Related articles Desktop environment

Pantheon is the desktop environment of elementary OS. It is written from scratch in Vala, using GTK 3 and Granite.

Development

elementary OS releases are derived from Ubuntu's LTS releases, typically trailing Ubuntu's cycle by a few weeks or months. However, its constituent packages are updated continuously. See the official github repository and consult their community slack.

Installation

Package sources

Official respository

Most of the Pantheon components and elementary OS's curated apps are are provided by the group.

Unofficial repository

extra-alucryd contains a few packages not yet available in the group.

AUR

The PKGBUILDs for Alucryd's repository and many other Pantheon-related packages, such as third-party applications developed for elementary OS and unstable development packages, are available in the AUR.

Warning: Do not install these packages indiscriminately. They are not vetted and may conflict with those in the group and Alucryd's repository.

Desktop environment

For the minimal Pantheon shell, install AUR , which pulls —among other dependencies— the core components:

AUR : Watchdog service; restarts core components if they crash.

: Watchdog service; restarts core components if they crash. AUR : Window and composting manager

: Window and composting manager AUR : Top panel (holds the launcher, clock, and indicators)

: Top panel (holds the launcher, clock, and indicators) AUR : Application launcher formerly known as "Slingshot"

: Application launcher formerly known as "Slingshot" : macOS-style Dock

Services and configuration

These optional packages provide background services and default settings for Pantheon and elementary OS applications:

AUR : Default appearance, behavior, and configuration; pulls in theme packages , AUR , and AUR

: Default appearance, behavior, and configuration; pulls in theme packages , , and AUR : A patched AUR required by AUR and AUR

: A patched required by and AUR : Polkit authentication agent

: Polkit authentication agent or AUR : Pluggable settings manager similar to

Theme

These optional packages contribute to the look and feel of the desktop:

or AUR : Icon theme designed to be smooth, sexy, clear, and efficient

: Icon theme designed to be smooth, sexy, clear, and efficient or AUR : LightDM greeter

It is also recommended to install the following fonts:

: Open Sans Fonts

AUR : Raleway Font

: Raleway Font : Font family based on the Bitstream Vera Fonts

: General-purpose fonts released by Google as part of Android

: Set of free outline fonts covering the Unicode character set

: Red Hats Liberation fonts

Applications

These are some of the original, patched, and selected packages that comprise the optional elementary OS software suite:

: Easily log into public WiFi networks

: Web browser replacing AUR

: Calculator

: Calendar application formerly known as "Maya", integrates with

: Webcam app formerly known as "Snap"

: Text editor formerly known as "Scratch"

: File explorer developed from Marlin

AUR : Email client developed from , undergoing complete rewrite

: Email client developed from , undergoing complete rewrite : Audio player formerly known as "Noise"

: Photo manager developed from

: Print settings dialog

AUR : Simple screencaster forked from AUR

: Simple screencaster forked from : Screenshot utility

: OS-wide shortcut overlay

: Terminal emulator

: Video player formerly known as "Audience" (GStreamer backend)

: Simple scan utility

Launching Pantheon

Via display manager

AUR provides a entry for display managers such as or .

Autostart applications with a display manager

As a gnome-session, Pantheon implements XDG Autostart.

Via xinit

This article or section is out of date. Reason: cerbere has been cerbere has been retired (Discuss in Talk:Pantheon#

Alternatively, you can use ~/.xinitrc to launch the Pantheon shell, by adding exec cerbere to the end of the file.

Autostart applications with xinit

For applications which do not provide a systemd unit, consider these options:

Run once when X starts:

Add it to your ~/.xinitrc Shell script, before the exec cerbere line.

Keep running in the background:

Add it to the dconf key io.elementary.desktop.cerbere.monitored-processes . Should the process stop, will respawn it.

Launch from a .desktop file:

Use a program like AUR , AUR , or AUR to implement XDG Autostart.

Configuration

Configure Pantheon via or AUR and its plugs (switchboard-plug-*), which must be installed separately. Not all of 's settings panels have been ported. In addition, except plank, all the Pantheon components store their configuration in the org.pantheon or io.elementary gsettings keys, which can be edited with .

Note: AUR provides easy access to provides easy access to customizations for various aspects of the Pantheon desktop and applications , similar to .

Wingpanel

Wingpanel does not come with any indicators; they must be installed separately.

At the minimum, you'll probably want to install:

or AUR : Applications menu and "Run" dialog

: Applications menu and "Run" dialog or AUR : Clock and calendar widget

: Clock and calendar widget or AUR : User and session menu (Switch user, Logout, Shutdown, etc.)

Third-party indicators

If launched by a display manager, append Pantheon; to OnlyShowIn= in third-party indicators' *.desktop files

If launched by ~/.xinitrc, add third-party indicators to one of the start-up methods described above.

Ayatana Indicators require AUR or AUR to appear in .

Indicator-session menus unresponsive

needs light-locker or AUR installed for the Lock menu item.

Plank

Adding new application icons

Either drag and drop a desktop file on to the dock, or right click on a running application and select "Keep in dock". You can then reorder icons by drag and drop.

Note: Plank stores .dockitem launchers in ~/.config/plank/ and configuration in the gsettings key net.launchpad.plank

Pantheon Files

Enable context menu entries

If you want to enable context menu entries such as for to extract/compress archives, then you have to additionally install or AUR .

Terminal

Opacity

To make (semi-)transparent, set the dconf key io.elementary.terminal.settings.background to your desired background color and opacity.

Known Issues

Appearance

Pantheon-terminal transparency

Transparency in pantheon-terminal is not yet fully functional with GTK themes other than the elmentary OS theme. Either use , AUR or add the following code to your theme's css or the override file in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css :

/************ * Terminal * ***********/ PantheonTerminalPantheonTerminalWindow.background { background-color: transparent; }

Wingpanel transparency

Wingpanel is transparent by design when using or AUR , and becomes opaque when a maximized window occupies your screen. However, using other GTK themes will produce a solid panel most of the time.

To achieve the former behavior within another theme, add the following code to its css or the override file in ~/.config/gtk-3.0/gtk.css :

/********************* * wingpanel support * ********************/ .panel { background-color: transparent; transition: all 1s ease-in-out; } .panel.maximized { background-color: #000; }

Desktop crashes at login

"Oh no! Something has gone wrong."

One of the RequiredComponents in Pantheon's session file may be failing, causing gnome-session to crash as well.

You may work around this by editing /usr/share/gnome-session/sessions/pantheon.session , removing org.gnome.SettingsDaemon and everything after it on that line.

Subsequent login attempts return to display manager

See gnome-session crashes on session startup.

Most of the time, waiting a little longer to log in is sufficent to clear whatever blockage the previous session has left behind.