GNOME

Apps don’t see my folders for music, videos, etc.

Problem

Some of your apps cannot access your media directories (aka XDG directories). For example, you can’t choose picture from Pictures folder when setting background:

Solution

This usually happens if the xdg rules are missing. You can fix this by creating a file within $HOME/.config/user-dirs.dirs with the following content:

XDG_DESKTOP_DIR="$HOME/Desktop"
XDG_DOCUMENTS_DIR="$HOME/Documents"
XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$HOME/Downloads"
XDG_MUSIC_DIR="$HOME/Music"
XDG_PICTURES_DIR="$HOME/Pictures"
XDG_PUBLICSHARE_DIR="$HOME/Public"
XDG_TEMPLATES_DIR="$HOME/Templates"
XDG_VIDEOS_DIR="$HOME/Videos"

Log out and then log back in. GNOME software will now detect your media files:

GNOME login screen does not appear

Problem

The system successfully booted, but the GNOME display manager (gdm3) login screen does not launch. Only a black screen with a login prompt appears:

PureOS GNU/Linux librem14 tty2

librem14 login:

Solution

In some cases it might help to reconfigure the GNOME login manager.

1. Login with your username/password at the prompt:

   PureOS GNU/Linux librem14 tty2
   
   librem14 login: pureos
   Password:
   

2. Run the following command:

   sudo dpkg-reconfigure gdm3
   

3. Restart the computer to see if it fixes the problem.

See also

If the problem happened occurs a system upgrade, refer to Fixing a failed/partial system upgrade.

Right-clicking on the touchpad behaves as a left-click

Problem

Following a software update, the secondary touchpad button (right click) behaves like a primary (left click) button click when pressing on the right side of the touch pad.

Cause

This is an upstream issue. After an update, the upstream package overwrites the user preference (or changes the default behavior).

Solution

Change the mouse settings in GNOME Tweaks back to Area.

No logs displayed in GNOME Logs

Problem

GNOME Logs does not display any logs or crash reports. It may not launch at all (running gnome-logs from terminal may report a segfault).

Cause

Your user likely does not have permissions to read journal logs.

Solution

1. Add your user to the systemd-journal group:

sudo usermod -aG systemd-journal USERNAME

…where USERNAME is your username. You can find it by running the command:

whoami

Note

You must restart your computer for the group edit to be applied.

Application Menu Extension

Problem

You want to use the GNOME Applications menu but see in Tweaks that the GNOME Application Menu extension has not loaded and cannot be enabled.

Solution

1. From Show Applications, open the Utilities folder and open a terminal emulator.

2. Copy and paste the following into the terminal emulator:

   sudo apt install gnome-menus
   

3. Press Enter.

4. Enter your password and follow the prompts.

5. Once it has completed, log out and log back into PureOS.

6. After the computer has booted, go into Tweaks and you should now be able to enable the Applications menu extension for GNOME.

GNOME Web jumps to maximum audio volume

Problem

GNOME Web jumps to maximum audio volume when playing sound

Cause

This is an issue that can occur when watching videos in GNOME Web. It is due to a configuration in the PulseAudio Daemon configuration.

Solution

1. Open the terminal emulator and run the following command to edit the configuration file:

   sudo nano /etc/pulse/daemon.conf
   

2. You will be prompted for your user password; type it and press Enter.

3. Edit this line, from:

   ; flat-volumes = yes
   

   to:

   flat-volumes = no
   

4. Press Ctrl+X to exit nano.

5. You will be prompted to save the file. Press y and then press Enter to save the file without modifying the filepath. The editor will close.

6. Reboot the device to apply the changes.