GNOME Desktop Customizations and Installing the GNOMESword tarball (which is gives the steps of installing a tarball)

Desktop Customizations

A screenshot!Yeah, I just had to take a screenshot of my current desktop^^ I haveYomiko Readman in SD form as my wallpaper. I changed the way GNOME looks like so that I would have some sort of a theme which ispredominantly black and white. I couldn't resist it because I likepandas (color scheme is black and white). I had the high contrasticons and the theme details is "aging gorilla" because I like the graycolored title bars.
I changed the preferences of the way I view GNOMETerminal by makingthe background transparent. That way, Yomiko appears to be thebackground image of the GNOMETerminal. So kawaii~! These are somethings I couldn't do with the GUI of Windows unless I install LiteStep, DesktopX, WindowsBlinds, etc. (I think that these are all on wincustomize.) But I wish that I could findout how to make the icons look smaller. Too bad that some icon setsthat work on KDE don't seem to work on GNOME. I really like the Kids set of icons on KDE.

My screenshot file: exp3screenshot.png shows that I have Emacs and GNOMETerminal running. Sometimes, things are easier on the commandline. That is why I have it running most of the time. Emacs is whereI like taking notes, aside from creating Tasks (aka, ToDoList).Somehow, my thoughts are a bit more organized with Emacs Planner Moderunning most of the time. Thanks to Sacha! She is so passionate about Planner-el. And I see the reason why^^ I love the way Planner, EmacsWiki and Remember Modes integrate so well and help me in my day to dayliving. Especially when it comes to taking down notes. (I am sorry, Microsoft OneNote! I installed you, but Emacs has already knocked mysocks off!) I have a bunch of random notes and Remember mode is justso great when it comes to these things. Oh dear, I am babbling Emacsagain.

Installing the Gnomesword tarball
I couldn't install the rpm of Gnomesword that I found a month ago andI tried installing the tarball last night. I have never successfullyinstalled a tarball before. Anyhow, I found some guides on various sources, which includes the wonderful Mandrake Users site (http://www.mandrakeusers.org/) and some mailing lists. Too bad that Idon't have some things that the README file told me was necessary suchas the SWORD libs.
I got this message:
Package libgnomeui-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libgnomeui-2.0.pc'to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variableNo package 'libgnomeui-2.0' found
So that means I would have to check if I do have libgnomeui-2.0 in oneof the CDs, I suppose.
So I would still have to download the SWORD libs and stuff.^^
At least now I know how to untar and start the installation. I plan to email the PLUG-newbie list regarding that error message.

Installing a tarball:
1. Download the tarball (*.tar.gz, example: your_file.tar.gz) into your home directory.
2. On the command line, unzip it by typing "gunzip your_file.tar.gz"(your_file.tar.gz is just an example of a filename that has the tar.gzextension)
3. Issue the "ls" command to check your directory. The your_file.tar.gz won't be there anymore because it has already been unzipped. But you will see that there is a your_file.tar in yourdirectory.
4. Un-tar the *.tar file by typing "tar -xvf your_file.tar"
Meaning of the flags -x, -v, -f:
-x for "expand"
-v for "verbose"
-f for "force"
5. Type "ls" on the command line. You will see that you now have a"your_file" directory. The tar files are all there. Check the README file before proceeding to the next step. There are some important installation notes within the README file.
6. To begin the installation, login as root by issuing the "su"command.
7. Go to the "your_file" directory.
8. Issue this command: "./configure"
What does this do? It basically configures it to your system. There will be some text that would appear. Error messages will also appearin the text so scrutinize the text that would appear. If there aren't any then that is wonderful.^^
9. If there aren't any problems with step 8, issue this command:"make"
Again, check for errors.
10. If there are no problems with step 9, issue "make install"
If there aren't any errors, your program should have been installed already. You should be able to run it simply by typing the program name such as, "your_file" or whatever it is. In case you couldn't findit you could type "whereis your_file" or "whereis (insert the name of your program here)"
In my case, I only went as far as step 8 because I lack some files. Idon't have internet access so I can't download the things I need right away. I hope that this is helpful to some people.^^ This is my way of simplifying the steps.

posted by eClair @ 02:39