Improve the Gnome Shell clipboard with Pano
The Gnome Shell clipboard manager is very basic. It can copy things to it and paste the items elsewhere (programs, file manager, terminal, etc.). However, it doesn’t let users sort through it, keep clipboard history, or anything like that.
Thankfully, a third-party extension has come along called Pano. It is for Gnome Shell 42+ and offers an elegant way to manage your Gnome clipboard items. Here’s how to improve your Gnome Shell clipboard with Pano.
What are the requirements to use Pano?
You’ll have to have Gnome Shell version 42 or newer to use it on your Linux system since Pano clipboard manager is a Gnome Shell extension. Thankfully, most modern Linux operating systems make Gnome 42 available in their software repositories at this point.
If you are not yet using Gnome 42, you will need to upgrade your system to the latest packages so that you can use it. For example, suppose you’re on a Linux distribution like Debian Stable or OpenSUSE Leap. You may need to upgrade to Debian Testing or OpenSUSE Tumbleweed to use this extension, as Debian Testing and OpenSUSE Tumbleweed have Gnome 42.
In addition to using Gnome 42, you must install the official Gnome Shell browser connector tool. This tool enables you to install Gnome Shell extensions from Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, etc.
How to install Gnome Shell browser connector
To get the Gnome Shell browser connector, open up a terminal window. You can open a terminal window by pressing the keyboard’s Ctrl + Alt + T buttons. Or, search for “Terminal” in the app menu and launch it that way.
With the terminal window open, follow the installation instructions below to get the Gnome Shell connector tool working on your Linux PC.
Ubuntu
To get the connector working on Ubuntu, use the following apt install command and set up the “chrome-gnome-shell” package.
sudo apt install chrome-gnome-shell
Debian
To get the connector working on your Debian Linux system, use the apt-get install command to install the “chrome-gnome-shell” package on your computer.
sudo apt-get install chrome-gnome-shell
Arch Linux
Sadly, the browser connector package isn’t available in the official Arch Linux repositories. Instead, you’ll need to download it from the AUR if you wish to install it. Enter the commands below to get the package working on your computer.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen/ makepkg -sri trizen -S gnome-browser-connector
Fedora
To get the browser connector working on your Fedora Linux computer, you’ll need to use the dnf install command to set up the chrome-gnome-shell package.
sudo dnf install chrome-gnome-shell
OpenSUSE
To get the browser connector working on your OpenSUSE system, use the following zypper install command below and set up the chrome-gnome-shell package.
sudo zypper install chrome-gnome-shell
Alternatively, consider checking out the Extension Manager tool on Flathub if you don’t want to install the browser connector tool. It will let you install Pano from the desktop.
How to install the Pano Gnome Shell extension
To install the Pano Gnome Shell extension on your computer, start by heading over to the Gnome Shell extension website. Once there, ensure the official Gnome Shell browser extension is installed. The page will prompt you to set it up if it isn’t installed.
Once the extension is set up, find the search box, and click on it with the mouse. Then, type in “Pano.” Finally, press the Enter key to view the search results after typing your query.
Look through the search results for “Pano.” Once you’ve found it, click on it with the mouse to go to the Pano Gnome Shell extension page. Then, find the “OFF” slider on the Pano page and set it to “ON.”
When you select the “OFF” slider, a pop-up will appear on the screen. This pop-up will ask you if you wish to install the Pano extension. Select the “Install” button to confirm you want to install the software. It should activate instantly.
How to install required packages for Pano clipboard manager tool
Upon installing the Pano Gnome Shell extension, you must install some packages. These packages are required for the Pano clipboard manager tool to work on your system. Open up a terminal window and install the packages corresponding to your Linux distro.
Ubuntu
sudo apt install gir1.2-gda-5.0 gir1.2-gsound-1.0
Debian
sudo apt-get install gir1.2-gda-5.0 gir1.2-gsound-1.0
Arch Linux
sudo pacman -S libgda
Fedora
sudo dnf install libgda libgda-sqlite
OpenSUSE
sudo zypper install libgda-6_0-sqlite typelib-1_0-Gda-6_0 typelib-1_0-GSound-1_0
How to use Pano
To use Pano, use your computer as you usually would. As you copy things, Pano will save them. You can then access the Pano clipboard manager by clicking on the clipboard icon in the Gnome dash.
Inside the Pano clipboard manager, you’ll see squares representing text, links, images, etc., that you’ve copied. Select any of the entries to use them. Alternatively, use the search box to search for clipboard entries.
