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12. Desktop

nautilus-open-terminal behavior change
The nautilus-open-terminal package provides a right-click "Open Terminal" option to open a new terminal window in the current directory. Previously, when this option was chosen from the Desktop, the new terminal window location defaulted to the user's home directory. However, in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, the default behavior opens the Desktop directory (i.e. ~/Desktop/). To enable the previous behavior, use the following command to set the desktop_opens_home_dir GConf boolean to true:
gconftool-2 -s /apps/nautilus-open-terminal/desktop_opens_home_dir --type=bool true
Adobe Flash and Adobe Acrobat Reader on 64-Bit
The 64-bit Red Hat Enterprise Linux Supplementary CD contains the 32-bit versions of Adobe Acrobat Reader and Adobe Flash for use on the 64-bit architecture. To use these browser plugins correctly, the nspluginwrapper.i686 and alsa-plugins-pulseaudio.i686 packages must be installed prior to the installation of the plugins.
gnome-packagekit architecture filter
By default, gnome-packagekit uses a filter to hide packages that are not the same architecture as the system. Consequently, when installing packages for other architectures (e.g. the 32-bit versions of acroread and flash-plugin on the 64-bit architecture) the "Only native filters" from the Filters menu must be unchecked for these packages to be visible.

12.1. Known Issues

  • When enabled, fingerprint authentication is the default authentication method to unlock a workstation, even if the fingerprint reader device is not accessible. However, after a 30 second wait, password authentication will become available.
  • ATI RN50/ES1000 graphics devices have limited Video RAM (VRAM) and are restricted to an 8-bit color depth for the text console. Consequently, the graphical boot screen is unavailable on systems using these graphics devices.
  • On the GNOME desktop, the CD/DVD burning utility brasero conflicts with the automounting feature in Nautilus. Consequently, the following error message will be displayed when brasero attempts to verify the checksum of the disc:
    Error while burning: You do not have the required permissions to use this drive
    
    In most cases, the data is still written to the disc.
  • The system-config-users tool cannot always detect if a home directory can be created correctly. Consequently, system-config-users might fail silently when attempting to create a home directory on some file systems (e.g. home directories located beneath an autofs mount-point). Typically, when this issue is encountered, the user account itself is created, but the creation of the home directory fails. To create a user with an auto-mounted home directory, create the home directory manually before creating the user in system-config-users.
  • Evolution's IMAP backend only refreshes folder contents under the following circumstances: when the user switches into or out of a folder, when the auto-refresh period expires, or when the user manually refreshes a folder (i.e. using the menu item Folder > Refresh). Consequently, when replying to a message in the Sent folder, the new message does not immediately appear in the Sent folder. To see the message, force a refresh using one of the methods describe above.
  • Not all languages have predefined default input method engines. Consequently, in some languages, ibus will not have an input method engine configured. To work around this issue, add an input method using the Input Method configuration dialog (System > Preferences > Input Method
  • Using the im-chooser tool, XIM cannot be disabled as the default GTK immodule. Disabling input-methods using im-chooser and restarting the desktop session will still result in GTK applications using the XIM immodule. Consequently, using the Ctrl+Shift+U key combination to the directly input of Unicode characters from their hexidecimal code will not work. To work around this issue, use im-chooser to enable ibus. Enabling ibus permits gtk-im-context-simple's Unicode input and compose sequences to be used.
  • The hardware mute button on Lenovo ThinkPad X200 notebooks does not work. Note, however, that the volume down and volume up buttons function correctly.
  • The clock applet in the GNOME panel has a default location of Boston, USA. Additional locations are added by via the applet's preferences dialog. Additionally, to change the default location, left-click the applet, hover over the desired location in the "Locations" section, and click the "Set..." button that appears.
  • In some multi-monitor configurations (e.g. dual monitors with both rotated), the cursor confinement code produces incorrect results. For example, the cursor may be permitted to disappear offscreen when it should not, or be prevented from entering some areas where it should be allowed to go. Currently, the only work around to this issue is to disable monitor rotation.
  • ATI RN50/ES1000 graphics devices have a lower number of hardware controllers than output connectors. Due to a defect in the graphical boot system, this type of configuration results in a blank display. Consequently, users of systems with these ATI graphics devices will experience prolonged (potentially up to 2 minutes or longer) blank screens during boot up and shutdown. Once the boot process completes and a login prompt is available, the display will function as expected. The prolonged blank screen can be avoided by removing "rhgb" from the list of boot parameters on the kernel command line in /etc/grub.conf
  • If a Russian keyboard is chosen during system installation, the login screen is configured to use Russian input for user names and passwords by default. However, pressing Left Shift and Right Shift does not cause the input to change to ASCII mode. Consequently, the user cannot log in. To work around this issue, run the following sequence, as root, post installation:
    . /etc/sysconfig/keyboard; echo $LAYOUT | grep -q ",us" && gconftool-2
    --direct --config-source xml:readwrite:/var/lib/gdm/.gconf --set
    /apps/gdm/simple-greeter/recent-layouts --type list --list-type string $(echo
    $LAYOUT | awk -F, '{ print "[" $2 "," $1 "]"; }') && echo "DONE"
    
  • For KMS drivers, the syntax is:
    video=[connector:]mode
    
    "connector", which is optional maps to the name of the connector as listed in /sys/class/drm/card0. For example:
    ~% ls /sys/class/drm/card0 
    card0-LVDS-1  card0-VGA-1  dev  device  power  subsystem  uevent
    
    This device has connectors named LVDS-1 and VGA-1. If no connector is specified the requested mode will apply to all connectors.
    Mode strings may be of the form:
    <xres>x<yres>[R][-<bpp>][@<refresh>][i][eDd]
    
    Parts inside <> are mandatory, parts inside [] are optional. R requests the use of the CVT reduced-blanking formula, applicable for some digital displays; otherwise GTF is used. i requests an interlaced mode. e forces the output to be enabled even if it appears to be disconnected; d forces the output to be disabled. For DVI connections, D forces the use of the digital signal path instead of analog; on other connectors it has no effect. Only one of e, d, or D may be given.
  • Under some circumstances, the Add/Remove Software (gpk-application) graphical user interface does not display Supplementary groups or packages the Supplementary group is chosen. To work around this, use the System>Refresh Package Lists option to refresh the package lists.