Everyday Use

10.1 Basic Settings

Your preferences are saved to one small settings file, created automatically the first time you complete the welcome wizard. SynapseOS reads it again every time it starts up.

Setting	Example	What It Controls
Username	any name	Your default login name
Computer name	any name	How the computer identifies itself
Timezone	America/New_York, etc.	What time the clock displays
Theme	dark or light	The desktop's color scheme
Keyboard layout	US, UK, German, French	Which characters your keys produce

You can view or change these settings directly from the terminal window if you prefer typing commands over re-running the wizard.

10.2 Managing Accounts

Adding an Account

From the terminal, you can create a new account by typing users add followed by a username, password, home folder, and default shell.

Listing Accounts

Typing users shows every account on the system, similar to:

UID  GID  Username  Home
---  ---  --------  ----
0    0    root      /root
1001 1001 alice     /home/alice

Removing an Account

Typing users del followed by a username removes that account. The built-in "root" account can never be removed — it's the one permanent administrator account.

Switching Accounts

Typing su followed by a username asks for that account's password, then switches the active session over to it once the password is correct.

Home Folders

Folder	What's Inside
Documents	Your saved documents
Pictures	Your images
Music	Music and audio files
Downloads	Files downloaded through the web browser

10.3 What's Running

Unlike some operating systems, SynapseOS doesn't have a separate "services" control panel — the small set of background jobs it depends on are simply switched on in order every time it starts up.

What's Running	Always On?	What It Does
Diagnostic log	Yes	Records what's happening for troubleshooting
Desktop compositor	Yes	Draws everything you see on screen
Keyboard input	Yes	Both USB and older-style keyboards
Networking	If a supported network card is found	Basic internet connectivity
Audio	If a supported sound card is found	Startup jingle and music playback
Disk filing system	At startup	Loads your files into memory
Task scheduler	Yes	Keeps every part of the system running smoothly together

10.4 Keeping Records

Every step SynapseOS takes while starting up and running is written to a diagnostic log — a running commentary that's mostly meant for troubleshooting rather than everyday viewing. It looks something like this:

=== SynapseOS ===
Kernel entry point reached!
Serial initialized.
Interrupts initialized.
Startup checks passed.
Desktop ready.
Sound ready.

You can also check on network activity at any time from the terminal, using the ifconfig and arp commands described in What You See and Use → Handy Commands.

10.5 Checking Up on Things

What's Currently Running

Typing ps shows every active task, similar to:

PID  State    Priority  Name
---  -------  --------  ----
0    RUNNING  1         kernel
1    READY    1         gui_loop

Memory Usage

Typing mem shows a quick summary, such as:

Heap used: 42 MB / 192 MB

Network Activity

Typing ifconfig shows your network address and recent activity:

MAC: 52:54:00:12:34:56
IP:  10.0.2.15 / 255.255.255.0
GW:  10.0.2.2

RX packets:          142
TX packets:           87

10.6 Common Problems & Fixes

What You're Seeing	What to Try
Black screen right after startup	Make sure Secure Boot is turned off in your computer's startup settings, and try the older BIOS boot option if available
Keyboard doesn't respond	Known limitation of this early version — see Building It Yourself → Finding and Fixing Problems
No internet connection	Confirm a compatible network card is connected and recognized during startup
No sound	Confirm a compatible sound card is present; SynapseOS needs specific, common sound hardware to work
Installing to disk fails	Make sure a disk is actually connected and has enough free space
The system freezes or restarts unexpectedly	Check the diagnostic log for the last message before it happened, and try restarting

10.7 Starting Fresh

If an Installed Copy Breaks

You can always start over by booting from the original USB drive or disc again — it works completely independently of whatever is (or isn't) installed on your hard disk. From there, you can reinstall using the setup wizard.

Resetting Your Settings

Deleting the settings file (from the terminal, typing rm /etc/synapseos.cfg) brings back the welcome wizard the next time you start up, letting you set everything up again from scratch. Note that user accounts themselves live only in memory and reset automatically every time the power cycles.

If the System Completely Freezes

If SynapseOS ever becomes totally unresponsive, the only option is a hard restart. The diagnostic log will usually show the last thing that happened right before the freeze, which can help identify what went wrong.