gOS FAQ

[mahjongg]

here are some tips to get the most out of your gOS 3.

For questions regarding installation please read my install FAQ in the install section.

Add the gOS repository for updates and bug fixes

First, gOS is set to get updates from Ubuntu, thinks like security updates, and updates of applications, like for example the latest version of Firefox. You will get these updates automatically, as long as you have enabled the right "repositories" (software libraries) URL's, which is the default in a freshly installed gOS. But there are also updates that you can get from gOS itself, for gOS specific parts, and the default install of the "software sources" settings does not include a URL from which to get these updates.
It is quite essential to add this URL to get gOS specific updates (for bugfixes etc.), so lets do that first.

Start by highlighting the sentence below and copying it, highlight and copy the whole sentence from "deb" to "main" (to copy, right click on the highlighted text, then choose "copy").

deb http://software.thinkgos.com/ gadgets main

Now click on the gOS logo in the top left, which will open the "main menu", let you cursor run over to "System Preferences", then to "Administration", and click on the "Software Sources" menu entry. A program called "Software Sources" will be launched, Now click on the "Third-Party Software", and click on the Add button, a windows will open where you will be invited to enter an "APT line:", which is actually the line above you had just copied, so right click in the text entry field, and choose "Paste" (if the option to paste appears "greyed out" you might have closed the browser, which clears the copy, so there is actually nothing to copy, if that happens try again but do not close the browser) now click on the "Add source" button, if it is greyed out, it means you have not entered a valid APT line, for example you forgot to include the "deb" in front of the line. Now make sure the "http://software.thinkgos.com/ gadgets main" line has a check mark in front, so it is actually enabled. Now close the Software Sources menu, and wait a few minutes, after a few minutes the software update manager should run automatically and you should get a number of updates, if not you might want to try to run the update manager manually by choosing gOS>System Preferences>Administration>Update Manager.

Do not let an upgrade happen (but updates are fine)

Note that because gOS 3 is an unofficial Ubuntu 8.04 derivative Good OS (the creator of gOS) has no control over what is in an Ubuntu upgrade (not upDATE, but upGRADe, as in "upgrading from windows XP to Vista", rather than in "accepting a security update"). gOS has tried to make it impossible that this happens, nevertheless it is in theory possible (by enabling the wrong update repository, or by other unintentional actions) that the Updater tries to "Upgrade" gOS 3 to another (newer version) of Ubuntu, this can damage your gOS install if you let it happen! So never under any circumstance accept an UPGRADE, of course the regular updates you get should be fine, as gOS is based on Ubuntu 8.04 which version Ubuntu has pledged will not auto-upgrade to a newer version, as it is deemed a "long term stable" version, so all updates from ubuntu should be fine.
Also do not use Synaptic to install updates, so do not click on "mark all updates", and then press "apply", there are reports that this sometimes breaks the gOS menu structure. Instead only use the update manager.

Fix the gOS 3 theme "missing knob" problem

One thing the update should (in theory) fix is a small bug in the "gOS theme" (a collection of graphical elements with which the desktop is shaped). You might have noticed before, but in the original install of gOS the "volume control" "fader knob" is missing, you can control the volume, but the actual knob is invisible. The graphics element for the knob is simply missing from the library of graphical elements. A quick fix is to select another theme, using the gOS>System Preferences>Preferences>Appearance menu program "Appearance Preferences", choose theme, then click on another theme than gOS3_Theme, like the "Human Theme" (you can also do this if you cannot stand the green theme). If you want to manually repair the theme, you should switch to a different theme like just described, then uninstall the gOS3 theme, and re-install it. You can only do so if you have added the http://software.thinkgos.com/ gadgets main APT as described above, or the gOS theme will not be available. You will only need to do so if the gOS upgrades did not fix the issue. To manually re-install the gOS theme open gOS>System Preferences>Administration>Synaptic Package Manager and give your systems password (the same password you use to log in) when asked. This will run the software installation manager, the "Synaptics Package Manager", search for "gos-theme" now uninstall it by right clicking on the green box in front of it, and choosing "mark for re-installation" (in principle you should make sure you switched to another theme beforehand, in case anything goes wrong) then click on "apply", this should fix the gOS3 theme.

Setting a higher screen resolution than the default maximum of 800x600, (and add menu items)

gOS as a default ignores the highest resolution your CRT/LCD screen can support, and maxis out at 800x600. There reason for this is that it is careful not to damage a CRT monitor you might be using by applying a too high "refresh rate". That is because in older CRT monitors the refresh rate is tied to the high-voltage generator inside the monitor.
To overrule this you need to set the correct monitor type using a menu program called "Screens and Graphics", problems is, for some reason Good OS chose not to include this menu program in the menu's, so you have to add it manually using the menu editor gOS>System Preferences>Preferences>Main Menu .
The "main menu" program can be used to manage what appears in the menu structures of gOS, use it with care! The "Main Menu" window consists of a left and a right side, on the left side click on "Other", now on the right "items" side look for "Screens and Graphics" item, and place a check-mark before it, then click on the "Close" button to apply the changes. Wait a few seconds for gOS to reconfigure its menu structures, the click on the gOS menu, and under the "other" section you will find a new menu item "Screens and Graphics", run it, and again give your password. The menu has two tabs, "Screen" and "Graphics Card", if you choose "Graphics Card" you should see that gOS has detected and selected the Video Card in your system automatically. If not, or if you know for sure another choice is more accurate you can manually choose the Graphics Card setting, but in most cases the detected setting will be the correct one. The main point is to correct the monitor ("screen") setting, which is set to "Generic - plug 'n' play" per default, but in this setting gOS ignores monitor capabilities that go higher than 800x600. If you know the exact brand and type of your monitor then select that, or otherwise select the generic setting that your Monitor or LCD panel adheres to, so for example if you have a monitor that you know it should support "1280x1024", then choose "Monitor 1280x1024", and click "OK". Now you will get the option to set a screen resolution, and test the setting, which you should try before making the selection definitive.

Getting the Adobe flash player for (You-Tube) movies and games to work in the browser

If you have tried watching you-tube movies (or running a flash based game in the browser), you might have noticed that it does not work, even though gOS 3 has an explicit You-Tube quick-launch icon in its launch-bar (which is called the "Wbar").
The reason for this is that Adobe's "Shockwave Flash" player that is needed to watch you-tube movies is actually a commercial product, although you do not have to pay for using the player. This means that gOS does not have the legal right to incorporate it in to gOS. In the past you could use the Synaptic installer to install it as any other application, but Adobe has recently blocked that option to force users to visit their Web-site and accept their conditions for use.

Here is the "official Adobe endorsed way" how to install the latest Flash player (version 10) in gOS.

When you try to play a you-tube movie, you will get a waring message that claims that "javascript has been disabled, or an older version of Adobe Flashplayer is installed". In the past the best option was to ignore this message, as it would lead you astray, instead in the past you should install it using Synaptic. However this is no longer true! Nowadays you should indeed click on the provided link, so you go to "http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer ". Now Adobe has fixed its download site, and you can indeed safely download and install a compatible linux version of Adobe Flash Player, but you must choose the ".deb for Ubuntu 8.04" option. gOS is based on Ubuntu 8.04, which uses .DEB installation packages, like all "Debian Linux" derivatives. After downloading the .DEB container you get the option to run it, do that and the updater will install it. If anything goes wrong, in the process, (or you previously have done unsuccessful attempts to Install the Flash plugin in the past) run Synaptic, and completely remove (use mark for complete removal) the "adobe-flashplugin" package, then try again.

Creating a keyboard shortcut for the terminal

Maybe you think you will never want, or indeed need, to use a "command line terminal", (see gOS>Accessories>Terminal) but think again! Having a (quick) access to a terminal can be invaluable in Linux, in fact there are still things you can only do, or can do a whole lot quicker, with a command line terminal. It can be a god-send when there are problems to have an option to launch a terminal window with a few key-presses, so I would advise everybody to turn on a "keyboard shortcut" to launch the Terminal. Here is how to do it;
Choose gOS>System Preferences>Preferences>Keyboard Shortcuts, and scroll to the "Desktop" section, now click on the last option "Run a terminal" (it is set to "Disabled" as a default in gOS 3) the line will be highlighted, and you will see the text "New Shortcut" appear under Shortcut. Now simultaneously press the Ctrl and the Alt buttons, and then add the 't' button, and "New Shortcut" will change to "Ctrl+Alt+T". After closing the program you can call-up a terminal at any time by pressing Ctrl-Alt-t. Note that you may change to another key combination if you are more comfortable with that, as long as it does not interfere with another shortcut.

How to add edit and delete the content of the "dock" (Wbar)

To do this you need to run the Wbar configuration editor under gOS>Accessories>WbarConf.
To add an icon to the bar, the easiest way is to simply open the gOS menu, browse to the program you want to add, and drag its icon to the left side of the "WbarConf" tool windows, then click on the "Save" button, followed by the "Refresh" button. The icon should now appear in the dock. There are also options to sort the icons in the dock, and to remove icons from the dock. If you want to change the visual appearance of the dock, look under the File>Settings menu. There are for example options to put the Wbar at the left hand side instead of the bottom. Unfortunately the Wbar does not have an "auto hide", or "appear over an application window" option (yet), like the Dock in OSX

Accessing the Network settings menu.

If you want to manually edit the "Network Settings menu" (gOS>System Preferences>Administration> Network), then you first need to unlock it using the Unlock button.
You are asked your system password, but unfortunately your password will be rejected, you need to add yourself to be authorized to do so, here is how you do it:
Click on gOS>System Preferences>Administration>Authorizations
On the left side browse to Org>freedesktop>systemtoolsbackends and choose "Manage system configuration"
click on the "grant" button.
Click on "select user", and choose yourself, enter your system password and click on "authenticate".
Now you should be able to unlock/access the network settings.

Using (wireless) networking.

{start of rant} There are two possibilities with gOS, either the hardware manufacturer plays along, and there is a driver for your gOS system, then that driver is already installed in gOS, (or will be after an automatic software update) and WiFi will work immediately "out of the box", OR, your hardware manufacturer doesn't care about its Linux using customers, and doesn't play along, (it only supports windows systems) in which case it will be very difficult (but not per definition impossible) to get any use out of that hardware under Linux! I would give up using it, complain with the manufacturer and use another cheap solution that does have Linux support. {end of rant} .

If your system doesn't have WiFi working "out of the box" You can start by reading the Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) documentation on (wireless) networking, for the biggest part its applicable to gOS. See https://help.ubuntu.com/8.04/internet/C/index.html
Note that for most hardware gOS will have built in driver support, and will recognize the hardware in your system faultlessly, but due to the fact that manufacturers of WiFi (WLAN) chip-sets are unwilling to release Linux drivers, and are very secretive about the inner workings of their hardware, (and the firmware that often must be uploaded into older chip-sets for them to function) there are still a lot of (older) WiFi chip-sets that gOS does not have built in drivers for. This situation is only slowly improving, as manufacturers no longer can ignore Linux. There are ways to circumvent the problem by using a "hack" so that you can use a driver written for Windows, but the ("ndiswrapper") support for this is not built in to gOS. and it should only be used as a last attempt if there are no alternatives. It is often much easier to add a USB WiFi dongle that is supported by gOS, like the Digicom 8E4213 USB Wave 54. More info about network devices that work with gOS (Ubuntu 8.04) can be found here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/NetworkDevices

How to move the close minimize and maximize buttons to the right hand side like Windows.

So you are a windows user, that dislikes the Apple windows decoration conventions eh... To change the Window decorations i.e the placement of the minimize maximize and the close button on a window in gnome to the way windows handles there please do the following:
Step1: Alt+ F2 (this will bring a run dialog window)
Step2: Enter: gconf-editor (and hit the RUN button)
Step 3: You will now get a Configuration Editor Window .
Please follow the following directory path: apps>metacity>general>button_layout (in the options window) and change the layout/sequence as you please.

How to add Compiz for advanced desktop effects.

You will need a Video Card that has the right 3D support, and drivers to support Compiz for this to work.

First get the Compiz Window Management Software by going to
Menu -> System Preferences ->Administrator -> Synaptic Package Manager
Search for Compiz and click on both
'compiz' and 'compizconfig-settings-manager'
Apply Changes to Install.

Now turn off the basic window compositing (built into gOS to support Google Gadgets) so Compiz can take over:
Menu -> System Preferences -> Preferences ->Sessions
Remove 'xcompmgr' from the bottom of the list.
Logout of current session and Log back in.

Lastly turn on your Compiz effects by right clicking on your desktop and accessing Change Desktop Background, then click the Desktop Effects tab. Here you can to turn on some basic effects. For more advanced effects such as the Desktop Cube access the Advanced Settings Manager.
Menu -> System Preferences -> Preferences -> Advanced Desktop Effects Manager

Then just click on the effects you would like to use, each effects hotkeys can be seen under the keybindings tab of each effects individual dialog. While this advanced settings manager may look overwhleming it can control nearly every aspect of your window manager and is organized very efficiently.

[mahjongg]

Yes, it seems that http://software.thinkgos.com/ is no longer on-line. So it seems you will not get any gOS specific updates anymore. Not that without the GoodOS crew there were any to be expected anymore. Still you will get Ubuntu's security updates, and updates for (non gOS specific) applications and such.

Fortunately most updates described in this FAQ that needed this server were for gOS 3.0, and were fixed in the current gOS.

[mahjongg]

Theory is that they were snapped up by Google to work on Chrome OS, and are under a strict no disclosure. Timing of their disappearance, and the fact that we got no warning or explanation supports this, but there is no proof.

[mahjongg]

Actually, it seems that the gOS founder ("Jack Liu") now is behind a Chinese "Twitter clone" called "WoZai", so there is no chance that gOS will ever be updated!
Additionally gOS is no longer supported by Ubuntu's "long time support".
All this means I no longer can recommend using gOS

For all gOS users I would now recommend using "Linux Mint" instead, which has many of the redeeming features of gOS, but is still supported, and is being actively developed.

I still think gOS was one of the best distro's of its time, but time marches on.

goodby(t)e(s).

Mahjongg