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TOPIC: GNOME.ORG

Installing the Cinnamon Desktop Environment on Sabayon Linux

26th January 2013

During the week, I did an update on my Sabayon system and GNOME 3.6 came on board without too much of a bother. There was no system meltdown or need for an operating system re-installation. However, there was one matter that rankled: adding and updating extensions from extensions. gnome.org was impossible. The process would create a new folder in ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/  but not fill it with anything at all. Populating from another Ubuntu GNOME Remix 12.10 machine didn't seem to achieve the needful, and I am left wondering if it is down to the version of GNOME Shell being 3.6.2. However, even adding an entry for the current version of GNOME Shell to metadata.json for one plugin didn't appear to do what I wanted, so resolving this issue needs further enquiry.

Meanwhile, I added the Cinnamon desktop environment using the following command and will be using that from now on. If the GNOME Shell extension issue ever gets sorted, I may move back, but there is no rush. GNOME 3.8 sounds like it's bringing an interesting option that makes use of the approach Linux Mint took for version 12 of that distribution, and I can await that, especially if it avoids the need for adding extensions on a personal basis like now.

sudo equo update && sudo equo install cinnamon

With the installation completed by the above command, it was a matter of logging out and choosing the Cinnamon entry (there is a 2D version too) from the session dropdown menu on the login screen to get it going. Then, it was a matter of tweaking Cinnamon to my heart’s content. Getting a two panel layout required logging out and in again as well as choosing the appropriate setting in the Cinnamon Panel options tab. Next, I decided to check on what themes are available at cinnamon.linuxmint.org before settling on Cinnamint 1.6. It all feels very comfortable, apart from not having an automatically growing list of workspaces that are a default offering in GNOME Shell. That goes against the design principles of Cinnamon though, so only hopes of someone making an extension that does that are left.

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