A while back I blogged about the new GDM theme in Ubuntu 9.04 and I was surprised at the number of people that disliked it. Granted I don’t think its the best theme I’ve ever seen either, but is it *that* bad? In response (delayed, I know) to that feedback I thought a post on how to update that login theme to something more artistic would be in order.
Update Default GDM Theme
Updating the GDM theme is a fairly simple process. There is a utility called “gdmsetup” which allows you to customize a number of aspects of the login screen. You can usually find this application in your menu by navigating to:
System > Admin > Login Window
After entering your password you should be able to customize the login screen on the “Local” tab. The Style entry allows you to select Plain or Themed, or a variation with a Face Browser. What you want is Themed, and you can select a different graphic from the list below. You should find a few other default GNOME themes that you can select.
If you’d like to find more themes, go check out GNOME Look. You can easily install any of those GDM themes by selecting “Add” from the Login Window management tool.
For those of you that customize your theme, what are some of your favorite GDM graphics to use?
I only have just a minute for this post, but I’ve been thinking for the past few weeks that I’d really like a project to contribute to. After putting some thought into it I realized I liked the idea of contributing to something upstream, vs to a distribution specifically. I also really enjoy GNOME and think it could be something I’d like to work on. If anyone can drop me a line and help plug me into the right area I’d really appreciate it. Its always a little intimidating to show up to a new project and say “give me something to do”. I’m sure you all (GNOME people) know where the needs are better than I do and hopefully one (or many!) of you can introduce me to the right people and give me some things to get started with.
I’m open for just about anything, although I’m not much of a programmer (outside of bash & perl)
I just wanted to add my two-cents regarding the new GNOME release, 2.26. I have been a GNOME fan for nearly as long as I can remember and I’m really happy to see another solid and on-time release. Remember, you can look forward to all the new GNOME features in the upcoming Ubuntu release, due out this next month!
I’ve been playing with Ubuntu 9.04 in VirtualBox and after installing the 9.04 Alpha 5 I noticed the new GDM Login screen. Things sure have come a long way since I started using Ubuntu in 5.04! Below is a screenshot of the new Login screen. Thoughts?
Ubuntu 9.04 GDM Login Screen
Some time ago I posted on how to simplify your dropbox URLs by using .htaccess files within Apache web server. Now that I’ve switched to Lighttpd I needed to find the equivalent. Here is what I came up with:
## dropbox redirection
server.modules += ( "mod_redirect" )
$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/dropbox/(.*)" {
url.redirect = (
"^/dropbox/(.*)" => "http://dl.getdropbox.com/u/123456/$1"
)
}
note: if you already have mod_redirect loaded elsewhere you won’t need to worry about that first line. Also note that you’ll need to update the dl.getdropbox.com URL with your unique string. Replace 123456 with your unique value. You can find this value within your Dropbox account.
Based on the comments from the previous post I wanted to offer an update. A much simpler solution is to simply activate the compositing within recent versions of Gnome.
gconftool-2 -s --type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager true
This does introduce a known bug which can break enabling compiz however. If you want to activate compiz after toggling this value, you’ll need to de-activate it first.
gconftool-2 -s --type bool /apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager false
Thanks to Christoph, Philip and Cory for this tip.
The recent release of Gnome-Do 0.8.0 has brought with it a number of interface changes and upgrades. I won’t go into all the new “shiny” stuff in this post, but simply outline how to satisfy the new requirements. Gnome-Do 0.8.x now requires some type of compositing support for its interface (unless you stick with “Classic”).
First of all, composite does not mean Compiz. Let’s get that out of the way right from the start. You do not need a flashy 3D desktop to run Gnome-Do. You do need a basic compositing manager however, and these should work on nearly any modern system and can run with minimal resources in the background.
I am using a tool called ‘xcompmgr’ for my compositing support, but there are others available. Ask around or leave some comments to find out what other compositing managers people use. Here is how I got mine setup:
sudo aptitude install xcompmgr
You can then start compositing manually via the ‘xcompmgr‘ command, or you can automate the process via Sessions.
System > Preferences > Sessions : Add
- Name – Compositing Manager
- Command – xcompmgr
- Comment – Shiny!
With basic compositing enabled you should now be able to use the enhanced features of Gnome-Do 0.8.x, including the Mini Interface, Docky, Glass Interface and Nouveau.
I’ve never been one that is much for customizing Ubuntu themes. Generally the most I do is switch to Clearlooks and call it good. Recently, however, a theme was pointed out to me that I really like. Its called Shiki-Colors, and can be downloaded from gnome-look.
One nice thing about this theme release is that it includes a script to configrue everything for you. You can download the install script via:
wget -c http://zelut.org/dropbox/colorizeme-shiki-0.2.tar.gz
tar xf colorizeme-shiki-0.2.tar.gz
./install
This script will download and install the icon sets, themes, etc and update your theme as it goes. To get the full effect you will likely want to logout or reboot.
I also like this in combination with the ttf-liberation font set.
note: the author is definitely an artist and not a programmer. The shell script is pretty ugly and could use some cleanup, but thats another story..
I’d love to hear your thoughts on this theme.
For all of you that use the nautilus-open-terminal utility, which allows you to right-click on the desktop and quickly open a terminal, you may be interested in this quick-tip. Thanks goes to a comment on Clint Savage’s blog for pointing this out to me.
In previous releases this utility would open the home directory by default when launched from the desktop. I’ve noticed currently that this behavior has changed. If you’d like to toggle this option you can use the following command:
gconftool-2 --set --type=bool /apps/nautilus-open-terminal/desktop_opens_home_dir true
Set the value back to “false” if you prefer it to open the Desktop when used. Enjoy.
I found a new Gnome Easter egg the other day. Just when I thought I knew about all of them (yeah, I know, some Gnome developer is sitting back in the corner laughing about all the Easter Eggs we *don’t* know about!) I find a few more.
This one will require you to logout and log back in, but its worth the slight hiccup.
At the login prompt, where it asks for a username, enter: Require Quarter
The username and password prompt will then follow as normal, but you’ll get a quick surprise before you’re logged in.
Enjoy
