Get the Linux desktop you always wanted in 10 easy steps!

i botched down my system i think last week [and corrupted my backup], and did this again after a full recovery, and it worked magically as before. thanks again. and my issue with the wifi key seemed to be solved, but i don't know why.

 

hi jhedrotten, i really like your screenshot and i have some questions to that.

- how did you erase the text next to the xfce menu button on your panel?
- how can i order the desktop icons in the way you did (i cant put them at the bottom of my screen) and how did you remove the icon text there?
thanks

 

Hi there, i followed your advice last week and i'm very happy with the result.

There's just one issue that you might be able to help me with. The 'home' key on my keyboard currently does nothing. I came back to check steps 1 and 2, thinking i must have made a mistake there, but no, it looks as if i have typed it exactly right. I've also tried your 'equivalent route' in the notes at the bottom, rebooted again, but still the button has no effect.

The desktop icon on the task bar works, it's just the key between Fn and Alt with a picture of a house on it which does not work. Do you have any ideas how i could activate that again?

Thanks,
Aimee.

 

my mousepad on my computer wasn't working for a while, after I did this desktop, now it is...not sure what I did, but it is so sensitive now, and it doesn't stop working when I have my wireless mouse plugged in. that as I am typing my thumbs and the shadow of my thumbs make the mouse curser go all over the place and emails are sent without me pressing send because as I am typing my thumbs gently touch the built in mousepad and puts the curser somewhere else on the page. it also takes forever to type anything having to manually move the curser back to my typing constantly. Any suggestions? How do I either shut off this mousepad, or turn down the sensitivity?

 

sure.

first answer: it is as simple as alt + f2 and then type

Code:

xfce-panel -a

after the new dialog box popped out, you can see the xfce menu there but do not drag and drop it unto your taskbar. double click it so that a new dialog box would appear, from there you could remove the 'name' or change it to whatever you prefer, like 'Start' or anything.

second answer: actually, it is cairo-dock. i didn't just lined my icons there but rather i installed a very nice mac-ish dock. i actually did a little-how-to-like guide on how i made it work, you can checkout my instructions here: http://aspireoneuser.com/forum/viewtopi ... bar#p50535

hope that helps.

 

xfce-panel -a is not working in my terminal anymore either, I am getting alot of files not being found lately. Any ideas as to what could be happening?

As well can I put internet explorer on my AAO? the gaming site where I like to play you need ie5 or higher to play...

 

Hi all,

I'm a complete novice when it comes to Linux... This is the first machine I've ever owned that's running this OS.

I just wanted to say a quick thanks for posting these instructions on how to switch to a more 'familiar' desktop... Mine's certainly a lot more user-friendly since I did it!

Great stuff... I'll be following this forum with a lot of interest.
Regards,
Si

 

Can anyone else help her out? Crazy as it sounds I never, ever touched the home key before or after the desktop mod, so I don't even know what it's supposed to do!

Also, toymom: no you can't install IE on Linux, not natively anyway, but you can run it under the WINE windows emulation. And as for the trackpad, the sensitivity can be adjusted in the settings, and the trackpad turned off entirely just using the hot key Fn-F5 or F6 or whichever it is... sorry I'm not in front of my Netbook right now to check.

 

Before the changes are made, the home key hid all open windows and showed the desktop (such as it was), like the little house icon does on the panel. Before reinstalling, I had followed instructions on the forum to re-enable this behavior for the key, but I haven't found that thread again (if it's even in its own thread).

 

I have WINE but I am just new to using it. Where can I get ie and how do I use wine with it?

Used Fn and F7 and it turned off the touchpad, thanks, it was starting to drive me nuts.

 

Aha, fixed it, thanks to a comment on this thread: viewtopic.php?f=39&t=5446

In a terminal, run xhkconf
Press the home key
Press y to overwrite current setting
Press 2 for application
type /usr/bin/showdt
Press 3 to disable error messages
Press y to accept

Reboot.

Now the home key minimises all windows to show the desktop. Press it again, and it brings them back! Perfect, just what i wanted! You could also map it to bring up the 'Start' menu, as the original poster wanted to do. Funny how quickly we form an opinion of what something is 'supposed' to do, heh!

I think this xhkconf trick could also hook up the print screen button to the relevant command. I'll try that later.

Aimee.

 

Oh, genius! This totally works!

Use xhkconf as above to map your PrtSc button to

Code:

/usr/bin/gnome-screenshot

You can also map the Alt+PrtSc to

Code:

/usr/bin/gnome-screenshot --window

That does the expected behaviour (expected by me, at least!) of capturing just the window.

Alternatively, you can use

Code:

/usr/bin/gnome-screenshot --interactive

and then it gives you a choice: whole screen or just one window. You can even set it to go on a timer! Perhaps i'll map that one to Ctrl+PrtSc because it could be useful to do it on a timer.

 

The PrtSc was my final step in getting this configuration just perfect! So i took a screenshot to celebrate!

 

Thanks, rjm, for your very clear instructions. It has worked a treat for me, apparently without unexpected side-effects.
Here is my new desktop (the picture is of Glencoe in the Scottish Highlands...

I hope it shows - I haven't figured out how to include an image in a post.

 

Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

I still get a menu when I right-click with the mouse or the touchpad, but (curiously) it is not the xfce menu, but another with just 4 choices: "Create launcher...", "Create URL Link...", "Create Folder...", and "Create From Template >".
I have no idea yet how to use these???

 

OK, I have done my own desktop, and both the package manager and automounting of USB drives work without a hitch.

 

Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

You can still get the menu through the "start button" (the xfce rat&X panel icon), right? Go to Settings, open up Desktop Preferences, click on the Behavior tab, then check the second checkbox. Pretty sure that'll work for you.

 

Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

Yes, I had already found that. I'm just curious as to why the right-click no longer brings up the same menu, and I still haven't figured out how to use that new little menu that I mentioned.

 

I don't understand what you mean by "after you create a new key binding profile..." I can see nothing in the Keyborad Settings dialog about key binding profiles.
I have the same problem, that Ctrl-Alt-Del now locks the machine. How can I bring up the system monitor?

 

Re: How to: get the Linpus XFCE desktop to stay after reboot

The right-click options you're talking about are to create new desktop icons, I think. If all you want to do is learn how to use them, I'm afraid I can't help, other than recommending you play around with them.
I had thought that you wanted the right-click to bring up the other menu, though-- that's why I gave instructions to change the behavior back.

Under the "shortcuts" tab of the keyboard preferences, on the left it says "Themes" with the unchangeable Default keybinding theme/profile. To add your own keybindings or to change any from the default profile's setting, you need to create a new profile. Click "Add," name the profile (which inherits Default's bindings), and then change anything you want-- for example, assigning the Ctrl+Alt+Del shortcut to the gnome-system-monitor command.