleeker look.

To restore the original values, install the package gnome-themes-standard from the official repositories.

#### Reorder titlebar buttons

At present this setting is changeable only through gconf-editor.

For example, we move the close and minimize buttons to the left side of the titlebar. Open gconf-editor and locate the desktop.gnome.shell.windows.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 won't 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

To modify characteristics of the login screen (GDM, the GNOME display manager) the following lines can be executed. The first command allows all users, including "gdm", to access X settings (albeit temporarily). This command creates a temporary vulnerability, so be advised. The second command opens a bash session with the credentials of user "gdm". Note: for exposition, user gdm's terminal prompt is shown as $. In actuality, it shows something like -bash-4.2$.

    # xhost +
    # su - gdm -s /bin/bash
    $ dbus-launch

The third command prints DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS and DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID. We must export these variables. Either manually export the below two variables shown in the output of dbus-launch like this:

    $ export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:abstract=/tmp/dbus-Jb433gMQHS,guid=fc14d4bf3d000e38276a5a2200000d38
    $ export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_PID=4283

Or use the follow command:

    $ `dbus-launch | sed "s/^/export /"`

Check to see if dconf-service is running and if not, start it like this

    $ /usr/lib/dconf/dconf-service &

#### 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

Note: You must specify a file which user "gdm" has permission to read. GDM cannot read files in your home directory.

#### 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.

### Other tips

See GNOME Tips.

## Miscellaneous settings

### 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

### Activate NumLock upon logging in

Install numlockx from the official repositories. Then, add a start-up command to launch numlockx.

    $ gnome-session-properties

The above command opens the Startup Applications Preferences applet. Click Add and enter the following:

Name: | Numlockx
Command: | /usr/bin/numlockx on
Comment: | Turns on numlock.

This is not a system-wide appearance tweak. Repeat these steps for each user wishing to activate NumLock after logging in.

### 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.

### GNOME shell extensions

GNOME Shell can be customized with extensions written by others. These provide features such as a dock or a widget for changing the theme.

Many extensions are collected and hosted by gnome.org. They can be browsed and installed simply activating them in the browser.

Other details on available extensions are found at the WEBUPD8 site. The most recent articles can be found using this WEBUPD8 search link.

The official repositories have a dozen extensions which can be installed individually. (The latest version of a given extension may be installed using its code snapshot, if preferred.) List here.

    $ pacman -Ss gnome-shell-extension

Restart the GNOME Shell after installing an extension. See when an extension breaks GNOME for troubleshooting information.

### Default file browser/replace Nautilus

You can lure Gnome to use another file browser by editing

    /usr/share/applications/nautilus.desktop

and replacing

    Exec=nautilus %U

by your browser, for example :

    Exec=thunar /

### 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'"

Note: The -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.

### 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

### xmonad

xmonad is a tiling window manager.

Upgrading to GNOME 3 will likely break your xmonad setup. You can use xmonad again by forcing fallback mode and creating two files:

    /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/xmonad.session

    [GNOME Session]
    Name=Xmonad session
    RequiredComponents=gnome-panel;gnome-settings-daemon;
    RequiredProviders=windowmanager;notifications;
    DefaultProvider-windowmanager=xmonad
    DefaultProvider-notifications=notification-daemon

    /usr/share/xsessions/xmonad-gnome-session.desktop

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=Xmonad GNOME
    Comment=Tiling window manager
    TryExec=/usr/bin/gnome-session
    Exec=gnome-session --session=xmonad
    Type=XSession

The next time you log in, you should have the ability to choose Xmonad GNOME as your session.

### wmii

wmii is a tiling window manager.

You can use wmii with GNOME by forcing fallback mode and creating three files:

    /usr/share/applications/wmii.desktop

    [Desktop Entry]
    Version=1.0
    Type=Application
    Name=wmii
    TryExec=wmii
    Exec=wmii

    /usr/share/xsessions/gnome-wmii.desktop

    [Desktop Entry]
    Name=GNOME-wmii
    Comment=GNOME with wmii as window manager
    TryExec=gnome-session
    Exec=gnome-session --session=wmii
    Type=Application

    /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/wmii.session

    [GNOME Session]
    Name=wmii
    RequiredComponents=gnome-panel;gnome-settings-daemon;
    RequiredProviders=windowmanager;notifications;
    DefaultProvider-windowmanager=wmii
    DefaultProvider-notifications=notification-daemon

The next time you log in, you should have the ability to choose GNOME-wmii as your session.

The original info was taken from running-the-awesome-window-manager-within-gnome, go there for info on awesome-gnome.

Also it has info on how to:

- create a per session (wmii, GNOME, GNOME-wmii, etc.) dconf database (useful if you ever plan on using regular GNOME)

- Remove the bottom GNOME panel (with the task list)

- Move the top panel (with the menus) to the bottom

- Untick the expand option

- Set it to autohide

## 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

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.

### Shutdown via the status menu

Currently, the GNOME designers have hidden the Shutdown option inside the status menu. To shut down your system with the status menu, click the menu and hold down the Alt key so that the Suspend item changes to Power Off. The subsequent dialog allows you to shut down or restart your system.

If you disable the Suspend menu item system-wide as described elsewhere in this document you do not have to go through these motions.

Another option is to install the Alternative Status Menu extension. See the section on shell extensions. The alternative menu extension installs a new status menu with a non-hidden Power Off entry.

## 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 Parabola 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.

## Enabling fallback mode

Your session automatically starts in fallback mode when gnome-shell is not present, or when your hardware cannot handle graphics acceleration — such as running within a virtual machine or running on old hardware.

If you wish to enable fallback mode while still having gnome-shell installed, make the following system change:

Open gnome-control-center. Click the System Info icon. Click Graphics. Change Forced Fallback Mode to ON.

You can alternatively choose the type of session from a terminal with a gsettings command:

    $ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session session-name 'gnome-fallback'

You may want to log out after making the change. You will see the chosen type of session upon your next login.

To disable forced-fallback mode (that is, launch the normal GNOME Shell) use a value of 'gnome' instead of 'gnome-fallback'.

## Troubleshooting

### GNOME login takes a very long time

See if you enabled PulseAudio Network settings in paprefs. When any network audio settings are enabled, GNOME hangs about a minute after logging in.

One solution is to create a new user account and log in to that account. Another solution is to move your ~/.gconf, ~/.gconfd and ~/.conf/dconf folders to a holding area. Log in again to see if the delay is gone.

If the excessive delay is gone, determine which setting causes the delay using trial-and-error.

### 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": ["3.0"]
Instead of (for example): | "shell-version": ["3.0.1"]
You might instead use: | "shell-version": ["3.0.0", "3.0.1", "3.0.2"]

"3.0" is the best solution. It indicates the extension works with every 3.0.x GNOME Shell version.

### Screen is not locked after resume

Screen lock only works when you suspend through GNOME's status menu. If you suspend or hibernate using the power button, your screen is not locked after resume. The problem is a configuration failure in dconf.

Open dconf-editor and uncheck lock-use-screensaver in the key named org.gnome.power-manager.

    # gsettings set org.gnome.power-manager lock-use-screensaver 'false'

Your screen should now be locked after resume whether you used the status menu, the power button, or a key combination. Bug report: Screen gets no more locked after suspend #Comment 8

### 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

### GTK2+ apps show segfaults and fail to launch

That usually happens when oxygen-gtk is installed. This theme appears to conflict with GNOME 3 or GTK3 settings. When oxygen-gtk has been set as a GTK2 theme, GTK2 apps segfault with errors like these:

     (icecat-bin:14345): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid (NULL) pointer instance

    (firefox-bin:14345): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_signal_connect_data: assertion `G_TYPE_CHECK_INSTANCE (instance)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_screen_get_default_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_colormap_get_visual: assertion `GDK_IS_COLORMAP (colormap)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_screen_get_default_colormap: assertion `GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_screen_get_root_window: assertion `GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_screen_get_root_window: assertion `GDK_IS_SCREEN (screen)' failed
    (firefox-bin:14345): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_window_new: assertion `GDK_IS_WINDOW (parent)' failed
    Segmentation fault

The current workaround is to remove oxygen-gtk from the system and use a different theme for applications.

### xf86-video-ati driver: flickers from time to time

If you use that driver, your desktop might flicker a lot when you hover the bottom right corner, and also when you start up gdm. Write the following in your /etc/X11/xorg.conf.d/20-radeon.conf and see if it works then:

    Section "Device"
           Identifier "Radeon"
           Driver "radeon"
           Option "EnablePageFlip" "off"
    EndSection

### xf86-video-intel driver "tears" regardless if VSYNC Is enabled or not

Just stick the following into /etc/environment:

CLUTTER_PAINT=disable-clipped-redraws:disable-culling Refer to: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=657071#c2 for more details.

### Window opens behind other windows when using multiple monitors

This is possibly a bug in gnome shell, and causes new windows to open behind others. Unchecking "workspaces_only_on_primary" in desktop/gnome/shell/windows using gconf-editor solves this problem.

### Editing hotkeys via can-change-accels fails

It is also 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 ~/.gnome2/accels/nautilus. 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.

### Panels do not respond to right-click in fallback mode

Check Configuration Editor: /apps/metacity/general/mouse_button_modifier. This modifier key (Alt, Super, etc) used for normal windows is also used by panels and their applets.

### "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

1. Press ALT+F2
2. Enter gnome-tweak-tool
3. Select the File Manager tab.
4. Locate option Have file manager handle the desktop and assure it is toggled off.

### 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.

1. Start a terminal. You can do this by pressing Alt+F2, then typing gnome-terminal followed by pressing Enter.
2. Type in the following command

    $ xinput set-prop "SynPS/2 Synaptics TouchPad" "Device Enabled" 1

### Ctrl+v pastes path instead of file in Nautilus

If you are affected by this issue, edit ~/.gnome2/accels/nautilus where you can find two lines for Ctrl+v:

    ~/.gnome2/accels/nautilus

    (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/DirViewActions/Paste" "<Control>v")
    ...
    (gtk_accel_path "<Actions>/ClipboardActions/Paste" "<Control>v")

The issue appears to stem from the second entry. Deleting that line may fix the issue temporarily. You might have to re-apply this fix after an update.

An alternative is to assign a different key combination to one of the actions.

Note: This issue seems to be fixed since GNOME 3.2.x.

### 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 issue, 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).

## External links

- The Official Website of GNOME
- Themes, icons, and backgrounds:
  - GNOME Art
  - GNOME Look
- GTK/GNOME programs:
  - GNOME Files
  - GNOME Project Listing

## Acknowledgement

This wiki article is based on ArchWiki. We may have removed non-FSDG bits from it.
Category:

- Desktop environments