GNOME 3 Setup

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I’d been fortunate lately to have time to work on my GNOME 3 setup and I got it working and looking pretty good; so… I thought I’d share it from beginning to end. GNOME 3 is shaping up real nice and with the extension support provides great customibility. There’s still a little work that needs to be done, but I am nearly 100% happy with it. Any thoughts, additions, comments, would be appreciated.

A couple notes to explain some of my design reasoning: I have a laptop so a few things apply just to that; I use my pacman/aurhelper script to install so here it will be viewed as ‘pm i‘ instead of say ‘pacman -S‘ (for example); finally to install all programs at once and then configure them, the all-as-one command is at the bottom.

Clean

Dirty

Table of Contents

Security General
General
Bootloader (GRUB2)
Initialization System
Hardware
Desktop Environment
Security Firefox
Preferences
Under the hood
Program Setups
Other Programs
Install all as one
ToDo

Security General

Install firewall, edit config, add to startup daemons:

pm i arno-iptables
sudo rc.d start arno-iptables-firewall

Create dummies for insecure webkit (libwebkit and libwebkit3).

Block problem packages:

sudo sed -i "/^IgnorePkg/ a libwebkit3 libwebkit qtwebkit flashplugin" /etc/pacman.conf

General

Update pacman mirrors to best available with script.

Update System (initilize pacman first):

pm y && pm i pacman
sudo pacman-key --init; pacman-key --populate archlinux
pm u

Bootloader (GRUB2)

mv /boot/grub /boot/grub-legacy
dd if=/dev/sda of=/boot/grub-legacy/grub-mbr bs=512 count=63
pm i grub2-bios
sudo grub-install --directory=/usr/lib/grub/i386-pc --target=i386-pc --boot-directory=/boot --no-floppy --recheck --debug /dev/sda
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Add Windows menu entry:

pm i ntfs-3g  # Then mount partition
sudo grub-probe --target=fs_uuid /run/media/todd/Windows/bootmgr
echo '
menuentry "Windows" --class windows {
insmod part_msdos
insmod ntfs
insmod search_fs_uuid
insmod ntldr
search --fs-uuid --no-floppy --set=root C8BC2300BC22E8A0
ntldr /bootmgr
}' | sudo tee -a /etc/grub.d/40_custom

Hibernation define partition, add resume hook to /etc/mkinitcpio.conf:

sudo sed -i 's|^GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""|GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=/dev/sda7"|' /etc/default/grub
sudo sed -i '/^HOOKS/ s/ filesystems / resume filesystems /' /etc/mkinitcpio.conf

GRUB2 Arch Linux Theme:

pm i grub2-theme-archxion
sudo cp -r /usr/share/grub/themes/Archxion /boot/grub/themes/
GRUB_THEME="/boot/grub/themes/Archxion/theme.txt" to /etc/default/grub
sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg
sudo mkinitcpio -p linux

Initialization System

Replace Arch’s init system with systemd (required by GNOME).

Pure systemd install:

pm i systemd systemd-arch-units systemd-ui-git
sudo gpasswd -a todd adm #For admin work with systemd

Define to bootloader (in /etc/default/grub):

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT=" and remove quiet. GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX="resume=/dev/sda7"

sudo grub-mkconfig -o /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Necessary settings:

echo "aspire" | sudo tee /etc/hostname
echo 'America/New_York' | sudo tee /etc/timezone

echo 'KEYMAP=us
FONT=lat9w-16
FONT_MAP=8859-1_to_uni' | sudo tee /etc/vconsole.conf

echo 'LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=C' | sudo tee /etc/locale.conf

echo '# Load card reader module
sdhci' | sudo tee /etc/modules-load.d/sdhci.conf

echo '# Set Radeon graphic card to dynamic power method
w /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method - - - - dynpm
w /sys/class/drm/card1/device/power_method - - - - dynpm' | sudo tee /etc/tmpfiles.d/radeon_power-method.conf

Enable units (i.e. daemons, services…; Arno’s iptables firewall service):

sudo systemctl enable arno-iptables-firewall.service avahi-daemon.service cups.service dbus.service dcron.service dnsmasq.service gdm.service gpm.service NetworkManager.service syslog-ng.service

Remove Arch init system:

pm r systemd-arch-units initscripts sysvinit
pm i systemd systemd-sysvcompat
sudo reboot

Hardware

Hardware-specific settings.

CPU

AMD processor firmware update:

pm i amd-ucode

Graphic Card

Set Radeon video card to dynamic power save method on resume:

echo '#!/bin/sh
# Set Radeon graphic card to dynamic power method

case "$1" in
  resume | thaw )
echo dynpm > /sys/class/drm/card0/device/power_method
echo dynpm > /sys/class/drm/card1/device/power_method
;;
esac' | sudo tee /etc/pm/sleep.d/97_radeon_dyn_power_method
sudo chmod +x /etc/pm/sleep.d/97_radeon_dyn_power_method

Printer

Canon Linux Info (Select Product > Linux)

pm i cnijfilter-mg5200 scangearmp-mg5200 cups-bjnp

Had to add manually to CUPS:

Address:	bjnp://192.168.1.80
Name:	Canon_Pixma_MG5220
Network:	Home Network

Add static IP to router and direct to printer MAC address.

Sound

Install ALSA tools, set sound level:

pm i alsa-utils
alsamixer
alsactl store

Set default sound card.

Wireless

Only proprietay driver available at this time for Broadcom chip BCM43227. Reported that open source brcmsmac/brcmfmac will supported in the future.

pm i broadcom-wl
sudo modprobe wl
sudo depmod -a
sudo sed -i '/^MODULES/ s/)/ wl)/' /etc/rc.conf

Desktop Environment

Install desktop (Xorg server, ATI/AMD Radeon driver, and GNOME):

pm i xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-server-utils
pm i xf86-video-ati
pm i gnome          # Choose apps
pm i gnome-extra

Ubuntu fonts:

pm i cairo-ubuntu

Security Firefox

Put Firefox in a sandbox:

pm i sandfox firefox gksu
sudo chmod ugo-wx ~/.adobe ~/.macromedia
sudo sed -i 's_^hide=/home/\\$user/.adobe.*$_bindro=/home/\\$user/.adobe      # bind folder read-only_g' /usr/bin/sandfox
sudo sed -i 's_^hide=/home/\\$user/.macromedia.*$_bindro=/home/\\$user/.macromedia # bind folder read-only_g' /usr/bin/sandfox
IgnnorePkg sandfox in pacman.conf
cp /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-sandfox.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-sandfox.desktop
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/firefox-sandfox.desktop

Change Exec line in firefox-sandfox.desktop to:

gksudo –disable-grab “sandfox –profile firefox firefox”

Remove previous sandboxes on boot:

echo '[Unit]
Description=Remove Sandfox previous sandboxes

[Service]
Type=oneshot
ExecStart=/bin/sh -c "sandfox --user todd --closeall && /bin/rm -rf /mnt/sandfox/*"

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target' | sudo tee /etc/systemd/system/sandfox-rm.service

sudo systemctl enable sandfox-rm.service

Preferences

Display

Add ICC profile to ~/.local/share/icc so recognized by GNOME’s System Settings > Color (done through QuickGamma through Windows 7, Windows 7 calibrated ICC proviles are not recognized. Windows 7 profiles are stored in 32).

Fix for improper display size detection and to set brightness.

Laptop Specific

Touchpad (System Settings > Mouse and Touchpad):

• Uncheck: Enable mouse clicks with touchpad (uncheck)
• Check: Two-finger scrolling
• Change scroll speed

Desktop Settings

Install advanced settings editor ():

pm i gnome-tweak-tool

• In Advanced Settings in menu: Enable desktop icons and right-click menu, hide Home folder, Computer, and Trash icons; or, from command line:

  gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true
  gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop   home-icon-visible false
  gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop   computer-icon-visible false
  gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.desktop   trash-icon-visible false

• Add maximize and minimize buttons

  gsettings set org.gnome.shell.overrides button-layout close,minimize,maximize:

Date and Time (GNOME to handle NTP), enable in System Settings > Date and Time > Network Time > On; set clock to AM/PM.

Nautilus single click: Nautilus > Edit > Preferences > Behavior >

Save Desktop Session: (Options tab > Automatically remember…)

gnome-session-properties

Suspend preferences (via command line):

• Power button press suspend type
• Battery suspend type
• Battery lid-close suspend type
• Battery duration until suspend
• AC lid-close suspend type
• AC duration until suspend
• Dim Screen for AC
• Dim Screen time
• Disable lock when resuming from sleep

gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power button-power hibernate
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-type hibernate
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power lid-close-battery-action hibernate
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-battery-timeout 1740
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power lid-close-ac-action suspend
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-inactive-ac-timeout 10800
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power idle-dim-ac true
gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.power sleep-display-ac 1200
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.lockdown disable-lock-screen true

Shortcuts: (System settings > Keyboard > Shortcuts)

• Suspend (Add in Custom Shortcuts > + then assign key Ctrl+Alt+S), uses pwr script):

  /home/todd/.scripts/pwr s

• Blank Screen (Add in Custom Shortcuts > + then assign key Ctrl+Alt+B), uses pwr script):

  /home/todd/.scripts/pwr b

• Show Desktop (Navigation > Hide all… > Ctrl+Alt+D)

Defualt Screenshot directory as Desktop:

gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-screenshot auto-save-directory file:///home/todd/Desktop

Numlock on when GDM starts:

pm i numlockx
sudo sed -i 's|^exit 0.*$|# Enable numlock\nif [ -x /usr/bin/numlockx ]; then /usr/bin/numlockx on; fi\n\nexit 0|' /etc/gdm/Init/Default

Graceful Shutdown of non-session supported Gnome window applications (doesn’t work for all applications):

sudo sed -i 's|^exit 0.*$|# Exit these GNOME non-session-supported windows gracefully on logout\necho " Closing selected windows programs gracefully"\nexport DISPLAY=:0\nsu todd -c "wmctrl -c "Mozilla Firefox""\nsu todd -c "wmctrl -c "Geany""\n\nexit 0|' /etc/gdm/PostSession/Default

Login Noise:

~/.local/share/sounds/desktop-login.wav

Gnome Shell Extensions:

Extensions in the AUR:

pm i \
gnome-shell-extension-alternate-tab-git
gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git \
gnome-shell-extension-axe-menu \
gnome-shell-extension-common-git \
gnome-shell-extension-drive-menu-git \
gnome-shell-extension-extended-volume-indicator-git \
gnome-shell-extension-inhibit-suspend-git \
gnome-shell-extension-move-clock \
gnome-shell-extension-noa11y \
gnome-shell-extension-user-theme-git \
gnome-shell-extension-weather-git \
gnome-shell-extension-windowoverlay-icons-git \
gnome-shell-google-calendar-xat59-git

From website:

• Panel Docklet
• Touchpad Indicator

Extension Settings

weather:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.weather woeid USTN0454
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.weather unit fahrenheit
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.weather wind-speed-unit mph
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.weather show-sunrise-sunset true
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.extensions.weather use-symbolic-icons true

GNOME shell google calendar:

su -c "/usr/share/gnome-shell-google-calendar/gnome-shell-google-calendar.py toddrpartridge@gmail.com $(cat /home/todd/.sitepass-com.txt)" todd
cp /usr/share/gnome-shell-google-calendar/gnome-shell-google-calendar.desktop ~/.config/autostart/
gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.default-applications.office.calendar exec "firefox 'https://www.google.com/calendar'"

Axe Menu Custom Applications Menu icon:

sudo cp ~/Designs/arch-legacy-blue1-toon-symbolic-01.svg /usr/share/icons/Faience/places/scalable/start-here-archlinux-toon-symbolic.svg

CPUFreq Control (none exist, gnome-shell-cpufreq is per processor) using jupiter instead:

pm i jupiter rfkill
sudo gpasswd -a todd jupiter

Under the hood

Cron (dcron because I know it).

Root settings:

sudo mv /root/.bashrc{,.bck}
sudo ln -s ~/.{bashrc,bash_profile,vimrc,vim} /root
sudo mkdir /root/.config/
sudo cp -r ~/.config/geany/ /root/.config/
sudo rm -rf /root/.config/geany/geany_socket*

Match filesystem check times multiple partitions:

sudo tune2fs -c 33 -C 0 -i 6m -T now /dev/sda5
sudo tune2fs -c 33 -C 0 -i 6m -T now /dev/sda6

SMART

pm i gsmartcontrol
sudo sed -i 's/^DEVICESCAN.*$/DEVICESCAN -a -n standby,q -m toddrpartridge@gmail.com -M test/' /etc/smartd.conf
pm i msmtp-mta msmtp
sudo ln -s ~/.msmtprc /root/
sed -i "s|^password.*$|password $(cat ~/.sitepass-com.txt)|" ~/.msmtprc
sudo systemctl enable smartd.service
sudo systemctl start  smartd.service

Escalate privileges for certain programs (link).

Filter Advertisements (Ad-blocker script).

Discover the package a command belongs to on the command line (bash-completion broke):

pm i pkgfile-git

• Add to .bashrc:

  source /usr/share/doc/pkgfile/command-not-found.bash

Program Setups

Gedit

Open (Edit > Preferences > Tab):

View:	Display right margin at column 80:	Check
	Highlight current line
Editor:	Tab width:	2
	Insert space instead of tabs	Check
	Create a backup copy of files before saving	Uncheck
	Autosave file every 10 minutes	Check
Font&C:	Theme	Oblivion
Plugin:	Save Session

Gnome Terminal:

General:	Terminal Bell > uncheck
	Use custom default terminal size: 80 x 24
Colors:	Use colors from system theme > uncheck
	Text color: #D4CFD3
	Background color: #2E3436
	Built-in schemes: Tango
Scrolling:	Scrollback > 1024

Other Programs

General:

pm i abiword acpi ario aspell-en bc cd-discid curl dnsmasq dos2unix dosfstools gcolor2 geany-git geany-plugins-git gedit-plugins gimp gnumeric gpart gparted grilo-plugins gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins hardinfo hwinfo id3v2 imagemagick inkscape iotop irssi lame libdvdcss libdvdnav libdvdread librsvg links lsof meld mesa-demos minidlna mlocate mp3gain mpd mplayer2 msmtp mtools nautilus-open-terminal networkmanager-dispatcher-ntpd ntp ntfsprogs openjdk6 openssh oneshot p7zip pacman-color perl-html-parser perl-rename pwgen python-libxml rsync ruby sdcv shotwell tidyhtml transmission-gtk ttf-google-webfonts ttf-microsoft-consolas tree unrar vlc xclip xorg-xdpyinfo

CVS systems keep around:

pm e bzr cmake git intltool mercurial subversion

General, AUR programs:

pm i arachnophilia aurup g9led geany-themes-git gist-git gnome-gmail mailnot-git mp3diags pacaur pastebinit perl-mp3-tag ripit

Themes:

pm i atolm-gtk3 cheser-icon-theme elementary-gtk-theme elementary-icons-bzr elements-theme faenza-icon-theme faience-icon-theme gnome-shell-theme-atolm gnome-shell-theme-default-mod gnome-shell-theme-london-smoke gtk-theme-grayday gtk-theme-hope mediterraneannight-theme orion-gtk-theme sammy-themes youtube-viewer zukitwo-themes

dnsmasq

dnsmasq for faster DNS queries:

sudo sed -i 's:^#listen-address=:listen-address=127.0.0.1:' /etc/dnsmasq.conf
sudo sed -i 's:^#bind-interfaces:#bind-interfaces:' /etc/dnsmasq.conf

echo '#!/bin/bash
# Prepend localhost to resolv.conf for dnsmasq
if [[ ! $(grep 127.0.0.1 /etc/resolv.conf) ]]; then
  sed -i "0,/^nameserver/inameserver 127.0.0.1" /etc/resolv.conf
fi' | sudo tee /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/localhost-prepend
sudo chmod +x /etc/NetworkManager/dispatcher.d/localhost-prepend

Mouse (G9)

Setup

Geany (use nightly repository)

  echo -e '\n[geany]
Server = http://geany.nightlybuilds.org/archlinux/x86_64' | sudo tee -a /etc/pacman.conf
  pm y
  pm i geany-git geany-plugins-git geany-themes

Configure

Gnome Gmail (Gmail as default mail app)

Enable: Applications > Internet > Gnome Gmail System Settings > Details > Default Applications, Mail

MiniDLNA

Setup

MPD

Setup

Vim

cp /etc/vimrc /etc/vimrc.bak
cp /usr/share/vim/vim73/vimrc_example.vim /etc/vimrc

VLC

Set as default:

System Settings > Details > Removable Media > DVD Video : VLC media player

System Settings > Details > Default Applications > Video: VLC media player

Use /dev/sr0 instead of /dev/dvd in ~/.config/vlc/vlcrc.

Set mimetypes:

cp /usr/share/applications/vlc.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
sed -i 's|^Mimetype.*$|MimeType=video/dv;video/mpeg;video/x-mpeg;video/msvideo;video/quicktime;video/x-anim;video/x-avi;video/x-ms-asf;video/x-ms-wmv;video/x-msvideo;video/x-nsv;video/x-flc;video/x-fli;application/ogg;application/x-ogg;application/x-matroska;audio/x-mp3;audio/x-mpeg;audio/mpeg;audio/x-wav;audio/x-mpegurl;audio/x-scpls;audio/x-m4a;audio/x-ms-asf;audio/x-ms-asx;audio/x-ms-wax;application/vnd.rn-realmedia;audio/x-real-audio;audio/x-pn-realaudio;application/x-flac;audio/x-flac;application/x-shockwave-flash;misc/ultravox;audio/vnd.rn-realaudio;audio/x-pn-aiff;audio/x-pn-au;audio/x-pn-wav;audio/x-pn-windows-acm;image/vnd.rn-realpix;video/vnd.rn-realvideo;audio/x-pn-realaudio-plugin;application/x-extension-mp4;audio/mp4;video/mp4;video/mp4v-es;x-content/video-vcd;x-content/video-svcd;x-content/video-dvd;x-content/audio-cdda;x-content/audio-player;|' ~/.local/share/applications/vlc.desktop
chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/vlc.desktop

Install all as one:

Install Java independently as not recognized as a dependency:

pm i jre7-openjdk # Needed as not recognized as dependency

Keep Version Control Systems (VCS) around:

pm e bzr cmake git intltool mercurial subversion

pm i alsa-utils gksu grub2-bios grub2-theme-archxion ntfs-3g systemd systemd-sysvcompat sandfox firefox cnijfilter-mg5200 scangearmp-mg5200 cups-bjnp gnome-tweak-tool numlockx pkgtools wmctrl \
arachnophilia aurup g9led gist-git gnome-gmail mailnot-git mp3diags pastebinit perl-mp3-tag ripit  \
abiword acpi ario aspell-en bc cd-discid curl dnsmasq dos2unix dosfstools gcolor2 geany-git geany-plugins-git geany-themes-git gedit-plugins gimp gnumeric gpart gparted grilo-plugins gstreamer0.10-bad-plugins gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg gstreamer0.10-ugly-plugins hardinfo hwinfo id3v2 imagemagick inkscape iotop irssi lame libdvdcss libdvdnav libdvdread librsvg links lsof meld mesa-demos minidlna mlocate mp3gain mpd msmtp mtools nautilus-open-terminal networkmanager-dispatcher-ntpd ntp ntfsprogs openssh oneshot p7zip pacaur pacman-color perl-html-parser perl-rename pwgen python-libxml rsync ruby sdcv shotwell tidyhtml transmission-gtk ttf-microsoft-consolas tree unrar vlc xclip xorg-xdpyinfo \
atolm-gtk3 cheser-icon-theme elementary-gtk-theme elementary-icons-bzr elements-theme faenza-icon-theme faience-icon-theme gnome-shell-theme-atolm gnome-shell-theme-default-mod gnome-shell-theme-london-smoke gtk-theme-grayday gtk-theme-hope mediterraneannight-theme orion-gtk-theme sammy-themes youtube-viewer zukitwo-themes \
gnome-shell-extension-alternate-tab-git gnome-shell-extension-alternative-status-menu-git gnome-shell-extension-axe-menu gnome-shell-extension-common-git gnome-shell-extension-drive-menu-git gnome-shell-extension-extended-volume-indicator-git gnome-shell-extension-inhibit-suspend-git gnome-shell-extension-move-clock gnome-shell-extension-noa11y gnome-shell-extension-user-theme-git gnome-shell-extension-weather-git gnome-shell-extension-windowoverlay-icons-git gnome-shell-google-calendar-xat59-git

ToDo

• No GNOME extension for: gmail; printer; cpufreq control, color picker
• Try Extensions: Shell OSD, Remove bottom panel, Notification button top bar
• cronie
• CPUFreq Control, laptop mode tools
• Expand sda5?
• Does ripit work?, abcde
• XDGDIRS
• for i in *.svg; do ln -s pwd / i $pwd/{16,22,24,32,48,64}/; done
• Resize svg
• gtkpod
• gnome-globalmenu-git globalmenu-extension
• gnash lightspark
• libreoffice
• mplayer 1.1?
• Spyder3pro and dispcalgui
• How to add dynamic address for printer? Printer does have listed: Printer Name and Bonjour service.