# GNOME Shell Tuning & Installation of outdated GNOME Shell Extensions



## Deleted member 48958 (Apr 4, 2016)

(*Tested with 3.1* gnome-shell versions)

So you've installed FreeBSD (but you can use this guide even with Ubuntu  if you want, or even with Fedora, Debain etc) with a x11/gnome3 as DE.  
Primarily I always *move window buttons to the left*. To do this, enter
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'close,minimize,maximize:'`
in your terminal emulator.

 

If you want to change order or hide some buttons, you need to edit "close,maximize,minimize:" part.
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'close,minimize:'`
 

To change right/left buttons position -- move ":" to left or right.
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.preferences button-layout 'close:maximize'`
 

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Some users dislike that *context menu icons and button icons* were removed, to bring them back enter
`gsettings set org.gnome.settings-daemon.plugins.xsettings overrides "{'Gtk/ButtonImages': <1>, 'Gtk/MenuImages': <1>}"`
and press return.
 

_____________________________________________________
From 3.16 version you cannot set *'Caps Lock' as keyboard layout switcher* in gnome-tweak-tool settings. To bring this feature back you need to disable Caps Lock first, you can do this via gnome-tweak-tool: "Keyboard" tab -- "Caps Lock disabled". Or you can enter
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.input-sources xkb-options "['terminate:ctrl_alt_bksp', 'caps:none', 'grp_led:scroll']"`
this command will disable Caps Lock, set ctrl+alt+backspace as a key combination to kill X server, and when different from english keyboard layout will be used -- Scroll Lock LED will be lit.
Then you can set Caps Lock as keyboard layout switcher, enter
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.wm.keybindings switch-input-source "['VoidSymbol']"`
and press return.

_____________________________________________________
To *reduce GNOME 3 titlebar height* 




you need to create

```
~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css
```
with 

```
.header-bar.default-decoration {
    padding-top: 0px;
    padding-bottom: 0px;
}

.header-bar.default-decoration .button.titlebutton {
    padding-top: 0px;
    padding-bottom: 0px;
}
```
in it. Then restart gnome-shell — alt+f2 type `r` and press return.

_____________________________________________________
With gnome "Power" settings you can set* "blank time"* to 15 minutes maximum, or disable completely.




To make screen turn off later than after 15 minutes, you need to enter 
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.session idle-delay 3600`
this command will set "blank time" to 3600 seconds = 1 hour.

_____________________________________________________
To disable *GNOME 3 automount* function in x11-fm/nautilus, enter
`gsettings set org.gnome.desktop.media-handling automount false`
Or untick "automount" in devel/dconf-editor





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*Auto mount attached USB devices in UTF-8 locale with your Nautilus file manager.*
(Also work with x11-fm/thunar, x11-fm/pcmanfm… etc)
By default x11-fm/nautilus will auto mount with HAL (add hald_enable="YES" to /etc/rc.conf) all your attached USB devices, but it won't automount them in UTF-8 locale (even if your system locale is UTF-8 locale), so if there are some folders/files that use unicode symbols (✞✞☹☹☹✞✞) or arabic/cyrillic letters in their names — you'll not be able to open it. So to change this appearance, install sysutils/gconf-editor, open it and navigate to /system/storage/default_options/vfat/mount_options and add

```
-L=en_US.UTF-8
```





to its values (or other *.UTF-8 locale).


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## Deleted member 48958 (Apr 4, 2016)

*Using outdated GNOME Shell Extensions with new gnome-shell versions.*

Many extensions on https://extensions.gnome.org/ are not avaible, because some authors stop updating it to new gnome-shell versions, so by default you even aren't avaible to view this outdated extensions. To make them visible you need to set "Compatible with" to "All versions" in gnome-extension.org.




So when you found extension that you would like to install, look at your browser url-bar and remember extension number

```
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension/[color=red]<number>[/color]/<name>/
```






Then substitute this number in this url

```
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension-info/?pk=[color=red]NUMBER[/color]
```
and press return.




Find out what is the latest version supported (3.16 in my case) and add it to this url 

```
https://extensions.gnome.org/extension-info/?pk=[color=red]NUMBER[/color]&shell_version=[color=red]VERSION[/color]
```


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## Deleted member 48958 (Apr 4, 2016)

Search for "download_url" and add it to "https://extensions.gnome.org/"

```
https://extensions.gnome.org/[color=green]download-extension/...[/color]
```





When download will be completed, extract <extension>.zip archive and edit metadata.json.




*Change shell-version* to your gnome-shell version and *copy uuid*,
rename extracted folder to *uuid* 




and move it to 

```
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions
```
 Restart gnome-shell and enable new extension via gnome-tweak-tool.

_____________________________________________________
To change *gnome-shell extensions position on top panel*, you need to edit "extension.js" of extension, which position you would like to change. Open 

```
~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/
```
find extension folder and open "extension.js". 




In most cases you need to find the line

```
Main.panel.addToStatusArea("<name>", name, 0, "center");
```
 or sometimes search for something like this

```
Main.panel._rightBox.insert_child_at_index(<name>, 5, 'right')
```
To change extension position, you need to edit "<number>, "right/left/center"" part.
For example, I want to change "Clipboard Indicator" extension icon position to left, my "Main.panel.addToStatusArea" line in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/clipboard-indicator@tudmotu.com/extension.js will look like this

```
Main.panel.addToStatusArea('clipboardIndicator', clipboardIndicator, 1, 'left');
```





"1" — is a ordinal number of extension, sometimes you need to play with it a little to get the right position.


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