How do I remove the "new activity" item from the desktop? [OT]

Thu Jun 2 06:38:27 BST 2011

John Woodhouse posted on Wed, 01 Jun 2011 11:55:30 -0700 as excerpted:

> The other problem on opensuse is that there are many many sets of out of
> date instructions and one click installs about in all areas that are
> sure to mess the system up.
> Anyway as I found web doc abounds but not really that helpful as there
> are zero examples I'm aware of or could find I posted it as it might
> help some.

Those last four words are the important part! =:^)  As long as it helps 
some and isn't actively messing others up, it's all good! =:^)

> The reads have grown enormously since last time I looked.
> There are many very helpful people on that forum but most have their way
> of doing things and wont even consider other ways.
> 
> By the way 2 dpms's in my case worked. 1 didn't. I suspect this is down
> to some newer graphics cards. Not sure.

The xorg.conf manpage covers a lot of this.

You have the Option "DPMS" set in two different sections, the monitor 
section (identified as "Monitor0" and the screen section (identified as 
"Screen0".  Neither of those are global to the X-session as a whole, as 
there can be more than one X "screen", each of which can contain more than 
one "monitor".

As an aside, the way you posted the text on the forums works as X doesn't 
care about indention (it's X readable), but it's not particularly human 
readable.  The more traditional way to write it would indent the contents 
of each section, emphasizing the section hierarchy, like so (following 
your lead I've truncated a few more lines for posting, indicating them 
with dots ".....":

# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig: version 260.19.44 (buildmeister at swio-....

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier "Layout0"
	Screen 0 "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
	InputDevice "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

	# generated from default
	Identifier "Mouse0"
	Driver "mouse"
	Option "Protocol" "auto"
	Option "Device" "/dev/psaux"
	Option "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
	Option "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

	# generated from default
	Identifier "Keyboard0"
	Driver "kbd"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier "Monitor0"
	VendorName "Belinea"
	ModelName "2225 S1W"
	HorizSync 31.0 - 81.0
	VertRefresh 56.0 - 60.0
	Modeline "1680x1050_60.00" 146.25 ......
	Modeline "1152x864_60.00" 81.75 ......
	Modeline "1024x766_60.00" 63.25 .......
	Option "DPMS" "FALSE"
	Option "DPI" "100 x 100"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier "Device0"
	Driver "nvidia"
	VendorName "NVIDIA Corporation"
	Option "useEDIDFreqs" "FALSE"
	Option "useEDIDDpi" "FALSE"
	Option "ModeValidation" "NoEdidModes"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device "Device0"
	Monitor "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth 24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth 24
		Modes "1680x1050_60.00" "1280x1024" "1152x864_60.00" ....
	EndSubSection
	Option "DPMS" "FALSE"
EndSection

Again, the xorg.conf manpage (which I do truly hope your distro installs, 
it's /ever/ so helpful!) has several short example sections demonstrating 
this.  As I said, it's whitespace agnostic.  As long as you have at LEAST 
one space between entries on a line and don't split or combine lines, X 
won't care.  So while I used tabs above, you can use spaces, like so...

Section "Example"
  Identifier "Example0"
  Entry "Value0"
  SubSection "Subsect"
    Subentry "x" "y" "z"
  EndSubSection
  Option "OptA" "FALSE"
EndSection

... You can line up the values too if desired....

Section "Example"
  Identifier	"Example0"
  Entry		"Value0"
  SubSection	"Subsect"
    Subentry	"aaaa"		"bbbb"		"xxxx"
  EndSubSection
  Option	"OptA"		"FALSE"
EndSection

Be sure to keep quoted values quoted and bare values bare, however.  That 
DOES matter!

The above makes it far clearer what's going on, and that you indeed do 
have DPMS options in two different sections.   The xorg.conf manpage puts 
the DPMS option in the monitor section, thus allowing you to set monitors 
differently if you have more than one.  It appears that you only have one 
monitor, however, and I suspect that it's actually this section's DPMS 
option that's being used.  You can thus likely delete the screen section 
DPMS option and still have it work.  The caveat is that you're running the 
nVidia proprietary driver, which may have its own rules.  I believe it 
comes with its own rather detailed README file documenting its config.  
You can either read that and figure it out, or simply try it with only the 
monitor section DPMS option, and see.

Meanwhile... the files section is entirely empty so you might as well 
remove that.  Obviously the xorg defaults are sufficient for your system.

It's also quite likely that those InputDevice sections are being ignored 
by a modern xorg-server.  Even if they're not being ignored as-is, you 
don't have anything particularly special in them, so it's likely you don't 
need them.  Backup your existing file somewhere, delete them, and restart 
X.  If it works fine, you just simplified your config dramatically! =:^)  
(If it doesn't, however, you'll not have keyboard and/or mouse and may 
have to Ctrl-Alt-F1 to get to a text console and copy the working file 
back, or even possibly reset in ordered to get out of the test, then 
choose to boot into safe or no-X mode in ordered to copy the working file 
back.  But I'm betting it'll work fine.)

Likewise, on a modern xorg-server, you can probably do without that 
ServerLayout section, since it's pretty much the default and xorg will use 
its built-in default without it.

The screen section *MAY* also be removable.  It doesn't appear that you 
have anything really out of the ordinary there.  It's optional on current 
xorg and current drivers.  However, the nVidia proprietary driver tends to 
lag a bit in current xorg-server compatibility, and may still require it 
especially if the driver isn't randr-1.2 compliant, yet.  Again, try it 
and see.

The really important bits for you are the device section, where you 
specify the driver to use and its options, and the monitor section.  Both 
of these are likely necessary in your case, since you're specifying the 
nVidia closed driver and some custom options for it, and you need the dpms 
option in the monitor section.  It's also possible that those no-edid 
options you're using in the device section require the screen section with 
its mode information.  You'd need to either consult your nvidia 
documentation or simply try it without, to see.

-- 
Duncan - List replies preferred.   No HTML msgs.
"Every nonfree program has a lord, a master --
and if you use the program, he is your master."  Richard Stallman

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