Q1: I've just installed GSB. How do I make it my default desktop environment?
Q2: How do I start the GNOME Display Manager? (GDM)
Q3: How do I uninstall GSB?
Q4: I would like to install all GSB packages. How can I do that easily?
Q5: After installing GSB, my keyboard does not repeat keys any longer. How is
that fixed?
Q6: My KDE Menus are all messed up after installing GSB. How do I fix them?
Q7: How do I add KDE/XFCE menu items to my menu?
Q8: I installed KDE after GSB was installed, and now some icons are missing or
broken? How do I fix it?
Q9: How do get the weather and temperature working in the GNOME panel clock
applet?
Q10: How come my scores aren't saved when I play the GNOME games?
Q11: How do I install templates for Nautilus so that I can create new documents
from my desktop?
Q12: Where are my GNOME settings stored? What do I need to copy if I switch
home directories?
Q13: How can I configure GNOME Power Manager to catch a power button press?
Q14: How do I configure my laptop for hibernating and suspending in GNOME?
Q15: When I click 'Places' in the GNOME menu, Dolphin or Thunar start up
instead of Nautilus. How do I fix that?
Q16: When I reboot, my volume settings are reset. How can I preseve these
settings?
Q17: What's the difference between GSB and Dropline GNOME?
Q18: Do you support GSB installed on Slackware-current?
Q19: How come slapt-get does not upgrade some packages?
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Q1: I've just installed GSB. How do I make it my default desktop environment?
A: You should be able to simply select GNOME by running xwmconfig. Choose
xinitrc.gnome or xinitrc.compiz-gnome from the menu. You can then start the
desktop using startx.
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Q2: How do I start the GNOME Display Manager?
A: GDM (the GNOME Display Manager) provides an alternate display manager for
the X Window System. The X Window System by default uses the XDM display
manager. However, resolving XDM configuration issues typically involves
editing a configuration file. GDM allows users to customize or troubleshoot
settings without having to resort to a command line. Users can pick their
session type on a per-login basis. GDM also features easy customisation with
themes. If you would like to enable GDM on system boot, you will need to edit
/etc/inittab and change the default run level from 3 to 4.
# Default runlevel. (Do not set to 0 or 6)
id:4:initdefault:
For the order of XDM selection, consult /etc/rc.d/rc.4. The GDM interface
is customisable using /etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf.
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Q3: How do I uninstall GSB?
A: Please note that when uninstalling, you will have to reinstall some packages
from the "l" package set (and possibly others). Please read the
SLACKWARE_REPLACED_PACKAGES.TXT for a list of packages you will need to
reinstall from the official repository. We have 'tagged' all our packages with
a 'gsb' moniker. It will easily allow you to identify and remove GSB packages.
Simply run:
$ cd /var/log/packages
$ ls -1 | grep gsb$ | xargs -n 1 removepkg
This will remove all GSB packages from your system. Be sure to replace all
those files listed in SLACKWARE_REPLACED_PACKAGES.TXT using installpkg.
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Q4: I would like to install all GSB packages. How can I do that easily?
A: You can use slapt-get to easily manage all your packages, and this includes
installing all GSB packages. Simply run:
$ slapt-get --available | awk {'print $1'} | grep "gsb$" | \
xargs slapt-get --install
This will install everything, including all the Openoffice language
packages. You may want to exclude them when installing:
$ slapt-get --available | awk {'print $1'} | grep "gsb$" | \
grep -v l10n | xargs slapt-get --install
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Q5: After installing GSB, my keyboard does not repeat keys any longer. How is
that fixed?
A: From GNOME Menu Bar, choose "Desktop -> Preferences -> Keyboard", then check
the "Repeat Keys" box.
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Q6: My KDE Menus are all messed up after installing GSB. How do I fix them?
A: The KDE menus might be changed if you install GSB because of the gnome-menus
package. The gnome-menus package implements the freedesktop.org desktop menu
specification. There is a simple fix for this. Just add the following near the
top of the startkde script:
export XDG_CONFIG_DIRS=/etc/kde/xdg
If the improper menus persist, run kbuildsycoca from Konsole after you have
logged into KDE.
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Q7: How do I add KDE/XFCE menu items to my menu?
A: Right-click your GNOME menu and select edit (launches alacarte menu editor).
Enable the items you wish to see in your menu. Done!
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Q8: I installed KDE after GSB was installed, and now some icons are missing or
broken? How do I fix it?
A: Installing the package "kdebase" can break the hicolor icon specification
for GSB. If you find that you're missing any GNOME icons, your best bet is
to reinstall the standard Slackware package "hicolor-icon-theme" again.
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Q9: How do get the weather and temperature working in the GNOME panel clock
applet?
A: You will need to add your location by clicking the 'Edit' button within the
applet. Your location will then be added to the list below the calendar.
If you hover your mouse over top of your new location, a 'Set...' button will
appear. You will need to 'Set' your location as home, and authenicate as
yourself. A home icon will appear next to your location and weather and
temperature will work in the clock applet. (Be sure that you have the ticked in
your applet preferences.)
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Q10: How come my scores aren't saved when I play the GNOME games?
A: To get proper scoring working with gnome-games, you have to add the user
name to group "games".
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Q11: How do I install templates for Nautilus so that I can create new documents
from my desktop?
A: This is quite easy though not immediately obvious. You'll need to create a
directory in your home directory called ~/Templates. Then, using whatever
application you wish to create a template for, save an empty file in your
~/Templates directory. For example, start up abiword and create a blank new
document. Then save this empty document in your ~/Templates directory with the
name "AbiWord Document". Now, when you right click on your desktop and go to
'Create Document', your new file will be there. You can do this with almost
any application that has a MIME type. Just be sure not to overwrite your
template files with creating new documents from them.
You can also install various scripts for Nautilus. For a wide range, please
see gnome-look.org.
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Q12: Where are my GNOME settings stored? What do I need to copy if I switch
home directories?
A: You will need to copy the following directories over if you wish to preserve
your GNOME desktop settings: ~/.gconf, ~/.config, ~/.local, ~/.gnome2,
~/.evolution. If you would like to preserve your icons and themes, you will
also need your ~/.icons and ~/.themes.
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Q13: How can I configure GNOME Power Manager to catch a power button press?
A: If you press the power button, Slackware will normally just halt the
machine. If you prefer, you can configure GNOME so that gnome-power-manager
will catch the shutdown button and display a dialog for shutdown/sleep (or
simply do the one you choose). You need to comment out the following lines in
/etc/acpi/acpi_handerl.sh:
power) /sbin/init 0
;;
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Q14: How do I configure my laptop for hibernating and suspending in GNOME?
A: The first thing to do is make sure your laptop is correctly configured to
suspend and hibernate without GNOME. Make sure you have the pm-utils package
installed from the official Slackware repositories, and read through
/usr/doc/pm-utils-1.3.0/README.SLACKWARE. You will need a swap parition to get
hibernation working.
Once suspend/hibernation are working, you should be able to 'suspend' from
GDM. For your GNOME desktop, make sure that the gnome-power-manager package is
installed from GSB. The default behavior is to hibernate after an idle time
has passed -- this is configurable from the 'Preferences' menu; you can change
the sleep type when you have critical battery life left, and for lid-close on
battery. You can also change the idle sleep time, but unfortunately, not the
idle "sleep" type. You can manually change the default sleep type to "suspend"
by typing:
$ /usr/bin/gconftool-2 --direct --config-source="$(usr/bin/gconftool-2 \
--get-default-source)" --type string \
--set /apps/gnome-power-manager/actions/sleep_type_battery suspend
You can also configure GDM to use pm-utils as well! You will need to edit
your /etc/X11/gdm/custom.conf, and edit the line 'SuspendCommand' and tell it
to use '/usr/sbin/pm-suspend'
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Q15: When I click 'Places' in the GNOME menu, Dolphin or Thunar start up
instead of Nautilus. How do I set Nautilus to be the default?
A: You can fix this by setting a few gconf settings. Run the following
command (all on on line):
$ /usr/bin/gconftool-2 --direct \
--config-source="$(/usr/bin/gconftool-2 --get-default-source)" \
--type string \
--set /desktop/gnome/session/required_components/filemanager \
"nautilus"
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Q16: When I reboot, my volume settings are reset. How can I preseve these
settings?
A: This is properly a Slackware issue which doesn't save the alsa volume levels
before reseting. Eugene Wissner has suggested:
> On shutdown (for example in /etc/rc.d/rc.local_shutdown), we
> should be executing:
> /usr/sbin/alsactl store
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Q17: What's the difference between GSB and Dropline GNOME?
A: Not a whole lot, actually. Dropline GNOME is a similar project, and has been
around longer, though it is less maintained at the moment. It's simply
another choice/alternative of a GNOME distribution for Slackware. GSB does not
"compete" with Dropline, and in fact, the Dropline and GSB teams sometimes
collaborate together periodically. The main difference is that GSB does not
add PAM to Slackware, and tries to replace as few standard Slackware packages
as possible.
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Q18: Do you support GSB installed on Slackware-current?
A: Unfortunately, no we do not, and only have time to support GSB on Slackware
13.1 and Slackware64 13.1. You are of course welcome to try to install GSB
on Slackware-current, but we cannot help support it, usually due to the
difficulty of package rebuilding against a changing foundation on -current
(e.g., glibc, compilers, X, etc).
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Q19: How come slapt-get does not upgrade some packages?
A: slapt-get uses a weighted system for upgrading packages. You might be
interested in reading:
Slapt-get FAQ 57. How do I assign priorities to my package sources?
<http://software.jaos.org/git/slapt-get/plain/FAQ.html#slgFAQ57>
You will need to add a :CUSTOM entry to your SOURCE= which points to the GSB
repository, otherwise it will consider official Slackware packages the most
important and refuse to upgrade to other versions.