Gnome3 PPA is getting ready

**pulpo69** · April 17th, 2011

i only get a purple screen when starting gnome-shell (via gdm).

gnome-shell: error while loading shared libraries: libmozjs.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

any idea?

**23dornot23d** · April 17th, 2011

Ok my latest upgrade -

Now to see if I still have Gnome-shell .... will post this before trying to restart it ....

Code:

root@keith-Aspire-7730ZG:/home/keith# aptitude safe-upgrade
Resolving dependencies...                
The following packages will be upgraded:
  gnome-shell 
1 packages upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 8 not upgraded.
Need to get 786 kB of archives. After unpacking 0 B will be used.
Do you want to continue? [Y/n/?] y
Get:1 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ricotz/testing/ubuntu/ natty/main gnome-shell i386 3.0.0.2+git20110415.1d2eadb9-0~11.04~ricotz0 [786 kB]
Fetched 786 kB in 1s (613 kB/s)      
(Reading database ... 328455 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace gnome-shell 3.0.0.2+git20110413.42e26a86-0~11.04~ricotz0 (using .../gnome-shell_3.0.0.2+git20110415.1d2eadb9-0~11.04~ricotz0_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement gnome-shell ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Processing triggers for gconf2 ...
WARNING: Failed to parse default value `' for schema (/schemas/apps/devhelp/state/main/contents/books_disabled)
Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0 ...
No such key `exit-with-last-window' in schema `org.gnome.nautilus.preferences' as specified in override file `/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/nautilus.gschema.override'; ignoring override for this key.
Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/desktop.en_US.utf8.cache...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf.index...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils ...
Processing triggers for python-support ...
Setting up gnome-shell (3.0.0.2+git20110415.1d2eadb9-0~11.04~ricotz0) ...
                                         
Current status: 8 updates [-1].
root@keith-Aspire-7730ZG:/home/keith#

just in case things should go wrong here ......

Ok for anyone wanting to try the way I do things here is a link ..... this got me successfully running Gnome-shell

I purge everything and start from scratch so if you are not prepared to do this - then carry on as normal ........

( its not neat and its not pretty - but its pretty neat if it works for you too - progress sometimes starts by knocking everything down and starting again )

But if you want to use it - use it in a Testing environment and not on your main system ....... LINK

After doing all the available updates and now I m running the latest kernel the latest Nvidia driver and the latest Gnome Shell with no

apparent errors ....... yet ...... lols

other than a warning ...... and I have no idea how to fix this .... (sorted devhelp -upgrade needed)

Code:

WARNING: Failed to parse default value `' for schema (/schemas/apps/devhelp/state/main/contents/books_disabled) Processing triggers for libglib2.0-0 ... No such key `exit-with-last-window' in schema `org.gnome.nautilus.preferences' as specified in override file `/usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas/nautilus.gschema.override'; ignoring override for this key. Processing triggers for python-gmenu ...

keith@keith-Aspire-7730ZG:~$ uname -a
Linux keith-Aspire-7730ZG 2.6.39-999-generic #201104151156 SMP Fri Apr 15 13:24:11 UTC 2011 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
keith@keith-Aspire-7730ZG:~$

Update ...... all went well - Latest screen shot ... not that it tells you a lot

updated to the latest now and running ok ......

**hype** · April 17th, 2011

Just wondering, i just tried to add the oficial gnome3 PPA, but, as a few weeks ago, it only shows a "partial upgrade" option.
Is there anything particular to do to be able to use Gnome3 and it's shell on ubuntu Natty?

**bmbaker** · April 17th, 2011

Originally Posted by hype

Just wondering, i just tried to add the oficial gnome3 PPA, but, as a few weeks ago, it only shows a "partial upgrade" option.
Is there anything particular to do to be able to use Gnome3 and it's shell on ubuntu Natty?

read this first see if it applies to your situation.
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1641400

if it doesn't the do:
sudo apt-get install ppa-purge
sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install aptitude

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

**Mblackwell** · April 17th, 2011

Originally Posted by clivejo

I've been using Gnome 3 for a while now and I dont like it. The fonts and icons are too big (even after tweaking). I find myself in a day dream wondering how to get into common applications or how to switch windows! It just looks horrible and seems very unproductive to me. It seems like is was designed for someone who has very bad eye sight! It has broken Unity so I cant downgrade, so I will have to stick it out until Natty is released.

I'm not sure where to go now, I really dont like unity very much either and I gave up on KDE years ago. Maybe KDE is worth a revisit!

Maybe something like this would be helpful for you?

http://www.youtube.com/user/GNOMEDesktop

In reality, to explain it better, it's a paradigm shift from Desktop based interaction to Workspace based interaction. Or to put it another way: The idea of Gnome Shell is to make computing based on task easier.

I always currently use 4 workspaces in shell: 1 for chatting, one for programming, one for file/document management, and one for web browsing. I add additional workspaces as my tasks increase. The overview is an easy way to see every window on the current workspace as well as to see what's going on on other workspaces should I need to change focus and get a quick look at other things. Switching between apps then is as fast as either:

A) Clicking on the appropriate workspace for the task I'm wanting to do (or scrolling to it)
B) Clicking on the app icon on the Dash
C) Alt Tabbing to the app I want.

If the app uses more than one window you can use Alt+<Above_Tab> (the key above tab. On US Keyboards this is `, but it depends on your locale) to flip between them quickly.

You can also tile windows side by side by dragging them to the screen edges so you can see two documents at once easily.

It's definitely a shift if you haven't been using your computer that way at all (I hadn't been when I first started using Shell 2 years ago). But once you pick it up it makes other interfaces feel downright clunky. Additionally it's worth noting that people I've shown it to seem to pick it up right away, and for most people basic interaction was intuitive to them.

This will sound terrible (and of course I'm biased), but I saw a short video of multitasking in Unity recently, and while helpful for people that want to stick to the interface it seemed like a very hackish way of doing things involving lots of keyboard shortcut memorization. I only mention it because Gnome Shell was designed from the start with multitasking in mind with the caveat that it should also allow you to more easily focus on the task you want to do right now.

Note: Not trying to say you absolutely have to love it or you're a bad person, just trying to explain some of the logic behind the way it is, and what it expects from the user.

**bmbaker** · April 17th, 2011

well said

**Visceral Monkey** · April 17th, 2011

Originally Posted by Mblackwell

Maybe something like this would be helpful for you?

http://www.youtube.com/user/GNOMEDesktop

In reality, to explain it better, it's a paradigm shift from Desktop based interaction to Workspace based interaction. Or to put it another way: The idea of Gnome Shell is to make computing based on task easier.

I always currently use 4 workspaces in shell: 1 for chatting, one for programming, one for file/document management, and one for web browsing. I add additional workspaces as my tasks increase. The overview is an easy way to see every window on the current workspace as well as to see what's going on on other workspaces should I need to change focus and get a quick look at other things. Switching between apps then is as fast as either:

A) Clicking on the appropriate workspace for the task I'm wanting to do (or scrolling to it)
B) Clicking on the app icon on the Dash
C) Alt Tabbing to the app I want.

If the app uses more than one window you can use Alt+<Above_Tab> (the key above tab. On US Keyboards this is `, but it depends on your locale) to flip between them quickly.

You can also tile windows side by side by dragging them to the screen edges so you can see two documents at once easily.

It's definitely a shift if you haven't been using your computer that way at all (I hadn't been when I first started using Shell 2 years ago). But once you pick it up it makes other interfaces feel downright clunky. Additionally it's worth noting that people I've shown it to seem to pick it up right away, and for most people basic interaction was intuitive to them.

This will sound terrible (and of course I'm biased), but I saw a short video of multitasking in Unity recently, and while helpful for people that want to stick to the interface it seemed like a very hackish way of doing things involving lots of keyboard shortcut memorization. I only mention it because Gnome Shell was designed from the start with multitasking in mind with the caveat that it should also allow you to more easily focus on the task you want to do right now.

Note: Not trying to say you absolutely have to love it or you're a bad person, just trying to explain some of the logic behind the way it is, and what it expects from the user.

I hated the first hour I spent using Gnome 3 Shell. Seriously didn't like it. I ended sticking with it though and after a couple of days, was hooked.

It does work, very well, when you let it. The trick is understanding how it's supposed to work. Most people have zero need to give up the old desktop paradigm and I totally understand that, so it might not be for you. I was bored though and did some reading on the design decisions it was based on and how they envisioned workflow, and I get it now. In comparison, Unity feels like something thrown together to "ape" Gnome 3. It looks similar but the design decisions behind it are missing, it's just cosmetic. In any case, no one would blame you for wanting to stick with what works, that's pretty normal.

**M4570D0N** · April 17th, 2011

Originally Posted by bmbaker

if you want to adjust the dock extension....
sudo nautilus

and navigate to:-

/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/dock@gnome-shell-extensions.gnome.org

extension.js
and open with gedit and you can change the icon size to allow more space

line 28 const DOCKICON_SIZE = 48;

i changed mine to 36

Additionally, according to the gnome site there is a program called looking glass which is the integrated debugger/inspecting tool for gnome shell. I haven't tried it myself yet, though, so I can't comment on the interface or usability of it from experience:

Anatomy of an extension

When creating an extension, you must pick a uuid. This is a globally-unique identifier for your extension, similar in form to an email address, but need not be an actual email address. An extension, when installed on the filesystem, is a directory whose name is the same as your extension's uuid.

Inside the directory, the bare bones of an extension are two files, metadata.json and extension.js. The content of a metadata.json looks like this:

Code:

{ 'uuid': 'myextension@myname.example.com',
   'name': 'My Cool Extension',
   'description': 'Make windows burst into flame',
   'url': 'http://example.com/~myname/myextension',
   'shell-version': [ '2.91.5' ] }

The extension.js file is simply a JavaScript file; it must however have a function called main, which will be invoked right after the Shell has completed initialization and is awaiting user input.

You may optionally include a stylesheet file, stylesheet.css.

So an extension will typically look like this:

Code:

/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/myextension@myname.example.com
     extension.js
     metadata.json
     stylesheet.css

...

Extension installation locations

Extensions can be installed per-user in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions, or systemwide in /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions and /usr/local/share/gnome-shell/extensions.

Viewing installed extensions

Installed extensions are listed in LookingGlass.

Disabling extensions

Per-user and systemwide extensions can be disabled with the GSettings key org.gnome.shell.disabled-extensions

https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/Extensions

Looking Glass is GNOME Shell's integrated debugger and inspector tool. It aims to be the Firebug of GNOME Shell. It is not related to the older project Sun Looking Glass.
You currently run it by pressing Alt-F2, typing lg, then Return.

You can leave Looking Glass by pressing Esc in its Evaluator pane.

Looking Glass has four major panes (Evaluator, Windows, Errors, and Extensions) and one tool (the Picker).

Evaluator

This is an interactive JavaScript prompt. You can type arbitrary JavaScript at the prompt, and it will be evaluated. Try, in order:

Code:

1+1   

global.get_window_actors()  

global.get_window_actors().forEach(function (w) { Tweener.addTween(w, { time: 3, transition: 'easeOutQuad', scale_x: 0.3, scale_y: 0.3 })})

global.get_window_actors().forEach(function (w) { w.set_scale(1, 1) }) 

global.get_window_actors()[0]  

it.scale_x

...

Extensions

This is a list of all currently installed extensions. You can use the View Source link to quickly access the extension folder.

https://live.gnome.org/GnomeShell/LookingGlass

**clivejo** · April 17th, 2011

Ok one problem which is really annoying me, how do you launch multiple instances of the same app in Gnome 3. Clicking on the app again just refocus to the previously launched version.