As you can see here, here, over here, here, right here, and also here, losing track of the menu bar in e17 is a first step for many new users of YDL. And if it isn’t that, they’re wondering why their desktop is “out of alignment” after changing resolutions as can be seen here. I had the same problems myself when I first started using YDL. Another current issue with the desktop running on e17 is that it doesn’t layout icons properly and places them all in a single column. Eventually they go off the screen if you have more than a few of them.
The menu bar issue is an easy fix and is listed on the Terrasoft’s HOWTOs for Yellow Dog Linux v 5.x page under How to locate your lost E17 Shelf. The desktop alignment problem occurs after changing resolutions on the PS3, and is also an easy fix with the e17 menu item Windows > Cleanup Windows. For a new user, either of these things can happen easily and can be very frustrating if you don’t know where to look. I don’t know of any fix for the icon issue.
On my system I prefer to run e17 with the “desktop” turned off. A downside to this is you need to load the file manager any time you want to manipulate files with the GUI — the desktop is actually a Nautilus window, which explains why it covers up your e17 animated background and menu bar on virtual desktop 0,0. Fortunately it is very easy to turn the desktop off and back on again if you want.
To turn off the Nautilus desktop on e17, run this command:
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop false
This gets rid of it instantly and it stays off until you turn it back on with this command:
gconftool-2 -s -t bool /apps/nautilus/preferences/show_desktop true
It takes a moment for it to come back up again, but that’s all there is to it.
A disadvantage of running with the desktop turned off is that it makes it more difficult to “empty the trash” — you need to show the hidden .trash folder in the Nautilus file browser and empty the contents manually. If someone knows an easy way around this, it would be a great time to use the comment function on this blog… 
On the positive side, you don’t have any of the associated problems with the desktop and you can better experience the “beauty of e17.”
Reference link:
http://web.mit.edu/answers/9.4_release/9.4_skip_nautilus.html
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May 27, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Jonathan
I need a little help with setting the video-mode for a ps3 on fedora 9. When I’m in root and put in video-mode I can only choose 480p. And when you mention “video=ps3fb:mode:3 rhgb
(this section may look different depending on how you installed Fedora 9)” in your post on fedoraforum.org, Mine is different and that does not appear on the editor screen. Can you help??
June 16, 2008 at 4:31 pm
Mark
Just wanted to say thanks for all the tutorials. I did this Opera one, and it worked great. I think I have a new favorite browser!
Thanks…..Mark
June 18, 2008 at 4:37 am
Lawrence
Hey Billb…Whats going on with the Yellow Dog Forum? Its been down for a few days now. Do you know whenit will be back up?
June 21, 2008 at 3:08 pm
dan
I installed port audio prior to snes9x-gtk as instructed, but I sitll get no sound. Help?
June 22, 2008 at 7:27 am
billb
@dan, in snes9x-gtk, look in Options -> Preferences -> Sound and make sure your playback rate is 44100 or 48000 — I think it defaults to 32000 and that doesn’t work on the PS3.
June 24, 2008 at 3:15 pm
danb
hey bill. First time here and all of your tutorials and helpful links are the reason I can do all this from my couch. Thanks in advance. Anyway, I was tryin to get GTK 1.51 and Port audio. I tried installing the RPM for port audio and I keep getting an error at the end. I was hoping you could help me out. I get:
Error Resolving Dependencies
Unable to resolve dependencies for some packages selected for installation.
In the details Tab:
Missing Dependency: libjack.so.0 is needed by the package portaudio
thanks again for all your help.
June 24, 2008 at 6:46 pm
billb
@danb, I see — that is provided in the fedora-extras repo (fc6), so if you haven’t added the additional third-party repos as described here:
http://blogs.ydl.net/billb/2008/03/02/third-party-repos-for-ydl-6/
Then the installer won’t pick up the dependency. There may be other RPM packages I have made that require the third party repos as well. There’s a post on the YDL community board that describes them in more detail here, plus how to install software on YDL in general:
http://www.yellowdog-board.com/viewtopic.php?t=3017
Once you have them set up properly, the installer should pick up the dependency and add it automatically.
jack-audio-connection-kit.ppc 0.103.0-1.fc6 fedora-extras
Matched from:
libjack.so.0
Also, I have a new version of the portaudio rpm that I haven’t posted yet — here’s a direct link:
http://pleasantfiction.ipower.com/ps3linux/ps3bodega/portaudio-19-5.ppc.rpm
(still need to add the 3rd party repos first, at least fedora-extras anyway)
And when you have snes9x-gtk installed, look in Options -> Preferences -> Sound and make sure your playback rate is 44100 or 48000 — I think it defaults to 32000 and that doesn’t work on the PS3.