gsettings/removing object IIDs, and disabling gnome-panel entirely.

[jordan johnston <mfwrobots gmail com>]

Hi there, 

I am not sure of the most best gnome-list to post to - as i am using gnome3, but not actually using the shell. but being as Gnome-shell list seems to be the closest thing to an actual gnome3-list...and since my questions have to do with gnome3, specifically - i thought maybe someone on this list, could help me out.

I have a few questions about gnome3, and some issues i am trying to work through.

1. gsettings - i am having an issue where i can't seem to find where gsettings stores it's objects for gnome-panel; 

in dconf-editor this would be org > gnome > gnome-panel > objects. 

I don't seem to be able to remove them from inside of dconf (unless there is some special hotkey to allow removal??)

I would like to remove all objects, as i accidentally duplicated some of them, when i was adding/removing panels. Removal would include, any listing of gnome-panel and any and all objects related to gnome-panel from my gsettings.

my desktop isn't actually running gnome-panel, and i would like to remove these objects, just to clean up gsettings/dconf. Any help would be greatly appreciated! 

I have been using gsettings from the commandline to familiarize myself with how it works as well, but i see no way to actually remove objects from the list - only how to change the "object-id-list" key. I have also looked at all of the org.gnome-panel*  found in the linux file-system, i see no way of removing the objects accidentally created from the list in gsettings/dconf-editor - or even the presence of the extra objects (mine is showing 3 clocks, workspace-switcher, etc.)

2. I have removed gnome-panel from my desktop, but done so in a very hackish way. I have changed the default toplevel-id-list / object-id-list in gsettings/dconf to "[ ]"..  leaving them blank, will cause gnome-panel to not be able to create an initial panel layout, causing it to fail to load....

 however, this has one negative consequence. to be persistent across booting, i seem have a .desktop entry that executes my gsettings to make sure these settings are applied... - but, when 1st loading gnome after booting, it adds about 10 seconds to my boot-time (well, being able to do anything on my gnome-desktop anyway).

So, basically i am looking for an elegant solution for #2, that will get rid of the added loading time, i also think that question #1's solution will play into fixing this....

I do realize that most people on this list probably don't get why i am trying to do this, but I am attempting to keep gnome3 as desktop/application - agnostic as possible, so i can continue to use the tools, that i choose to use - that are not a good fit or incompatible with Gnome-Shell.... or that gnome-shell has replaced with tools/apps, that I don't like, want or plan on using. 

It would be nice if gsettings itself, had an elegant simple way to switch off the panel, run it without showing it would be even better - for the many gnome-users who are unlikely to adopt Gnome-shell. And when i say that, i mean no offense - so please don't take it that way!! 

1. There are many practical reasons to not want to use things like a compositing window manager - or maybe the end-user would rather use a different compositor, such as compiz or Cairo, over using Mutter...  

2. in the case of gnome-panel, where gnome-panel could be replaced with a more powerful panel or dock, that is outside of gnome-developers plans, and leaving gnome-panel adds clutter to the desktop and has no practical use...

anyways, if someone has an idea/solution of how to remove gsettings objects, and fix the annoyance of gnome-panel - please let me know, i would be very appreciative of any insights you have to offer on these subjects.

thanks,

MFrW