GNOME Initial Setup

GNOME Initial Setup is an open source software package specifically designed for the GNOME project, allowing users to configure various basic aspects of their Linux desktop environment. It does not work with other DEs or WMs.

Designed for GNOME

It acts as a one-time-only application that pop-ups before users can actually use the GNOME desktop environment. It runs in a temporary account on top of GNOME’s login screen, and it will be automatically removed when the setup is finished.

GNOME Initial Setup is a “wizard” type of application designed to provide users with a straightforward way to select a language for their GNOME desktop, setup network connections, create a user account, set the correct location and timezone, and set up online accounts.

Features at a glance

It also offers an animated Welcome Tour, teaching users how to use the GNOME desktop environment. GNOME Initial Setup is part of and distributed with the latest version of the GNOME desktop environment.

Another interesting fact about this application is that it depends on various GNOME core components, such as the GNOME Online Accounts (GOA) and GNOME Display Manager (GDM) programs, which means that it will not work on Linux-based operating systems that don’t provide this packages.

Availability

The application is distributed as a source archive, which can be configure, compiled and installed on any Linux-based operating system, as long as the GNOME desktop is already installed.

Actually, the program should be installed from the default software repositories of your Linux distribution along with the entire GNOME desktop environment, because it is designed to be used immediately after a clean installation of GNOME.

Bottom line

Overall, GNOME Initial Setup is one of those tiny and insignificant applications that makes all the difference when you try to migrate to a different operating system/desktop environment from the one you used. It’s exactly what GNOME needed!

What is new in this release:

• Translation updates
• Support more general page skipping
• Show the welcome page if the language page is skipped
• Look for vendor.conf in /usr/share instead of /var
• Go back to allowing weak passwords
• Set keyring password for enterprise accounts
• Use Debian, Ubuntu logos when appropriate
• Fix a crash
• Add meson support
• Uses a new avatar chooser

What is new in version 3.28.0:

• Translation updates
• Sync string changes with gnome-software

What is new in version :

• Translation updates.

What is new in version 3.25.3:

• Support a vendor configuration file
• Update text direction when the locale changes
• Allow configuring network connections
• Copy monitor configuration to user session
• Sync user account page with control-center
• Show strength indicator for passwords

What is new in version 3.24.0:

• Fix g-i-s session startup deadlock
• Translation updates

What is new in version 3.23.1:

• Clarify presentation of privacy policies.

What is new in version 3.22.0:

• Translation updates.

What is new in version 3.16.3 / 3.18 Beta 1:

• Detect enterprise accounts without heuristic (#752980)
• Don't change keyring password explicitly (#752980)
• Fix problem with restarting geoclue client
• Translation updates:
• Norwegian bokmal
• Brazilian Portuguese

What is new in version 3.16.3:

• Avoid keyring problems with preexisting passwordless accounts
• Improve password page
• Look for the right key in os-release for privacy policy
• Make policy dialog resize properly
• Translation updates Occitan

What is new in version 3.16.0:

• Translation updates:
• Basque
• Indonesian
• Italian
• Japanese

What is new in version 3.14.2.1:

• Disable SSLv3 because of POODLE

What is new in version 3.14.2:

• Fix changing the login keyring password
• Ensure that we show the selected input source
• Preserve system keyboard layouts
• Don't choose irrelevant layouts as first level choices
• Add a function to detect small screens
• Hide images when we have no space for them
• Drop the minimum size when we are on a small screen
• Translation updates:
• Dutch
• Friulian
• Kazakh
• Persian

What is new in version 3.14.1:

• Don't allow to move window
• Avoid a crash in input chooser
• Require selecting an input source
• Translation updates: Bengali, Brazilian Portuguese, Bulgarian, Friulian, Gujarati, Italian and Latvian

What is new in version 3.14.0:

• Fix skip button showing up on the last page
• Translation updates:
• Hindi
• Japanese
• Nepali

What is new in version 3.13.7:

• Refine spacing and alignment on all pages
• keyboard: Show suggestions for the current locale
• keyboard: Add all IBus engines
• keyboard: Ellipsize long labels
• Translation updates

What is new in version 3.13.6:

• language: Drop British English to make page smaller
• region: Drop, instead show all locales in the language page
• keyboard: Show all layouts (in the expanded list)
• account: Whitelist realmd actions to enable enterprise setup
• timezone: Remove icon to make page smaller
• Improve keyboard navigation
• Bring back existing-user mode
• Translation updates

What is new in version 3.13.5:

• language: Don't dim distro logo
• timezone: Make page smaller
• input: Fix build without ibus
• password: Don't hard-enforce strong passwords
• Translation updates:
• Assamese
• Basque
• Chinese (simplified)
• Czech
• Finnish
• French
• Galician
• German
• Gujarati
• Ukrainian

What is new in version 3.13.4:

• account: Improve wording
• account: Update to match control-center
• timezone: Add geoclue integration
• timezone: Add an icon
• password: Update to match control-center
• password: Properly clean up signal handler
• keyring: Open session
• copy-worker: Run in early initialization phase

What is new in version 3.12.1:

• Fix an untranslatable string
• Translation updates

Requirements:

• GNOME