Re: GNOME customization questions

[Ryan McDougall <NQG24419 nifty com>]

I'm not a sys-admin, but I'll give it my best shot.

On Wed, 2004-28-07 at 08:53 -0400, Larry W. Virden wrote:
> I've had some users ask me to research the following questions:
> 
> 1. is there a way that a system coordinator could set up site
> specific defaults for gnome to have
> a set of applets, keyboard shortcuts, etc. that
> any new user of gnome would start with?

Yes. AFAIK those things are controlled through GConf and its XML files.
At worst you could copy those files to each home directory, and make
them read-only.

> 
> 2. Is there a user tool that comes with gnome for modifying
> widget themes without having to program code?

Yes. You can install many themes and let users switch between them using
Preferences->Themes.

No. AFAIK currently the only way modify a theme is by manually editing
its gtkrc file. This is because writing a good theme and theme engine is
non-trivial. However editing an existing gtkrc isn't that complicated,
and is definitely possible for a sys-admin.

Its been a long standing bug that you can't change the colour schemes
from a GUI, but it has never been considered high priority.

> 
> 3. Is there a way to get the Sun SPARC GNOME 2.0 cd player applet
> to recognize a CD in the sun cd drive?

I don't have a Sun box, and haven't run 2.0 in years.
> 
> 4. Is there a way to get the gnome calculator to do RPN type
> calculations rather than algebraic ?

No idea what RPN is.
> 
> 5. Has subsequent GNOME releases improved the GNOME/Metacity
> handling of dual monitors?  With this older version, there are numerous
> inconsistencies that drive users crazy - some actions
> are monitor specific - like keyboard shortcuts, creation of
> applets, which is fine, while others impact both monitors
> even though they shouldn't - such as creating a launcher on the
> desktop creates the same launcher on both - and deleting one deletes
> both, etc.

Perhaps you should try searching bugzilla, or installing 2.6.

Cheers,
Ryan