Gnome3 Shell on Ubuntu 11.04

I’m not a big fun of Unity, the new winow manager on Ubuntu Natty Narwhal. So, when the first beta of Gnome3 shell was released, I’ve decided to give it a try.

But, at that time, I was of course running Ubuntu 10.10 (Maverick Meerkat) which did not stop me launching my terminal and typing:

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ricotz/testing 
sudo apt-get upgrade

and then intalling the gnome-shell package with:

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sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

And then completing the whole proccess with:

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gnome-shell --replace

Of course, I was pretty satisfied by this first release of Gnome3 Shell, this is why when I finished installing my new Ubuntu Natty Narwhal, I did not hesitate to get rid of the “ugly” Unity WM and get back the Gnome3 Shell back

Before we proceed, keep in mind that you might or might not have some package dependencies errors (this what I was told by one of my friends). However, I personnally did not have dependecy issues.

So, first of all, if you just upgrade to the new ubuntu distro like me, make sure to clean up your packages:

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sudo apt-get autoclean 
sudo apt-get autoremove

Then, if must to enable third-party software sources, this is how you can do it.

The next step is to add the PPA repository, so type:

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sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

For more details about the PPA package, visit the Gnome3 Team website on launchpad.

And then, here comes the Gnome3 Shell installation:

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sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

When you’re done, you will need to set Gnome3 Shell as your default Window Manager. To do so, type:

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sudo update-alternatives --config x-window-manager

And then you will get the following menu (yours might be different):

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Selection    Path               Priority   Status                              
------------------------------------------------------------
   0            /usr/bin/metacity   60        auto mode
   1            /usr/bin/metacity   60        manual mode
*  2            /usr/bin/mutter     60        manual mode

Choose “mutter” and hit Enter. Then reboot and you’re done !!

Enjoy