Install Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04

I believe Gnome 3 is way to go and the future for many Linux distributions. I will post shortly on my experience on Gnome 3 and Unity. Until then, here is a complete guide on installing, configuring and making most of Gnome 3.

Before we continue, i would like to warn you that installing Gnome 3 on Ubuntu 11.04 will break Unity and your system might become unusable. Your graphic card drivers must be properly installed. This is not for the faint hearted, so backup and be prepared for the worst.

I have followed these steps on an Asus eeepc netbook and a Dell Precision desktop and everything is working great.

Installing Gnome 3

 

Open Terminal and copy / paste the following commands

Add gnome3 PPA to the list

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

Update the aptitude list

sudo apt-get update

Upgrade distribution (This will take some time)

sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

Install gnome-shell

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

To prevent theme issues, remove and install the standard theme

sudo apt-get remove gnome-accessibility-themes
sudo apt-get install gnome-themes-standard

Install gnome tweak tool, this will let you tweak some settings

sudo apt-get install gnome-tweak-tool

Thats it, Reboot and at login select "Gnome" rathen than "Ubuntu", Ubuntu option is for Unity.

Removing Gnome 3

 

Install ppa-purge

sudo apt-get istall ppa-purge

Revert back to standard Ubuntu

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

Configure Gnome 3

Add Minimize and Maximize buttons

Press ALT+F2 and type in: gconf-editor and press Enter.

Navigate to: > desktop > gnome > shell > windows

button_layout should be: :close

Change it to: :minimize,maximize,close

press ALT+F2, type r and press enter.

Reduce icon size in applications

Open gnome-shell.css file in gedit

sudo gedit /usr/share/gnome-shell/theme/gnome-shell.css

Change the following values:

/* Apps */

.icon-grid {
    spacing: 2px;
    -shell-grid-item-size: 118px;
}

.icon-grid .overview-icon {
    icon-size: 48px;
}

Add shutdown to menu

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell-extensions-alternative-status-menu

ALT+F2, type r and press Enter.

 

Tweak Tool

Open tweak tool: ALT+F2 > gnome-tweak-tool > press Enter

Navigate to Interface > GTk+Theme > Select Adwaita

Navigate to Windows > Current theme > Select Adwaita

Add a taskbar panel called tint2

sudo apt-get install tint2

ALT+F2 > type tint2 and press Enter.

Add this panel to startup applications

ALT+F2, type in: gnome-session-properties and press Enter

Click on Add >

Name: 	 tint2

Command: /usr/bin/tint2

Commend: tint2 panel

Thats all the tweaks for now, I will add some more as I learn more about Gnome 3. Below are two screenshots of my Ubuntu 11.04 with Gnome 3 working perfectly.