Novell LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 11 - GNOME User manual

SUSE® Linux Enterprise Desktop provides the tools that Linux* users require in their daily activities. It comes
with an easy-to-use graphical user interface, the GNOME* desktop, that communicates with the underlying
Linux system to let you access and manage les, folders, and programs. SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop provides
an integrated suite of applications for a wide range of ofce, multimedia, and Internet activities. The OpenOf-
ce.org suite, which allows you to edit and save les in a number of formats, is also included. The ofce suite
is available for several operating systems. Therefore, you can use the same data across different computing
platforms.
Getting Started
When you start your system, you are usually prompted to
enter your username and password. If someone else in-
stalled your system, check with your system administrator
for your username and password.
After logging in to GNOME for the rst time, you see the
GNOME desktop, offering the following basic elements:
Desktop Icons
Access programs and features on your system by double-
clicking an icon. Right-click an icon to get additional
menus and options. By default, the desktop features
several key icons, including your personal Home folder
and a trash can for deleted items. Other icons represent-
ing devices on your computer, such as CD drives, might
also be present on the desktop and you can add as many
icons on your desktop as you want to. If you double-click
your Home folder, the Nautilus le manager starts and
displays the contents of your home directory.
Bottom Panel
The desktop includes a panel at the bottom of the
screen. This panel contains the Computer menu (similar
to the Start menu in Windows*), the system tray, and a
taskbar to display icons for all currently running applica-
tions. You can also add applications and applets to the
panel for easy access.
Main Menu
Click Computer on the far left of the bottom panel to
open the main menu. Commonly used applications ap-
pear in the main menu, along with recently used applica-
tions. Click Documents to display your recent documents,
or click Places to display your favorite places (such as
your home directory or the desktop). Click More Appli-
cations to access additional applications listed in cate-
gories. Use the options on the right to access help, install
additional software, open the GNOME Control Center,
lock your screen, log out of the desktop, or check the
status of your hard drive and network connections.
GNOME Quick Start
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
NOVELL® QUICK START CARD
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System Tray
The right side of the bottom panel holds some smaller
icons, including the system clock that displays the date
and time, the volume control, and icons for several other
helper applications.
Taskbar
By default, all running applications are displayed in the
taskbar (the area in the middle of the panel between
the Computer button and the system tray). You can ac-
cess any running application regardless of the currently
active desktop. Click an application name to open it.
Right-click an application name to see options for mov-
ing, restoring, or minimizing the window.
Desktop Menu
Right-click an empty spot on the desktop to display a
menu with various options. Click Create Folder to create
a new folder. Use Create Launcher to create a launcher
icon for an application. Provide the name of the applica-
tion and the command for starting it, then select an icon
to represent it. You can also change the desktop back-
ground, open a terminal, create a document, and align
desktop icons.
Modifying Desktop Panels
The bottom panel can be customized to meet your individ-
ual needs, and additional panels can be congured to fur-
ther personalize your desktop.
To add a new panel, right-click a blank space in the bottom
panel and select New Panel. To delete a panel, right-click
a blank space in the panel and select Delete This Panel. SUSE
Linux Enterprise Desktop requires that at least one panel
be left on the desktop.
Adding and Removing Panel Icons
1. Right-click a blank space on the panel and select Add
to Panel.
2. Browse to the desired program and double-click it to
add it to the panel.
3. To remove a program icon from a panel, right-click its
icon in the panel and select Remove From Panel.
Starting Programs
To run a program in SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop, click
Computer on the panel to open the main menu screen. If
the program you want does not appear in the main menu
screen, click More Applications to view a list of all available
applications grouped in categories. You can also limit the
list to show only applications with a specic name by enter-
ing the name or its part to the Filter eld. Click an entry in
the list to start the corresponding program.
You can also add an icon to your panel that opens a more
traditional version of the main menu. Right-click a blank
space on the panel, select Add to Panel, then double-click
Traditional Main Menu.
If you already know the name of an application but are not
sure how to start it from the main menu, use the Search
eld in the main menu. Click Computer, type a portion of
the application name in the Search eld, then press Enter.
If the application is installed on your system, the name of
the application appears in the Desktop Search dialog box.
Click the name to start the program.
Customizing Your Desktop
You can easily add, delete, and create shortcut icons on
your desktop. You can also change icon properties and the
desktop background to suit your needs.
Adding Program Icons to Your Desktop
1. Click Computer.
2. Browse to the desired program.
3. Click and drag the icon to the desktop and position it
as desired.
To delete an icon from your desktop, simply click the pro-
gram icon and press the Delete key on your keyboard.
Changing the Desktop Background
1. Right-click the background.
2. Select Change Desktop Background.
3. To select a wallpaper from the preprogrammed images,
browse to and select the desired image. After you select
it, the background changes automatically.
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4. To add an image, select Add, browse to the desired
image, then click Open.
5. To display a colored background, select No Wallpaper
from the top of the list; then, from Colors, select the
ll pattern and the desired colors.
6. Click Close.
Using the GNOME Control Center
In addition to letting you change individual desktop ele-
ments, GNOME lets you extensively personalize your desk-
top. You can nd more settings to adjust the overall appear-
ance and behavior of your desktop in the GNOME Control
Center. There, you can also change fonts, keyboard and
mouse congurations, regional and language settings, pa-
rameters for your Internet and network usage, and more.
To start the Control Center, click Computer, then click
Control Center on the right of the main menu.
Conguring Desktop Effects
Compiz is a compositing window manager for the X Window
System that uses 3D graphics hardware to create fast com-
positing desktop effects for window management. It lets
you turn your desktop into a rotating 3D cube, tile windows
so they do not overlap, and switch tasks while viewing live
thumbnails. You can enable translucent or transparent
windows, zoom in and out of the desktop screen, and use
other window effects such as shadows, fading, and transfor-
mations. You can also congure windows to snap to other
windows and screen edges when they are moved.
To use compositing desktop effects, you need a graphics
adapter capable of providing 3D support with a appropriate
driver supporting 3D acceleration installed. 3D acceleration
must also be enabled. Use SaX2 to change your graphics
card and monitor properties if necessary. If the 3D acceler-
ation works properly, compositing effects are enabled by
default.
To enable compositing desktop effects manually or to
congure the particular effects you want to see, click
Computer →More Applications →Utilities →Simple
CompizCong Settings Manager. There, you can congure
your desktop effects.
Managing Files and Folders
Use the Nautilus File Manager to create and view folders
and documents, run scripts, and create CDs of your data.
Open Nautilus by double-clicking your home directory icon
on the desktop. The contents of your home directory are
displayed.
The elements of the Nautilus window include the following:
Menu
Lets you perform most tasks.
Toolbar
Lets you quickly navigate among les and folders, and
provides access to les and folders.
Location Bar
Lets you locate les, folders, and URI sites.
Side Pane
Lets you navigate or display information about the select-
ed le or folder. Use the drop-down list to customize
what is shown in the pane. The list includes ways to view
information about les, perform actions on les, add
emblems to les, view a history of recently visited sites,
and display your les in the tree system.
View Pane
Displays folders and les. Use the options on the View
menu to increase or decrease the size of content in the
view pane and to display items as a list or as icons.
Status Bar
Displays the number of items in a folder and gives the
available free space. When a le is selected, the status
bar displays the lename and size.
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Archiving Folders
If you have les you have not used recently but want to
keep on your computer, you can compress the les into a
tape archive (TAR) format.
1. In the Nautilus view pane, right-click the folder you
want to archive and select Create Archive.
2. Accept the default archive lename or provide a new
name.
3. Select a le extension from the drop-down list. Use tar
.gz for the most common archive form.
4. Specify a location for the archive le, then click Create.
To extract an archived le, right-click the le and select
Extract Here.
Using Bookmarks
Use the Nautilus bookmarks feature to mark your favorite
folders.
1. Open the folder you want to create a bookmark for.
2. Click Bookmarks →Add Bookmark. The bookmark is
added to the list, with the folder name as the bookmark
name.
3. To select an item from your bookmarks list, click
Bookmarks, then click the desired bookmark in the list.
You can also organize your bookmarks list by clicking
Bookmarks →Edit Bookmarks and making your selections
in the dialog box.
To change the order of your bookmarks, click a bookmark
shown in the Edit Bookmarks dialog and drag it to the de-
sired location.
Browsing the Internet with Firefox
Firefox* is becoming the Web browser of choice. It has all
the familiarity of other browsers, plus added features such
as security and privacy tools.
To start Firefox, click Computer →Firefox Web Browser.
When starting Firefox for the rst time, you need to agree
with its licence agreement and click OK.
With features like tabbed browsing, pop-up window block-
ing, and download and image management, Firefox com-
bines the latest Web technologies. Its easy access to differ-
ent search engines helps you nd the information you need.
Enter a URL in the location bar to start browsing.
To open an empty tab in Firefox, press Ctrl +Tand type a
new URL. To open a link in a new tab, click the link with
your middle mouse button. Right-click a tab to access more
tab options. You can create a new tab, reload one or all
existing tabs, or close a single tab or all tabs. You can also
change the sequence of the tabs by dragging and dropping
them to a new position.
Finding Information on the Web
1. To start a search on the Web with the Google* engine,
type your search keywords in the integrated search box
on the right of the location bar,
then press Enter. The results display in the window.
2. To use a different search engine, click the G icon in the
search box to open a list of other search engines.
3. Click the desired engine, then press Enter to start the
search.
You can also search the current Web page for keywords.
To do so, press Ctrl +Fto open a Find bar at the bottom
of the window. Enter your search keyword there and use
the buttons to the right of the box to search in different
directions or to select all hits in the text.
Downloading Files with Firefox
If you download a le with Firefox, the Firefox download
manager starts and saves this le to the folder congured
in Firefox Preferences. By default, your desktop is the desti-
nation folder for downloaded les. Firefox shows your n-
ished downloads in the Downloads window.
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You can open the downloaded les directly from the
Downloads window or from the destination folder. To clean
up the history of downloaded les, click Clean Up.
Conguring Firefox Preferences
To adjust the default download folder or to activate or
modify the pop-up blocking feature, click Edit →Prefer-
ences.
From here you can also congure numerous other settings
such as appearance, language, privacy, and tab options.
Click the icons and set the options on each page according
to your preferences. Click Close to apply the changes.
E-Mailing and Calendaring
For reading and managing your mail and events, SUSE Linux
Enterprise Desktop offers you Novell® Evolution™, a
groupware program that makes it easy to store, organize,
and retrieve your personal information.
Evolution seamlessly combines e-mail, a calendar, an address
book, and a task list in one easy-to-use application. With
its extensive support for communications and data inter-
change standards, Evolution can work with existing corpo-
rate networks and applications, including Microsoft* Ex-
change.
To start Evolution, click Computer →More Applications →
Ofce →Evolution Mail and Calendar.
The rst time you start it, Evolution prompts you with a few
questions as it sets up a mail account and helps you import
mail from your old mail client. It shows you how many new
messages you have and lists upcoming appointments and
tasks, as well as the current weather and news from news
feeds. The calendar, address book, and mail tools are
available in the shortcut bar on the left.
Press Ctrl +Nto open a new item for whatever part of
Evolution you are working in. In mail, this creates a new
message. If you are in the address book, Ctrl +Ncreates a
new contact card, and in the calendar, it creates a new ap-
pointment.
For more information on using Evolution, click Help →
Contents in any Evolution window.
Instant Messaging with Pidgin
Pidgin is a multiprotocol instant messaging (IM) client. It is
compatible with AOL* Instant Messenger (AIM), Google
Talk, GroupWise® Messenger, ICQ, IRC, MSN Messenger,
Jabber/XMPP, Yahoo!*, and other networks.
With Pidgin, you can log in to multiple accounts on multiple
IM networks simultaneously. Pidgin also supports many
features of the various networks, such as le transfer, away
messages, and typing notication.
To start Pidgin, click Computer →More Applications →In-
ternet →Pidgin, or press Alt +F2 and enter pidgin.
To add an account to Pidgin, select Accounts →Manage
Accounts from the Buddy List. Click Manage Accounts, select
the protocol you want, and type your login information in
the appropriate elds. Activate the account by checking
the Save checkbox in the account list.
Add contacts by clicking Buddies →Add Buddy. An assistant
appears to help with creation. However, you must be online
and connected to the selected messaging service to add a
contact to your list.
To start a chat, double-click the desired contact and type
your message in the lower part of the chatting window.
Press Enter to send the message. The upper part of the
window displays the messages you have sent and received.
Starting OpenOfce.org
The OpenOfce.org ofce suite offers a complete set of
ofce tools, including word processing, spreadsheet, presen-
tation, vector drawing, and database components. Because
OpenOfce.org is available for a number of operating sys-
tems, you can use the same data across different computing
platforms.
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To start OpenOfce.org, click Computer →OpenOfce.org
Writer. To create a new document, click File →New, then
choose the type of document you want to create. To open
an existing document, click Open, then select the le you
want from the le system.
Viewing PDF Files
Documents that need to be shared or printed across plat-
forms are often distributed as PDF (Portable Document
Format) les. PDF les can be created using OpenOfce.org
suite or other applications. The GNOME PDF viewer is called
Evince. It can be used to view PDFs and many other docu-
ment formats, like PostScript, DjVu, DVI, and multi-page
TIFFs.
To start Evince, press Alt +F2 and enter evince or click
Computer →More Applications →Ofce →Evince.
1. Click Computer →More Applications →Ofce →Evince
or press Ctrl +F2 and enter evince.
2. To view a PDF le, click File →Open, locate the desired
PDF le, then click Open.
3. Use the navigation icons at the top of the window to
navigate through the document. If your PDF document
provides bookmarks, you can access them in the left
panel of the viewer.
Finding Files on Your Computer
To locate les on your computer, click Computer, enter
your search terms in the Search eld, then press Enter. The
results are displayed in the Desktop Search dialog box.
You can use the results lists to open a le, forward it via e-
mail, or display it in the le manager. Simply right-click an
item in the results list and select the option you want. The
options available for an item depend on the type of le it
is. Clicking a le in the list displays a preview of the le and
information such as the title, path, and date the le was
last modied or accessed.
Use the Find In menu to limit your search to les in a spe-
cic location, such as your address book or Web pages, or
to display only a specic type of le in your results list. The
View menu lets you sort the items in your results list accord-
ing to name, relevance, or the date the le was last modi-
ed.
You can also access Desktop Search by clicking Computer
→More Applications →System →Search.
Creating a CD/DVD
If your system has a CD or DVD read/write drive, you can
use the Nautilus le manager to burn CDs and DVDs.
1. Click Computer →More Applications →Multimedia →
GNOME CD/DVD Creator, or just insert a blank disk.
2. Copy the les you want to put on the CD or DVD into
the Nautilus CD/DVD Creator window.
3. Click Write to Disk.
4. Modify the respective information in the Write to Disk
dialog box, or accept the default values, then click Write.
The les are burned to the disk. This could take a few
minutes, depending on the amount of data being
burned and the speed of your burner.
You can also use Brasero or Banshee to burn audio and
MP3 CDs.
Managing Your Digital Image
Collection
F-Spot is a management tool for your collection of digital
images, tailored for the GNOME desktop. It allows you to
assign different tags to your images in order to categorize
them, and offers various image editing options. For example,
you can remove red-eye, crop, and adjust brightness and
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colors. F-Spot supports all important image formats, includ-
ing JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and several vendor specic RAW for-
mats.
You can import photos from your hard drive, your digital
camera, or your iPod. You can also use F-Spot to create
photo CDs, generate a Website gallery, or export your
photos to your Flickr, 23, Picasa Web, or SmugMug account.
To access F-Spot, click Computer →F-Spot Photo Browser.
The rst time you run F-Spot, you must tell it where to nd
the images you want to import into your collection. If you
already have a collection of images stored on your hard
drive, enter the path to the respective directory and option-
ally include subfolders. F-Spot imports these images into
its database.
Thumbnails of your images are displayed in the right part
of the window, and detailed information for a selected im-
age is displayed in a sidebar to the left. By default, your
photos are displayed in reverse-chronological order, so your
newest photos are always at the top. You can sort your
photos in chronological order or reverse-alphabetical order
by clicking View →Reverse Order.
A menu bar at the top of the window allows you to access
the main menus. A toolbar below offers several different
functions depicted by a matching icon.
Managing Your Media
Use Banshee to import CDs, sync your media collection to
an iPod* or other digital media player, play music directly
from an iPod (or other digital media player), create playlists
with songs or videos from your library, create audio and
MP3 CDs from subsets of your library, and subscribe to,
download, and listen to your favorite podcasts. Banshee
also has an Internet Radio plug-in that allows you to listen
to audio streams.
To open Banshee, click Computer →Banshee Media Player.
When you start Banshee for the rst time, you need to im-
port your media to make them available in the library. To
do so, select Media →Import Media from the menu. Choose
an import source and click Import Media Source. After
successfully importing your media, you can access them
from your library.
To play a song or a movie, simply select it in the library and
click the play button. You can also use the buttons in the
upper left corner to pause a song or play the next or previ-
ous song. Use the loudspeaker button on the right to adjust
the volume.
Banshee also has an integrated CD player. When you insert
a music CD, your CD title appears in the left panel. Select
the title and click the Play button to play your full CD.
To create audio and MP3 CDs, select the songs you want,
then click the Edit →Write CD from the menu.
Conguring Your System with YaST
Use the YaST Control Center to change the installation and
conguration of your whole system. root permission is
required to open YaST.
To open YaST, click Computer →More Applications →
System →YaST, then enter the root password. If you do
not know the root password, ask your system administra-
tor.
YaST contains various modules you can use to adjust your
system settings. These modules are divided into the follow-
ing categories:
Hardware
Contains modules for conguring hardware components
such as your monitor, keyboard, mouse, printer, and
scanner.
Miscellaneous
The YaST Control Center has several modules that cannot
easily be classied into the other module groups. The
modules in this category can be used for things such as
viewing log les and installing drivers from a vendor CD.
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Network Devices
Includes modules for conguring network devices such
as network cards, ISDN, DSL, or modem.
Network Services
Contains modules for network services and for congur-
ing clients such as LDAP and NFS.
Novell AppArmor
Use the modules of this category to congure the Novell
AppArmor™ access control system. This option is avail-
able only if the Novell AppArmor pattern is installed.
Security and Users
Use these modules to congure security details such as
rewall options, and to create and manage users and
groups.
Software
Use the modules of this category to set options for instal-
lation and updates, and to install or remove software
packages.
System
Use these modules to change system settings such as the
date, time, or language, and to perform tasks like backing
up or restoring les.
Managing Printers
Printers can either be connected to your system locally or
accessed over a network. To use a local printer, make sure
that it is connected to your machine. Shut down the system
before connecting a non-USB printer to your system.
You can congure printers with YaST. Start YaST, then click
Hardware →Printer to open the main printer conguration
window. Depending on the network environment or your
local printer model, YaST might be able to congure the
printer automatically. If autodetection of printing devices
fails, click Add in the Printer Conguration dialog box to
start the manual conguration workow. Follow the instruc-
tions in the YaST online help. If you are not sure which op-
tion to choose and which information to enter, ask your
system administrator.
After conguring a printing device correctly, you can ad-
dress it from any application.
If you have active printing jobs, a printer icon is shown in
your tray. Click on the icon to open a dialog which lets you
manage your print jobs.
Logging Out
When you are nished using the computer, you can log out
and leave the system running, or restart or shut down the
computer.
Logging Out or Switching Users
Click Computer →Logout, then select one of the following
options:
Log out
Logs you out of the current session and returns you to
the login screen.
Switch User
Suspends your session, allowing another user to log in
and use the computer.
Restarting or Shutting Down the Computer
Click Computer →Shutdown, then select one of the follow-
ing options:
Shutdown
Logs you out of the current session, then turns off the
computer.
Restart
Logs you out of the current session, then restarts the
computer.
Suspend
Puts your computer in a temporary state that conserves
power. The state of your session is preserved, however,
including all applications you have running and all docu-
ments you have open.
Hibernate
Suspends your session, using no power until the comput-
er is restarted. The state of your session is preserved,
however, including all applications you have running and
all documents you have open.
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For More Information
This guide gave you a short introduction to the GNOME
desktop and some key applications running on it. To discov-
er more, refer to GNOME User Guide (↑GNOME User Guide)
and the other manuals available for SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop at http://www.novell.com/
documentation/sled11/.
Find the other manuals available for SUSE Linux Enterprise
Desktop at http://www.novell.com/
documentation/opensuse110 or in your installed sys-
tem under /usr/share/doc/manual.
To learn more about GNOME and GNOME applications,
refer to http://www.gnome.org/.
Legal Notice
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This manual is protected under Novell intellectual property
rights. By reproducing, duplicating or distributing this
manual you explicitly agree to conform to the terms and
conditions of this license agreement.
This manual may be freely reproduced, duplicated and dis-
tributed either as such or as part of a bundled package in
electronic and/or printed format, provided however that
the following conditions are fullled:
That this copyright notice and the names of authors and
contributors appear clearly and distinctively on all repro-
duced, duplicated and distributed copies. That this manual,
specically for the printed format, is reproduced and/or
distributed for noncommercial use only. The express autho-
rization of Novell, Inc must be obtained prior to any other
use of any manual or part thereof.
For Novell trademarks, see the Novell Trademark and Ser-
vice Mark list http://www.novell.com/company/
legal/trademarks/tmlist.html. Linux* is a regis-
tered trademark of Linus Torvalds. All other third party
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. A
trademark symbol (®, ™ etc.) denotes a Novell trademark;
an asterisk (*) denotes a third party trademark.
All information found in this book has been compiled with
utmost attention to detail. However, this does not guarantee
complete accuracy. Neither Novell, Inc., SUSE LINUX Prod-
ucts GmbH, the authors, nor the translators shall be held
liable for possible errors or the consequences thereof.
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Created by SUSE® with XSL-FO
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