Gnome3 for the experienced (FUN Stuff!!!)

[autocrosser]

I just posted my sources.list in another Gnome3 thread, so here is the link: viewtopic.php?f=141&t=73388

I'm going to put up a poll thread for a separate forum devoted to LMDE modified...there seems to be quite a bit of interest in a different "flavor" that's far more bleeding edge

[autocrosser]

Well--not much here this evening--G-S just works...there are more theme sets available on Gnome-Look.org....Take a look at: http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/ ... ent=142082 & http://gnome-look.org/content/show.php/ ... ent=140562

I'm using Zukitwo-Dark right now, looks good.

[autocrosser]

Several new themes on GnomeLook. Updated with no real updates of earthshaking content. I just got UT2004 running in Shell, so the last reason for me to boot into Gnome2 is gone.....Running AlephOne (Marathon M1A1), Sauerbraten & UT2004 without any problems.......

[shimazaki]

Is there any way to instal gnome shell and gnome 3 for standard users somehow?

[autocrosser]

Is there any way to instal gnome shell and gnome 3 for standard users somehow?

Until it filters down thru Sid to Testing the only "real" way to use it is a experimental install...I expect to see it in Sid within a month or so & Testing by the end of the summer. Debian is a little cautious about a major change to the Gnome UI. It works very well right now, but that could change in the blink of an eye with a bad upload to the repos. I'm in my experimental install right now--it's been stable for several weeks, so I would expect something fairly soon......

I normally tell people if they want to run Shell, you can set up a second install. Don't make Sid or Experimental your only install--it will b0rk when you least expect it.......

Build from source code was an option whilst G-S was in development, but I have not done that for about 6/8 months now...all the depends that G-S & Gnome3 need will effectively turn your install into a Experimental one.

[autocrosser]

Today's screenshot---I've added a experimental extension in the top panel for weather.....if anyone is interested, here is the source: https://github.com/simon04/gnome-shell- ... on-weather
You need to geolocate your location....

[shimazaki]

Until it filters down..............

Thanks, them i will wait, mainwhile i will change to mint 11 katia to play with gnome shell them, and will be back to LMDE once the shell is in the testing repos.

Many thanks.

[autocrosser]

Not much to talk about---had a update that caused a problem with G-S for a day---was resolved with updates early Saturday. A couple of themes showed up on GnomeLook & DeviantArt. I have made London Smoke my new favorite theme...Very nice theme---well thought out. http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&secti ... nome-Shell for themes on DeviantArt.....

I have been "playing" with the top panel & repositioned things--added a couple also...P/M me if you are interested.....

[cpatrick08]

i found a article on how to install gnome 3 in Debian at http://raphaelhertzog.com/2011/06/16/installing-gnome-3-on-debian-6-0-squeeze-no-sorry/

[karashata]

Since there seem to be a few more experienced people in this thread than I am, I was wondering if someone here might give me a hand with a problem I'm encountering...

I'm trying to install the gnome extensions from the GNOME website, and I'm unsure what I might be doing wrong. I've followed the instructions both here and from the GNOME website to try to get them compiled and installed from source, and as far as I can tell the process runs fine without significant errors (a few extensions need separators added to one of the lines near the end of the file but that was a simple fix once I searched for it), however I can't enable the extensions from the recent version of gnome-tweak-tool, and apparently none of the schemas for any of the extensions are being installed. The extension files do end up in the correct location depending on which prefix I used (the instructions here suggest /usr, the GNOME instructions suggest $HOME/.local, I now have files in both locations...)

I did manage to successfully install a different extension, the theme selector extension, however that one came pre-compiled, and I had to manually add the missing user-theme schema since my attempts beforehand to install the user-theme extension from the GNOME site didn't apparently work...

Anyone have any ideas..?

EDIT: Something I noticed running autogen.sh for the extensions... the configure script coughs up a message about GLIB_GSETTINGS missing... maybe that's what's breaking things..?

[autocrosser]

Since there seem to be a few more experienced people in this thread than I am, I was wondering if someone here might give me a hand with a problem I'm encountering...

I'm trying to install the gnome extensions from the GNOME website, and I'm unsure what I might be doing wrong. I've followed the instructions both here and from the GNOME website to try to get them compiled and installed from source, and as far as I can tell the process runs fine without significant errors (a few extensions need separators added to one of the lines near the end of the file but that was a simple fix once I searched for it), however I can't enable the extensions from the recent version of gnome-tweak-tool, and apparently none of the schemas for any of the extensions are being installed. The extension files do end up in the correct location depending on which prefix I used (the instructions here suggest /usr, the GNOME instructions suggest $HOME/.local, I now have files in both locations...)

I did manage to successfully install a different extension, the theme selector extension, however that one came pre-compiled, and I had to manually add the missing user-theme schema since my attempts beforehand to install the user-theme extension from the GNOME site didn't apparently work...

Anyone have any ideas..?

EDIT: Something I noticed running autogen.sh for the extensions... the configure script coughs up a message about GLIB_GSETTINGS missing... maybe that's what's breaking things..?

The "closest" thing to a guide about G-S extensions is here: http://blog.fpmurphy.com/2011/05/more-g ... ation.html

The correct path for extensions on a per user basis (only one "really" recommended right now) is: HOME/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions & the enclosing folder needs to be a "something"@"somewhere.com or .net

Screenshot-extensions.jpg (133.73 KiB) Viewed 1823 times

Nothing is really set right now as to how extensions "really" need to be setup & where they should be put....Expect this to really change quite a bit over the next couple of months.....

[autocrosser]

Not much new to report from this weekend---There was a Mesa update that b0rked ATI & Nvidia blobs---I spent both days repairing my Sid & Experimental installs to use the Nvidia drivers again.......One new theme showed up on GnomeLook--I almost have 20 themes now.......

[karashata]

Thanks for the info autocrosser, unfortunately it isn't quite as helpful as I thought, though it is pretty interesting.

I was more hoping for some explanation as to why my compiled extensions aren't working, so far my only guess is that since the schemas don't seem to be created as part of the compiling and installing process, the extensions can't actually be loaded and run.

In any case, I may have to give some of those tweaks from that guide a try when I have the time.

[autocrosser]

Hmmm---I remember running into that info during my looking for information....did you compile them in your /home or use a root account? As I understand it, you need to compile/make on a user level & then install to the /.local on a per user basis. I did have to do some foo about schemas at one time, but the murphy extensions do not see to need them....or work about it in a "friendlier" way. I'll try to find the info & post it.....

[karashata]

I compiled them and installed them as per the instructions on the GNOME website (here), as well as per instructions you posted earlier in this thread (here). Neither set of instructions seem to have built working extensions, and I'm unsure exactly why. I do know that there are no schemas installed for any of the extensions, which would likely be at least one problem causing them not to function. The one extension I do have working (the murphy theme selector extension) was precompiled and I manually created the appropriate schema for it, so that's all I really have to go by.

EDIT: I found a set of instructions that was somewhat helpful: http://howto.wired.com/wiki/Manually_In ... Extensions

Apparently I needed to change the shell version in the extensions' metadata to match the version I'm running. While it did fix most of them, some of them apparently don't work and end up crashing GNOME Shell. Of the extensions I compiled and installed, alternate tab, apps menu, drive menu, places menu, and user theme work. Alternative status menu doesn't appear to work, but it also doesn't crash the Shell. Dock and native window placement both crash the Shell consistently.

[karashata]

Just found out something, I'm not sure if anyone here's aware of it yet but the user theme extension apparently breaks other extensions' CSS. There are patched files available here that will fix the issue.

Also, I posted a screenie here of my current GNOME 3 setup if anyone wants to "Oooh" and "Aaah" at it...

[autocrosser]

Yes--fpmurphy had posted it in his blog a while ago...I've been lazy & not patched until today when you reminded me about it...

You might look thru the various blog posting fpmurphy has done....I believe that he talked about version testing in one of them & even had a G-S developer chime in.......

Your desktop looks very good!!!

[karashata]

Thanks! I'm rather enjoying tweaking and polishing it until it shines.

I'll have to make a note to look through fpmurphy's blog when I have some extra free time and nothing else going on, so far what I've seen has been fairly interesting.

I hope the GNOME developers eventually include that patch into the main builds, as long as it isn't dependent on having user-theme installed and won't break things if it's not, would save us people using that extension from having to reapply the patch any time we upgrade.

[autocrosser]

I just installed the weather extension from murphy...works & looks very good.....I'll post a screenshot this evening (I'm at work right now). Have made about half a icon set (murphy's stock icons are not very good-looking )....If you are interested, I'll post that when it's done.....

[karashata]

I would be interested. I'd also be interested in knowing how you got it working, I put the files in the right place and it shows up in the list in Tweak Tool, but it's disabled and I can't enable it. I saw something in the X session errors file (of all places) about it requiring Soap but Soap not existing, so I'll try looking for and installing that first, if it doesn't fix it I'll be looking here for help...

EDIT: Figured it out! Needed to install the package 'gir1.2-soup-2.4' in order for it to work. Registered for an API key and added the appropriate info to the extension file, and I'm in business.

EDIT #2: A screen crop of the extension in action, with the default supplied icons:

fpmurphy weather extension in action!

Screenshot.jpg (46.83 KiB) Viewed 1830 times

EDIT #3: Wish I knew why that Temperature value is in Fahrenheit, the extension should be using Celsius there same as the other values... Can't seem to find a bug in the extension, but I'll keep looking at it...

EDIT #4: Ha, he had Celsius and Fahrenheit backward there, no wonder... Hopefully swapping them around fixed it, right now I'm not getting anything at all but it might be 'cause I have to wait for the refresh...

EDIT #5 (last one, I promise!): Yep, it worked.