Want to display time and date on your Ubuntu Desktop as widget? Without Conky or any other app, there’s now Gnome extension can do the trick by adding a live clock on your wallpaper.

It’s ‘Showtime’, an extension based on the Budgie Desktop widget. It displays transparent live digital lock, weekday, as well as date on the background wallpaper. And, it shows date and time in both vertical and horizontal styles.

Wallpaper clock

Wallpaper clock vertical style

User may change the display position by press and holding Super (Windows) key, and dragging to move it.

As well, it offers preference settings via “Gnome Extensions” app that allows to configure:

• 12-hour or 24-hour format.
• The display color.
• Date and clock display format.
• Date and clock font family and size.
• Shadow transparency.

How to Install the Extension in Ubuntu:

The ‘Showtime’ extension so far supports Gnome 3.36, 3.38 and 40. So it will work in Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 21.10.

1. Install ‘chrome-gnome-shell’:

Firstly, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell’ and Gnome Extensions packages if you don’t have it:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

This package enables ability to install Gnome Extensions via a web browser.

2. Install the Extension:

Next, click the link button below to go to the extension web page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

For the vertical style, install this one instead.

If you don’t see the toggle icon, install the browser extension via the link in that page and refresh it.

NOTE: The pre-installed Firefox in Ubuntu 21.10 is a Snap package that does NOT support for installing Gnome Extensions so far. Use another browser or install Firefox as deb.

The widget should appear immediately after installation. After that, press Super (Windows) key and drag to move its position, and open ‘Gnome Extensions‘ from overview screen to configure it’s appearance.

Manage Gnome Extensions

That’s all. Enjoy!

For Ubuntu 20.04+ and other Linux with GNOME desktop (e.g., Fedora workstation, Debian and Arch Linux), there’s an extension lets you quickly locate mouse pointer.

The extension is called “Jiggle“. It highlights the mouse pointer position when it moved rapidly by applying 3 cool animation effects: Cursor Scaling, Spotlight, and Fireworks.

Cursor Scaling animation. Original pointer can be turned off

Fireworks effect

spotlight animation

User may choose one of the three effects to function. And each has options to configure the shake threshold, speed, and other settings.

Choose effect & change the “Shake Threshold”, etc.

Install Jiggle extension in Ubuntu 20.04

The extension at the moments supports for Gnome 3.36, 3.38 and 40. Though it works on GNOME 41 as reported.

The Extension so far does not support Ubuntu 22.04, scroll down and see another method to highlight pointer position.

1. Install Gnome Extensions App:

Before installing the extension, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell’ and ‘gnome-shell-extensions-prefs’ packages:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

The first package is required for installing Gnome Extensions from web browser in Ubuntu based system. The latter installs the app for managing extensions.

2. Install Jiggle:

Next, go to the extension web page via your web browser. And then turn on the toggle icon to install it:

If you don’t see the slider icon, install the browser add-on and refresh the page.

After installed the extension, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions‘ from Activities overview screen.

Manage Gnome Extensions

Finally, open settings for ‘Jiggle’ and apply your favorite animation and enjoy!

Highlight pointer in Ubuntu 22.04:

Without installing an extension, there’s hidden option to quickly locate the pointer position by hitting Ctrl key on keyboard.

Firstly, open system settings either by searching from activities overview or use system tray menu option:

When it opens, navigate to Accessibility in the left, then turn on the option for “Locate Pointer” in the bottom right.

When done, press Ctrl on keyboard to quickly find your mouse pointer and enjoy!

There are a few extensions (e.g., Dash-to-dock and Dash-to-panel) to change the Gnome Shell ‘Dash’ appearance and behavior. Here I’m going to introduce the new extension called “Dash from Panel“.

GNOME Shell Dash:

The ‘Dash’ is the bottom bar in GNOME Activities overview screen, that shows favorite apps and running applications. Ubuntu by default uses ‘Dash-to-dock’ extension to bring the Dash out of overview screen as a left panel. And, there’s a ‘Dash-to-panel’ extension for choice to combine it with top-bar into single Microsoft Windows style bottom panel.

Dash from Panel

This is a new gnome shell extension. It does not change the default ‘Dash’, but only let it appear as dock at top when moving the cursor over top bar. So, user may access favorite and running app icons quickly without triggering ‘Activities’ overview.

The extension uses native GNOME Shell Dash to display as “dock”. And, it’s very light. As a new project, Dash from Panel so far lack options to configure the position, dock size and padding etc.

Install Dash from Panel:

The extensions so far support GNOME 40+. Users of Ubuntu 21.10+, Fedora 34+, and Arch Linux may install it via following steps.

1.) For Ubuntu user, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. And run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell‘ package first:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2.) Go the extension page in your web browser via the link below and turn on the toggle icon to install it.

NOTE for Ubuntu 21.10+, the preinstalled Firefox is a Snap package that so far does not support installing Gnome Extensions. Use another browser or Firefox as Deb.

If you don’t see the toggle icon, install the browser extension and refresh the web page.

The extension works immediately after installation. User may manage the extensions later via ‘Gnome Extensions‘ app, which can be installed via:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs

And other systems may install it from Gnome Software.

Christmas is coming. It’s snowing lightly outside in my city! Let me show you the ways to enable falling snow animation effect on your Ubuntu or other Linux desktop!

1. XSnow

XSnow is till in active development. It enables falling snow effects in GNOME, XFCE, KDE, LXDE, OPENBOX, etc. Which means, user may run it in Ubuntu, XUbuntu, KUbuntu, Debian, and other based Linux distributions. It also works on RPM based Linux (e.g., Fedora) though the package from system’s own repositories.

Snow by default is falling on top of opened app windows and screen bottom. So, you won’t see snowflakes if there’s a window maximized.

XSnow provides an user interface to configure how many snowflakes, size, color, etc. And, it also may display Santa, Scenery, birds and more.

The app provides modern 64-bit (amd64), old 32-bit (i386), and arm64/armhf (e.g., for Raspberry Pi) deb packages for Debian and Ubuntu based systems. Just select download the latest package from the link below:

Then double-click the ‘.deb’ package to install via your system package manager. You can finally launch it from start menu (Activities overview) and enjoy.

2. Snow Extension:

For Ubuntu, Fedora Workstation, and other Linux with GNOME desktop, user may enable falling snow effect via extension.

And ‘Snow’ is one of the Gnome extensions that just do the job! It adds an indicator applet in system tray, with option to turn on / off the animation. It just works, nothing else!

To install the extension, click the button above to open the extension web page and turn on the slider icon. If you don’t see the switch, install web browser extension (via link in that page) and refresh the page.

NOTE: Firefox as Snap (defaults in Ubuntu 21.10) does not support installing Gnome extensions so far. use another browser instead. And, Ubuntu user needs to first install “chrome-gnome-shell” package by running command in terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T):

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Let it Snow extension:

Similar to the previous extension, but with a few more features. This extension adds an indicate applet allows to control how much snow you want. It works with multiple monitors and will NOT fall over currently active window.

Sadly, the extension so far supports GNOME up to v3.38 though it works good in Ubuntu 20.04.

DownFall:

The extension adds falling text animation in GNOME desktop. Though the author says it can simulate leaves, snow, fireworks, and ufos, but I don’t know how!

Via Gnome Extensions app, user may configure the TEXT to fall, color, font, direction, and a few other behaviors.

Configure DoenFall

To configure this extension, user needs to install Gnome Extensions app via command:

sudo apt install gnome-shell-extension-prefs

For Fedora, use sudo dnf install gnome-extensions-app command to install it. Then search for open it from ‘Activities’ overview screen.

A new Gnome extension was created a few days ago to revive the old fashioned ‘windows on fire’ compiz effect.

When you click to close an app window, it fires the window and burns it down quickly. This useless but cool feature is developed by Simon Schneegans, who also has a few other great projects including Fly-Pie, GNOME Pie, and Desktop Cube.

The extension so far supports for GNOME 40 & 41. Which means, you needs Ubuntu 21.10, Fedora 34+, and/or Arch Linux. It somehow works very well in my Ubuntu 20.04 with GNOME 3.36.

Install Burn Windows Effect:

1. Ubuntu user needs to first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell’ package:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Also install ‘gnome-shell-extension-prefs’ package to manage extensions:

2. In your web browser, go to the extension web page and turn on the toggle icon to install it:

NOTE: Ubuntu 21.10 has Firefox as Snap package by default, which does not support installing Gnome Extensions so far. Use another browser or install Firefox as native DEB.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Use the ‘Click here to install browser extension‘ link to install browser extension and refresh the page.

After installation, try closing an app window and enjoy the new effect!

Uninstall the Gnome Extension:

To remove the extension, either go to the web page again and turn off the toggle icon. Or, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions’ app from activities overview screen:

Manage Gnome Extensions

When the app opens, click to expand the extension and select remove it.

That’s all. Enjoy!

For those running Ubuntu on laptop or notebook, there’s an ‘Airplane Mode’ option available in Wi-Fi settings page. When it enabled, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and mobile broadband are turned off to disable wireless signal transmissions.

It’s usually good when to turn on the airplane mode. But, when disable this mode, Bluetooth gets turned on while user may only need Wi-Fi. So, a Gnome Extension ‘Sane Airplane Mode’ is created and allows to choose which devices to re-enable when disable the airplane mode.

Configure Airplane disable behavior

Note this extension changes the behavior only when you disable the Airplane mode. It does not support broadband so far. And, it has an issue that no way to automatically enable Bluetooth when turning off the airplane mode. User needs one more click in Bluetooth setting to enable the devices if want.

Install Sane Airplane Mode extension

The extension so far supports for GNOME version range from 3.36 to 43. Meaning, it works on Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 22.10.

Install the Extension for Ubuntu 22.04 & higher

For Ubuntu 22.04 and higher, first search for and install “Extension Manager” from Ubuntu Software.

Install Extension Manager in Ubuntu 22.04+

Then launch “Extension Manager”, and use it to search and install the “Sane Airplane Mode” extension under ‘Browse’ tab.

Once installed, switch back to ‘Installed’ tab. Then open the configuration page for that extension, and use the ON/OFF switches to configure the airplane mode behavior.

Install the Extension for Ubuntu 20.04

1. Ubuntu user needs to first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell’ package:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

And ‘gnome-shell-extension-prefs’ package is also required to install the app to manage Gnome Extensions.

2. In your web browser, go to the extension web page and turn on the toggle icon to install it:

Don’t see the toggle icon? Use the ‘Click here to install browser extension‘ link to install browser extension and refresh the page.

Once installed, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions’ app from activities overview:

Manage Gnome Extensions

Click on the gear button in the right of the extension to open settings and change the options status as you want.

That’s all. Enjoy!

Has a backlit keyboard in your PC? This extension makes possible to control the backlight brightness by adding a slider bar into upper right corner system tray menu in GNOME desktop.

Under system volume and screen brightness sliders, it adds a third slider bar allows to easily control the keyboard backlight.

The extension so far supports for GNOME 40 and GNOME 41. Which means, you need Ubuntu 21.10, Fedora 34 / 35, Arch Linux, or Manjaro Linux, etc. And, of course you must have a backlit keyboard that’s already properly working in your system.

The extension just provides easy way to control backlight brightness, so user does no longer need to open Gnome control center (aka ‘Settings’) every time or even edit any config file. It does NOT provide any Linux driver in case your backlit keyboard is not working properly.

Install Keyboard Backlight Slider Extension:

1. Ubuntu user needs to first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command to install the ‘chrome-gnome-shell’ package:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell gnome-shell-extension-prefs

Here ‘gnome-shell-extension-prefs’ package is also recommended to install the app to manage Gnome Extensions.

2. In your web browser, go to the extension web page and turn on the toggle icon to install the extension:

NOTE: Ubuntu 21.10 has Firefox as Snap package, which does not support installing Gnome Extensions so far. Use another browser or install Firefox as native DEB.

Don’t see the toggle icon? Use the ‘Click here to install browser extension‘ link to install browser extension and refresh the page.

Once installed, you should see the slider bar in system tray menu as the top picture shows. To turn it off or remove the extension, search for and open ‘Gnome Extensions’ app from activities overview:

Manage Gnome Extensions

The app lists all available Gnome Extensions as well as options to toggle on/off and uninstall.

Remember the old fashioned Desktop Cube effect? Almost 10 years ago, Ubuntu user may enable this Compiz effect, so press and hold Ctrl+Alt key and drag the mouse will turn Desktop into a rotatable cube.

Desktop Cube effect in Ubuntu 12.04

Now there’s an extension to reproduce this effect in GNOME 40 & 41. Which means, users of Ubuntu 21.10, Fedora Workstation 35, or Arch Linux so far may try out this cool 3D effect in their desktop.

The extension is now in early stage. User may not so far rotate the “cube” for an entire round, but it’s working on new features including:

• Free rotation of cube via middle mouse button.
• Proper multi-monitors support.
• Sky boxes.
• Cuboid transitions when switching workspaces via keyboard shortcuts.
• And more.

How to Install Desktop Cube Extension:

Ubuntu users need to press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal, and run command to make sure chrome-gnome-shell package is installed:

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

Then, go to the extension web page and turn on the slider icon to install it:

If you don’t see the toggle icon, click the link says’Click here to install browser extension‘ to install browser extension and refresh the web page.

Once installed, either press Super/Windows key or click ‘Activities’ to trigger overview, then switch workspaces via Ctrl+Alt+Arrow to start the effect.

NOTE: To get better effect, it’s better to have more than 3 workspaces. Just open or move a window to the second workspace, it will create a new workspace automatically. Or, install and open Gnome Tweaks and set a static number of workspaces:

Uninstall Desktop Cube extension:

To remove the extension, just go to the extension web page via the button above and turn off the slider icon.

Or, search for and install ‘Gnome Extensions‘ app in Ubuntu Software (Gnome Software) and use the tool to manage extensions.

Adding an app shortcut icon to the Desktop in Ubuntu is not that easy for beginners by default. User has to first open the folder that stores the app shortcut files (usually /usr/share/applications). Then drag and drop the .desktop files into user’s “Desktop” folder. Make executable in file properties dialog and finally select ‘Allow Launching‘ via context menu option.

To make life easier, a Gnome extension is available to make the process to create a desktop shortcut for apps as easy as few clicks. Since Ubuntu uses full-screen app launcher, it’s not Windows 10/11 style drag and drop adding desktop icons. Instead, it adds ‘Add to Desktop‘ option to app icon’s context menu.

Like in Linux Mint and/or Zorin OS, user just needs to search the app in ‘Show Applications’ or ‘Activities’ overview screen, right-click on the app icon, and finally click ‘Add to Desktop’ to pin to desktop.

Install ‘Add to Desktop’ Extension:

1. To install a Gnome extension, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal and run command to make sure the ‘chrome-gnome-shell‘ package is installed.

sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell

2. Next go to extension web page via the link button below and turn on the toggle icon to install it:

Don’t see the toggle icon? Install browser extension via ‘Click here to install browser extension‘ link and refresh the web page.

NOTE: The extensions support for all recent Gnome versions, so it works on all current Ubuntu releases including Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 21.10. For other Linux with GNOME (e.g., Debian, Fedora), user needs to enable desktop icon support first (e.g., using Desktop Icon NG).

The extension should work immediately after installation. If not, try restarting Gnome Shell by either logging out and back in, or pressing Alt+F2, type r and hit Enter in ‘Run a Command’ box.

That’s all. Enjoy!

In Windows 10, user may right-click on the ‘File Explorer’ icon on panel to access pinned folders (e.g., Desktop, Downloads and Documents) quickly.

Ubuntu has first implemented this feature in Ubuntu 21.10, though it seems to be not working properly due to bug. Ubuntu 20.04 may manually add the context (right-click) menu options so user can right-click on the ‘Files’ icon to choose open favorite folders quickly.

Step 1: Copy File Manager .desktop file to local folder:

The file manager’s shortcut icon is handled by the relative .desktop file located in “/usr/local/applications” directory. It’s recommended to copy the file to local user directory, so the changes will function for current user only.

1. Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal. When it opens, copy the file to local directory via command:

sudo cp /usr/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

2. The file pasted into local directory is still owned by root. You may change the ownership by running command:

sudo chown $USER:$USER ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

Here $USER returns your current username.

Step 2: Edit the .desktop file and add more actions:

Now edit the .desktop file by running command in terminal:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/org.gnome.Nautilus.desktop

This command will open the file in Gedit text editor. When it opens, do following steps one by one:

1.) First, comment the “DBusActivatable=true” line by adding ‘#‘ at the beginning to disable it. Or, the ‘Exec’ value will be overrided.

2.) Add more values to “Actions“, such as downloads, documents, videos and whatever as you prefer. And, separate them via ‘;‘ without blank space.

Accordingly, add the “[Desktop Action downloads]”, “[Desktop Action documents]”, “[Desktop Action videos]” segments in the bottom. And, each segment has:

• “Name” to display in the right click menu.
• “Exec” command to open the desired folder, usually nautilus /home/USERNAME/folder

Step 3: Restart Gnome Shell to apply change:

After saving the file, restart Gnome Shell. In Ubuntu 20.04 default Xorg session, simply press Ctrl+Alt+F2, then try r in pop-up dialog and hit Enter.

The ‘Files‘ icon in left dock panel should now take use of the .desktop file in user directory and provide the quick access folders you set via right-click menu.

That’s all. Enjoy!