[satuser083]

I've modified the desktop of my gnome-mmxii installation quite extensively - e.g. swapped the top and bottom panels, added a left-panel, included many apps, launchers, etc. in the latter, etc, etc. I assume that these settings are stored in some config-file/files) somewhere.

Now I'd like to create another user and give that user these facilities; unfortunately I don't know where the config-file(s) is/are. I'm assuming that it would suffice to simply copy it/them into the new user's /home directory and the job's done; please correct me if this is wrong. Can anyone help with the necessary info?

Thanks.

[ongoto]

Config files for Gnome would be in hidden directories in /home/user . If you copy/share these between users be sure to reset the ownership.
$ chown -R user:group .directoryname

Directories
.gconf
.gconfd
.config
.local
.gnome2
.gnome2_private
.gnome-color-chooser
.themes
.emerald

Files
.gtkrc-2.0-gnome-color-chooser
.gtkrc-2.0

When you create a new user the default config directories come from /etc/skel. Some people rename /etc/skel ( for backup ) and copy their own configurations to /etc/skel/. Ownership in /etc/skel is root:root. Newly created users then get the new config directories automatically.

[satuser083]

Config files for Gnome would be in hidden directories in /home/user . If you copy/share these between users be sure to reset the ownership.
$ chown -R user:group .directoryname

.conf
.local
.gnome2
.gnome2_private
.gnome-color-chooser
.themes
.emerald

When you create a new user the default config directories come from /etc/skel. Some people rename /etc/skel ( for backup ) and copy their own configurations to /etc/skel/. Ownership in /etc/skel is root:root. Newly created users then get the new config directories automatically.

Great!! I followed your suggestion of copying/renaming /etc/skel, then copied (as root) the directories you listed from my /home into /etc/skel. The ownership was automatically changed. I couldn't find a directory .conf, however, so assumed that was a typo and copied .config instead. I then created the new user with PCC, logged out and back in as the new user. The desktop looked pretty similar to the default distro one; no panel changes, anyway. So I prodded around in my /home directory and discoved some interesting files in .gconf; I copied this directory into /etc/skel, deleted the user just created, recreated it and logged into it. Voila! Pretty much exactly as I wanted.

One funny thing though; the colour changes I'd made to the panels were missing. I started Gnome Color chooser, clicked Apply (without actually having altered any selections) and the changes were made. May be a small snag in Color Chooser, there.

Otherwise, the whole operation worked very well, many thanks for your help .

Edit: having just read this again, I realise that you probably meant .gconf instead of .conf, so copying .config may have been a mistake.

[ongoto]

Thanks for catching those mistakes of mine. I made the corrections in the original post and added a couple of additional files having to do with gnome-color-chooser.