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Chapter 13. Customizing GNOME Desktop Features

This chapter mentions three key desktop features. After reading, you will know how to quickly terminate the X server by default for all users, how to enable the Compose key or how to disable command line access for the users.
To make sure the changes you have made take effect, you need to update the dconf utility. The users will experience the difference when they log out and log in again.

13.1. Allowing and Disallowing Online Accounts

The GNOME Online Accounts (GOA) are used for setting personal network accounts which are then automatically integrated with the GNOME Desktop and applications. The user can add their online accounts, such as Google, Facebook, Flickr, ownCloud, and others using the Online Accounts application.
As a system administrator, you can
  • enable all online accounts;
  • selectively enable a few online accounts;
  • disable all online accounts.

Procedure 13.1. Configuring Online Accounts

  1. If you do not have the gnome-online-accounts package on your system, install it by running the following command as root:
    # yum install gnome-online-accounts
  2. Create a keyfile for the local database in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/goa, which contains the following configuration:
    • For selectively enabling a few providers only:
      [org/gnome/online-accounts]
      whitelisted-providers= ['google', 'facebook']
      
    • For disabling all providers:
      [org/gnome/online-accounts]
      whitelisted-providers= ['']
    • For allowing all available providers:
      [org/gnome/online-accounts]
      whitelisted-providers= ['all']
  3. Lock down the settings to prevent users from overriding them.
    1. If it does not exist, create a new directory named /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/.
    2. Create a new file in /etc/dconf/db/local.d/locks/goa with the following contents:
      # Prevent users from changing values for the following key:
      /org/gnome/online-accounts
  4. Update the system databases for the changes to take effect:
    # dconf update
  5. Users must log out and back in again before the system-wide settings take effect.