TOPIC: GNOME 3
A look at Ubuntu GNOME 13.10
12th October 2013With Ubuntu GNOME 13.10's final release approaching, I decided to try the beta version to see what's coming. However, I accidentally downloaded and installed the 64-bit edition of 13.04 in a VirtualBox virtual machine. My plan to update this to the upcoming release failed due to instability, so I couldn't test an in-place upgrade to 13.10. Originally, I had intended to use this command:
gksu update-manager -d
However, I found another one when considering how Ubuntu Server might be upgraded without the GUI application that is the Update Manager. To update to a development version, the following command is what you need:
sudo do-release-upgrade -d
To upgrade to a final release of a new version of Ubuntu, drop the -d switch from the above to use the following:
sudo do-release-upgrade
There is one further option that isn't recommended for moving between Ubuntu versions, but I use it to get updates, such as new kernel subversions that are released:
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
Rather than trying out the above, I downloaded the latest ISO image for the beta release of Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 and installed onto a VM that instead. Though it is the 32 bit version of the distro that is installed on my main home PC, it has been the 64 bit version that I have been trying. So far, that seems to be behaving itself even if it feels a little sluggish, but that could be down to the four-year-old PC that hosts the virtual machine. For a while, I have been playing with the possibility of an upgrade involving an Intel Core i5 4670K CPU and 16 GB of RAM (useful for running multiple virtual machines at a time) along with any motherboard that supports those, so looking at a 64-bit operating system has its uses.
The Linux kernel is 3.11, but that's not my main concern. Neither am I worried about LibreOffice 4.1.2.3 being included while GIMP (version 2.8.6) wasn't, since it can be added easily. What drew me to explore the upcoming release was the move to GNOME Shell 3.8, as I rely on many extensions. Like WordPress and its plugins, GNOME Shell has a difficult relationship with extensions, and I wanted to see which still worked. The backstage application view has changed. Now you either see all installed applications or must type the name of the one you want. Losing the categorical view from GNOME Shell 3.6 is a backward step, and I hope version 3.10 brings it back. Although you can add categories, the result is inferior to the original. Users shouldn't need to modify system internals for such basic functionality. With all these constant changes, it's unsurprising that Cinnamon has become independent with version 2.0, and that Debian considered not using GNOME for its latest version (7.1 at the time of writing, which wisely chose GNOME Shell 3.4).
Having had a look at other distribution that already have GNOME Shell 3.8, I knew that a few of my extensions worked with it. The list includes Frippery Bottom Panel, Frippery Move Clock, Places Status Indicator, Removable Drive Menu, Remove Rounded Corners (not really needed with the GNOME Shell theme that I use, Elementary Luna 3.4, but I retain it anyway), Show Desktop Button, User Themes and Ignore_Request_Hide_Titlebar. Because of the changes to the backstage view, I added the Frippery Applications Menu instead of the Applications Menu because I have found that to be unstable. Useful new discoveries have included Curtains Up and GNOME Shell Open Terminal, while Shell Restart User Menu Entry has made a return and found a use this time around too.
There have been some extensions that were not updated to work with GNOME Shell 3.8 that I have got working. In some cases, it was as simple as updating the metadata.json file for an extension with new version numbers of 3.8 and 3.84 to the list associated with the shell version property. All extensions are to be found in the .local/share/gnome-shell/extensions location in your home directory, and each has a dedicated file containing the aforementioned file.
With others, it was a matter of looking in the Looking Glass (execute lg in the box that ALT + F2 brings up on your screen to access this) and seeing what error messages were to be found in there before attempting to correct these in either the extensions' extension.js files or whatever JavaScript (*.js) file was causing the problem. With either or both of these remedies, I managed to port the four extensions below to GNOME Shell 3.8. In fact, you can download these zip files and install them yourself to see how you get on with them.
Advanced Settings in User Menu
There is a Remove Panel App Menu that works with GNOME Shell 3.8, but I found that it got rid of the Places menu instead of the panel's App Menu, so I tried porting the older extension to see if it behaved itself and it does. With these in place, I have bent Ubuntu GNOME 13.10 to my will ahead of its final release next week, which includes customising Nautilus too. Other than a new version of GNOME Shell, it looks as if it will come with less in the way of drama and a breather like that is no bad thing given that personal computing incessantly remains in a state of flux these days.
Customising Nautilus (or Files) in Ubuntu GNOME 13.04
12th September 2013The changes made to Nautilus, otherwise known as Files, in GNOME Shell 3.6 were contentious and the response of the Linux Mint was to create their own variant called Nemo from the previous version of the application. On the Cinnamon or MATE desktop environments, the then latest version of GNOME's file manager would have looked like a fish out of water without its application menu in the top panel on the GNOME Shell desktop. It is possible to make a few modifications that help Nautilus to look more at home on those Linux Mint desktops, and I have collected them here because they are useful for GNOME Shell users too. Here they are in turn.
Adding Application Menu entries to Location Options Menu
The Location Options menu is what you get on clicking the button with the cog icon on the right-hand side of the application's location bar. Using Gsettings, it is possible to make that menu include the sort of entries that are in the application menu in the GNOME Shell panel at the top of the screen. These include an entry for closing the whole application, as well as setting its preferences (or options). Running the following command does just that (if it does not work as it should, try changing the single and double quotes to those understood by a command shell):
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides '@a{sv} {"Gtk/ShellShowsAppMenu": <int32 0>}'
Adding in the Remove App Menu GNOME Shell extension will clean up the GNOME Shell a little by removing the application menu altogether. If, for some reason, you wish to restore the default behaviour, then the following command does the required reset:
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides '@a{sv} {}'
Stopping Hiding of the Application Title Bar When Maximised
By default, GNOME Shell can hide the application title bars of GNOME applications such as Nautilus on window maximisation and this is Nautilus now works by default. Changing the behaviour so that the title bar is kept on maximised windows can be as simple as adding in the ignore_request_hide_titlebar extension. The trouble with GNOME Shell extensions is that they can stop working when a new version of GNOME Shell is used, so there's another option: editing metacity-theme-3.xml but /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1. The file can be opened using superuser privileges using the following command:
gksudo gedit /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml
With the file open, it is a matter of replacing instances of ' has_title="false" ' with ' has_title="true" ', saving it and reloading GNOME Shell. This may persevere across different versions of GNOME Shell, should the extension not do so.
Disabling Recursive Search
This discovery is what led me to bundle these customisations in an entry on here in the first place. In Nemo and older versions of Nautilus, just typing with the application open would lead you down a list towards the file that you wanted. This behaviour was replaced by an automatic recursive search from GNOME Shell 3.6 where the search functionality was extended beyond the folder that was open in the file manager to its subdirectories. To change that to subsetting within the open folder or directory, you need to install a patch version of Nautilus using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:dr3mro/personal
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade
The first of these adds a new repository with the patched version of Nautilus, while the second combination installs the patched version. With that done, it is time to issue the following command:
gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences enable-recursive-search false
That sets the value of the new enable-recursive-search option to false for searching within an open directory. It also can be found using Dconf-Editor in the following hierarchy: org -> gnome -> nautilus -> preferences. The obsession of the GNOME project team with minimalism is robbing users of some options, and this would be a good one to have by default too. Maybe the others should be treated in the same way, even if you need to use Gsettings or Dconf-Editor to change them to avoid clutter. Having GNOME Tweak Tool able to set them all would be even better.
Dealing with the Lack of Categories in the Application Overview Screen for GNOME Shell 3.8
10th July 2013Browsing through installed applications on computer systems is something that I find useful. While this is usually straightforward, some developers have replaced traditional menus with search boxes. GNOME Shell 3.8 has fallen into this trap. You can add the Applications Menu extension from GNOME Shell Classic, which I've tried, but it sometimes freezes the desktop session, so I don't recommend it.
However, there is a setting that brings back those application categories in the overview screen, and it can be set using dconf-editor. After opening up the application, navigate to org > gnome > shell using the tree in the left-hand panel of the tool. Editing the app-folder-categories entry in the right-hand panel is what adds the categories back for you. The default is ['Utilities', 'Sundry'] and this needs to be changed to ['Utilities', 'Games', 'Sundry', 'Office', 'Network', 'Internet', 'Graphics', 'Multimedia', 'System', 'Development', 'Accessories', 'System Settings', 'Other'].
After making these changes, the application overview screen displays categories in a new layout. Application icons appear in the middle, with categories listed on the right side. Clicking a category opens a panel showing applications within that category, which can then be closed. Navigating through categories requires opening and closing different panels. While the interface behaviour has changed, the core functionality remains, and I've heard GNOME Shell 3.10 will further refine this system.
For those wanting to exit all of this and get something like the old GNOME 2, it is possible to add the Classic Session. In Fedora 19, it's a matter of issuing something like the following command:
sudo yum -y install gnome-classic-session
In reality, this is a case of adding a number of extensions and changing the panel colour from black to grey, but it works without needing the category tweak that I described above. The Application Menu extension does need more stability hardening before I'd trust it completely, though. There's no point having a nicer interface if it's going to freeze up on you too often.
Making Nautilus work like it does in Ubuntu for any other GNOME-using distro
26th July 2009While It's a personal preference, I like the way that Nautilus (GNOME's default file manager if you need to know) is set to work on Ubuntu by default. For some tastes, it might look too similar to Windows Explorer, but having all the action happening in the same window is a convenience that users of other GNOME using distributions may not realise is there at all. By default, Debian and Fedora use what is called spatial mode, with each double-clicking action on a folder icon firing up a new window. Personally, I think that clutters the desktop without good cause, yet it's easy to change. All that's needed is to go to Edit>Preferences in a Nautilus window, proceed to the Behaviour tab and toggle the Always open in browser windows tick box as shown below. Quite why this is not the default in all GNOME using distributions is beyond me, but others may prefer what I dislike and Linux is all about choice, after all. Well, you can decide to use Gnome Commander instead and there are times when I do the same along with being a command line user too.
