Getting Started with

To login, enter the username followed by the ENTER key and

when the password prompt appears, enter the password followed
by the ENTER key.
Fedora STARTING THE GRAPHICAL DESKTOP
Author: NahSoo Hoe
If you have logged in from the graphical login screen, the
GETTING STARTED graphical desktop will be started automatically for you. If you
have used the text-based screen login, you will have to start the
In order to start using your system you will usually have to graphical desktop manually by entering the command startx
perform what is known as a user login. This procedure is followed by the ENTER key.
necessary to identify yourself to the system. The system allows
multiple users to use it concurrently and so it has to be able to [anita@localhost anita]$ startx
identify a user in order to grant them the necessary privileges and
rights to use the system and applications. Each user upon
successful login will be assigned to his home directory (folder). Fig  Starting  the graphical  desktop

Some systems may have been set up so that upon power-on, a

default user is logged in automatically. If this is so, then you will BASIC NAVIGATION USING THE MOUSE ON THE
not be presented with a login screen or prompt as described in the DESKTOP
section below. You may skip on to the section entitled “Basic
Navigation using the Mouse on the Desktop”. Proper usage of the mouse is essential in order to have a
rewarding and productive experience on the graphical desktop.
Note: Most Linux graphical desktops are designed for use with a 3-
There  is  a special  user  called  the  root  or  superuser  (this  user  is button mouse. If you are using a two-button mouse, during
usually   created   during   the   system   installation)   which   has installation, it should have been configured to emulate the middle-
unlimited  access and  rights  to  all  the system  files  and  resources. button of a 3-button mouse by pressing both buttons
You   only   need   to   login   as   root   if   certain   system   level simultaneously.
administrative   tasks   are   to   be   carried   out.   Otherwise   there   is
usually   no   need   for   a   normal   user   to   login   as   root.     This   is  to To click on a mouse the left button is depressed. (A mouse
prevent   accidentally   damaging   the   system   by   deleting   or configured for a left-handed user will will need to have its right
modifying  important  system files.
button depressed.) The right (or left button for a left-handed
mouse) and middle buttons are usually used to invoke special or
LOGGING IN specific features of the GUI and instructions to do so will be
explicitly given.
Depending on how you have set up your system, you will either
have a graphical login screen or a text-based login prompt for you To “select” an item means clicking it once with the mouse.
to perform the login process.
The term “drag and drop” means that you will have to click on an
item and while continuing to hold the mouse button down, drag
the item to another place and on reaching its destination drop it by
releasing the mouse button.

MAIN COMPONENTS OF THE DESKTOP
The figure below shows a typical view of the graphical Linux
desktop.

Fig.  Graphical  login  screen

Fedora Core release 1

Kernel 2.4.22-1 on an i686
localhost login:

Fig   Text­ based login  prompt

Fig.  A  typical   Linux  desktop

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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 THE MENU SYSTEM
There are 3 main components on the desktop: the menu system,
the panel, the desktop itself. The main menu can be accessed by clicking on the Main Menu
button located at the lower left hand corner of the desktop. On a
Fedora Linux system the default Main Menu button is a red
fedora (a type of red hat). Clicking on this will bring up the menu
system as shown in the figure below.

Fig.  3­5 The  menu  system

From the menu system you can start many of the applications
installed on your Linux system. Note that the menu system
consists of a main menu panel and sub-menu panels. Each entry
in the menu system which has an arrow on its right means that it
is an entry point to a sub-menu, and there can be sub-menus
within each sub-menu. In this way applications in the menu
system can be organised and categorised for easy reference and
access.

To access a the sub-menu associated with a menu entry, move the

mouse and rest it on the menu entry in question and a sub-menu
panel will appear.

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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 square and shows the applications running in each of them. To
access a workspace click on the square with the mouse.

The Taskbar

The taskbar applet is located next to the workspace switcher and

shows the titles of all the running applications in a virtual desktop
(a workspace).

THE DESKTOP
The desktop itself contains icons which are graphical
representations of short-cuts to application launchers, file folders,
files and peripheral devices like floppy disks, CD-ROM drives
and printers. Double-clicking on an icon representing an
application will launch or execute the application. Commonly
used applications and/or files/folders are usually placed on the
desktop space.

Fig. Main  menu  and  sub­menu

Clicking once on a menu entry will cause an application

associated with it to be launched, i.e. executed.

THE PANEL Fig.  The  desktop  space

The long bar across the bottom of the desktop screen is called the USING THE WINDOW MANAGER
panel. The panel contains the main menu icon, the application
launcher icons, a notification area and applets.

Fig.  The  panel

Installed by default are several application launcher icons on the

panel. Clicking on one of these will run an application.

Commonly accessed applications can be added to the panel and

those that are less frequently used can be taken off.

The notification area holds alert icons so that the user can be
alerted to critical messages.

Applets are small applications that run on the panel. These

usually perform useful and informative tasks like setting the Fig. An  application  window  frame
sound level of the soundcard, monitoring whether the system
software needs an update, etc. By default the following applets
are run.
THE TITLEBAR

The Workspace Switcher When an application is started an application window opens and a

frame (see figure above) is placed around the window of the
By default the user has 4 desktop workspace areas to work on. application. The top edge of the frame has a titlebar that contains
The workspace switcher represents each workspace as a small the title of the application.

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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 Close
Fig.  The  window  titlebar
You can close a window which has focused from the Window
At the left hand corner of the titlebar is the Window Menu button. Menu or by clicking on the close window button on the titlebar.
Clicking on this button will open up the Window Menu. You can If the window does not have focus bring it into focus first by
perform operations such as minimise, (un)maximise, roll up, clicking on the taskbar on the panel.
move and resize the window from this menu. At the right edge of
the titlebar there are three buttons which allows you to minimise, Note:  Closing  the window  will  terminate  your  application.
(un)maximise and close the window.
BASIC DESKTOP CUSTOMISATION
MANIPULATING THE WINDOW The desktop can be customised to your preferences and tastes in a
variety of ways. Here we will explore some basic customisations.
Some basic instructions to manipulate the windowing system is More details can be obtained by running the “Help” application
given here. More details can be obtained by running the “Help” on the Main Menu. After running the Help application choose::
application on the Main Menu. After running the Help
application choose: Desktop => Basic Preferences

Desktop => Windows => Manipulating Windows Desktop  Background

Focus The background image displayed on the desktop can be changed

by running the Background application from the Main Menu (this
In order for a window to receive input from the mouse and the is in the Preferences sub-menu).
keyboard it has to be the window “in focus”. Only one window
can have focus at a time. Windows that are not in focus have Main Menu => Preferences => Background
their titlebars greyed-out. To focus on a window place the mouse
on the titlebar and click on it. (You can actually click anywhere To change the background image, click on the square marked
within the window, but it is safer to click on the titlebar since “Select picture”. An image selector dialog is displayed. Choose
there is no possibility of accidentally clicking on some item an image from the dialog. If you want to choose an image from
selection or functionality of the application running within the another directory, click the Browse button. When you have
window.) If the window is not visible you can click on the chosen an image, click OK.
taskbar on the panel at the bottom of the desktop to bring into
focus the window you want.

Maximise  and Minimise

Maximising a window means that the window is expanded to

cover the whole desktop while minimising it means that the
window is taken off the desktop and it appears as an icon in the
taskbar on the panel.

You can maximise a window which has focused from the

Window Menu or by clicking on the maximise button on the
titlebar. You can similarly minimise the window. If the window
does not have focus bring it into focus first by clicking on the
taskbar on the panel.

Resize

You can easily resize a window, i.e. change its size, by placing
the mouse at an edge of the window and then drag the window to
the desired size.
Fig. Selecting a new  background  image
Move
Desktop  Themes
To move a window to another place on the desktop, place the
mouse on the titlebar, and drag the window to the desired The desktop theme specifies the visual appearance of the panels,
location. applets, and windows. The desktop theme also may also specify
the appearance of interface items in applications. For example, the
Roll  Up  and  Unroll theme affects the appearance of buttons, scrollbars, check boxes,
and so on in the applications.
To roll up a window allows you to “roll up” the window frame
until what can be seen of the window is just the the titlebar. You The theme used by the desktop can be changed by running the
can perform this operation from the Window Menu. Theme application from the Main Menu (this is in the Preferences
sub-menu).
To restore the window back to its original shape, select the unroll
option from the Window Menu. Main Menu => Preferences=-> Theme

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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An theme selector dialog is displayed. To change the theme, Experiment on each of the settings to get the onespreferred.
click on a new theme.

Fig.  Selecting a new  theme

Default  Fonts

The default fonts used to display applications and the desktop

background can be changed by running the Fonts application Fig.  Customising menus and  toolbars
from the Main Menu (this is in the Preferences sub-menu).

Main Menu => Preferences => Fonts DATE AND TIME

A selector dialog for the application, window title, dialog and It is important that the date and time are set correctly in your
terminal fonts are displayed. To change the font for each system. This will make it easier to manage the system resources
category of usage, click on the space listing the font. and files and also aid in troubleshooting any problems. To set the
date and time, run the Date & Time application tool from the
System Settings sub-menu under the Main Menu.

Main Menu -= System Settings => Date & Time

A dialog box asking for the root password will appear if you are
not logged in as root. This is because the system date and time
are important system parameters and so only the system
administrator or root is allowed to do it. After entering the correct
root password, you can change the date using the displayed
calender and the time in the boxes provided. Select the Time
Zone tab and check to see that the timezone selected is correct. If
not, correct it by selecting the appropriate timezone region.
Usually the system uses the local time, so do not select the
“System clock uses UTC” checkbox.

Fig.  Selecting new  fonts

Menus  and  Toolbars

The Menus & Toolbars tool is used to customise the appearance

of menus, menubars, and toolbars. Again this can be run from the
Preferences sub-menu in the Main Menu.

Main Menu => Preferences => Menus & Toolbars

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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 USING THE FILE MANAGER
One of the most powerful features of a modern computer system
is the ability to store data in a form which can be easily retrieved
and transported or copied across to other computer systems or
media. Data created and accessed by a user in the computer is
stored in what is called a file . This concept of an electronic file to
store electronic data mimics the physical world usage of a file to
store data written on paper. This mimicry is carried further by the
organisation of these electronic files into electronic folders or
directories. Like a physical folder, an electronic folder
can contain very many files. A folder may also have sub-folders
or sub-directories.

Note:
Within   this   document   we   shall   be   using   the   terms   folder   and
directory  interchangeably,  unless stated otherwise.

Files and folders can be created, copied, moved (i.e. transferred)

and deleted. The folders themselves are organised in a
hierarchical manner starting at the root of the file system. Each
Fig.  Setting  the date and  time
user is given a home directory and upon logging in, the user is
placed in his home directory. As it is possible for a user to create
Click on the OK button after all is done to enable the new date
and store hundreds and thousands of files and folders, a file
and time. You can check for the new date and time by resting
manager is needed to assist the user to manage and manipulate
your mouse over the time icon displayed on the panel at the
these files and the file system on which it resides.
bottom of the screen.
In this section a brief description of the file manager and how to
USING THE DESKTOP use it is given. For more details you should consult the “Help”
application on the Main Menu. From the Help application
The desktop provides a useful metaphor for a modern office work choose:
environment. So on the desktop we find that the applications that
we want to run can easily be started or launched and the Desktop => Nautilus File Manager
information and data that we need can easily be located.
To start using the file manager double-click on the home directory
Applications that we can run from the desktop are to be found icon on the desktop. (This may be named “username's Home”
either from the Main Menu (and sub-menus therein), or as icons where username is the username of the user currently logged in.)
on the panel and the desktop itself.

To run an application from the Main Menu, open up the menu,

select the application therein and click on the application listed in
the menu bar.

To run an application from the panel, click once on the icon

representing the application.

To run an application from the desktop itself, double-click on the

icon representing the application.

Sometimes it is more handy to have the application as an icon on

the panel or desktop where you can launch it more easily by just
clicking on it, rather than in the Main Menu, especially if it is
buried deep within several sub-menus. To achieve this open the
Main Menu and select the application item listed in it by clicking
with the right  mouse button. Click on the selection “Add this
launcher to panel” and a copy of the application icon will be
placed on the panel.

To make a copy of this on the desktop, you can drag the icon Fig. The  file manager
from the panel over to the desktop.
By default, the file manager consists of a side pane and a main
To delete an application icon from the panel right­ click on it and view pane. At the top of the window just under the window
select the “Remove from Panel” option. titlebar, are the menu bar and the location bar.

To delete an application icon from the desktop, right­ click on it

and select the “Move to Trash” option.

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

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The view pane displays the files and folders contained in the
current directory that the user is in. These can be displayed as Moving  Files  and Folders
icons (default) or changed to display them as a listing of
filenames. Moving a file or folder is different from copying in that a copy of
the file/folder is not made, i.e. only one copy of the file/folder
The side pane contains an icon that represents the current file or exists, and the file/folder is transferred from one folder to another.
current folder. The side pane also contains information about the
current file or current folder. A hierarchical (tree) view of the To move a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
file system on the computer can be obtained from the side pane. Then select from the menu bar at the top,
By navigating through this, you can access files and folders
outside you home directory (provided of course that you have the Edit => Cut File
authority to do so).
Next open up the folder in which you want to move the file to and
then select from the menu bar at the top,

Edit => Paste Files

Another way of moving a file is to drag and drop the file into the
destination folder.

The procedures above can be done with folders too.

To move more than one file or folder at a time, select multiple

files/folders by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on the
files or folders.

Renaming  Files  and Folders

To rename a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
Then select from the menu bar at the top,
Fig. The  side pane with  a tree view  of folders
Edit => Rename
Accessing  Files  and  Programs
and then type in the new name.
From the view pane of the file manager, you can open files as
well as run (launch) executable programs by double-clicking on Alternately you can also right-click on the file and then select
the icon representing them. “Rename” .

Creating  New  Folders The procedures above can be done with folders too.

To create a new folder under the folder you are currently in, move Deleting  Files  and Folders
the mouse to the menu bar at the top (just beneath the titlebar of
the window) and click on File and then click on Create Folder. A To delete a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it.
new folder will appear on the view pane and you will have to type Then select from the menu bar at the top,
in the name of the new folder.
Edit => Move to Trash
Copy  Files  and Folders
Alternately you can select the file and then use the DELETE key
To copy a file, click on the file in the view pane to select it. Then on the keyboard to delete the file. This has the same effect as
select from the menu bar at the top, above of moving the file to the Trash folder.

Edit => Copy File It is still possible to salvage the a deleted file from the Trash. To
do this double-click on the Trash icon on the desktop to open up
Next open up the folder in which you want to copy the file to and the Trash folder. Then you can move the file you want to salvage
then select from the menu bar at the top, to the desired folder. Note that if you delete the file from the
Trash then it cannot be recovered anymore.
Edit => Paste Files
The procedures above can be done with folders too.
Another way to copy a file is to right click on the file icon and
then select “Copy File”. Then navigate to the icon of the folder To delete more than one file or folder at a time, select multiple
where you want the copy to be placed in and then right click on files/folders by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on the
the folder icon and select “Paste Files into Folder”. files or folders.

The procedures above can be done with folders too. THE TRASH CAN

To copy more than one file or folder at a time, select multiple
files/folders by holding down the CTRL key while clicking on the
files or folders.

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The trash can icon on the desktop contains files and folders which
you have deleted using the file manager or an application run
from the desktop. As noted above it is a special folder in which
in is still possible to move back the deleted items to another folder
so as to “undelete” them. However over time, the trash folder will
be filled up as many files and folders get deleted through usage.
So it is a good idea to periodically empty or delete the items
found in the trash.

To empty the trash, right-click on the trash icon and select

“Empty Trash”. Otherwise you can open the trash by double-
clicking on it and then select to delete all the items in the trash
folder using the file manager functions described above.

LOGGING OUT 
When you have finished working on the system, you will need to
logout. To logout, at the Main Menu select:

Main Menu => Logout

and at the dialog window select logout and click OK

Fig.  Logout  dialog window

SHUTTING DOWN THE SYSTEM
When you have finished using the computer and want to power it
off, you will have to perform a system shutdown.

Note:
It  is very  important  that  a proper  system shutdown  is made.   You
should  not  just  turnoff  the power  switch  of the computer  to shut  it
down.    Failure  to  observe  this  may  lead  to  system  software  and
data  corruption  and failure.

To shutdown, at the Main Menu, perform a logout. Then at the

graphical login screen select the “Shut down” option at the
bottom of the screen. Sometimes (depending on the login screen
chosen) the Shutdown option is available as a sub-option under
the Actions option at the bottom of the screen.

Alternatively you may also perform a shut down by performing a

log out operation as described in the previous section but instead
of selecting “Log out”, select the “Shut down” option from the
Logout dialog.

Copyright © 2004, Colin Charles, Nah Soo Hoe, William Wong.

Released under a Creative Commons License. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/1.0/