Gnome

GSettings

The gsettings utility provides a way to get to GSettings which is more or less like a Windows registry containing key value pairs.

GSetting values are different for each user. To modify or view values for a different user, launch a dbus session as the user via sudo:

# sudo -H -u lightdm dbus-launch --exit-with-session gsettings list-recursively

Desktop Icons

To enable desktop icons:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.background show-desktop-icons true

Nautilus No Breadcrumbs

Change the path with ctrl+l. To make it permanent, set the appropriate key with gsettings:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.nautilus.preferences always-use-location-entry true

Screensaver Timeout

The amount of idle time before the screensaver starts is set using:

# gsettings get org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay
uint32 60
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 3600

The amount of time before the screen is locked is set:

## Instantly locks when the screensaver starts
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay 0
## Or a delay in seconds. Eg: 1 minute
# gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.screensaver lock-delay 60

Adjust Notification Location

The notification popup toast can be adjusted with the "Panel OSD" shell extension.

See Also

• http://blog.tordeu.com/?p=292
• http://superuser.com/questions/727120/make-gnome-screen-lock-after-1-hour-not-15-minutes