pop-os/cosmic

Computer Operating System Main Interface Components

COSMIC

Computer Operating System Main Interface Components

COSMIC is the name for the main shell components in Pop_Shell (separate from the tiling and window-management components). It makes the following changes to the standard GNOME Shell environment:

• Dock
• Workspaces
• Configuration options
• Separated Workspaces overview from Applications.

Most components can be configured to fit the user's workflow and preferences, with two main presets for both keyboard-focused and mouse-focused navigation and use.

Requirements

COSMIC requires the following components:

• Pop Theme >= 5.4.0
• GNOME Shell == 3.38.*
• Pop_Shell >= 1.1.0

Installation

The recommended way to install COSMIC is through the package manager on Pop!_OS. To install COSMIC on Pop!_OS 21.04 and higher:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install pop-cosmic libpop-desktop-widget gnome-shell-extension-cosmic-dock gnome-shell-extension-cosmic-workspaces

Next restart GNOME Shell using Alt+F2, type r, and press Enter. Then enable the "Cosmic Dock", "Cosmic Workspaces", and "Pop COSMIC" extensions in GNOME Extensions or GNOME Tweaks. You will also need to enable "Pop Shell" if it is not enabled.

Installation from Source

Installation from source code is possible for testing changes, but is not recommended for general use.

The following COSMIC components need to be installed separately:

• COSMIC Desktop Widget
• COSMIC Dock
• COSMIC Workspaces

Following that, install COSMIC from source:

git clone https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic
cd cosmic
make && make install

Note

Use of sudo is not required nor recommended for COSMIC.

Removal

To remove COSMIC, remove each component listed above, then:

rm -r ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/[email protected]

License

COSMIC is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License Version 3. For full license terms, see LICENSE.

cosmic's Issues

Apps Wall > Change the background color to solid matching the design

The designs for COSMIC include a solid color background for the App Wall. Currently the background is the desktop wallpaper (darkened to aid separation from icons)

Unable to locate package pop-cosmic

I get an error when following this instructions https://github.com/pop-os/cosmic
do I have to change sources?

I get:
E: Unable to locate package pop-cosmic
E: Unable to locate package libpop-desktop-widget

Suggestion: App Grid appears on which ever monitor the cursor is found.

Currently the App Grid only appears on the primary display no matter the position of the cursor or the the currently focused window. This feels awkward when wanting to launch an application using the app grid on the current display.

There are plenty of work arounds for this.

• Use the launcher
• Type the name of the application in the grid search instead of clicking the icon.
• Launch the application on the primary display and then drag the window (or use the hot keys) to the desired display.

But I'm not sure if any of the would work a well as making the grid appear on the display the user is currently focusing on.

Unable to add apps to favorites from App Library

Possible bug with adding Screenshot app to favorites list.

Distribution (run cat /etc/os-release):
NAME="Pop!_OS"
VERSION="20.04 LTS"
ID=pop
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Pop!_OS 20.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="20.04"

Related Application and/or Package Version (run apt policy $PACKAGE NAME):

App - GNOME Screenshot v. 3.36.0

Issue/Bug Description:

In Pop OS>Activities>All apps>Utilities>right-click on Screenshot app>select Add to favorites>it opens the Pop!_shop app and takes me the GNOME Screenshot app download page.

Steps to reproduce (if you know):

Pop OS>Activities>All apps>Utilities>right-click on Screenshot app>select Add to favorites>it opens the Pop!_shop app and takes me the GNOME Screenshot app download page. This is not expected as I'm simply trying to add the app to my favorites list.

Expected behavior:
Users should be able to add Screenshot app to favorites list instead of taking them to the Pop!_Shop application page.

Other Notes:
Other apps I'm able to add/remove from favorites list. This app, I simply cannot. I appreciate any assistance.

[Feature Request] 4 things I would like to see for usability

Based on my post from https://www.reddit.com/r/pop_os/comments/nl091f

With the new Pop_OS coming out this June and after playing with the Cosmic desktop, there are two three main things I would like to see as an option:

1. Option to swap the order between Workspaces and Applications at the top left. By default, Workspaces is first, but some may be more familiar with Applications on the far left.

2. If a user disables the dock, it would be nice to automatically restore the dock to Applications like in standard Gnome and earlier versions of Pop. Maybe if the user had it at the bottom to keep it at the bottom of Applications. Same if the user had the dock before on the far left or right and now it is where it was before in Applications.

3. Easy way to make the dock 100% transparent.

4. If Night Light is enabled and once it gets active, give the option for the Light theme to change to the Dark theme. When Night Light turns off, restore Light theme.

Applications show underneath window spread

Issue:

Applications view shows underneath windows in spread view

How to trigger bug:

Using the buttons on the top bar click "Applications" then "Workspaces." The applications disappear but the windows aren't shown. Clicking "Workspaces" again will bring it back out of spread view as expected. Click "Workspaces" once more and the error is presented.
You can also trigger the issue using the super key after going through the first steps listed above. Replacing the last step with the windows key.

The issue doesn't happen using the icon in the bottom bar.

E: Unable to locate package pop-cosmic

When running sudo apt install pop-cosmic libpop-desktop-widget gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock gnome-shell-extension-multi-monitors, I get E: Unable to locate package pop-cosmic. How do I fix this?

Dock briefly displays when disabled after unlocking computer

Workspaces > Remove search

Make the second press of Super+A close applications and return to the session

Super+A opens applications but doesn't close it if pressed again. Would be nice to have it mirrored now that Applications are split from workspaces.

Restarting GNOME Shell sometimes results in transparent dock

If I open the Applications menu, then restart GNOME Shell with Alt-F2, r, Enter, the dock loses its opaque background:

At this point, the Applications menu also loses its opaque background:

Restarting GNOME Shell again, logging out and back in, flipping the dock's settings on/off, and rebooting do not bring the background color back. I've had this happen once before, and the background color came back after an update.

Don't hide windows in Applications view

When entering the Applications menu, all visible windows are hidden. This seems left over from stock GNOME using the wallpaper as the app grid background.

Because COSMIC uses an opaque background for the app grid, we end up with two transitions, one to the wallpaper, and another to the opaque background. The first is unnecessary; the opaque background should just fade in over the windows.

This is especially evident when opening the app grid over a maximized window:

simplescreenrecorder-2021-05-24_07.24.38.mp4

White outline around popshop update badge

Small issue but it looks odd.

Desktop > General > Add Hot Corner settings

Please don't :(

Yes, I know these changes are due to the statistics about users installing docks. But that's perfectly normal activity.

I use dash to panel, and it's just fine. This is just extra, and the changes I've seen y'all make (for example, meta opening a text based launcher) is going to turn off a number of people I know who have been using your system.

Please, as a dock user, I'm begging you guys to end this project and start contributing to Gnome 40 instead.

Don't make 20.04 the "last good Pop OS version" because so many distros do exactly what you're doing. They get popular because of interest in a custom interface, then die almost instantly when the average user realizes how unnatural it is to use.

Even Gnome 3 gets it wrong: meta should open applications, and meta+a should show activities, especially since there's a literal "activities" button by default. (Which can be improved on with hot corner activation of activities).

The redundancy of access is throwing away common sense on the whole.

Take it from an artist: there's no shame in scrapping a project when it's clearly a vanity project.

Here's your sign.

Small quirk with launcher when double tapping and holding Super

This is definitely low priority, but I thought it might be good to know about. If I double tap and hold Super while it is bound to the launcher, I see the current window overlay appear over my active window, but the launcher doesn't appear until I release Super. This does not happen with the Super+/ hotkey.

Disabled Dock shows up in Workspaces and Applications views

Shouldn't show up anywhere.

Change Launcher, Workspaces and Applications to standard .desktop apps

Add to the Utilities folder and set as favorites.

App grid shifts up when exiting

When exiting the applications view, the app grid shifts up for a split second (seems like it's due to the search bar going away first):

Screencast.from.04-20-2021.09.32.58.AM.mp4

Entering and exiting the app grid is already a big visual transition due to the opaque background, so eliminating this extra movement when exiting would make this look nicer.

Clicking items in the System Menu sometimes doesn't activate the item

When clicking on an item in the system menu (e.g. the power controls), occasionally after clicking the menu closes without activating the item. When the item is not activated, it doesn't receive the orange, active style class.

It tends to happen more frequently with shorter clicks, but Shell is definitely registering the click (since the menu closes) but doesn't activate the menu item, so I think this is definitely a bug.

Dock unhides when clicking on some applications.

Version

0.1.0~1620831172~21.04~04072ab

Issue

When the dash is set to auto hide there are applications that cause it to appear when they gain focus but not consistently.

Applications affected:

• Gnome Terminal
• Cheese

Not sure if we would rather it stay hidden or appear on every focus change, but at the moment the action is not ideal.

Exiting Application view and Workspace view

Currently pressing Super+A to enter the Application view and again to exit works but it may be better to use ESC to do this for both Application view and Workspace view. This is to return to the normal view.

How to translate the application menu?

Hello,
How to translate the application menu especially the search field?

I did not find anything in the extension files corresponding to this part of COSMIC.

Turning off applications or workspaces in the top bar causes shell to restart.

This issue only happens the first time you turn off either applications or workspaces subsequent toggling doesn't trigger the event.

Missing libc6 (2.33) and libgdk-pixbuf-2.0.0 (2.22.0)

I was trying to install cosmic but it throws me this error

i tried installing libc6 2.33, but it says that it will break locales-all.

What do i do from here? Also, i recently upgraded to 21.04 via the following command:
pop-upgrade release update -f

Duplicate buttons for workspaces and applications: useful or redundant?

Hi! I know that Cosmic Shell has been developed based on research and user feedback. However, one thing that appears kind of odd to me about the design concept, is that both buttons, the one for the workspace overview and the one for the application launcher, exist two times on the desktop: One time in the top bar and one time in the bottom dock.

Is this based on the observation that some users expect these buttons to be in the dock and some expect them to be in the top bar? I haven't done any particular studies on this particular decision, but redundancy in user interfaces is known as a likely source of confusion and gives the impression of an unclear concept and therefore is often considered an anti-pattern. Having all functions everywhere might increase the number of users finding them on the first try, but on the long run, it will raise questions whether the buttons actually do the exact same thing and clutter up the interface. Instead, it's generally recommended to go for a "single source of truth" approach.

That's why I'd Instead suggest having the application launcher only in the dock and the workspace overview only in the top bar by default. This suggestion is based on the following arguments:

Familiarity

One thing that massively helps understanding a new user interface is the use of patterns that users might know and be familiar with. Some patterns are so widely adopted that they became a sort-of standard - think about scroll bars for example.

Many popular desktop environments have the application launcher accessible as a button in the dock and an overview of the opened windows in the top-left corner. This is true at least for MacOS, Ubuntu and KDE Plasma.

The application launcher being in the same bar/dock as the favourite and opened applications is even more common: This is the case for Windows, MacOS, Gnome (Ubuntu), Gnome (Vanilla), KDE Plasma, Unity, Android and many more, and therefore could be considered a sort-of-standard in my opinion.

No desktop environment I know besides Unity and Gnome 2, which both can be considered out of use, has the application launcher at the top-left corner, or even in the top bar.

Semantic context

At least for the application launcher, it also makes sense from a semantic standpoint to have it in the same place where favourite and opened applications are: That means that when the user wants to start an application, they know they're going to find it in the dock. The application launcher kind of gets the function of a "read more" button of a truncated application list, if that is understandable. There is no such argument for having the application launcher in the top bar.

The top bar however is the place from which tiling is controlled in PopOS. That kind of makes it the right place for a window management feature like the workspace overview, from a semantic standpoint.

I hope this issue somehow makes sense and does not repeat a discussion you already had internally when working out the design concept. The rest of the UI concept looks very sane and well-thought to me, I really look forward to see this being ready to use!

Visual issue with favorites bar

On my Gaze15 the bottom bar has a 2 to 3 pixel gap on left of the screen as well as between the bar and the application window. This might be by design, but the right hand side doesn't show the 2 to 3 pixel gap that is shown on the left which looks unbalanced.

App Wall > Limit search results to installed and available applications

Applications / Workspaces should activate their respective view when toggling between them.

pop-cosmic:
Installed: 0.1.0161774272821.04e984676
Candidate: 0.1.0161774272821.04e984676
Version table:
*** 0.1.0161774272821.04~e984676 1001

When you press the Applications button Applications are displayed, however if you switch to Workspaces using the button in the dash it goes back to your desktop instead of switching to the Workspaces view. The reverse is also true.

Oddly if you use the two options in the top bar the interface seems to attempt to switched to the mode requested but fails, requiring you to click the option a second time for the items or Workspaces to show.

2021-04-07.08-14-01.mp4

[Feature request] Global menu

Hello,
It would be nice to have a global menu installed by default. The one used on the screenshot is this one: https://github.com/gonzaarcr/Fildem

Desktop Gets Stuck in Workspaces View

Workspace previews/picker are not present when the desktop gets stuck on the Workspaces view.

Fractional scaling not working as intended.

Dock appears briefly when unlocking screen when "Show Dock" is disabled

This is a very minor bug, but I figured it was worth filing anyway. If I turn off the "Show Dock" setting in GCC > Desktop > Dock, the dock goes away as expected. However, I see it appear and disappear briefly after unlocking my screen.

Here are my dock settings, in case it's anything specific here that's making it happen:

Request for basic features that vanilla GNOME doesn't want to implement

Please implement support for thumbnails in the file browser and a hibernation button in the power menu.

Remove extra padding on the left that DND causes on the date/time menu

Re-base to GNOME 40?

Will COSMIC Desktop ever be re-based to Gnome 40?

Change Super shortcut to open the launcher instead of workspaces

Also allow configuration to launch workspaces or applications

[Feature Request] Please maintain application search in workspaces view (single-entry workflow)

This might be the current functionality but I didn't see it in the blog or mockup, which focus on separation of views.

While I think the layout changes in GNOME 40 are inferior, since they stuff/cram everything on one axis and make seeing all the workspaces very hard/miniscule, the general workflow of being able to just slam super key or click the top left to do anything I need between activities is very important to me. This is the single-entry workflow.

Instead of having to memorize multiple multi-key shortcuts, I can hit super to switch between what I'm doing fast visually, and to open up something new i just type a few characters to launch a new thing.

If this is not the default totally fine, but please maintain the spirit of the single-entry workflow as an option.

PS: Love your work on this so far and all the right-to-repair initiatives happening, thanks for everything <3

Feature request : Add option for horizontal workspaces as well

Vertical workspaces work good , But it would be better if it would be really simple to toggle between horizontal and vertical workspaces .

Clock is not centered on top bar

It's just a little ways off to the right. Hinding/showing the Workspaces and Applications buttons on the left has no effect. Aligning the clock to either side and then back to the center also has no effect.

Feature request

1. It would be nice if the dynamic workspace could be switched to right since most of the users are right handed it feels natural dragging windows to the right than to the left
2. The dock on the bottom is empty on the left and right sides. So when you switch the position of the panel to the left or right of the screen the top and bottom looks empty which does not look good. So I would suggest to have something like automatic increase in dock size as the users put applications on the dock so that it wouldn't look weird when the dock is position to left or right of the screen. I believe this can be achieved by turning off the "Extend dock to edge of the screen option". Correct me if I am wrong
3. It would also be nice to have the application launcher on the dock(the 9 dots) could be draggable in the dock to left or middle or right or anywhere according to users preference

Typing starts search on applications page, jumps to start of search box after animation

• Open workspaces
• Type something
• If you type at a reasonable speed, the search box has something like thingsome
  Likely a result of how the search box is hidden and shown

Workspaces switcher popup does not appear when switching workspaces while dragging a window.

When switching workspaces while moving a window (Shift + Super + Up/Down), the workspaces switcher popup does not show up to indicate which workspace you are on.

[Feature Request] Transparency settings for the dock/panel.

By default there is no option to change the transparency settings for the dock so it would be great to be able to change that and also possibly the transparency of the top bar as default gnome does not allow that, which is quiet a bummer as many people opt to have a more translucent dock/top panel to go along with their styling. Also an option to make the dock change transparency dynamically just like the default behaviour of dash to dock would be a great addition!

Add "Settings" to favorites so it appears in the dock.

Esc key in Application View activates Workspace View

As a follow up to #28 when you close the Application View(AV) using Esc AV closes but the Worksspace View activates.

Version

0.1.0~1620831172~21.04~04072ab

Steps to reproduce

Open Application View using Super+A or any other means.
Hit Esc key.

Expected results

Application View should close and return back to the desktop.

Aur and Overlay support

Hello!, when can we expect more documentation on installing in platforms like Gentoo or Arch? Would be great if this was in the aur, or in portage.

Have a good one.

Workspaces overview: should up and down arrows change workspaces?

Binding different hotkeys in different views might require some pretty big modifications to Gnome, but I think being able to look through my workspaces with my arrow keys (maybe also J and K?) while I'm in the workspaces overview. PgUp/PgDn currently do what I'm referring to though, so maybe that's good enough?

Japanese Keyboard Layout Installed in addition to English UK

Platform: Virtual Box Virtual Machine
Environment: 21.04 Pop-OS! default installation

Upon install of Pop-OS 21.04 and having only selected English UK as my keyboard layout I noted two layouts had been installed English UK and Japanese Mocz.

I am not sure if this is a Pop installer, Ubuntu based or Cosmic issue. The impact is minimal as I was easily able to uninstall the Japanese keyboard layout through the usual means in the settings.

Dock Appears in workspaces

The application dock appears when I open workspaces. It feels unintentional as it covers one of my workspaces.