Gnome 3 -The switch!

[viking60]

Using Arch it was time to update good ol' Gnome to Gnome3. I was exited when the update was done and rebooted. Finaly I was going to have a look at the "real thing" not one of many "shells". So the thing started and my first message from Gnome3 was that it had to go into "fallback mode" (in Norwegian so I dunno the exact word - some unwanted mode anyway) Now what way is this to treat a Gnomer? I updated and the first message was that it could not work with my graphics HW (Nvidia Gforce 9400). The reduced Gnome worked and even Compiz worked so it was functional, but not very flexible. I was ready to curse every Gnome 3 developer when the thought crossed my mind to take a look in the Arch Wiki. And there it said I had to install gnome-shell after the Gnome 3 update. Okydoky RTFM and go again - huh? Same crapola, but surely fusion-icon would save me, after all that is where you pick stuff like that -right? But the choices were Kwin Metacity and Compiz, so none of them worked. I hit ALT+F2 and did a Code: Select all gnome-shell --replace and there it was the shiny new GNOME3! I am not in any way qualified to make a sensible statement about it yet but it sure works and looks better than the various shells I have tested. I will now play around with it, while you are siting on the edge of your chairs eagerly awaiting the next comment. Is it, or is it not better than the good ol' Gnome And dare I say it? How does it compare to KDE4.6 that I have been flirting with To be continued........

[dedanna1029]

Have been following it for quite some time now. It's like anything else - some say that it's great, others say it sux. It's all in one's own perception I guess.

[viking60]

Gr that thing keeps crashing "log out and try again" -yes as often as you like - it does not work. turning off my slim autologin....
And that was not the reason so I will now remove gnome-shell.
And yes now I have the good old fallback mode that is about like the old Gnome without the flexibility.

Being an incurable optimist I will now reinstall gnome shell......
OK it works again now it might have been me that played around with the force fallback settings before.
So Going on with the test in a lousy mood.....
In fact I was warned by the wiki:

Warning: The session might crash during the update and it is recommended that you run the update command in a screen session, from another DE or WM, or from tty

This makes me feel better since it is not an unstable system only a known problem during installation.

So the first impression is that this is nice and tidy. I "get" the system and it makes sense - sort of.
The search function is brilliant and every bit as impressive as in KDE 4.6. All my windows/desktops are organized on a bar to the right and it makes the workflow efficient.....
We have a Window and a program mode. In program mode you can search or select by category. You can toggle with the "windows key" I like that, it is fast.
Trying to use gtkrecordmydesktop but it only blanks out the screen....
So far it works, but I am not all excited about it. No wow factor yet, and the poweroff button will only show up when you hower "suspend" on the top right meny and press <ALT> Who's brilliant idea was that?
Going for the Gnome shell extensions to see if they can make me happy....
I compiled

Code: Select all

gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git

and installed it. Now I have a decent and visible power of option. This is a bit better.....
The cool Compiz effects are gone no more cube etc, but I can live with that. Gnome3 does not give that rock solid impression that I am used to from Gnome though. It seems... unfinished. I will keep it though - the old Gnome will not be supported anymore so it will eventually disappear anyway.
But this thing is unstable - it keeps crashing on me with the "oh no something went wrong" message.
And the only thing that helps then is to remove and reinstall gnome-shell. It could be that kwin is activated in fusion-icon after the last KDE visit - but this was no problem in older Gnome versions.
Also this is a dumbed down version of Gnome where the choices are reduced. This makes a lot of sense for enhancing stability (oh the irony). The downside is obvious; you cannot work with it to make it exactly as you want, to the same extent as before.
The screen saver is gone too.
So how does it hold up to my new mistress KDE 4.6? Eh well... Gnome3 is the house wife that can cook I guess (but she is making fish . I don't like that). KDE 4.6 is definitely more sexy and more stable! That is a first, and a very good reason to switch to KDE.
This has been a roller coaster test with ups and downs.
After two days and several crashes Gnome3 just cannot win.

[viking60]

Ok I have decided to keep it (I think it will improve) so I have to tweak it.
I Installed gnome-tweak-tools and it can be started by entering it in the search field. You will not find it in the menu.
Then I thought that the Icons on programs were way to big, so i decided to tweak the Gnome-shell stylesheet.

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sudo bluefish  /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css

(you can use nano or gedit for this).

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/* Apps */

.icon-grid {
    spacing: 36px; 
    -shell-grid-item-size: 59px; /* was 118px */
}

.icon-grid .overview-icon {
    icon-size: 48px; /* was 96px */
}

I also altered the height of the panel bar on the top I wanted it to be slimmer and I found it hard to expand windows so I increased the border to make it easier to grab them:

Code: Select all

sudo gedit /usr/share/themes/Adwaita/metacity-1/metacity-theme-3.xml


And I altered the values like this:

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<frame_geometry name="normal" title_scale="medium" rounded_top_left="4" rounded_top_right="4">
   <distance name="left_width" value="3" />  <------ was 1
   <distance name="right_width" value="3" /> <------ was 1
   <distance name="bottom_height" value="5" /> <------ was 3
   <distance name="left_titlebar_edge" value="0"/>
   <distance name="right_titlebar_edge" value="0"/>
   <distance name="title_vertical_pad" value="8"/> <--------- this is the top panel and it was 13
   <border name="title_border" left="10" right="10" top="1" bottom="1"/>
   <border name="button_border" left="0" right="0" top="1" bottom="3"/>
   <aspect_ratio name="button" value="1"/>
</frame_geometry>

I restarted the gnome-shell with <ALT>+F2 and filled in an r for restart. This restarts the gnome-shell so I could test my settings "on the fly".


Now it looks better!

Before:

After:

[dedanna1029]

hhmmm... Not sure about the "icon-ey" look here...

[viking60]

I needed the icons smaller because in the category games you will not fit them all. I don't want to scroll within a category to find my program.
This is how it looks in programs mode. You can search for a program in the search field or pick a category to the right. The result will turn up in the middle of your screen.
In the Window mode the screen is nice and clean.
Here is a sorry excuse for a video to show it.

[dedanna1029]

Yeah, I see what you mean.

What I meant though, is I'm not all to sure I'm prepared to have my whole desktop screen plastered with icons all over...

Smells like another init 3 update. :p

If they don't hurry up and fix that sound, I'm not going to be using it much anyway, so, doesn't matter, crash it away...

(To give you an idea, I haven't even touched Arch since April 25th, and honestly right now just don't care...)

Edit: Uh, yeah, definitely see what you mean now. This thing's running like total crap. And oh man, think they could've done any worse on the default background? Also, in the Applications window, is there any way to get rid of the icons, and just have the listing of the applications on the right that they have there? I really really really hate icons all over the place... Ah, I see why it's like that now.

Oh! Btw, good thing here - it didn't install gnome-shell to begin with, so all I had to do was install it.

Now installing gnome-tweak-tools and gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git - we'll see how it goes.

[dedanna1029]

And, after the initial shock factor is gone, and a look around, and taking a bit of time with it, it is a bit slow, but I'd say we got it going on now.



The only thing I'm not digging, is that old issue of the window titlebar with compiz is back, but I'll get that worked out. Or not. Just realized what it is - the problem you had with fusion-icon. Last I left off on it, I was on Emerald, and its themes defined my window title bars, borders, everything, and was gorgeous. Now, it no workie at all. Every single time I try to pull up fusion-icon, the desktop wants to logout.
I'm not even bothering with the sound - I already know it's not there. Hasn't been this whole session. So, not only is notification-daemon totally effed, sound in general is now. Back to Fedora or LMDE here in a bit for that.

I have the poweroff in the menu btw... no need to hit anything silly here for it, but my own nick in the upper right of the screen. The Restart, Poweroff, and Cancel buttons are right there when I click "Power Off":


I'll say something straight-up here. You've got this same issue in KDE with the poweroff button. You sure you don't have something real funky going on with shutdown in general?

FYI, your gnome-tweak-tool is under Applications at the upper left, then Accessories on the right, very last icon in the middle here; no need to "terminalize" or "search" it:



Have fun. I'm going to love screwing this up, if for no other reason than revenge for no sound.

[viking60]

Good job there dedanna! As always you do a better job of presenting it than yours truly.
And it is not obvious that one has to install gnome-shell after having installed Gnome3. Most people think that is Gnome3.
A few comments for the exited audience:
You having "power off" as an alternative in your menu, is not default behavior for Gnome3. So it must have adopted some of your prior settings when you upgraded.
Anyway if you hit <ALT> it will show up - that is how they wanted it to be .
And I am surprised that you have the tweak option in your menu already. Gnome offers a tweak to make that happen so it is not default either.

Now to the fusion-icon thing:
That is a bug!
Background:
Gnome did not agree with Compiz so there is no working Compiz for gnome3 -at all! Gnome went for something called Mutter (you Google it ).
So far so good.
But the fusion-icon can load Compiz metacity and Kwin. If you set it to kwin you are royaly fubared and get the famous error and the try to log out message.
When you arrive at that point you have no option left; you need to log into KDE and set the fusion icon to Compiz or Metacity. Unless you know a way to set it in CLI - I don't.
You don't have KDE you say?
Bad for you
(On the other hand it is not very likely that you have set kwin if you do not have a KDE installation)
This is when it could work to remove and reinstall gnome-shell.

The fact of the matter is that this was no problem in the good ol' Gnome and it is now - so it is a bug.
No one in their right minds can defend this as a feature.

Still I am having some fun with it and I actually do see that this is a very efficient desktop. I can manage it without the mouse if I want to.
(If you hit the windows key and start writing it will automatically search and index).
Getting the work done fast is the strong point here.
The 3d is simply sacrificed for that - and that is not all bad.
If you want it back Ubuntu has it in the Unity desktop. It is closed Canonical software. And I don't know how well it works, but I have read a lot of complaints.
This thing could grow on me and deserves some more weeks of testing.

EDIT:
I just realized that you stated above that you installed gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git. That is the one that puts the "power off" in your menu so no surprise there And no takeover of old settings.

[dedanna1029]

And it is not obvious that one has to install gnome-shell after having installed Gnome3. Most people think that is Gnome3.

That is the common misconception,

No one in their right minds can defend this as a feature.

You got that right. I want my Emerald back too. They better change their minds on mutter-only, or I'm gonna drop it altogether.

Getting the work done fast is the strong point here.
The 3d is simply sacrificed for that - and that is not all bad.

Yes, it is. lol.

And I don't know how well it works, but I have read a lot of complaints.

Yeah, They can bite me. It really is bad.

This thing could grow on me and deserves some more weeks of testing.

Not for me. At least not right now. Didn't take me an hour last night, after I realized there was absolutely NO sound, to go back to Fedora.

EDIT:
I just realized that you stated above that you installed gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git. That is the one that puts the "power off" in your menu so no surprise there And no takeover of old settings.

Ah, okay. You can see I'm incredibly enthused. :p

[viking60]

Yeah a Sound-Berserk without sound - we can't have that. I will have to accept that My Gnome3 has been behaving so I will continue testing it.
But it is no testing really - Gnome 2.32 is going to disappear - sooner or later - and then I will have to switch, one way or the other.
And it looks like your Compiz friends will work mainly with Ubuntu and Canonicals closed source (Unity).
So I guess it is Ubuntu for you then

[dedanna1029]

Hell no. I'll figure something out. Kind of wondering when Fedora, and debian-based distros plan on implementing it, so I know when to install dynebolic.