GNOME Configuration

[ashley_y]

Dear Lazyweb, I want to set up GNOME 2.18 like this:

1. 
   the close button on windows in the top-left corner instead of the top right
   
2. 
   a "shade" or "rollup" button on windows
   
3. 
   my Kensington Expert Mouse (a trackball, confusingly) buttons like this:
   
   • bottom-right: click (my thumb, I use it left-handed despite being right-handed)
   • bottom-left: contextual menu,

Comments

[node]

I'll check my lunix laptop in a couple of hours. I've set my windows to shade, which is some checkbox under preferences.

#3 probably requires xmodmap and/or configuration in your X server; I don't think gnome alone can help you with that.

#4

#5 If you start xterms as your terminal, you can just shove something in your ~/.Xdefaults or ~/.Xresources file (I forget which gets read automatically when you login -- just hard-link the two). This should work:

XTerm*geometry: 100x50

I don't use gnome-terminal.

[node]

Oh, I forgot to fill in #4. I'll see what I can find.

[node]

#1 - System menu -> Preferences -> Themes: select an appropriate theme, or create one.
#2 - System menu -> Preferences -> Windows: titlebar action = roll up
#3 - as in the above comment
#4 - unknown
#5 - System menu -> Preferences -> Menu layout. navigate to Accessories -> Terminal, right-click and select properties, and append --geometry=100x50 to the command line

[ashley_y]

#1 - none of the themes or theme customisations have title bar buttons on the left side. I think Metacity doesn't support that at all, though I'm actually using Compiz, which might.
#2 - I'd rather have a button, but this is better than nothing.
#3 - I'll look into it.
#5 - works

Thanks!

[zanfur]

Are you using Emerald or Heliodor as your window decorator? Emerald has a bajillion themes to choose from. The one I use, Slatehorn, has "always on top" and ""all workspaces" buttons on the left, and the "shade", "minimize", "maximize", and "close" buttons on the right. If you use Heliodor (which is the compiz/beryl decorator that can use Gnome/Metacity themes), you'll have to find or make a Gnome theme with the desired buttons, but it isn't hard, just some xml junk. Look up Metacity themes for more info.

I highly recommend switching to KDE, if you like to configure your working environment. It's infinitely more configurable. With gnome, to configure much of anything that doesn't have a preference, you need to get into gconf-editor voodoo magick, and woe unto he who changes an undocumented setting ...