UpgradeGnomeShell

Revision 40 as of 2015-09-20 12:00:16

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How to upgrade your shell

Important note

It is not advised to proceed. Packages in the Gnome3-staging PPA are mainly for testing purposes. It is always recommended to stick to the version provided with the current release of Ubuntu. The packages in the Gnome3 PPA are considered stable and safe when used alone.

Packages from these archives should be removed using ppa-purge prior to an upgrade to a greater version of the OS, such as moving from 14.04 to 14.10 and so on!

Check your version

  • Open up a terminal window

  • type in gnome-shell --version

For updates on which version is the most recent follow The GNOME Foundation's official pages.

Add the PPAs and update

  • before adding the PPAs, please make sure your system is fully up-to-date by running sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -f in a Terminal window

  • then, in the same Terminal window run: 

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

(you can copy these commands one by one and paste them in order in a Terminal window with CTRL+Shift+V)

Reboot and enjoy

After everything's done you have to reboot your computer in order for the changes to take effect.

Just to be perfectly safe

Next time you upgrade to a new Ubuntu GNOME Release. The Software updater only disables PPA's and doesn't remove the actual packages, this can cause issues with the upgrades if you are using gnome3-staging, so make sure you run ppa-purge before upgrade to that new release

How to revert back

As mentioned above, packages in the Gnome3 and Staging PPAs are intended for experienced users only. Should you run into difficulties it's always safest to remove them and restore original packages. This process is called purging.

Restore Gnome Shell

  • if you haven't already, you need to install a package called ppa-purge by running sudo apt install ppa-purge in a Terminal window

  • then, in the same Terminal window run: 

sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo ppa-purge ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-gnome-desktop^

The latter ubuntu-gnome-desktop package is important to add to ensure all packages are re-installed correctly.

(you can copy these commands one by one and paste them in order in a Terminal window with CTRL+Shift+V)

Reboot

After everything's done you have to reboot your computer in order for the changes to take effect.

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