Tweaking gnome 3.2 gnome-shell is essential for everyday computing. Need Desktop Icons, Need all buttons, install themes, change wallpapers frequently etc. are essential needs. For new users the overlay mode of gnome shell, dash is little bit confusing first time. Also need the Alt+Tab, Weather extension, System Monitor, Calendar integration, Places menu, Applicaitons menu are must needed extensions for gnome shell.

There is a fantastic developer called fpmurphy developed lot of great gnome extensions You can read his blog for development of custom extensions.

There is another fantastic blog called Webupd8 They are collecting all type of gnome shell extensions.

The Gnome tweak tool on Fedora 16

This is a great tool to change the interface,fonts,themes and some other settings in Gnome Shell. To install Gnome tweak tool in Fedora 15 just type

su -
yum install gnome-tweak-tool

in the terminal as root. Then after install start the tool by just Alt+F2 and type gnome-tweak-tool .you will get the screenshots and various options in the tool website. This is a must software for gnome shell and gnome 3.

Gnome Shell Extensions

In the fedora repository there are a set of extensions.For that first install the Common files .

yum install gnome-extensions-common

Gnome Shell extension Alternate Tab Behaviour

Lets you use classic Alt+Tab (window-based instead of app-based) in GNOME Shell. GNOME Shell groups multiple instances of the same application together. This extension disables grouping.

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternate-tab

Gnome Shell extension Alternative Status Menu

For those who want a power off item visible at all the time, replaces GNOME Shell status menu with one featuring separate Suspend and Power Off. Adds the ability to hibernate as well.

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu

Gnome Shell extension Auto move Windows

Lets you manage your workspaces more easily, assigning a specific workspace to each application as soon as it creates a window, in a manner configurable with a GSettings key.

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-auto-move-windows

Gnome Shell extension Dock for minize windows

This extension Shows a dock-style task switcher on the right side of the screen permanently. But it has a drawback it will reside on the side permenent. No auto hide feature

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-dock

Gnome Shell extension Drive Menu

Adds a menu in the system status area that tracks removable disk devices attached and offers to browse them and eject/unmount them.

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-drive-menu

.

Gnome Shell extension Native Window Placement

This extension employs an algorithm (taken from KDE) for layouting the thumbnails in the overview that more closely reflects the positions and relative sizes of the actual windows, instead of using a fixed grid.

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-native-window-placement

.

Gnome Shell extension Place Menu

This extension Adds a menu in the system status area that resembles the Places menu from GNOME 2.x

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-place-menu

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Gnome Shell extension Theme Selector

Gnome shell user theme selector with preview. You will get a tab called themes in the overlay mode [Press the Window Key]. the themes in the directory ~/.themes .You can download lot of gnome 3 themes from deviant art. Or you can download the theme pack from here. And extract all the themes to ~/.themes

      themeselector-0.9.tar.gz                 16-May-2011 08:18  2.1M  Add GUI-based theme selector

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-theme-selector
yum install gnome-shell-extensions-user-theme

.

Gnome Shell extension Windows Navigator

Allow keyboard selection of windows and work-spaces in overlay mode in GNOME Shell.  Switch to overview mode (press the windows or alt+f1 key) and press the alt key to show numbers over windows.  Press any number to switch to the corresponding window.

Install

yum install gnome-shell-extensions-windowsNavigator

.

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Install Gnome shell Extensions Manually

More extensions are available But you want to download them or clone from git and put them into the folder

~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions

If this folder is not exist just create this folder by

mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions #just in case

And reload the shell to activate these extensions. To just reload press Alt+F2 and type ‘r’ press enter. But in Fedora 15 the shell crash often when you reload the shell more than one. So then you want to logout and log back in again to get the extension working.

Gnome Shell Extension MediaPlayer

A shell extension to controll rythembox from gnome shell. You can get the play, pause, shuffle buttons etc..

cd && git clone https://github.com/horazont/gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer mkdir -p ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ scp -r gnome-shell-extensions-mediaplayer/[email protected] ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

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Gnome Shell Extension Weather.

This extension will display the current weather status from yahoo weather api. On the drop down box it will display Current situation and today, tomorrows forecast. This is a great tool to keep your local weather.

cd git clone https://github.com/simon04/gnome-shell-extension-weather.git scp -r gnome-shell-extension-weather/[email protected] ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

This will create a folder caled gnome-shell-extension-weather in your home folder. you can keep it for futre use or just delete it.

After install this extension open Nautilus and navigate to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected] (.local is a hidden folder so press CTRL + H to see it), open the “extension.js” file and replace the following: “const YAHOO_ID = ‘AUXX0010′;” (it’s on line 48 for me) with the YAHOO weather ID for your city.
To get your city’s Yahoo ID, go to http://weather.yahoo.com/, and enter your city/zip code and when you find it, look for the orange “RSS” icon on the right. Hovering this icon, you’ll see your code – copy it and replace the “AUXX0010″ code in the extension.js file.
In the same file (just one line above the Yahoo weather ID) you can also change the temperature units – look for “const UNITS = ‘c’;“.
After you finish editing the extension.js file, save it and reload Gnome Shell or log out and log back in.

Gnome Shell Extension System Monitor Applet

This extension will show the system monitor (CPU Load, Memmory Load, Swap usage, Network usage) in the top panel of gnome 3. On the drop downlist you will get option to enable disable the display and current status summery. A great usefull extension for gnome 3.

To Install

mkdir ~/git_projects cd ~/git_projects git clone git://github.com/paradoxxxzero/gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet.git scp -r ~/git_projects/gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet/[email protected] ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions

Then install the schema (important) replace /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas with /usr/local/share/glib-2.0/schemas if your prefix is /usr/local

sudo cp ~/git_projects/gnome-shell-system-monitor-applet/org.gnome.shell.extensions.system-monitor.gschema.xml /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas cd /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas sudo glib-compile-schemas . # Don't forget the dot!

And restart gnome-shell (Alt + F2 -> r) or logout and log back in.

Gnome Shell Extension Work Space Indicator

This extension will create an indicator in the gnome shell panel. This indicator will show the workspace number currently you are working.

install Workspace Indicator GNOME Shell extension, run the following commands:

cd && git clone https://github.com/erick2red/shell-extensions.git cd shell-extensions scp -r [email protected]/ ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

.

More gnome shell extensions for fedora 16 are included in the default repository itself. Just go Applicaitons > System Tool > Add or Remove Software and search gnome-shell in it you will get a great list. You can directly install them from there. And use the gnome-tweak-tool to enable or disable the extensions.

The installed extensions are stored in the directory

/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions/

 

 

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