Thursday, May 26, 2011

Fedora 15 - How To Modify the Clock to Show Date

Fedora 15 released on 05/24/2011 introducing the world to Gnome 3 (and Gnome Shell).

For those of us used to the Windows 95 look and feel of Gnome 2, the new Gnome is going to take some getting use to.

I'm going to borrow a line from Dos Equis, "I don't always use the graphical desktop in Linux, but when I do, I prefer Gnome"

Here's a quick configuration tip for Gnome 3. One of the first things I've noticed is that the clock applet doesn't show the date by default, only showing Day and Time.

I always forget the date and like for the clock to show Day Date, Time. The applet doesn't provide a preferences option when clicked, so there isn't a way to make this change within the applet (correct me if I'm wrong, please).

There is a way, however. The dconf-editor tool! On my Fedora 15 test workstation, dconf-editor was not installed by default.

$ sudo yum install dconf-editor


Once it's installed, run the application as your user (not root)

$ dconf-editor


The "Configuration Editor" window will open. Click the following in the tree on the left:
  • org
  • gnome
  • shell
  • clock
Click the check box next to "show-date". Your clock applet should now display similar to: Thu May 26, 09:58 It's also possible to move the position of the clock and other applets via the dconf-editor tool. An Annonymous comment indicated that the F15 release notes also contain a method of configuring the clock (see section 2.1.1.1.7): http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/15/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_Desktop_Users.html

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

See http://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/15/html/Release_Notes/sect-Release_Notes-Changes_for_Desktop_Users.html

2.1.1.1.7. How do I make the panel display the full date/time?
Use gnome-tweak-tool or use either or both of the following commands:

gsettings set org.gnome.shell.clock show-date true
gsettings set org.gnome.shell.clock show-seconds true

Unknown said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

Thanks, I read your comment on my phone and didn't see the bottom half. Thus my comment was redundant and has been deleted.

gnome-tweak-tool wasn't installed by default on my test machine, so "sudo yum install gnome-tweak-tool" followed by running gnome-tweak-tool via the command shell, or running Tweak Tool via the Activities menu in Gnome 3.

Anonymous said...

At first when I tried this, I was already signed in under "su -". I was able to to complete all the steps and place the check mark in the box, but nothing happened... So I decided to try again after restarting the computer. As soon as I opened terminal, I signed in under SU - again. Again it failed to include the month and day. I closed terminal, and decided to try doing it without SU -, and it then worked.

I decided to restart my computer and when I got to the logon screen, it didn't show the month or day, but when I logged in, it did. Is there a way to always have it show the month and day even at the login screen?

Unknown said...

Howdy,

Yeah I should have mentioned that you need to run the commands as your own user, not root. I usually use the $ promt to indicate normal user commands and # for root. I've updated the notes.

As for the login window, I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

This may be the method, although the specific setting isn't listed:

https://live.gnome.org/dconf/SystemAdministrators

Anonymous said...

How To Modify the Clock... This worked perfectly for me.

Thanks
Bob
Dell D610 XP + F15 dual boot via Grub4dos