GNOME/Flashback

GNOME Flashback (previously called GNOME fallback mode) is a shell for GNOME 3. The desktop layout and the underlying technology is similar to GNOME 2. It does not use 3D acceleration at all, so it is generally faster and less CPU intensive than GNOME Shell with llvmpipe.

Installation

GNOME Flashback can be installed from the gnome-flashback package. It is recommended to install its optional dependencies also to get a more complete desktop environment.

You can also install the following packages which provide some additional applets for the GNOME Panel:

GNOME Applets — Small applications for the GNOME panel

https://wiki.gnome.org/Projects/GnomeApplets || gnome-applets

Pomodoro Applet — GNOME Panel applet for timing the intervals used in the Pomodoro Technique(tm)

https://github.com/stump/pomodoro-applet || pomodoro-applet^AUR

Sensors Applet — Applet for GNOME Flashback panel to display readings from hardware sensors, including CPU temperature, fan speeds and voltage readings

https://sensors-applet.sourceforge.net/ || sensors-applet

It is recommended to install the gnome group, which contains applications required for the standard GNOME experience.

Starting

Graphical log-in

Choose GNOME Flashback (Metacity) from the menu in a display manager of choice.

Those who wish to use Compiz with GNOME Flashback should select GNOME Flashback (Compiz) instead.

Manually

For the GNOME Flashback (Metacity) session, add the following to the ~/.xinitrc file:

export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
exec gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-metacity

For the GNOME Flashback (Compiz) session, add the following to the ~/.xinitrc file:

export XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME-Flashback:GNOME
exec gnome-session --session=gnome-flashback-compiz

After editing .xinitrc, GNOME Flashback can be launched with startx. See xinitrc for details.

Configuration

GNOME Flashback shares most of its settings with GNOME. See GNOME#Configuration for more details.

Customizing GNOME Panel

To configure the panel, hold down the Alt key, and right-click on it in an empty area.
To move an applet on the panel, hold down the Alt key, and grab it with middle-button.

Note: If the Alt+right-click combination does not work, try Super+Alt+right-click instead.

Alternative window manager

You can use an alternative window manager with GNOME Flashback by creating a custom GNOME session with the following components:

RequiredComponents=gnome-flashback-init;gnome-flashback;gnome-panel;window-manager;gnome-settings-daemon;nautilus-classic;

where window-manager is the window manager you wish to use. See GNOME/Tips and tricks#Custom GNOME sessions.

Also see this article on running awesome as the window manager in GNOME.

Tips and tricks

Panel speed settings

Hide/Unhide delay

To adjust the amount of time it takes for the panel to disappear or reappear when autohide is enabled, execute the following:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-panel.toplevel:/org/gnome/gnome-panel/layout/toplevels/panel/ hide-delay time
$ gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-panel.toplevel:/org/gnome/gnome-panel/layout/toplevels/panel/ unhide-delay time

where panel is either top-panel or bottom-panel and time is a value in miliseconds, e.g. 300.

Animation speed

To set the speed at which panel animations occur, execute the following:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.gnome-panel.toplevel:/org/gnome/gnome-panel/layout/toplevels/panel/ animation-speed value

where panel is either top-panel or bottom-panel and value is either "'fast'", "'medium'" or "'slow'".

Replace applications menu icon

Note: This change will be overwritten on updating your icon theme package.

Replace /usr/share/icons/icon-theme/16x16/places/start-here.png with your own icon (where icon-theme is the name of your icon theme).

After making the change, restart GNOME Panel: gnome-panel --replace.