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This article explains how to configure gNewSense 2.1 once it is installed on your computer.

If you are looking for instructions to install gNewSense, see Installing gNewSense

Updating Packages

Once gNewSense has been installed, it is recommended to update the system.

• Go to System, Administration, Update Manager
• Press Check
• Type you user password
• Press Install updates

• Press Close
• Restart your computer

Installing Packages

gNewSense uses the Debian package management system, called APT. This system makes simple to download and install packages or programs. Just select a program from a list and the system will download and install it. Uninstalling programs is similar.

Basically, there are three ways for installing packages on gNewSense:

• Add/Remove Applications
• Synaptic Package Manager
• Terminal commands (apt-get)

Installing Packages using Add/Remove Applications

• Go to Applications, Add/Remove...
• Type your user password
• Select the programs you wish to install
• Press Apply

Installing packages using Synaptic

• Click to System, Administration, Synaptic Package Manager
• Type your password
• You can see a list of programs grouped by category. A description is shown when you click on a program.
• You can select the programs you wish to install
• If a program has dependencies, a window appears asking if you want to install them
• Click Apply
• The packages will start downloading. Then, the system will install the selected programs. The program's icon will appear in the applications menu.

Installing packages using Terminal Commands

• Open a terminal window (Applications, Accessories, Terminal)
• Type the following commands, followed by the Enter key

• Type your user password

Note: sudo is a command that allows other commands to be executed with administrator privileges.

Appearance

To change the desktop background, icons and window theme, click on System, Preferences, Appearance

You can install gnome-themes-extras and gnome-backgrounds packages to have more themes and backgrounds. You can also use any image as a desktop background:

• Click on Places, Home Folder
• Search in your folders and files and open the image file you want to use as a desktop background
• Click on the Image menú, Set as desktop background

There are several themes, backgrounds and icons available to download at http://art.gnome.org/

Codecs

You can play more audio and video files by installing some packages that contain free codecs:

• gstreamer0.10-plugins-ugly
• gstreamer0.10-ffmpeg
• gstreamer0.10-fluendo-mp3

Legal note: these packages contain exclusively free codecs, but some of them may be affected by software patents. They are not installed by default to avoid distribution problems.

IceCat Web Browser

IceCat is a Firefox-based web browser. It's main difference is that IceCat doesn't recommend non-free add-ons, like Adobe Flash. IceCat also includes some privacy enhancements.

Read the IceCat page for instructions on installing and configuring IceCat.

Epiphany Web Browser Extensions

Epiphany web browser has several extensions that are not installed by default. You can install them by:

• Install the epiphany-extensions package using one of the methods shown above
• Open Epiphany (Applications, Internet, Epiphany Web Browser)
• Click on Tools, Extensions
• Select the extensions you want to activate

It's recommended to install Ad Block and Greasemonkey extensions. Ad Block hides advertisement images and text from web pages. With Greasemonkey, you can install scripts to modify the behavior of web pages. For example, there is a script called YouTube Perfect that adds the option to watch YouTube videos without using Flash and download them to your hard disk. To install this script, right-click the install button in it's page, and click on Install user script.

Sound

a To change or disable the system sounds:

• Click on System, Preferences, Sound
• Click the Sound tab
• Pick the desired sound for each event, or select the No sound option

The system bell that beeps from the internal PC speaker may be annoying. You can disable it following these steps:

• Click on System, Preferences, Sound
• Click on the System bell tab
• Uncheck the Enable system bell option

Solving USB Installation Bug

When installing gNewSense from a USB device, the installer assumes this device is an optical drive. When gNewSense is installed on the hard disk, it will not detect any USB drives you connect to your computer. To solve this problem, open a terminal window and run sudo gedit /etc/fstab. Then, delete or rename the line that looks like the the following:

 /dev/sdb1       /media/cdrom0   udf,iso9660 user,noauto,exec,utf8 0       0

The sdb1 part may vary, depending on the number of drives on your computer.