Gnome3 for the experienced (FUN Stuff!!!)

[viking777]

Get rid of annoying "can't do it" dialog on shutdown

I have to start out by saying that I am not sure if this is a Gnome 3 problem or a Gnome 2 problem as well, but it has forced its attentions on me by virtue of the way in which Gnome 3 encourages you to work, that is, in the 'mobile phone' mode where applications are left running rather than shut down. Now in the past I shut down everything, all the time, and frequently cursed myself for doing so when I found that I wanted the same program open again 5 minutes later, so I have found that this way of working has been a time saver on occasions, but it also leads to this shutdown problem. I will nearly always have a terminal open, frequently logged in as root, and maybe a root file manager as well, and if I don't shut these down prior to closing down the machine it leads to this problem where Gnome says that I can't shut down without giving my password again because somebody else is logged in. Nobody else is logged in, I just have a root terminal open that is all.

Before I give you the solution to this I should perhaps point out that if you are on a system where other users really are logged in then it is not a good idea to implement it.

If it bothers you this is how you get rid of it.

You need a root text editor or file manager or terminal, and navigate to /usr/share/polkit-1/actions and open org.freedesktop.consolekit.policy and look for the entries:
"org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users" and
"org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users"

You need to amend them so they look like this:

<action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.stop-multiple-users">
<description>Stop the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
<message>System policy prevents stopping the system when other users are logged in</message>
<defaults>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>



<action id="org.freedesktop.consolekit.system.restart-multiple-users">
<description>Restart the system when multiple users are logged in</description>
<message>System policy prevents restarting the system when other users are logged in</message>
<defaults>
<allow_inactive>no</allow_inactive>
<allow_active>auth_admin_keep</allow_active>
<allow_active>yes</allow_active>
</defaults>
</action>

The line to add is in red.

You will now be able to shut down or reboot without providing a password.

[jwedekin]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get regular old Desktop icons back, change my theme, and get "right-click" working on LMDE after the Gnome3 upgrade...you guys are clearly more experienced than me. I don't have time for this sh**. I'm a busy web developer. I guess it is time to change my distro...I've wasted too much time fighting with LMDE.

[autocrosser]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get regular old Desktop icons back, change my theme, and get "right-click" working on LMDE after the Gnome3 upgrade...you guys are clearly more experienced than me. I don't have time for this sh**. I'm a busy web developer. I guess it is time to change my distro...I've wasted too much time fighting with LMDE.

For "most" of what you want---Install Gnome-Tweak & your good to go.....

[michaelzap]

Just updated my main LMDE system to GNOME Shell 3.2 (mostly), and for the most part I'm very happy with it. First I changed my sources file to use only the unstable repos and updated the whole system, and then I installed gnome-shell, gnome-session, and nautilus. Next I added the experimental repos and updated those same packages plus gnome-tweak-tool from experimental (which pulled in a whole lot of related packages). Then I added most of the Mint GNOME Shell extensions using the debs from the Lisa download page, and supplemented them by temporarily enabling the WebUpd8 repos (so I could get GPaste and Pidgin notifications, although I also found that the User Themes extension from Lisa didn't work for me but the WebUpd8 one did).

So now I seem to have a fully-functional GNOME Shell LMDE system, and it's pretty much tweaked to my liking. One thing that I haven't got working, however, are the "Online Accounts" features to connect my Google Contacts and Calendar to GNOME Shell. Anyone have this working yet?

I installed gnome-online-accounts (which was apparently not installed previously), but clicking on Online Accounts in the top-right user menu does nothing, and it is not present in the System Settings applet. I have the version that's in Experimental, so it might just be broken, I suppose. Running "gnome-online-accounts" from a terminal just returns "command not found", so apparently that's not how it should be launched.

Ideas?

[michaelzap]

One thing that I haven't got working, however, are the "Online Accounts" features to connect my Google Contacts and Calendar to GNOME Shell. Anyone have this working yet?

I installed gnome-online-accounts (which was apparently not installed previously), but clicking on Online Accounts in the top-right user menu does nothing, and it is not present in the System Settings applet. I have the version that's in Experimental, so it might just be broken, I suppose. Running "gnome-online-accounts" from a terminal just returns "command not found", so apparently that's not how it should be launched.

Ideas?

Looks like it's not just me.

[GregE]

Hi Michael,

My system is set up as you describe. I am running LMDE, dist-upgraded to Sid with 3.2 packages from experimental. Now 3.2 packages are in Sid i am hoping to stop dipping into experimental in the future.

I can set up my Google account in online accounts. It logs in and says that it is working with my Gmail and GDocs etc. I have Chrome set as my default browser.

But, I fail to see how that has been of any benefit. My Google Calendar is not working through the Gnome Calendar. Maybe I need to do some more homework.

[michaelzap]

Hi Michael,

My system is set up as you describe. I am running LMDE, dist-upgraded to Sid with 3.2 packages from experimental. Now 3.2 packages are in Sid i am hoping to stop dipping into experimental in the future.

I can set up my Google account in online accounts. It logs in and says that it is working with my Gmail and GDocs etc. I have Chrome set as my default browser.

But, I fail to see how that has been of any benefit. My Google Calendar is not working through the Gnome Calendar. Maybe I need to do some more homework.

I wonder what you have installed that I don't...

Does GNOME Contacts work for you (does it pull your contacts from your Google account)? I tried Fedora 16 a while back, and in that I could link the desktop calendar with my Google Calendar just by turning that on in the Online Accounts control panel. That's what I really want.

[GregE]

I just installed Evolution from experimental and now have Google events in my calendar, and when I go to Contacts in Evolution all my Google contacts are listed.

This system did not seem to take much from the online accounts of Gnome, I still needed to add my password to Evolution. But maybe that is just because it is the first time I have used it, and Evolution did default to my Google Account.

So, the question is what is your system missing? All I can offer is that mine works, therefore there is a solution. I am using the 64bit version of LMDE. I would check your gir1* packages and see if there are any missing libs.

[michaelzap]

I just installed Evolution from experimental and now have Google events in my calendar, and when I go to Contacts in Evolution all my Google contacts are listed.

This system did not seem to take much from the online accounts of Gnome, I still needed to add my password to Evolution. But maybe that is just because it is the first time I have used it, and Evolution did default to my Google Account.

So, the question is what is your system missing? All I can offer is that mine works, therefore there is a solution. I am using the 64bit version of LMDE. I would check your gir1* packages and see if there are any missing libs.

Looks like I needed to install gnome-control-center from experimental. I also installed Evolution and Empathy and set up an account in Evolution. That seems to have done the trick, since I now see my Google Calendar events in the taskbar calendar and Contacts has all of my Google Contacts (although it's kind of a jumble - wish that were a bit better-organized).

[samriggs]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get regular old Desktop icons back, change my theme, and get "right-click" working on LMDE after the Gnome3 upgrade...you guys are clearly more experienced than me. I don't have time for this sh**. I'm a busy web developer. I guess it is time to change my distro...I've wasted too much time fighting with LMDE.

Howdy jwedekin, no need to change distros at all, just switch to xfce, I was playing with gnome 3 for a while now, but as far as having my working station I rather use xfce myself because it's just a lot easier for me to use for all I need to do, I tried gnome 3 and xfce and weighed the balance for my personal preference, and xfce won out for me for doing a lot of work on this thing.
But there is no need to change distros, lmde has an xfce choice also.
Howdy all sorry I haven't been around much,just popped in to say howdy.
I been really busy with android stuff lately so haven't had much time for anything else.
If anyone wants to update my themes to gnome 3.2 feel free to do so, let me know if you do and I'll shove a link on deviant where the updated version is, I would do it but honestly I really don't have anymore time left, I have to get about 20 live wallpapers done so I won't be breathing for awhile
And if anyone knows how to pass sprite choices through sharedpreferences in android please let me know, I've been banging my head against a wall for two days now trying to figure it out

Yak to ya all later, have fun with the gnome 3.2 , the wife and sister still love using it, so I'm not entirely out of the loop on it still

Sam

[michaelzap]

I'm still trying to figure out how to get regular old Desktop icons back, change my theme, and get "right-click" working on LMDE after the Gnome3 upgrade...you guys are clearly more experienced than me. I don't have time for this sh**. I'm a busy web developer. I guess it is time to change my distro...I've wasted too much time fighting with LMDE.

Howdy jwedekin, no need to change distros at all, just switch to xfce, I was playing with gnome 3 for a while now, but as far as having my working station I rather use xfce myself because it's just a lot easier for me to use for all I need to do, I tried gnome 3 and xfce and weighed the balance for my personal preference, and xfce won out for me for doing a lot of work on this thing.
But there is no need to change distros, lmde has an xfce choice also.

+1

I'm pretty happily using GNOME Shell right now, but XFCE is a perfectly good desktop environment. I used it for quite a while before I switched back to GNOME, and it's similar enough to GNOME 2 to satisfy most of those who want to go back to that. It's in active development also, so it's been getting better by leaps and bounds.

The LMDE XFCE release is very good, but I also like Crunchbang's XFCE distro (and you can add the LMDE sources to that and get the best of both worlds).

[GregE]

viewtopic.php?f=198&t=67502&start=1540#p503791

EDIT:

Today, Dec 1st, Python 2.7 was updated in Sid and the Alacarte fix is no longer rquired

[MALsPa]

I don't know if it's been mentioned here, but there's some good info in the "Gnome shell 3.2 setups" thread over at the Ubuntu forums:

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1869241

[xircon]

Anyone having trouble with the weather extension? It just will not update to my (or any) location, just shows as a circular arrow.

[GeneC]

Anyone having trouble with the weather extension?........

Morning Steve.

Nope! Still working fine here.

34F and Sunny!

[xircon]

Afternoon here 12:26

Strange, it just will not work, tried UKXX0133 (Sheffield) UKXX1002 (Sheffield Attercliffe) what are you using?

[GeneC]

Try USME0376

[xircon]

Nope, doesn't work:


The icon is on the right, next to the yellow tomboy icon, just a circular arrow.

[viking777]

Gene, your signature says that on one of your installations you are tracking sid and yet you are using Gnome-shell 3.2.

Yesterday I changed my sources.list first to 'Sid' then to 'Experimental' and there is no way I could get gnome-shell 3.2 installed on my present LMDE 'testing' installation using apt-get or aptitude. Even a full dist-upgrade from the experimental repos would not do it (I only simulated it, but gnome-shell 3.2 never even showed up in the list of packages to be installed or upgraded). The other thing is that if you go to packages.debian.org and search for gnome-shell with the unstable distribution it does not use 3.2, it uses 3.0.2-8, only experimental lists 3.2 as available.

I am guessing that this might be something to do with your 'liquorix' kernel as opposed to my stock kernel. Is this assumption correct do you think?

At the moment although I really like gnome-shell, the 3.0.2 version is quite limited due to the lack of usable extensions written for it. To get round this I installed Fedora 16 which includes gnome-shell 3.2 and sure enough, although the basic shell is hardly different from 3.0.2, the available extensions add a lot of usability to it that is missing from the earlier version, and it includes a slightly improved gnome-tweak-tool as well.

I know I could have installed Mint 12 to get the same result with MGSE but I have enough Mint on my computer as it is and wanted a change.

Just wondered how you managed to get shell 3.2 installed on your system when I can't?

Don't worry if you don't know the answer, I am quite happy using Fedora until LMDE catches up.

ATB viking.

[michaelzap]

Gene, your signature says that on one of your installations you are tracking sid and yet you are using Gnome-shell 3.2.
...

I also upgraded my LMDE system to GNOME 3.2 and I'm currently tracking unstable. The trick is that you cannot dist-upgrade to experimental, since the experimental repo just doesn't work that way. What you need to do is first dist-upgrade your system to the latest packages in unstable, and then you add the experimental repos and specify the packages to install from there.

To start out, at a minimum you need to install these meta-packages from experimental, like so:

Code: Select all

sudo apt-get install -t experimental gnome-shell gnome-session

I found that I also needed to install a lot of other things from experimental to get everything working right, but this is enough to get you started. I did this a while back, and a lot more packages have been updated in sid now, so you might not need to pull much more from experimental. You can check the current status of the GNOME 3.2 packages here.

Have fun!