Changing desktop environments and easier starting of Coral in the "new" desktop environment ...

SNF Lab Members:

In working with a few of you to restore your desktop environments, I've
learned several things that I
thought I'd share with you.

First, let me define a couple of terms: there are two desktop
environments available on our Sun Rays:
the older one is called the Common Desktop Environment (CDE) and is the
one that has the menu bar along the bottom center of the window with the
little globe at the left end and usually will automatically start Coral
for you. The newer one is called the Java Desktop System (JDS) and has
the yellowish "Launch" menu in the lower left corner.

Several of you have told me that you like this new one (JDS) better ....
some of you like it because it is more "Windows-like" and some of you
have said that you like it because it gives you easier access to the
Star Office (AKA Open Office) tools. The complaint about this one
(other than the snafu of a couple of days ago) is that Coral is harder
to start .... you have to open a Terminal window and manually type "coral".

I believe that I have improved this in two ways: you should now see the
Coral icon at the very top of the Launch menu. Selecting that from the
menu should start Coral for you. If you would like to make it so that
Coral will start automatically for you, however, you can issue the
following command .... if you type it correctly, Coral should start
automatically for you each time that you login to the Sun Rays under the
Java Desktop System. Here is the command that you should type ....

cp /etc/skel/.gnome2/session-manual ~/.gnome2/session-manual

Note: don't miss the "dot" that preceeds gnome2 in two places .... this
will copy a file that "auto-starts" Coral into the appropriate location
in your directory.

A couple of other items:

1. Can you test the Java Desktop System for a bit and then move back to
CDE if you don't like it?

Yes

2. How do you switch from one to the other?

By default, you get the desktop system that you used last time ... so,
once you use one or the other, you will continue to get that unless and
until you explicitly tell it that you want to use the other.

To switch from one to another, you have to insert a smart card into the
system before you login.
Then, also before you login, you need to click the "Options" button
below the login space and then select "Session ...". You will be given
4 options:
Common Desktop Environment (CDE)
Java Desktop System, Release 3
User's Last Session
Failsafe Session

Select the one that you would like to try, and then login normally.
That should start up the specified desktop environment .... and will
continue to do so unless you explicitly switch back to the other.

Please let me know if you have any problems or questions.

Thanks,

John