Xubuntu 11.04 and Gnome 3

**irv** · June 22nd, 2011

When Ubuntu 11.04 came out, I tried it with Gnome 3 but had some issues because of Unity not playing well with Gnome 3.
I was wondering if anyone has try Gnome 3 with Xubuntu which uses Xfce? If I know it wouldn't break my system I would give it a try.

**irv** · June 23rd, 2011

Isn't there just one person out here that has Xubuntu 11.04 that has tried it with Gnome 3? If not, do I have to be the genie pig?

**cbowman57** · June 23rd, 2011

Shouldn't be a problem, use the installation instructions here: http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/ & add ppa:ricotz/testing, you shouldn't have any problems. I tried xfce4-panel on my gnome shell & it worked fine.

**irv** · June 24th, 2011

Originally Posted by cbowman57

Shouldn't be a problem, use the installation instructions here: http://ugr.teampr0xy.net/ & add ppa:ricotz/testing, you shouldn't have any problems. I tried xfce4-panel on my gnome shell & it worked fine.

For the record, I followed the link in your post; downloaded the script file; ran it and did the install; rebooted and am now running Gnome 3. It looks like everything is running OK but lets give it some time.
Now my question is, Now that I am running Gnome 3 and not Xfce for a desktop, am I using Xubuntu or Ubuntu? Silly question I know.

**irv** · June 24th, 2011

I thought I would just post a screen shot of my new Gnome 3 Desktop now that I have it running on Xubuntu 11.04.
Screenshot-1.jpg

**cbowman57** · June 24th, 2011

Originally Posted by irv

I thought I would just post a screen shot of my new Gnome 3 Desktop now that I have it running on Xubuntu 11.04.
Screenshot-1.jpg

Looks nice, after posting this yesterday I opened up UCK myself, downloaded a 64-bit version of Xubuntu and did a respin that I haven't tried yet, it's working name is gNatty X.

If you want the theme & extension support I think you'll have to install from git or use ricotz/testing to the files in the thumbnail.

**irv** · June 24th, 2011

OK, my first problem came up. Many of the games I have installed will not run. I get the same error with all of them. I tried removing them and then re-installing them but I still get this error:
Screenshot-2a.png

**cbowman57** · June 24th, 2011

There is a workaround if you have the patience to look for it, that behavior is not exclusive to Xubuntu.

My simple fix is to force a downgrade to the 2.32 gdm, for some reason gdm 3.0 introduced this problem. Using synaptic, locate gdm, highlight it, then select 'Package' from the menu > Force Version > gdm 2.32 ***. After forcing the downgrade you'll want to lock it to prevent it from being overwritten. If you do an update using anything other than synaptic though (i.e. apt-get) it will be overwritten. If you use aptitude from the command line you can lock it also using sudo aptitude hold gdm then you can do command line updates using aptitude without upgrading the gdm.

If you don't want to change the gdm, you can search for solutions, it's an environment problem. I think it can be cured with some editing of the .bashrc file but not positive.

**irv** · June 24th, 2011

Originally Posted by cbowman57

There is a workaround if you have the patience to look for it, that behavior is not exclusive to Xubuntu.

My simple fix is to force a downgrade to the 2.32 gdm, for some reason gdm 3.0 introduced this problem. Using synaptic, locate gdm, highlight it, then select 'Package' from the menu > Force Version > gdm 2.32 ***. After forcing the downgrade you'll want to lock it to prevent it from being overwritten. If you do an update using anything other than synaptic though (i.e. apt-get) it will be overwritten. If you use aptitude from the command line you can lock it also using sudo aptitude hold gdm then you can do command line updates using aptitude without upgrading the gdm.

If you don't want to change the gdm, you can search for solutions, it's an environment problem. I think it can be cured with some editing of the .bashrc file but not positive.

This did the trick. Thanks again for all the help. I do like Gnome 3 and I wanted to keep using it until I see what Ubuntu is going to do with the next release. I want to see where Unity is going to go and also if Gnome 3 will be offered with the next release. I don't think so, but I am hoping they do. Time will tell.

**cbowman57** · June 24th, 2011

Unity will be built to use Gnome 3.0, but not the shell. The shell will be available through the repositories for Ubuntu 11.10

Personally I have no hope for Unity, it just doesn't flow like gnome-shell does for me.

Here's a peek at my desktop using gnome shell.