Using the Desktop

Using the Desktop is as simple as dragging items you wish to use routinely to the desktop. The default desktop will include a folder of your home directory (/home/[user name]). By default the GNOME File Manager window will also appear for you to access other areas of your system.

To utilize drag and drop you need to be using either a GNOME compliant application or a Motif application. GNOME is compliant with Motif drag and drop so you will find it works with many applications you already have installed.

All items that are stored on your desktop are located in the following directory:

$ /home/[user name]/.gnome-desktop/

This is helpful to remember when you want your desktop to contain an item for which you can not utilize drag and drop.

Once you have started GNOME you will notice that any drives you have connected to your system will be shown on your desktop with the appropriate icons. You may mount and access these drives utilizing these icons.

IMPORTANT: You must have permission to mount the device shown on your desktop before you can utilize these icons. If you do not have mount permission someone with root access such as your system administrator can give it as follows.

Giving mount access to ordinary users can be done quite easily if you have linuxconf installed on your machine. Just select the drive you want to access in the Access local drive section. In the Options tab select the User Mountable option. Your drive will now be mountable by users.

If linuxconf is not available someone with root access must edit the /etc/fstab file to include user access. This is done by adding the user attribute to the drive. For Example:
If your fstab file contains a line like this:
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 exec,dev,ro,noauto 0 0
      
Add "user" to the fourth column:
/dev/cdrom /mnt/cdrom iso9660 user,exec,dev,ro,noauto 0 0
     
Depending on your system and work environment, there could be some security risks in permitting users to mount disks. Please consult your system administrator before taking this action.

Once you have permission to mount a drive you may right mouse click on the drive icon on your desktop. This will bring up a small pop-up menu.

You may select Mount device to mount it and Eject device to eject it. Once it is mounted you may either double-click it or choose Open from the pop-up menu to open and GNOME File Manager window viewing the contents of the device.

If you are missing any drives that might have been added to your machine you may right mouse click on an empty space on the desktop and choose the Recreate Desktop Shortcuts menu item from the pop-up menu.