I have two Linux machines one at work and one at home they are identical hardware and the setup it pretty much the same. Both run Ubuntu 12.04 LTS and gnome-shell 3.4.1
One difference is that to connect to internet at work i have to use the proxy server.
Eveything works well except for gnome extensions. For some reason i'm unable to install extensions from http://extensions.gnome.org at work. The switch on the page flicks and prompts about the installation but doesn't do anything after that.
Nothing gets added to ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/ folder or the /usr/share/gnome-shell/extensions folder and also nothing shows up in the gnome-tweak-tool. Also the flick switch returns to original position after the page is refreshed.
I assume that something (probably gnome-shell) doesn't read the $http_proxy and $https_proxy environment variables and tries to download the files directly, Because at home where i don't have proxy everything works fine.
So the question is: Does gnome-shell use the system-wide proxy settings when installing extensions. If not How can i force it to do so (some nifty hack or smth)?
hertz@hertzbox:~$ uname -a
Linux hertzbox 3.2.0-35-generic #55-Ubuntu SMP Wed Dec 5 17:42:16 UTC 2012 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
hertz@hertzbox:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
Release: 12.04
Codename: precise
hertz@hertzbox:~$ gnome-shell --version
GNOME Shell 3.4.1
~ George
Best Answer
Gnome has it own set of variables where you can configure the proxy. You can read up on a few places where you need to configure the proxy here.
Your specific problem should be corrected, using this code in a shell: