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gnome-extensions

The gnome-extensions module can be used to install Gnome extensions inside system directory.
It also supports uninstallation as well, for extensions which are not installed through OS package manager.

This module is universally compatible with all distributions which ship Gnome, as it’s not tied to specific distribution packaging format for installing extensions.

Almost all Gnome extensions are compatible for installation.

Thanks to https://extensions.gnome.org which provides releases of extensions as zips, it is very easy to maintain this module configuration.

What does this module do?

  • It checks the current Gnome version of your image
  • It parses the extension name input from module recipe file
  • It processes the jsquery from https://extensions.gnome.org using the extension name input,
    which contains useful info about latest extension version compatible with Gnome version of your image
  • Download archive URL is formed based on the info above
  • Downloaded extension archive is then extracted to temporary directory
  • All of its extracted files are copied to the appropriate final directories
    (/usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions, /usr/share/glib-2.0/schemas, & /usr/share/locale)
  • Gschema is finally compiled to include the copied extensions schemas to its database

Uninstallation step is performed similarly, except it obviously removes files from the mentioned final directories.

Usage

Extension Installation

By default, latest extension version compatible with Gnome version of your image, is installed.

How to install extensions using the module:

  1. Go to https://extensions.gnome.org or preferably Extension Manager application
  2. Search for the extension that you want to install and open its extension page
  3. If browsing through https://extensions.gnome.org, select the correct GNOME shell version, which matches the GNOME shell version of your image
    • The command gnome-shell --version can be used to get the GNOME version of a running system. If there is no GNOME shell version of the extension that matches the GNOME version of your image, that means that extension is not compatible
  4. Copy the extension name & input it in module recipe (it is case-sensitive, so be sure that you copied it correctly)

An extension might need additional system dependencies in order to function.
In that case, you should install the required dependencies before the gnome-extensions module is ran.
Information about the required dependencies (if any) are usually on the extension’s page.

Extension Uninstallation

Extension uninstallation can be useful to uninstall extensions from the base image,
which are not installed through OS package manager (like extensions installed from gnome-extensions module).

However, if extensions in the base image are installed through OS package manager, than they should be removed through it instead.

How to uninstall extensions using the module:

  1. Go to Gnome Extensions app, https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ or Extension Manager application
  2. List of installed system extensions should be presented
  3. Copy the extension name & input it in module recipe (it is case-sensitive, so be sure that you copied it correctly)

Example configuration

type: gnome-extensions
install:
  - Night Theme Switcher
  - Blur my Shell # Notice how extension is named "Blur my Shell" & not "Blur My Shell"?
                  # Name is case-sensitive, so check if extension name is typed correctly
uninstall:
  - GSConnect # Uninstall step here should be used only for the extensions
              # which are not installed through OS package manager in the base image,
              # like extensions installed from gnome-extensions module