Feels good to be Deep in Fedora 30
By: Marek Cermak
Tags: Fedora, Developer, Deepin, Gnome, Linux

Fedora

Feels good to be Deep in Fedora 30

Deepin Desktop Environment on Fedora 30

Fedora 30 Custom Deepin Desktop Environment

As the community of the Deepin users grow, and it indeed grows quite rapidly, the deepin components and application are being integrated into other Linux distributions, such as, wait for it… Fedora 30!

With the release of Fedora 30 come new features and opportunities.

Fedora Workstation features GNOME 3.32 — the latest release of this popular desktop environment. GNOME 3.32 features an updated visual style, including the user interface, the icons, and the desktop itself. New to Fedora Server are Linux SystemRoles — a collection of roles and modules executed by Ansible to assist Linux admins in the configuration of common GNU/Linux subsystems. (Fedora Magazine, 2019)

I’ll be damned if I don’t experiment with the new features. And to me, the most visually appealing and innovative one to check out right ahead is the Deepin Desktop Environment integration.

Deepin is a Linux distribution devoted to providing beautiful, easy to use, safe and reliable system for global users. deepin paid great attention to the easy to use experience and beautiful designs and developed a series of daily use oriented original applications like Deepin Store, Deepin File Manager, Deepin Terminal and Deepin Image Viewer, etc. It supports more than 30 languages and has 50 million total download counts and ranks top 20 focus list.

As the community of the Deepin users grow, and it indeed grows quite rapidly, the deepin components and application are being integrated into other Linux distributions, such as, wait for it… Fedora 30! In this short blog post, I’d like to share my feelings about the installation, user experience and the overlook look of the new and refreshing desktop environment.

Installation

First of all, how to set it up. It’s quite simple, the deepin is part of the fedora dnf repository.

To install all-in-one (recommended), just issue the following command:

sudo dnf -y group install "Deepin Desktop"

There is, of course an option to install the components separately, one by one, but this is not the purpose of this article. We want to explore the full-fledged deepin environment.

Now it should be sufficient to log out and switch to the Deepin environment using the gear icon at the login screen. But I am a dumb user with zero Fedora background experience, so I will reboot the computer completely.

Save this article before doing so or finish reading first. It’d be a shame not to see the rest, I assure you it’s worth it :)

sudo reboot now

And there we have it!

Fedora 30 Initial Deepin Desktop Environment

The components look pretty fancy too, particularly the Deepin File Manager

Fedora 30 Initial Deepin File Manager

and the Deepin System Monitor

Fedora 30 Deepin System Monitor

… Check out the rest yourself!

Of course, we’re not done. Now we’re gonna have some fun with the settings

Customization

If you want to get the whole gnome-like keyboard layout and shortcuts (tested on Lenovo T460s, Fedora 30), skip to the end of this section and download my custom configuration.

Now I was really amazed. The deepin booted like a charm and looked just incredible. Time for the customization!

Keyboard layout & shortcuts

First thing I usually do when setting up a new system is configuring my keyboard layout and shortcuts. I am a sworn vim user, so I have my Caps Lock mapped to Ctrl. When using the Gnome (the default for Fedora 30), I usually use Gnome Tweaks. Unfortunately, that is not possible with the Deepin.

Now that’s it… I am gonna abandon the deepin altogether… I’d be lost without my keyboard mapping!

Well, cheer up! We’re gonna solve that one right ahead. And to do that, we’ll make use of the gsettings and the dconf-editor .

Get the dconf-editor :

sudo dnf install -y dconf-editor

Open up the editor and look up the path to the key mappings

From the terminal:

dconf-editor

Change the mappings as you or according to the picture above.

To list available key mappings (credits: Deepin Wiki: Modify Keyboard Mappings):

View all mappings

localectl list-x11-keymap-options

View mappings concerning CapsLock

localectl list-x11-keymap-options | grep caps:

For the lazy ones like me, here you can find my custom dconf configuration. You can load it using the dconf load command, but BE CAREFUL, this WILL OVERWRITE your current settings.

Conky

To those of you who don’t know conky, it is sufficient to know that it’s an incredibly versatile and light-weight system monitor. We’ll make use of it and we’ll customize our desktop a little bit.

I like the infinity Conky theme, but feel free to choose the one of your own preference. There is usually a nice and simple integration of the conky theme and the rest is up to your own patience and taste. I need to keep some of the know how to myself, tho (at least for a while :) … but with a little bit of patience and hacking, this is the result you can get.

Fedora 30 Deepin Desktop Environment

Isn’t it awesome? I think it is!