Ubuntu – Install Gnome 3.10 in Ubuntu 13.10 without breaking Unity

13.10gnomeunity

I just installed the Ubuntu 13.10 RC. Everything works fine so far.
The thing is i want to also install Gnome 3.10 and i worry that this will break Unity.

I know how to install the latest gnome release:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-next
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome3-team/gnome3-staging
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get dist-upgrade
sudo apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-shell-extensions

My question is if i should do anything else to ensure that i can have both environments without something breaking?

Edit
I followed the orders here so after the above steps i also did:

  • Switched to GDM

    sudo apt-get install gdm

And select GDM instead of LightDM when prompted.

  • Removed the Ubuntu overlay scrollbars:

    sudo apt-get remove overlay-scrollbar

Best Answer

I am currently trying out both, and installing Gnome 3.10 through the ppas you have listed does not break Unity. However Gnome 3.10 does not work perfectly for me, there are quite a few small but nagging issues (which are sort of expected). For example,

1) Brightness and gnome shell extension settings does not persist across reboots.

2) Nautilus (Files) seems buggy, it often freezes.

3) Gnome lock screen freezed a few times for me.

But Gnome 3.10 looks impressive overall, so you can give it a try (looks like you are interested).

I have installed Cinnamon 2.0 as well, and that in fact broke Unity. I can no longer login to Unity now, but Shell and Cinnamon work. There is actually an article on Softpedia that also points out the conflict between Unity and Cinnamon 2.0. I am not sure how to resolve the issue.

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