How to Install GNOME 3 on Ubuntu 11.04

In this tutorial, I will teach you how to install the GNOME 3 desktop environment on the Ubuntu 11.04 operating system.GNOME 3 comes after five years of hard work.It brings totally redesigned user interface, a lot of hot new features, improved applications, new translations and updated documentation.

What is Gnome 3 ?

GNOME 3 is the next evolution of the GNOME desktop environment, and it has been released on April 6th, 2011, on mirrors worldwide. GNOME 3 is a light desktop environment used in many popular Linux distributions, such as Ubuntu, Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, etc.

Previously I have written a tutorial on How to Install KDE SC 4.5 in Ubuntu 10.04 “Lucid Lynx”

Key Features of “Gnome 3”

Extremely elegant and easy-to-use desktop
Side-by-side window tiling, in order to handle multiple windows easy and simple
A revamped file manager
You can easily organize windows with totally revamped workspaces
Smoother and faster desktop experience.
A pleasant experience for every user.

Note:
The download file size is large. So, it may take long time ti install.

Step-by-step Tutorial to Install Gnome 3

Step1:
Press ALT+F2 key on your keyboard, check the “Run in terminal” option and paste the following command in the “Run Application” dialog,
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3

A terminal window will open enter your password when asked.

The terminal window will appear for a few seconds, and it will automatically close.

Step2:
Press ALT+F2 key combination again, check the “Run in terminal” option and paste the following command in the “Run Application” dialog,
gksu apt-get update

As previous step enter your password when asked. A terminal window will appear for a few seconds, and it will automatically close.

Step3:
Press the ALT+F2 key combination again, check the “Run in terminal” option and paste the following command in the “Run Application” dialog,
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade

A terminal window will appear. Enter your password and hit Enter. When you will be asked if you want to upgrade your packages, type Y and hit Enter. The terminal window will automatically close when the installation is over.

Step4:
That’s it 🙂 GNOME 3 is installed on your Ubuntu machine. Just reboot your system and choose Ubuntu GNOME Shell Desktop at the login screen.

Enjoy your new GNOME 3 desktop environment 😉 The upcoming Ubuntu 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) Linux distribution comes with GNOME 3 desktop environment.

Ubuntu lovers checkout, 🙂
10 Most Wanted Ubuntu 10.04 Articles | Latest Linux Hacks – Geekyard

is it working for ubuntu 10.1
I already followed your steps, but it is not work for me.

Praveen says:
April 13, 2011 at 3:21 pm
For Ubuntu 10.10, there’s only Gnome 3 stack for testing and builds on launchpad.net and it’s NOT RECOMMENDED to update.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:Ubuntu-desktop/gnome3-builds
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell
So, Update your Ubuntu 10.01 to Ubuntu 10.04 then try these steps. 🙂

I tried the above 3 times but no success. Saw message about all index files did not load, not found so ignored or older files used. On re-booting, the Gnome 3 option was not there.

Thanks,

Praveen says:
April 14, 2011 at 7:25 am
What Ubuntu version you are using?

Ubuntu 10.04

When I execute sudo apt-get update I have the error

W: Impossibile recuperare http://ppa.launchpad.net/gnome3-team/gnome3/ubuntu/dists/lucid/main/binary-amd64/Packages.gz 404 Not Found

It seems they don’t have a lucid repository… How did it work for you? Maybe you are using maverick, type cat /etc/lsb-release in a terminal, what do you get?