GNOME Primer

GNOME is the windowing system on the Linux machines. This guide will go over some tips on its use. GNOME is much more user friendly than twm, and is more easily customized.

Switching to GNOME

The switchdesk gnome command can be used to switch to GNOME from twm, the old windowing system on the Suns. This will move your .xsession to .xsession.switchdesk, and on next login you will be using GNOME.

The Panel

Across the bottom and top of the screen are two panels. (Windows calls this the taskbar.) The top has a Red Hat icon in one corner, and the date and time on the right. From left to right the icons are:

• Red Hat Menu / Applications this is like the Start menu in Windows, and has many sub menus, including ones to change system settings. Settings that can be changed in this menu include whether focus follows the mouse.

• Actions this has common actions, like login/logout, screenshot, and lock screen.

• World/Mouse this is the Firefox web browser.

• Envelope this is the Evolution e-mail client. More on its configuration later.

• Pen/Paper this is the OpenOffice word processor. OpenOffice is mostly compatible with Microsoft Office.

• Bar Graph this is the OpenOffice presentation software.

• Pie Chart this is the OpenOffice spreadsheet.

• Grey Area this is where shortcuts for additional programs go.

• Red ! this is a warning to update the OS, right click on it and select 'Exit' to delete it.

• Date/Time

• Speaker this is a volume control.

and on the bottom of the screen, the bottom panel:

• Desktop Icon this is will iconify all windows and show the desktop.

• Grey Area this is where icons for open programs will go.

• Four Grey Squares this represents the four virtual desktops or workspaces, so that work can spread out on different virtual screens.

Adding/Moving/Removing Panel Icons

To move or remove a panel icon, right click on it, and a menu will pop up with those options.

One of the first things to do is to add a terminal icon, so you can use regular unix commands. We'll use GNOME terminal.

To add a GNOME terminal icon: Right click on any light grey area in the panel. Try the top panel. Select 'Add to Panel' then a dialog box will pop up. Double click 'Application Launcher...', then scroll down to 'System Tools' and click on the small triangle to the left. Finally, click on 'Terminal' and then click the 'Add' button at the lower right of the dialog box.

To add an xterm icon: Right click on any light grey area in the panel. Select 'Custom Application Launcher...'. In the 'Name' box type xterm, in the command box type /usr/bin/X11/xterm. Click on 'No Icon' and pick any icon. Then click on 'OK'. There should now be an xterm icon that you can move if you want.

Note: icons can be added for other programs, just as the xterm icon was added.

Nautilus

The small icon in the upper right, username's Home, is a Nautilus file browser. Your home directory and files can be browsed, moved, copied and permissions set using this. Right click on any file to bring up a menu. (Although, the command line will still be necessary and better for some tasks.)

If you have a Windows home directory, it can be browsed through Nautilius, by clicking on 'File' then 'Open Location'. Enter: smb://trad/username$ in the location box, and click 'Open', or the entire Windows network can be browsed by entering smb:///.

Using Workspaces

The four paned icon on the panel is the virtual desktop, or workspaces, map. Notice that when applications are opened white representations of their size and shape appear in the current workspace on the workspace map.

Switching workspaces is done by clicking in the workspace to go to on the workspace map. Once in the new workspace any applications opened here stay here, and click to switch back to the old workspace and see the applications there.

Applications can be moved from one workspace to another by moving them in the workspace switcher, or by right clicking on the blue title bar at the top of the window and selecting 'Move to Workspace X'. Also in this menu an application can be put on all workspaces.

Logging Out and Saving Settings

Many of the GNOME applications have different settings saveable from the application. For the overall position of the windows and which applications get started at login, check the 'Save current setup' box at log out.

First get the applications desired to always start on login (terminal, mozilla, etc.) placed as wanted. (Note: don't start evolution on login.) Then go to the Red Hat and check the box 'Save current setup', then log out.

Note: only check this when needed to save settings and, typically, don't shut down or restart the machine on log out!

Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are a few useful keyboard combinations:

• alt tab switch between applications (like Windows)

• control alt arrows travel between workspaces.

• control - in GNOME terminal make the font smaller.

• control + in GNOME terminal make the font larger.

• shift control n in GNOME terminal, open a new terminal

• control left-click in GNOME terminal on a link to open it in Mozilla.

• control left-click in Mozilla on a link to open it in a new window.

• control n in Mozilla, open a new browser window.

• control alt delete bring up the logoff menu.

• control alt backspace kill off GNOME and restart it (only use if it's hung).

Evolution E-mail Client

Evolution is a graphical mail client similar to Outlook. It provides a calendar, to do list, and an easy way to view attachments and HTML messages. Pine is still the most versatile client we have, as it doesn't require X windows, and is still recommended. WARNING: If you intend to read mail with Evolution and use another mailer as well (pine, Outlook, mail, Evolution from home, etc.), remember to only read with one at a time, otherwise mail files can become corrupt.

Configuring Evolution

First, start Evolution by clicking on the Evolution icon in the panel. Evolution should launch and start the Evolution Setup Assistant. Click 'Forward'.

Identity screen. Type your full name, and make sure your Email address is of the form username@stat.osu.edu. 'Reply-To' and 'Organization' can be left blank.

Receiving Mail screen. Set 'Server Type' to IMAP. This will cause new configuration boxes to appear. In 'Host' put mail.stat.ohio-state.edu. 'Username' should be pre-filled to your username. Set 'Use secure connection (SSL)' to Always. Leave 'Authentication type' as Password. Click 'Forward'.

Second Receiving Mail screen. Check the 'Automatically check for new mail' box and leave the interval at 10 minutes. Check the 'Override server-supplied namespace' box, and put mail/ in the 'Namespace' box. Click 'Forward'.

Sending Mail screen. Leave 'Server Type' as SMTP. In 'Host' put mail.stat.ohio-state.edu. Click 'Forward'.

Account Management screen. It's possible to have Evolution check multiple accounts, such as osu.edu, Hotmail, etc. So they can be named them differently. In this case, just click 'Forward'.

Timezone screen. Select America/New York, click 'Forward'.

Importing Files screen. Chances are it will say something like 'From Pine'. Do not import the Mail, so check that to off. Importing the Addressbook is fine. Click 'Forward', then click 'Apply'.

At this point, it may complain about our certificate, click 'Ok', then it will ask for your password. After that the wizard is finished, but there's a little more to do.

Click on the 'Inbox' icon in the left pane, under your stat mail address. If you have mail sender and subjects should now be displayed. Finished!

Note: as we don't support linux at home these instructions apply only within Cockins, though Evolution can be made to work from home. The only changes would be at the Sending Mail screen, as follows: Set 'Use secure connection (SSL)' to Always. Leave 'Authentication type' as Plain.

Using Evolution

There are many features to Evolution, and this won't describe the Contacts, Calendar, or Tasks. Feel free to self learn deeper features. Many buttons if hovered over will pop up text describing their function.

Reading mail. Click on a message and it will show it in the lower view. Double clicking on a message will open it in its own window. If there are attachments in the message, at the end of the message they will be listed with a little box to the left of them. Clicking on the down arrow next to the box will provide a list of options relevant to the attachment.

Sending mail. To send a new message just click on 'New' in the upper left corner. Attachments can be sent using the 'Attach' button. When finished composing, click 'Send'. Evolution does keep a copy of all sent messages in a local folder.

Replying to mail. To reply to a message click on it, and then select the 'Reply' or 'Reply to All' buttons. By default, Evolution quotes the source message, and sends mail out in plain text.

Deleting mail. To reply to a delete a message click on it, and then click on the trash icon at the top. This moves it to the trash. To empty the trash, click on 'Actions' and then 'Expunge' or 'Empty Trash'. Expunge empties the trash for the current folder, and empty trash, does it for all folders. To undelete a message, go to the trash folder, right click on the message, and select 'Undelete'.

Moving mail. To move a message, click on it, go to 'Actions' and click on 'Move to Folder' or 'Copy to Folder'. Click and drag the message to a folder shortcut in the left pane.

Selecting multiple messages. To select multiple messages to delete, forward, or move, click on one, and then control click other individual ones or shift click to select a range.

Subscribing to folders. In order to see folders in your mail directory, move messages to them and make shortcuts to them, you have to subscribe to them. Click on the 'Inbox' icon in the left pane. Go to the 'Tools' menu at the top, then 'Subscribe to Folders'. Next to 'Server' click on 'No server has been selected', choose 'imap://username@stat.osu.edu'. Now expand the 'mail' directory and put checks next to the folders commonly used. Once finished click on the 'Close' button.

Making new folders. To make new folders click on the small black down arrow next to 'New' in the upper right, and click on 'Create New Folder'. In the dialog box select what to call the folder, and where to put the folder, normally click on the 'mail' directory, then click 'Ok'. Folders created from Evolution are automatically subscribed.

Deleting folders. To delete a folder go to it, then go to the 'File' menu, and across to 'Delete'.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Here are a few useful keyboard combinations in Evolution:

• shift arrows in message compose, select text for copy paste or delete.

• control a in message compose, select all text. Makes it easy to delete quoted messages.

• control r in folder view with message selected, reply to sender.

• shift control r in folder view, with message selected, reply to all.

• delete in folder view, with message selected, delete select message.

• control g in folder view, go to a folder.

• shift control f in folder view, create a new folder.

• control e in folder view, expunge current folder.

• alt enter in message composer, send current message.