Desktop env

Table of Contents General GNOME Settings shortcuts General UI Window manager (WM) Tiling window manager i3 shortcuts

General

Desktop environment is made of:

• graphical-based UI (GUI)
  • graphical shell
  • window manager
    • stacking
    • compositing
    • tiling (non-overlapping frames)
  • widget toolkit
  • communication protocol for display server
• text-based UI
  • terminal (emulator)

Common:

• GNOME
• KDE

GNOME uses as:

• graphical-based UI (GUI)
  • graphical shell : GNOME 3
  • window manager:
    • compositing : Mutter (also Wayland compositor)
    • tiling: PaperWM
  • widget toolkit: Gtk GNOME ToolKit
  • communication protocol for display server : Wayland
• text-based UI
  • terminal: GNOME terminal

Alternatives:

• window manager
  • tiling: i3
• graphical shell : Unity
• communication protocol for display server : XWindow

GNOME

Version is stored in /usr/share/gnome/gnome-version.xml

Settings

List:

• export dconf dump / ><FILE_PATH>
• import dconf load / <~<FILE_PATH>

Useful settings:

• show full date on upper bar gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.interface clock-show-date true

shortcuts

General

Export them ?

Useful:

• take screenshot and copy to clipboard gnome-screenshot -a -c

UI

List:

• enter (non -interactive) command: Alt F2
• switch
  • window: Alt Tab
  • windows instance Alt ²
• Mouse (X clipboard):
  • copy: select
  • paste: middle button

Window manager (WM)

List installed: ls /usr/share/xsessions/*.desktop

Tiling window manager

i3

i3 repo

Install:

• Install, from i3 stable repository
• Take a tour here
• open a new session and choose i3
• make it default: update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/x-session-manager x-session-manager /usr/bin/i3

60

shortcuts

List ($mod +):

• start i3: Enter
• start app: d (dmenu)
• split:
  • vertically: v
  • horizontally: h
• full-screen: f
• close window: Shift Q
• exit i3: Shift E

Cheatsheet:

• keyboard map
• classic