Personal

In the following sections, find examples of how to configure some personal aspects of your GNOME desktop, like keyboard accessibility, keyboard shortcuts, assistive technology support, and learn how to change your password or manage virtual keyrings.

Configuring Assistive Technology Support

Several assistive technologies are included for users with special needs:

  • Screen reader

  • Screen magnifier

  • On-screen keyboard

To configure assistive technology options, click Computer+Control Center+Personal+Assistive Technology Preferences.

Figure 2.17. Assistive Technology Preferences Dialog

Assistive Technology Preferences Dialog

To activate the technologies, first select Enable Assistive Technologies. Choose the technologies you want to enable every time you log in.

Click Keyboard Accessibility to get to the Keyboard Preferences designed to help users with motion impairments using the GNOME desktop. Some of the available settings on the Accessibility include:

  • How long a key is pressed and held before being recognized as valid input

  • Whether the keyboard can be used as a mouse

  • Whether key combinations that use Alt, Ctrl, and Shift can be duplicated with “sticky keys

You can then define various settings for keys:

Sticky Keys

Some keyboard shortcuts require that one key (a modifier key) is kept pressed constantly (this applies to Alt, Ctrl, and Shift) while the rest of the shortcut is typed. When sticky keys are used, the system regards those keys as staying pressed after being pressed once. To enable sticky keys, activate Simulate simultaneous keypresses. If Disable if two keys pressed together is selected, the keys do not “stick” anymore when two keys are pressed simultaneously. The system then assumes that the keyboard shortcut has been completely entered.

Slow Keys

To prevent accidental typing, activate Only Accept long keypresses. Set a minimum time limit that a key must be pressed and held before it is recognized as valid input by the system.

Bounce Keys

To prevent double typing, activate Ignore fast duplicate keypresses and set a minimum time limit for accepting two subsequent keypress events of the same key as the input of two individual characters.

Mouse Keys

To use the keyboard as mouse, switch to the Mouse Keys tab and activate Allow to control the pointer using the keyboard. The mouse pointer is controlled with the arrow keys of the number pad. Use the sliders to set the maximum speed of the mouse pointer, the acceleration time until the maximum speed is reached, and the latency between the pressing of a key and the cursor movement.

In order to set acoustic notifications for some key or accessibility events, click Notifications and set the options according to your wishes.

The gok package must be installed in order to get on-screen keyboard support, and the gnopernicus and gnome-mag packages must be installed in order to get screenreading and magnifying capabilities.

If these packages are not installed on your system (they are installed by default during installation), install them with the following procedure:

  1. Start the YaST package manager from the command line or open YaST and select Software+Software Management.

  2. For Filter, select Search.

  3. In the Search field, enter the name of the package you want to install and press Enter. The package is listed in the right frame.

  4. Select it for installation. Once done, you can search for more packages and select them for installation in one go.

  5. Click Accept to start the installation of the packages.

For more information about the GNOME accessibility features, refer to the GNOME Desktop Accessibility Guide available from Yelp.

Changing Your Password

For security reasons, it is a good idea to change your login password from time to time. To change your password:

  1. Click Computer+Control Center+Personal+Change Password.

  2. Type your old (current) password.

  3. Type your new password.

  4. Confirm your new password by typing it again, then click OK.

Managing Keyrings

GNOME Keyring Manager provides an interface for viewing secrets stored in keyrings on your computer. Secrets include such items as:

  • Passwords

  • Wireless credentials

  • Certificates

  • Credentials for logging in to another computer

Most users will not need to use GNOME Keyring Manager because secrets are automatically managed by the applications that create them. Whenever any GNOME application that uses GNOME Keyring needs to access passwords or credentials stored there, a check is made if the keyring is locked or not. If it is locked, you will be prompted for the master password to unlock the keyring.

To open Keyring Manager (independent of any application interaction) press Alt+F2 and enter gnome-keyring-manager.

To delete a secret:

  1. In the list of keyrings on the left side of Keyring Manager, click Default.

  2. Click the secret you want to delete in the list in the top right area of Keyring Manager.

  3. Click Keyring Delete Keyring.

    The secret is removed from the list.

Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts

A keyboard shortcut is a key or combination of keys that provides an alternative to standard ways of performing an action. You can customize the keyboard shortcuts for a number of actions.

To open the Keyboard Shortcuts tool, click Computer+Control Center+Personal+Shortcuts.

Figure 2.18. Keyboard Shortcuts Dialog

Keyboard Shortcuts Dialog

To change the shortcut keys for an action, select the action and then press the keys you want to associate with the action. To disable the shortcut keys for an action, click the shortcut for the action, then press <—.