Where are the config files in GNOME

29/12/2020
When you install a new distribution, you end up with a generic desktop. GNOME, when you choose standard Ubuntu. This works but the great joy of running Linux is to have it all your way. So, get your own tweaks in there. How can you change your desktop? In GNOME, you have tools and files to change it. In this post you will learn where to find the files and use the tools.

What can you change in the GNOME desktop?

You can change everything but the wisest is to use tools and change only what the tool allows. If you are developing your own window manager, you will need to manipulate the files under ‘etc/gnome‘. As a regular user or administrator, you should use the tools and your home directory.

The most common change is to change the theme and adding or removing extensions. The possibilities with these are vast.

How can you change the GNOME desktop?

GNOME is configured using a database file in ‘etc/dconf/db/ibus‘, this file has a special format that is not humanly readable. The format is a database as you may guess from the name and path. The standard way to tweak this is the dconf editor. The dconf editor is useful for changing values that affect the behaviour of your desktop.

When you start dconf, it comes with a warning. Heed the warning, you can make GNOME behave very strange. You can also use it as a command line tool.

$ dconf read /desktop/ibus/panel/emoji/favorites

If you don’t want to use the graphical interface, maybe you want to use a script, you can use the gsettings command line tool. You also have files in your home directory, at ~/.config/dconf/user.[xxxx]. The value will vary. Inside the file you have the database. Reading it with a text editor shows garbage, after the GVARIANT string. To see values, use the the dump command. The result will come out as a below.

$ dconf dump desktop

Figure 2: Dumping dconf using dump parameters.

When you use dbus-launch and gsettings together you can set your applications behaviour. To check it, use the list command or if you want all keys, the list-recursively version.

$ dbus-launch gsettings list-recursively cx.ring.RingGnome

These are advanced changes, the more common user changes are the ways you can add and remove extensions and using the standard settings tools.

GDM configuration

The main way you change gdm is to use a regular file in ‘etc/gdm3‘ and ‘/etc/dbus-1/system.d/gdm.conf’. There are a number of files there, they are organised in directories.

The directories have clear names, making it easy to understand what they are for.

When the tools cannot be used for your personal settings, use ~/.xsession.

Desktop Theme and Looks

Your desktop have colours and fonts, these are controlled with theme files. When you have small changes to make,, you can use ‘Appearances’ and change the view a piece at a time. From this point, you can also install theme files. The files are ‘~/.gtkrc-2.0’ which the appearance application changes this file. When you are comfortable, create your own file named ‘~/.gtkrc-2.0.mine’, this file overrides the stuff from the earlier file.

Many themes will be available, or stored, in the themes directory.

~/.themes/

In this directory, you can unpack themes here to use them for you.

Applications that run at start

Applications that start during login are set for the whole system using the below directory.

/etc/xdg/autostart

The corresponding file in your home directory, the file is ‘~/.config/autostart/’. for each application, there need to be a *.desktop file. The file itself is quite simple while it still has options for which file to execute and working directory. Many other options are available but this needs a deeper discussion how it works. Most of the times, you will uses ‘Tweaks’ to add an existing application. Tweaks will the create the file.

Adding Extensions

Most extensions add a little icon in your top bar and gives you some drop down information from there. The code is a JavaScript project that call the gnome-shell executable. You can find extensions in both a global directory and a user directory. The global directory is ‘usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions’, this directory is important to know since you may have the same extensions installed twice. Once by using apt, and then once by your regular user. Your user directory is ‘~.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/’, this is where you install extensions when you use your browser to install.

Conclusion

When you start tweaking your GNOME desktop, it is worthwhile to know where the files are, so you are prepared to check and adapt to changing needs. It is also fun to tweak the desktop ton your own liking, when you have your own ideas you should figure out what the tools are doing to secure that you can check if there are any problems with the tools or certain things just cannot be changed with the tools.

ONET IDC thành lập vào năm 2012, là công ty chuyên nghiệp tại Việt Nam trong lĩnh vực cung cấp dịch vụ Hosting, VPS, máy chủ vật lý, dịch vụ Firewall Anti DDoS, SSL… Với 10 năm xây dựng và phát triển, ứng dụng nhiều công nghệ hiện đại, ONET IDC đã giúp hàng ngàn khách hàng tin tưởng lựa chọn, mang lại sự ổn định tuyệt đối cho website của khách hàng để thúc đẩy việc kinh doanh đạt được hiệu quả và thành công.
Bài viết liên quan

How to Use GNOME Terminal App

GNOME Terminal is the default terminal app on GNOME 3 desktop environment. In this article, I am going to show you how...
29/12/2020

How to Install GNOME 3 Extensions on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS

Ubuntu 18.04 LTS now by default uses the GNOME 3 desktop environment. The GNOME 3 desktop environment is nice looking,...
28/12/2020

Install Gnome Tweak Tool on Fedora 27

Install and Setup Gnome Tweak Tool on Fedora 27 GNOME Tweak Tool is used to configure many aspects of the GNOME 3 Desktop...
28/12/2020
Bài Viết

Bài Viết Mới Cập Nhật

Mua Proxy V6 Nuôi Facebook Spam Hiệu Quả Tại Onetcomvn
03/06/2024

Hướng dẫn cách sử dụng ProxyDroid để duyệt web ẩn danh
03/06/2024

Mua proxy Onet uy tín tại Onet.com.vn
03/06/2024

Thuê mua IPv4 giá rẻ, tốc độ nhanh, uy tín #1
28/05/2024

Thuê địa chỉ IPv4 IPv6 trọn gói ở đâu chất lượng, giá RẺ nhất?
27/05/2024