How to save a GNOME 3 session

Question

GNOME 2 allows one to either save the session automatically or manually (i.e. save the session as it looks right now). This is a nice feature because it restores the various desktop states between logins (and system restarts):

which apps were open
where (physically) on the desktop were they open
what specific window sizes were these apps set to

Looking around, I can't find the feature in GNOME 3? Did I not look hard enough?

score 19 · Answer 1 · edited Oct 26 '20 at 16:48

19

Try using dconf Editor, here are the steps

Open dconf Editor
Goto org/gnome/gnome-session
Check the property called "auto_save_session"

The description says "If enabled, gnome-session will save the session automatically."

If you don't have dconf Editor installed, the setting can also be changed via the command line with:

gsettings set org.gnome.SessionManager auto-save-session true

Good luck!

edited Oct 26 '20 at 16:48

James Henstridge

398

answered Nov 24 '14 at 15:21

Hasasn

291

1

This works on Ubuntu 16.04 – aggsol Jul 03 '16 at 10:34
Works on debian 8.6 – Pierre Dec 13 '16 at 15:47
I don't have dconf-editor, there is some problem with the graphic interface. How do you do this same operation using dconf in terminal? – user2820579 Dec 05 '17 at 00:36
Use gsettings, just look it up. – Hasasn Dec 06 '17 at 13:27

score 11 · Accepted Answer · answered May 25 '11 at 02:01

11

Normally you would Alt-F2 to run gnome-session-properties, and select "Automatically remember running applications when logging out" under the Options tab.

However, it is broken at the moment. There is a bug filed:

https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=647359

answered May 25 '11 at 02:01

jasonwryan

73,126

That works on Fedora 15 (is it even the same bug?). – tshepang May 25 '11 at 07:40
If Fedora uses a vanilla Gnome3, then yes. So you got it working in spite of the bug, or with it? – jasonwryan May 25 '11 at 07:45
I didn't do anything special. I just selected the option, and can log out and in without a problem, and my session gets restored. – tshepang May 25 '11 at 08:38
Odd. The bug is still open... Oh well, at least it is working for you. – jasonwryan May 25 '11 at 08:45
for what it's worth, this is most definitely working for me right now in Fedora 16. Thanks jason! – wrongusername Nov 18 '11 at 23:31

score 2 · Answer 3 · answered Jan 28 '12 at 23:07

2

Sadly in 11.10 gnome-session-properties doesn't offer any Option tab with Auto Save Session toggle.

So I installed gconf-editor to flip /apps/gnome-session/options/auto_save_session to TRUE.

Not sure if it works. Once I had to add that missing key as boolean.

answered Jan 28 '12 at 23:07

Marcos

2,305

Update: even with this setting, not really, yet, if at all in Gnome3/Unity. Fuller discussion at http://askubuntu.com/a/78692/38636 – Marcos Jan 31 '12 at 11:05
Or just gsettings set org.gnome.SessionManager auto-save-session true – goetz May 04 '17 at 21:47

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 25 '17 at 15:35

I wrote a little library/command line tool which allow saving and restoring sessions and has support for different monitors setups as well as virtual desktops. It requires NodeJS to be installed.

Installation

npm install -g linux-window-session-manager

Usage

Save the current session to ~/.lwsm/sessionData/DEFAULT.json

lwsm save

Save the current session to ~/.lwsm/sessionData/my-session.json

lwsm save my-session

Restore the session from ~/.lwsm/sessionData/DEFAULT.json

lwsm restore

Restore the session from ~/.lwsm/sessionData/my-session.json

lwsm restore my-session

Gracefully close all running apps before starting the session

lwsm restore --closeAllOpenWindows

Check it out: https://github.com/johannesjo/linux-window-session-manager

score 1 · Answer 5 · edited Jan 28 '12 at 18:14

1

It works from the CLI - gnome-session-properties brings up the dialog. I'm not sure where it is on the menu. You can't run it from the Alt+F2 command window with that command though.

edited Jan 28 '12 at 18:14

Kevin

40,767

answered Dec 30 '11 at 02:55

Andrina Websdale

31

Just to give an update, it runs fine from the Alt+F2 command window in gnome 3.4 from debian. – Alexandre Martins Jun 03 '12 at 05:00
in Ubuntu 12.04 LTS it runs from cli or Alt+F2 (Mod4+r in awesomewm). But running it from anywhere, the auto_save_session option doesn't appear. – isomorphismes May 15 '13 at 07:12

How to save a GNOME 3 session

5 Answers5

Installation

Usage

Linked

Related