Gnome-shell 3.6.1 extremely buggy Ubuntu 12.10

[markbl]

Unfortunately in 12.10 they have decided to hold back versions of Gnome components for the benefit of Unity. I have just added shell to a stock install and it works fine, but some bits are 3.6 and others are 3.4. It was stable, but a hybrid of versions. My point is that if you want to be a pure Gnome user, Ubuntu Gnome Remix plus the Gnome PPA is the best approach. I think the problems listed above are caused by other factors, mostly themes and the fact that the extensions take a while to catch up when a new version comes out.

To follow up on this and my post above, it is 8 weeks later and I have installed a fresh 12.10 Ubuntu (64 bit) install on new hardware and using gnome shell and the gnome 3 ppa. I also find the gnome-shell a little buggy. Been using it for about a week now and have had quite a few complete desktop lockups. This did not happen with 12.04.

[fantab]

Ubuntu chose UNITY over Gnome-Shell for a reason. Ubuntu/Canonical does not support Gnome-Shell. Like many posts here mention, install Ubuntu-Gnome-Remix. Yes we can use Gnome-Shell on default Ubuntu by removing Unity and installing GS through adding a dedicated ppa BUT we have to remember that Ubuntu may or may not gel with GS... I don't think it was even tested to do so.

However, Ubuntu-Gnome-Remix is designed to work with Gnome-Shell, so unlike Ubuntu, UGR goes well with GS. IMO Fedora works best with Gnome-Shell. GS is a default in Fedora. My general observation has been that Distros work best with their default Desktops.

I hope we make an informed choice in the future.

My two cents....

[markbl]

Ubuntu/Canonical does not support Gnome-Shell. Like many posts here mention, install Ubuntu-Gnome-Remix. Yes we can use Gnome-Shell on default Ubuntu by removing Unity and installing GS through adding a dedicated ppa BUT we have to remember that Ubuntu may or may not gel with GS... I don't think it was even tested to do so.

You are wrong on many fronts.

• Ubuntu provide gnome shell as a standard package so they do support it.
• You don't have to uninstall Unity or any other Ubuntu software, gnome-shell happily exists as an alternative session option on the Ubuntu login screen.
• You don't need to add any ppa's to install gnome shell.
  
• The ubuntu team that created gnome remix have stated that it is essentially the same as installing gnome-shell from the standard packages.

I have long used gnome shell (and unity) on Ubuntu 11.10 and 12.04 and it has always been more reliable and far less buggy than unity.

Now, I actually tried to install gnome remix this time but the installer ISO (12.10.1 64 bit) would not boot from a USB stick on my system. I remade the image several times, tried 3 different USB sticks, verified the checksum, etc. Then I tried booting with the stock ubuntu 12.10 image and it worked fine. There seems to be a bug on that gnome remix image with my system. 12.10.1 was supposed to fix this for EFI systems but it seems still to have a bug.

Anyhow, I am still quite happy with gnome shell on ubuntu 12.10, my point here was just that I agree with the OP that it has some bugs, at least compared to 12.04.

[fantab]

You are wrong on many fronts.

• Ubuntu provide gnome shell as a standard package so they do support it.
• You don't need to add any ppa's to install gnome shell.

Thanks markbl for correcting me regarding NOT adding any additional ppa to install gnome-shell. I personally haven't installed GS but have friends who have...

Fedora with gnome-shell is a different experience than Ubuntu and gnome-shell. I attribute this difference to Ubuntu-team's disinterest with gnome-shell. Supported officially or not.

My two cents...

[Rasa1111]

I've been a good fan of gnome-shell for a long time. I've been using it since it came around not long ago and I just love the extensions, themes, and speed of it. Ever since I upgraded though, its pretty buggy.
First, when I enable user themes, and I press super key to show open windows, the shell crashes.
Second, all my extensions disable every time I log in (I've updated the ones that are available on extensions.gnome.org)
Also, when I get system notifications, those new ones in shell v 3.6.1, it just pops up right in the center of the screen, except instead of the notification, its just the app icon, and when I click, it just goes away and nothing else happens lol.
Anyone else having these issues?

On a side note, anyone know a good app to replace Ubuntu Tweak since its been discontinued?

Gnome Shell is super buggy for me in ubuntu 12.10 also.
It worked pretty flawlessly in my 12.04 install..
but ive not been able to use gnome shell for more than 5 minutes in 12.10 without something messing up.

Also.. Ubuntu tweak is not discontinued..
The new version is pretty awesome actually.

[M4he]

I also experienced some issues using Gnome Shell (ubuntu-gnome-desktop) beneath Unity, even after replacing lightdm with gdm. It just wasn't very stable. Sometimes the menu options for shutting down just disappeared and things like that. So I did the following:

• Downloaded Ubuntu 12.10 minimal CD image
• installed the core system via the text based installer
• chose "manually select packages" instead of installing a whole DE
• installed a gnome-shell environment via:

apt-get install --no-install-recommends ubuntu-gnome-desktop

(the --no-install-recommends switch is to prevent the system from getting bloated right from the start and only install necessary packages except the optional ones)
and then manually installed all desired applications and packages via synaptic.

The result is a blazingly fast and so far stable Gnome Shell environment free from any Unity remnants.


There is only one issue: when I go into the system settings, try to add a Google account to "online accounts" and authorize it via Google an additional authorization dialog pops up in GS (looking like the password request) and asking me for my Google account password. The problem is, neither the cancel nor the confirm button in this dialog work, leaving me stuck at the prompt screen. Only reboot or gdm restart helps.
I experienced this on the latest 3.6 GS on Arch Linux as well, so it doesn't seem to be Ubuntu exclusive. However, on Fedora 18's GS it does work, despite they are using 3.6 as well.
Don't know if I'm just missing a package here or if it is a bug...